Our family room

I've come to the conclusion that I can't buy things for my house without having a specific plan of what I want to do with it. Mind you, this is in regards to decorating only.

This can be a good thing, I don't spend money on things I don't know what to do with. Hopefully I'll have a purpose for the stuff I do buy. At the same time, it seems to take me a long time to atually come up with a plan, so my house looks kinda blah.

Take my family room for instance. All we've had in there since we moved in were our couches, a glass table that belongs to my mother-in-law, (and I don't love glass tables), a bookcase, and our armoire for the TV. Plus, my fireplace mantel was kinda sad looking.

Just not very inspiring, although Kevin did splurge on that mirror for christmas, so we'd have something pretty up there. I just didn't know exactly what to dowwith it all, plus I wanted to keep it cheap.

I love thrift stores, and tjmaxx. You can find some great stuff at a GREAT price! I started collecting a few things and this past week got to work putting it all together, and I kinda love it!


basicaly everything on that mantel is under $5. Except the platter and the candle holders, that don't hold candles.:) i just need to get a vinyl 'W' to put on the plate, and some pictures for the frames by the mirror. Those white pitchers were really gaudy looking cheap ones I got at thrift stores, then just spray painted white, you'd never know to look at them. The topiaries and the wreath were made by yours truly, and that was pretty much all there was to it.

Then it was time to get rid of the glass table. We're moving furniture around upstairs anyway because of the baby, so I moved this dresser down from the guest room. It was black, with all the drawers, but no drawer pulls. I thought it would look better cream, and with some baskets in it instead. I still need to make a burlap table runner to go on top, but otherwise, love it!

Last, it was time to finally finish that coffee table that we got before christmas. I've painted lots of things, but had never stripped paint before, so I was a little worried about how it would turn out. It took quite awhile to get it all off, but it was well worth the effort.

Now it just needed paint and stain!

We LOVE this coffee table. It's cozy, the girls can do no harm to it, considering how distressed it looks on top, and it was only $50 on craigslist. It's amazing what a little elbow grease can do!

Lest you think I came up with the mantel display on my own, here is the picture that inspired me. Check out Layla's blog, the lettered cottage, for tons of great ideas. She has AMAZING taste, and they're remodeling their house on the cheap. I love her style!

So, there are still a few things that I need to do, and curtains will eventually make a HUGE impact in this big two story room, but for now, it's finally feeling a little more homey, and I love it!