WAINSCOTING BOARD AND BATTEN IN PROGRESS!!!

I love Wainscoting. I think it gives a home such a cozy feeling. It goes with the Farmhouse style, Cottage, and Coastal. Really, just about any depending on the style you choose. It has such a clean crisp look to it. I lean towards Farmhouse/Cottage style in my home so of course I am in love with the look. And I have fallen for the Board and Batten style (second up -Bead board). So I decided to get started on doing it in my family room. I have wanted to for some time. I'll give ya a quick look at the start of it and then tomorrow or Friday when it's all done I'll post an update. Until then, here's a little look at the progress....

WHO KNEW? APPARENTLY EVERYONE BUT ME!

I just wanted to do a quick share with y'all about a few things I discovered recently that apparently most others already knew. And one that I've known about for years too that I thought I'd share. So if ya didn't already know about these, here ya go....

Elderberry Syrup. This stuff is amazing! My daughter had the flu last week and someone recommended this to me. I think it was my friend Kelly but if I am mistaken...sorry! She took several teaspoons of it and it helped with the symptoms a lot. She swears she felt like it made a big difference in the severity and length of the flu. You can read more about it here. Its completely natural so you can actually use it quite often I'm told and even give it to little ones. It is expensive though.

ARE YOU READY FOR SPRING AND HERB GARDENS THAT ROCK?

So are you completely and totally over this long cold winter? Coming from someone born and raised in the snow belt of Lake Erie in northeast Ohio I say loudly YES! 

Ok, I guess I’m cheating a just a little...I left that snow tundra almost 8 years ago to move here to southeastern North Carolina. So I am not experiencing it as badly as some, but I am definitely still ready for Spring! So, with spring came thoughts of flowers, greenery and gardens. And that made me think of my herb garden. I love herbs, especially Basil.

MY WHIMSICAL TREE IS FINALLY ON THE WALL!

Every room should have a little bit of whimsy! 

I did it! I actually free hand painted a tree on my wall! Yay me. lol....

I am so pleased at how this tree turned out! And also, so pleased it is done! It was kind of a spontaneous last minute decision. I mean I have always wanted to paint a tree on my wall, but I wasn't prepared to do so. But today it was pouring rain and I got the itch and looked around to see what paint I had on hand and voila!

How to Make A Simple 5 minute Christmas Wreath!

This was the easiest wreath in the world to make! It literally took me 5 minutes. I was going through my decorations and I had a strand of wimpy garland left over and nowhere to use it. I said to the hubs...I wish I had one of those wire wreaths I could wrap this on. Light bulb idea!!! And before he could answer me I said, "Oh my gosh! A hanger!" Yep. Grab a hanger, shape it out, wrap the garland around it.

 
   Add a few little ornaments or wreath decorations, (I used bells) and......... Voila! Done deal and I love it! Seriously, c'mon...could a Christmas decoration be any easier? And it looks even better in person. Its green and gold glittery garland so it shimmers. And I love it on the door. Pretty proud of myself with this one. :)

YELLOW! -The new little black dress for decorating!

Isn't this little darling of a lamp gorgeous?? Don't you just love this yellow lamp??? Well, I do. I am doing my family room in black, white, charcoal grey and YELLOW! Who'd of thunk it? And because my family room is the great room that opens to the kitchen, my kitchen is following along. I remember reading a loonnnng time ago (before decorating blogs existed and I felt alone in my world obsessed with HGTV)) that every room should have a touch or whimsy (the owl) and/or a touch of yellow. It makes your room happy. Well, it does makes me smile. I walk into my living room or kitchen now and actually smile. I love the happy yellow. So I have always done that. A touch of whimsy or yellow. Mostly when it came to yellow though, I used flowers in the room.  Because I never really thought of yellow as a design color for accents until the past year. Now of course it's everywhere I look. I always ask myself why is it that when I choose a color for a room....it seems like everybody else jumps on board. (I did think of it first right? I didn't just jump on board myself did I?!! Oh my....)

Well, anyway..YELLOW it is. Mostly I am going with a "mustardy" color. That's a word, right? And thanks to the wonderful world of spray painting EVERYTHING it no longer matters what color something is when I buy it!
I bought this adorable little red lamp from Hobby Lobby just before last Christmas. (Sorry about the horrible "before" picture...(new camera is on it's way!)

I toyed with the idea of red as my accent color but could never quite get on board with it. And believe it not, red didn't "pop" in the room at all. I even bought some other items that day that were red. (Now yellow). I left them red during the holidays and then made the switch. I am horrible with "before" pics. Just as I am finishing up a paint job, it's always... "Ah geez, I forgot to take a picture!". So this is the best I can do for the before. It was cute -just not what I wanted.

So...don't let color hold you back when you see something you love in the wrong color. If it's a paintable surface -paint it! And believe me, this lamp does not look like it was "painted". Even up close in person, it looks like I bought it yellow. So thank you Lowes for a wonderful assortment of spray paint colors!!!!!!!!!!!

Fireplace Mantel Surround

I can't wait! Tonight I am starting on my new fireplace "surround". My fireplace is very bland with just the wall above it. None of that beautiful white moulding. My daughter has an amazing white surround and crown moulding around hers and it looks beautiful. I always wanted mine to look like what I saw it pictures and then when she bought her house it definitely made me want it more! So, thanks to the internet and Pinterest ideas...... It starts tonight. :)

HERE'S THE BEFORE....

STAY TUNED FOR THE AFTERS TO BE PUT UP HOPEFULLY TOMORROW.... 

AND YOU CAN SEE THE AFTER HERE

A DECORATING "FIND"

OH MY GOSH! Did you ever see something in a magazine like Pottery Barn, or Pier 1 that you just loved and then looked at the price and........whoa!! Ridiculous! Well I found a website that teaches you how to DIY all those great things we see and want at the pricey stores. All for about penny of the cost. And it's actually a lot easier than you think. And some of the people sell there "knock offs" a lot cheaper. This site tells you how to do it or directs you to another blog that does. I love it! Check it out...
http://knockoffdecor.com/

Re- purposing. Just about anything can be made new again.

I re-purposed a bunch of items to show and of course I forgot to take some of the before pics. :(  Kinda ruins everything. But here are a few pics of some very easy cool things! See the lamp on top of the little buffet? Well that belonged to my mom and has been sitting in my garage, and the garage before that for about 20 years. It was brassy gold, and the lamp shades had broken. I brought it in one day and decided to fix it up. I searched online till I found white "milk glass" lamps shades that were very similar to the originals. They were actually fairly cheap too. I think they were like $35.00 each. When they came in I picked up some pewter spray paint and Voila! like new! Actually better, since they weren't brassy any more. :)
Here is the website where I found the globes in all different styles....  http://www.lampsplus.com/

And the speaking of the little buffet table. I found it in a second hand store for $60.00 buck I think and loved it. It was a bright neon blue and didn't work for me. So I painted it green and although I really liked the color I changed my mind on it. so............BEFORE. I love the green but I needed it to be neutral...so............

I WENT WHITE!!!

So how about those expensive small appliances that you see in magazines. They always have them to go with their decor and they cost a small fortune!!!! Again, PAINT your own!

I got these chairs from a neighbor who refinished chairs years ago. About 10 I think. I took the seats off (which is very easy to do) and recovered them with a textured material. Kind of like burlap feel, but softer on the bum. Sprayed them with scotchguard too. I have a huge family...so LOTS of scotchguard. And I painted the chairs with a spray paint. Just took them outside without the seats and sprayed them down. Very easy and it really gave them a new life. They go with my redone kitchen now! More of Cottage feel. Although I just took a test online at Better Homes and Gardens and it said my style was "Polished  Casual" hmmm... I like that. Find out yours.... http://www.bhg.com/decorating/decorating-style/quiz/

My "new" lamps!

So, I bought these lamps at Lowes. I loved them. Problem was...I didn't really "love" the decor in my formal (yeah, like anything in this house is formal..but that's what they call it I guess) living room. I have a family room that we really "live" in but this room is right at the entrance of the house and it is my favorite room to go to read in or just hang out for a little quiet time by myself. It had a lot of green so I thought these lamps would work but then when I switched out the green in the room, the lamps didn't work. So.....a little painters tape, some white gloss spray paint, and new shades and a totally different look! What do you think? The green pic on the left shows they had white shades which is a little hard to tell but .....the new shades (also from Lowe's) were on sale for $12.99! I love the new look.

and now the room fits!