Victory!!! And Disappointment.

Recall that heriz rug I've been stalking for TWO YEARS?

This weekend I saw that the ad had been dropped to $800.  I sent my quarterly email of "hey, will you take $500?"

AND HE SAID YES HE WOULD.

!!!!!!!

So we drove on down to where the rug was.  And I opened up the rug on the front lawn.

And it was brown.

Brown.

OH THE HUMANITY.

Does this picture look brown to you?  I would describe this pictue as very vibrant and red.  Yes, blurry and overblown and not a good picture, but very vibrantly red.  

I didn't whip out my phone for pics while I was telling the guy no, thanks, this rug is ugly, but rest assured, this supposedly bright red rug was very faded reddish brown.

SAD FACE.  

Thrift store finds: lamps and a painting

This week I stopped at a consignment store, where I've been stalking a painting for about 8 months now.  I originally wanted the painting for the last One Room Challenge when I repainted my old bedroom white, but it was outrageously priced.  I kept an eye on it at the consignment store every time I stopped in, and the price came down slowly, but still not enough to buy.

I stopped in this week and it was on clearance! And I had a coupon!

It is a terrible rendition of Monet's Tulip Fields.  It's even signed by Monet at the bottom.

Regardless of its provenance issues, I really like the colors and the overall feel of the painting.  The colors work perfectly in the family room.

I also bought two lamps for the front hall.  When we moved, the  movers commented that we had an unbelievable amount of lamps.  I told them I have moved a million times and many rentals don't make the investment in overhead lighting, so I've needed lots of lamps.  Lo and behold, I'm yet again living in a house that has no overhead lighting (over the dining table is a chandelier, and it is the only overhead lighting in the house).  I have used every single lamp we brought with us.

I've been searching for a pair of tall white lamps for this spot since we moved in.  I found them at the consignment store while I was looking for the painting.

I'll be honest, I'm not terribly excited about white patent leather lampshades, and one of them has a stain on it (anyone know how to get black marker out of patent leather?).

I will replace them as soon as I find something else I like.

One Room Challenge, Week Six: the reveal

The One Room Challenge is done!  Thank goodness.  Three weeks for a makeover is not exactly a leisurely pace.

As for the dilemma about where to hang the curtains, I decided to hang the curtains above the fan window.  I like how it looks, and it provides coverage from the late afternoon sun.

The main challenge for this room was to spend as little as possible, and reuse as much already-owned decor as possible.  I think I succeeded, for the most part.  I bought a 10x13 rug on Craigslist for $200. I spent $4 on yarn-bombing a cardboard steer, $35 on a pair of Ritva curtains, $34 on Anthro pillow shams that didn't show up on time, $20 on a lucite tray, and $18 on a quart of paint. Everything else I already owned. I will consider $311 a successful room makeover.

So I opened my new sewing machine and attempted to make pillows.  Hahahahaha.  It took me four days to make the first pillow, and I finished it last night, mere hours before the linking party.  I did it all wrong in pretty much every way.  I couldn't get the bobbin thread to catch, I tangled the bobbin when winding it, I accidentally sewed the envelope opening closed, I lined everything up backwards....it was quite the exercise in frustration.  I kept giving myself the same pep talk I give to my kids: "why do you think you will be awesome at something the first time you try? You have to practice! You do it over and over again and then you get good at it! Of course you will be terrible at it the first time!"

No wonder my kids roll their eyes at me.

I comforted myself with the thought that at least I had ordered a pair of Anthro pillow shams that would look good---I could just skip the homemade pillows and finish them at my leisure.  Then the Anthro package showed up, and the packaging that said "PAIR of standard shams" contained only ONE sham.

Thanks for nothing, Anthropologie.  Back to the sewing machine.

They are ok, as pillows go.  They could be worse.  They look like a pillow, so I will take that as a victory.  I had big plans for fancy-shmancy pillows, with ribbon trim and pompoms, but this exercise showed me that fancy-shmancy is currently far above my skill set.  Be impressed that I managed to finish the second pillow in under three hours instead of the four days it took to do the first one.

I'll be honest, the king bed could use a third Euro sham (and a second standard sham, should it ever arrive)....but I need a rest from pillow making.

It isn't perfect, but this Challenge got me a master bedroom that is 99% done only a few weeks after moving in to our new house, so I'm pretty happy.  Thanks to Linda for running this party, and allowing me to party-crash halfway through!

Sources:
Headboard: west elm king matelasse headboard, discontinued
nightstands: HomeGoods bombe chest, painted BM Hale Navy
painting over nightstand: thrift store
orange lamps: HomeGoods
cobalt lamps: craigslist
blue diamond duvet cover: Nate Berkus Parker duvet from Target, discontinued
curtains: Ritva curtains
longhorn: Cardboard Safari
carpet: craigslist
dressers: Malm
Darth Vader art: Dave Pollot etsy store
blue/orange standard pillow sham: Anthropologie Florence sham
floral Euro sham: Pottery Barn Bettina print, discontinued
round  mirror: craigslist (I think it is Ikea)

See Week Three, Four and Five, and see the other linking participants herehttp://www.callingithome.com/2015/05/one-room-challenge-linking-event-spring.html!  I can't wait to see everyone's finished rooms!

Switching charcoal and tan sofas; heat lamp

Last we saw the living room, it had a tan sofa in it.

And the family room in the back of the house looked like this:

Then I read this article, which perfectly pinpointed the problem I was having in decorating around a charcoal sofa with ugly beige walls (not enough white! lighter walls! more color! lighter floors!).

So I switched the sofas.  The beige sofa and navy tables look so much better in this room. (Although someone made a comment that the beige walls and beige sofa looks like "the Dockers of living rooms.")  It still needs art but I think I'm heading in the right direction.

that lampshade is driving me insane

The darker charcoal sofa looks better in the living room with all the red and white.

I gave up on trying to force the skinny tables with lamps in the living room, and decided to get a floor lamp instead.  I settled on this arc light.

Sadly, sitting on the sofa under this lamp makes me feel like a Happy Meal under a heat lamp.  Or a little old lady sipping pink lemonade while getting her weekly perm.

The arc light is going back to the store.  The search for some form of lighting in this space continues.