DIY Wall Stenciling ~ Love Your Room

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Roeshel

I love wall stencils {not being a fan of real wallpaper since the summer of 2007’s painted wall paper [3 layers] removal debacle…never again!} and Shoshanna from

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DIY Show Off – Living Room Before and After Reveal

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Roeshel

LivingRoom Transformation: Here it is when we bought our home. Before, at time of closing:

Lots of strange angled corners to work with.

We repurposed this mirror by taking it down and framing it (more details here). It hangs in our back entry way.

The white walls were painted wallpaper. Fun!

We also tore out the nasty carpet and refinished the wood floors.

Then, I always wanted a red room. So – I painted the room red. It wasn’t quite what I pictured but I really loved it for a little bit. Excuse the mess. Some of these I snapped right before I began painting.

We installed French doors between the living room and family room.

We mounted the tv above the fireplace…I’m not sure if you can tell, but there aren’t a lot of options (wall 1=staircase, wall 2 = entry to hall and built-in shelving, wall 3 = French doors, wall 4 window/fireplace/window). It’s really not too high for viewing. We’ve adjusted to it being there. Our wood burning fireplace isn’t used at this time (another future project). Since behind the fireplace is a brick chimney and the walls are plaster, I currently hide the wires with garland (upcoming project to build up the fireplace surround will take care of that problem). Brick? Someday we’ll replace it with marble and I got a dirty look when I suggested we paint it. Mr. DIY does not like painted brick.

It didn’t take long before I didn’t grew tired of dark red. The room wasn’t getting any light. It just didn’t “feel” like the right color.

Here it is today:

Color is Benjamin Moore Smoky Taupe. It changes color in different lighting.

Mr. DIY’s leather chair has been replaced with another leather chaise. Compromise.

Updated pictures below.

My thrift store find – wine corks.

Vintage French linen pillows – Restoration Hardware

French pediment – Ballard (I plan on adding more trim to the French door to fill in the gap)

It’s weathered and says “Flanders Sweet Shop”

Drapery is from Target and Ebay. I ordered an extra panel to lengthen them. I love them framing the French doors.

I scored a bunch of vintage boxes and crates at an estate sale (3 are the same found at Pottery Barn for $24. I paid $8 ea!). This little box holds the remote controls.

Wall art from vintageprintables.com. Tips for hanging a wall gallery.

My style? You’ll see that I have a bit of interior design ADD. French, vintage, traditional, farmhouse and so on but the thing I love about designing my own space is that I can decorate with things I love and I don’t have to follow any rules. And we’re obviously not minimalists. It’s for us, not for a decorating magazine, right? We love how much taller and bigger the room looks and our mix of decorating styles works for us. I’d love new furniture but it’s not in the budget and this set from the 90s is in excellent shape. It works for now.
A few updated photos/fall decorated…

before

after

before

after

before

AFTER

What do you think?

GALLERY WALL

The Good Mood {board} – Living Room Edition

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Roeshel

Good Mood {board} – Living Room Edition

When I found out that “living rooms” were next up on the Good Mood Board event {blog friends sharing themed mood boards with a mood board linky finale}, I couldn’t wait to get started. Remember the last time when I put together a mood board for my guest bedroom and shared the reveal about a month later? A mood board is awesome motivation for giving your DIY plan direction.

Well, this time, I’m doing a mood board for our family room. It’s a mess of a room right now with old mismatched furniture (not in a good mismatched way and not in a good “old” way – we’re talking hunter green striped couch with matching hunter green side tables…hellooooo 1990s!), walls in desperate need of paint, another plywood floor, windows with wood blinds but no drapes, huge potted plants and one ugly fish tank with one lonely gold fish that Mr. DIY refuses to part with (in fact he bought a fish tank 3x the size and it’s sitting empty along side the other in the family room at this time). I’m saving the ‘before’ until I have an actual ‘after’. Hoping that sometime early 2012 demolition and remodeling will take place.

Anyway…Mr. DIY usually doesn’t offer up much in the way of preference when it comes to decorating but I think he’ll like this comfortable design. If I like it, he likes it. (He’s wonderful that way!) His only request is a ceiling fan. And of course the fish tank has to stay (gag!) but I’ll disregard that in my design today. It might look like I’m swapping out one mismatched room for another. lol But this is my starting point in terms of colors and overall style. A mood board for me is a visual starting point – colors/overall feel. It might not be literal in the sense of each piece (definitely not as some of the things are not in my budget) but it gives me an idea of where to start in terms of design. Paint choice, furniture, color, textures…

Neutral, Navy, Texture. I even decorated for Christmas…

It looks a little cluttered but I never ever claim to be a minimalist (unless you count the one time when it comes to fish tanks). It’s so hard to fit all of the details on a little design board…there’s more space in real life. See something you like? You can see the details of my olioboard here.