Pottery Barn Inspired

I was check'n out good ol' Pottery Barn, and found some things in each picture I really liked.. well a lot of things, like the whole thing, but since I don't have a pottery barn budget, I'll just take some ideas from their fabulous pictures and see what I have around the house that will give me a similar look...

Pottery barn has this same type of look, they always seem to use a lot of books, lots of layering and lots of neutral & natural colors...

so here's what I  did... { I needed to change up the look on my fireplace}

* Wrapped some books I had in brown paper, then wrapped them with some jute... 

*I found a styrofoam ball and wrapped it with some twine...

*The basket I found at DI a while ago, thought it would be good for books...

*Stacked my magazines in a wire basket I took  off the counter

*Found some long cinnamon sticks and wrapped them with twine

*I had these cute light bulbs and put them in a mason jar, just for fun...

*Bought this cute cement decorative ball at Tia Pan forever ago, pulled it off the TV armoire

*Layered a clock, an old, empty picture frame and a family picture...

BEFORE

AFTER

seems a little better... warmer and different... different is good... and 100% free!!! can't beat that!

oh and it's all pretty baby proof, she found the twined wrapped ball right away... hopefully she doesn't get into it all too much!

Kitchen Change...

So I made a couple of changes to my kitchen, and these pictures make it kinda hard to tell but I wanted to show them anyways and give a shout out to my friend Meggie who re-did my table... if you are looking to get something re-done she is a pro, contact her and she could give you a quote shabby2chicdesign@yahoo.com

painted the table black! {This is what Meggie did} She re-finishes furniture!! It looks really great I LOVE it!!!

painted the fronts of a bank of drawers black...

and added a few {black items] through out to blend it all together!!!

got new canisters.. which I scored off  ksl classifieds for $10bucks!!!

... and painted my paper towel holder black... not too bad fora  few bucks I really like it!!! I LOVE change... now if only some day I could replace my counter tops and pretty much make my whole kitchen bigger... but for now, this is great!!!

A Total R3!!

So a quick makeover... I had these shutters sitting in my garage for 6 years now...they were in the house "Nanna's house" and separated the front room from the kitchen, back in the day, they came down and out when we remodeled ... I finally pulled them out and decided to use them, 

Before

After

I moved some things around... I had an old b&w door here that I moved over to another spot, then I took the family photo off the mantle and hung it on here,  using this really cute ribbon....

I took this stuff down {which was long overdue} and put the old b&w door here...

AFTER :) This is pretty much a total R3 project... I  {reused} & {redid}  the old door, giving two spaces a new {refreshed} look

Re{arrange~ment}

So I wanted to show a little project I did a while ago and finally {officially} got finished..  this is the BEFORE look just a wreath and some hooks, which I like the look, BUUUT I've had this obsession with clip boards lately so I took down the wreath and hung up clip boards!!!

I found this fabulous huge clip board at D.I. several weeks or months ago??? and had to put it up!!! SO I took down the wreath, grabbed some more clip boards and hung them all on my wall!!!

I also added three picture frames at the bottom and put my kids {first day of school} pictures in them...since this is where they hang their backpacks and coats the school pictures go along with this area great!!!  (this is what took this project so long to finish, getting these pictures developed... I rarely get pictures developed any more...)

Yeah! a fun NEW, different, LOoK!!! multi-purpose as well, I can hang little notes, and decor from the hooks... its great!

and then as a final "change" I threw the wreath onto the side of my NEW shed  {that I WON} and VIOLA a new look in two areas!!!

Where to put it???

There is a space above my TV in the armour that has been in need of a refreshed look... the very top of this has not had anything on it, I prefer things a little more simple, but I have this old sewing machine that has been at my mom's forever, that I forgot about... she called me the other day and asked if I still was wanting it... of course I did, I LOVE antiques, and sewing (two in one...) so I brought it home and really didn't have many choices as to where to put it... so I thought I could put it up on the armour, so I took down everything that was up there and gave it a good dusting, cause lets be honest this space does not get dusted every week, I went and grabbed a few other things from other rooms that could be moved and added to this space... I snapped this picture mid-project, it looked a little better than that...these are the random things that have been up there since ... yes ... Christmas... time to come down... and I suppose give these presents to who they belong...
this is what was up there...
this is what I had to add to it... the sewing machine (from mom's) a vase with some floral things that I had in the nursery that I never loved... another vase from the cedar chest, a candle holder also from the nursery... and the wicker balls also from the cedar chest...
I put everything up there and moved it around a few times...


I ended up with this... it certainly looks better than Christmas presents and dust... I typically group things in odd numbers... like the vases on the top... although I have 4 phonograph records grouped together on the shelf but it seems to work for this space.... and I of course had to add some old photo's to the sewing machine... the empty space seemed like it needed to be filled. If your looking to refresh something, grab other items from different places, and always hold onto decor you think your sick of, you never know when you could use it down the road for other things... I keep a lot of the stuff I'm "sick" of in my cedar chest or in a storage room... and always stay true to what YOU like... typically this is too much stuff in one small area for me, but I LOVE this old sewing machine so I LOVE how the space looks... do what YOU like!!!

Kitchen Canisters

So I got these canisters, I think, as a bridal shower gift 10 years ago... it was a set of three, about six months ago I was going to buy new canister because I wanted two big ones, for wheat & white flour, but to buy two big cansiters and two other ones is like $100 bucks... which I don't have lying around... so I thought hhmm wouldn't it be nice if I could find another big one just like the ones I have... so for the last 6 months I've been checking D.I. and KSL Classifieds for another canister just like mine to match... then one GLORIOUS day I was in D.I. and I turned around and there it was!!!! I literally gasped out loud... I know there not the cutest canister in the whole world, but I was so thrilled to actually find a match so I didn't have to buy all new... so now that my set is complete, I needed to refresh them... I tied this fabric around the three about 8 years ago and it has sat like that ever since... time for a makeover... I Love a before and after shot so here is BEFORE...and here is AFTER....
And here is the process and a fun, cheap project that took 15 minutes and cost $2.12
first I cut up strips of scrapbook paper from Roberts Art & Crafts and glued two of the strips together for each canister so they would fit around it...

then printed off my labels
I cut them up and used the other side of the red print, which was brown, as a backing for the label
glued them onto the brown and then decided I wanted to laminate them to allow them a longer lifespan, and by laminate I mean I stuck them on a piece of packing tape and then folded the tape in half to cover both sides...

then trimmed them accordingly...
stuck the new laminated label onto the strip of paper, first stuck a tack in it, to make a hole...
... then I put a brad in...
and done... ready to wrap around the canisters...
finished project!!! So cute and so much better!!!