Let The Decorating Begin!

You might remember awhile back, I told you I wanted to decorate our kitchen/dining/ & living area. I haven't been totally happy with it since moving in four years ago. It has always just felt so blah to me. There wasn't much color and what color was there was very matchy matchy.

Friends, blah is no more! We are moving in the direction of color. Due to budget it will be a gradual move, but that is okay. I'm so indecisive about all this that it would probably still be a gradual move even if our budget was limitless.

The color began with three paintings that I found online. I loved them right away. Then I wasn't sure. Then I loved them. Then I wasn't sure.

Told you I was indecisive. :)

Finally after much debate I bought three canvases for the project. The ones online are out of my price range, but I have a dear friend who is going to recreate them for me at a much more affordable price. Don't you just love good friends!

I can't wait to see how they turn out. I'm going to wait until then to reveal the design to you.


I have been wanting to wait on the living room because I knew we would be putting a TV in there soon and that would change the whole dynamic of the room. Friday night the husband and I were discussing said TV and how we would display it. I didn't want it hanging on the wall. I wanted a good substantial piece of furniture to put it on. I wanted something that could be a focal point in our living room. We discussed our visions for the TV and quickly discovered, we had very different ideas.

Saturday afternoon we wondered into Pier 1 as a way of killing time while my car was being taken care of next door. We NEVER go into Pier 1. Some time ago, I deemed it as one of those stores I couldn't afford to even browse in, which was probably true during our first few years of marriage. But there we were browsing Pier 1. And that is when it happened. We stumbled across the perfect compromise of a TV stand. It was different. Not like anything either one of pictured, yet we both instantly loved it. Then a saleslady informs us that she has one in the back that she can discount because it was a return due to a small scratch on the back left corner. We are not opposed to scratches. We knew if it was in our house long enough, it would be scratched anyways. When we saw it and the scratch, we both agreed that that scratch didn't bother us in the least little bit.

We mulled it over for a few minutes and decided to go for it. What do you think? Isn't it a beautiful piece of furniture?



These pictures make it look much brighter than it really is. There is black paint that shows through the red, so it actually a darker piece.

I love it!! But I was a bit concerned about how it would look. Our living room is predominately blue, green, & brown. I knew it would look okay with our furniture, but I was concerned about our rug. Maybe that is silly, but remember I'm knew to this decorating. The rug is a huge part of what makes it predominately blue, green, & brown. It's not even a year old so we really don't want to get rid of it.

Rug ain't cheap!

We discussed other ways to bring in more color such as pillows. I wandered over to look at the pillows in Pier 1 while the husband paid for the TV stand. I found this pillow that I thought was perfect.

The husband liked it too when he saw it, but it was more than I was willing to pay for a pillow. So the birds stayed behind. I looked at pillows every where we went for the rest of the afternoon, but nothing came close to my bird pillow.

The TV stand actually stayed behind as well because it wouldn't fit in my car. The husband and nephew went to pick it up Sunday afternoon. When they returned home they had the TV stand and the bird pillow.

Talk about excited!! Can I just say I have the best husband. Later I told him I couldn't believe he paid that for a pillow, and he just said, "You wanted it." :)

Seriously!! He's the best!

When we bought the stand we knew it would be without a TV for a few weeks. We weren't planning on purchasing a TV until next month. However, the husband couldn't resist.

Sunday night we bought a new TV for the living room. 50" of HD bliss. I cannot wait for football season to start. Hog Party at our house! All are invited. :)

Today the husband was looking at our TV online and discovered that if you buy it online you get a free flat screen 19" TV. So tonight he returned our TV without returning the actual TV, ordered it online, had it shipped to the store, paid for it again and got a free TV. The baby TV will go in my scrapbook room. SCORE!!


So we've been rearranging our furniture and rearranging it again trying to decide where to put everything. I think we have finally made a decision for now. :) It may all be different in a week.

Decorating still stresses me out, but I'm learning more about what I like. I'm figuring out what my taste is and the more I do that the less stressful it becomes.