Decorating stuff

I've promised a few of you to upload some recent pics of our house with the recent decorating I've done so here. it. is!!! I've asked everyone imaginable for ideas and suggestions b/c I have not felt very confident with my decorating ideas. We have officially been in this house 1 year so I need to get some stuff done! It's so much harder w/a child than it was before. ha!! This house is beginning to feel homey to me and I'm so glad! Even Michael mentioned that last week. This is the living room. And, that's the front door in the background. I made the curtains. The rug we already owned. The picture was my grandma's. The chest and sofas are new. The rug looks like it matches well with the curtains in the picture but in person I don't really like them together plus it makes the room even more brown so I'd like to find a rug with lots of red in it which will change the look of the room totally!

This is the angle of the room behind the sofas. See-lots of brown. I'm still mulling over ideas for the walls on each side of our TV. That door in the background goes outside to the driveway. We already had the brown and red chair. The red chair is one of a pair that was also my grandmothers. I loved them as a kid and I was very fortunate to receive them as an adult! They are in great condition!

This is the kitchen. I didn't pick up the random things left on the counter. I still need bar stools for the bar! I don't just want brown ones; I want red or a green color and I cannot seem to find any within my price range in those colors. I've found them but they've all been $300 each! No thank you!! The fork above the window is really the only new thing in the kitchen. The rest was already being used in my old house!

This grouping along the staircase is new. I used some of my Christmas money to purchase the frames and the custom mats. The pictures were all free b/c I waited until I found a deal online that was offering free printing! Chandra painted the silhouette of Piper for my Christmas present!!! Isn't great?!?! I love it! I plan to keep adding photos each year all along that wall.

The hallway to our bedroom, the guest bedroom, and the utility room has a small little cutout and I put this hand-me-down bench there. I recovered it last week w/fabric left over from Piper's room which was free in the first place and I quickly made the pillow with leftover fabric from the curtains in the living room. I want to make pillows for the sofas out of this fabric. Maybe next week! The plates were a wedding gift. They are there temporarily while I find something more suitable. I liked the colors there though.

Then, in our dining room is this newly finished craft project of mine! The blog, The Little Green Notebook, I mentioned, had a post about framed chalkboards. I decided to take the picture out of this frame, buy this wood stuff from Lowes and paint it w/chalkboard paint and re-frame it! It's so cute in person. This project was cheap!!!! I bought the chalkboard paint a month ago for $8 and the wood stuff was called tempered wood or something like that and this HUGE sheet of it was only $12. I have enough for a friend to do one and probably another friend could do one too! Anyway, I love it. The picture that was in there before was a print of a piece of bread, a pitcher, butter, and a bowl of fruit. I had it on my mantle in my Tyler house. I did like it a lot but it wasn't working right in this house. The frame is so unique so this is perfect!

That's our new table--I'm into lots of brown lately! I got this at World Market for a great deal! They were having a sale plus I had a coupon! Ha! This is really the breakfast nook but we turned out dining room into a study and now the study has been turned into a playroom! I didn't photo that! Anyway, I love the table. It's solid wood and looks like one of those barn tables. Eventually I want to get chairs for the ends!

And, this is the frame of the chalkboard!

So, that's what's been done recently. My next major thing is our bedroom and bath. I think I know what I want to do in there but am waiting on Mr. Moneybags to okay the project! Haha! Hope you enjoyed the short tour!