I bought this fancy, fun frame at Ikea a few years back. It is large and oval so I have had a hard time finding just the right thing to put in it.  I have had a wallpaper sample in it but I was getting tired of the brown and cream floral pattern and was ready to change things up a bit.  A few weeks ago I saw a pillow at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  It had the outline of Coliseum ruins and the word Rome on it.  I fell in love with it!  I just wasn’t in love with the $40 price tag.  BUT, it did get me thinking.  Maybe I could do something along those lines to put in my frame.

These images and words are decoupaged onto crumpled scrapbook paper.  I sanded and glazed the canvas to get the aged look.  Fun and simple, YES.  Nice art piece for my living room, not-so-much.   It will do until I can find something or do something else.  Until then, it looks better from a distance.

Oh well. at least it was fun .

I have made quite a few different pairs of curtains for my living room.  They have all been pretty.  But they have all been a little plain.  I decided my living room needed a little more pattern so I dragged took my husband to the fabric store.  We both loved the Frenchy pattern on this fabric.

 We thought it fit in with the color scheme of the room and the subtle travel theme we have going on in here.

I usually buy five yards of fabric when I make curtains.  I didn’t do that this time though.  This fabric was a little pricey even with a 40% off sale.  So, since the curtains are only decorative, I decided to buy 2 1/2 yards and make dummy panels.   I’ve mentioned before that I don’t consider myself a talented seamstress.  That is why I am not giving a tutorial.  I will just say that since I have drapery clips, all I had to do is sew straight lines, easy peasy .  Thanks for stopping by!

I am winding down and just about out of “Inspiration” pictures.  Most of my pictures were taken during the 2011 Salt Lake City Parade of Homes, including these pictures I am sharing today.  Lucky for me, the 2012 Parade of Homes is only a month away.

Is this a great room (pun intended) or what?  I love the color scheme.  I love all the built-ins.  And I love the causal, elegant feeling.

This is my favorite part of the room.  There is so much storage.  I like that there is storage to hide messy stuff and storage for pretty stuff.

I also love this quiet little window seat.  It could have been wasted space as it leads to the mudroom and garage.   But the builder was clever enough to add the shelves and drawers to make this a usable and cozy space.  I hope I was able to give you some ”Inspiration”.  I know that I am inspired by this window seat and I am seriously thinking about building one in my living room.  Thanks for stopping by, have a great week!

Dining set before.

Dining set after.

     Everything went as planned in my little makeover.  I did have a little trouble with the table top.  I sanded the polyurethane off and applied my stain but it looked horrible.  I ended up sanding the top down to bare wood and applying the stain again.  It was more work than I thought it would be but the top does look brand new because I sanded out all of the dings, dents and scrapes.  It made me a little sad because every one of those imperfections reminded me of happy memories.  Not all of my memories are lost though, I didn’t touch the underside of the table.  There are cute little drawings all over under there (kids will be kids ).  In the end, all my hard work paid off.  My dining room is more tied together and my the total cost was about $17.  I spent $12 on the stain and $5 on the fabric to recover the end chairs.  I had some leftover gray paint, primer, and polyurethane on hand.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

My darling daughter didn’t take the hint.  She hasn’t cleaned her room yet and since I’m on a makeover roll, I’m moving on to the dining room.  As with most of our home, the pieces in here are collected and a little mismatched.  I am going to use a little paint and stain to remedy my problem.  Today I took the table top off and took it outside for a good sanding.  I will stain this Danish Teak.  My china hutch and countertops are stained this color so it should coordinate well when I’m done.

Here is the base with a coat of primer.  The base and the chairs are being painted a medium shade of gray.  I hope to have some before and after pictures to share this weekend.   Thanks for stopping by!