More Little Tweaks

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind words about my revamped corner. Now, I thought I would go ahead and share some other little changes I made around the house. First up, some new throw pillows for the sofa and slipper chairs . . .

There's that camera ham Zoe again!

I ordered the silk ikat zigzag and leopard pillow covers from two different Etsy sellers and think they add a little punch to my neutral upholstered pieces.

The teal green velvet pillow came from World Market several months back, but I recently added a little Greek key trim to give it some personality.

And, I can't forget the two benches I recently got reupholstered. Here's the x-bench . . .

I chose a black fabric with a small white dot and had the contrast piping done in the pink of our Milo Baughman-style chair.

Since the bench and chair don't technically go together (and the bench is actually taller than the chair), I thought I would just go with a coordinating fabric.

I'm not sure if you remember what the before of the bench looked like, but just in case, here it is:

 And, remember the blue bench I got for $10 at a junk shop?

It ended up with an ikat makeover . . . 

I usually play it safe with large furniture pieces and go with more neutral upholstery, but since this was an accent piece at the end of my otherwise neutral bed, I decided to go a little more daring . . . 

Please excuse the lack of styling on my husband's bedside chest (the right side of the photo).

I love it, and so do my pets (I often find them perched there). 

Have you made any little changes to your decor lately?

Ch-ch-ch-changes

In the general sprucing up of my house in preparation for my husband's birthday party, I managed to make a few little changes here and there. Here are some of the latest updates to our decor . . .

I finally got around to hanging some art in the "pink chair" corner, including my husband's Chinese Woman on Bike photo.

And do you remember the Moroccan-shaped table that I found in a junk shop for $10?

Well, after waffling over what color to go with, I finally chose black with gold accents (surprise, surprise). I just added the accents with a gold-leaf pen . . . super easy.

For the salon or gallery wall (I almost hesitate to use that term anymore because it seems so trendy), I used art I already owned (the women) mixed in with a framed lithograph from an art book I picked up at an estate sale along with some recycled art in bamboo frames. So, what is recycled art? It's my term for taking a rather lackluster piece of art with a decent frame from a thrift store and painting right over it. Observe. This . . . 

Native dancing ladies weren't really my style but I liked the faux bamboo frame despite it's anemic yellow color.

Turned into this . . . 

So, here's the before of that corner . . . 

And once again, the after . . . 

Much better, right? Not to mention what a difference the refinished floors make. Ahh. Oh, and I've got some other little odds and ends to share (including my newly upholstered x bench that didn't make it in these photos as I just got it back late last week), but I'll save that for another post as your interest may be waning about right now.

New Doors!

As I've mentioned, ad nauseum, we finally got new French doors to replace our old sliding glass system. I love them so much.

They finally got painted last week, but I have had a really hard time getting a good photo of them  (what with all the sunshine pouring in - a photographer I am not). And although my husband is a much better photographer with much better equipment and I need to get him to take some better shots, I couldn't wait to share them with you, so please forgive the poor photo quality. 

Here's a reminder of what our old sliding glass doors looked like . . . 

They were not in the best shape . . .

That's condensation trapped between the panes of our sidelites (stupid broken seal). Lovely, huh? It was time for them to go.

I decided to paint the new doors black to mimic the look of steel doors, which were a little out of my price range. These are extra tall Pella doors. I had them remove the transom, and the taller doors were a perfect fit (well, after a little retro-fitting, but no additional opening had to be cut - yay!). I love the expanded view of the woods through the taller doors. Here's the unpainted wood before the painters arrived . . . 

And, now, once again, painted . . . 

You can also see our newly painted black mantel in these shots . . . 

 

Oh, and the view from the deck. On the outside, they're actually Iron Ore instead of stark black . . .

Check back soon, as I've got some other little updates to my living room space that I'll be sharing in the near future . . .