Renovation on River Road

Matt and I have been working on the living room lately. It took a lot of demolition but we finally get to put it back together. The archway that was there originally was in pretty poor shape. They didn't take the time to do it properly so we took it down and started from scratch.

These are a few pictures of what the entry/dining room and living room looked like when we bought the house. Lovely green peel-and-stick tile, old bent fan, cabin wood on the far wall.

Moldy ceiling, more peel-and-stick tile, and just generally poorly constructed everything. All had to be torn out and redone. Even the windows.

This is the current state of our house. That table is just till we can build a farm style one. The bar is unfinished, and obviously so is the rest, but I think it's really come a long way.

My beautiful new archway. Blue in the back of the bookcase which is the same blue as the door in the living room and also the ceiling.

Coffered ceiling in the living room. The blue is Mount Airy and the walls are Sourdough.

Touches of Red

Our guest bedroom is going to have neutral walls. Possibly a pale blue,or greyish color and the accent color will be....red. Not fire engine red. Or neon red. But a beautiful shade of crimson. It's hard to explain but it will be great.

I think this pillow would look perfect in the bedroom. The maker, Sukan is one of my favorite sellers on etsy. The pillow cover is a bit out of my price range, plus it would be coming from Europe so shipping is a lot, but it is fun to dream.

A couple of weekends ago I went to Birmingham, then Atlanta with my bestie, Lydia. The main purpose was to go to the High Museum of Art. We of course decided to make a trip to IKEA. It was fantastic. I really want to take Matty. I got several things and it was only $36 total. One of the things I got were these shelf brackets. They're the perfect shade of red and for only $5 I know they'll go great in the room near the corner desk Matty will be building. I'll probably use a natural board and seal it for the actual shelf. I think white has too much contrast and more red is just too much.

uh, yeah. some more

Another fantastic tutorial. This one is from Tao of Craft. I would love to have a few of these for a nursery with a woodland theme. Wouldnt that be sweet?

A simple yet impressive tutorial on V and Co. by guest blogger Cluck. Cluck. Sew. I'm not really a flower person but I think this pillow is great.

Favorites, and More Favorites

I seem to save a lot of tutorials in the favorites list. Maybe someday I'll take a weekend and try them all. These flowers are so delicate and lovely. The tutorial is from Mrs. Priss.

Design*Sponge is one of my all time favorite blogs. Partly because of all the before and after photos submitted that basically rock my world. Also for the sporadic tutorials that seem like something I could actually manage. This faux-pottery project is pretty cool and looks like it would be a quick afternoon craft time. Project submitted by P.S. -I made this... and no that wasn't some subtle way to say I submitted it. That's actually the blog's name. :-)

Favorites

I've been using my husband's laptop for a while now since my charger and battery went kaput. Whenever I find cool projects or websites I save them in a folder on his favorites tab. This one is the Snow Ruffle Pillow and the tutorial for it is on V and Co. Vanessa has a great blog. Highly recommend browsing through it.

I think these wall decals by Shanna Murray are really charming. I could see this going above someone's bedside table.

I love this tutorial from the blog A Few of My Favorite Things. She found a shirt she liked on J.Crew and decided to make her own version. It turned out really great. Have a look.