Skip to main content

A little sprucing

After the Christmas tree came down, I decided to do a little sprucing up in the living room (and subsequently the breakfast room as I've already talked about).  In the corner of the living room, where the big Christmas tree goes,  I have always had a big fake ficus tree.  It was a really nice fake ficus tree when I got it back in 2003, but 11 years later, it had seen better days.  It was literally falling apart.

While I would have loved to have found a large fiddle leaf fig to replace the ficus, they are (1) hard to find, (2) expensive, (3) take more light that I could give it, and (4) I would probably kill it ASAP.  But it would have been pretty...
Image from pinterest, but I couldn't find original source

After researching into, and looking for a fiddle leaf fig, I decided to change course and look for a chair.  I couldn't kill a chair.  I found a nice chair for a good price at Homegoods, and then one thing led to another and I was doing a more substantial sprucing than I originally planned.  I needed new artwork.  I needed new curtains.  I needed a new side table.  I needed something to put on the side table.

Luckily, I have a lot of stuff stored that I'm not currently using, so that's always a great place to start.  And for what I don't have, I have a knack for finding things on the cheap.  

Here's a glimpse of some of the changes (some things are still in the works)...

I didn't love the legs on the chair, so I bought new legs.  They have been stained, but I keep forgetting to buy a poly to put on them.  Eventually, this chair will looked even better with the spindle legs I bought for it.  

I next decided that I wanted new curtains.  They were just a solid beige.  They were in the house when I bought it 9 years ago.  I decided I had gotten plenty of use out of them, so I started the hunt for new curtains.  Man!  Curtains are so expensive!

The curtains I settled on were a great deal from Kirklands.  If you need some pretty curtains, but don't want to spend a ton, take a look at Kirklands.  I originally bought both beige and red curtains.  I hung one of each on the two windows in my living room.  I took photos and put it to a vote amongst my friends and family.  The red overwhelmingly won the vote.  They were really pretty, but the red was all I could see when I looked at the room.  I decided I didn't want the curtains to be that overpowering, so I went with the boring beige.

I had a big empty wall space above the chair, which the old ficus had hidden.  I decided to turn the large wall in my living room into a gallery wall.  This is still a work in progress.  I had the painting of Taos pueblo that my Meme painted for me back in the 90's.  It had been stored and unused for a while, so I decided to frame it and get it on display.  I found those two Ikat pictures at Kirklands.

Once I got all of that done, I decided that I needed a side table.  After a couple of months of looking, I found this table at Homegoods last week.
I hit up my CRAP accessories closet and quickly styled it.  I don't know if it will stay this way, but I can live with it for a bit and see what I might want to change.

I had this herb pot from Anthropologie and some fake grass for texture.  If I get brave, I might try to put something live in the pot!

I love books, and I particularly love these old compilations of the works of Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde.  They are from 1950.
 I thought this little coral ceramic bird is a nice pop of color and great for spring.

So that's some of the sprucing that I've been doing in my living room.  I'll update you on the gallery wall when I get it to where I want it to be!

Comments

Rebeka said…
The changes you made look great. I love fiddle leaf fig and ficus trees, but they are so expensive and I am constantly killing my house plants and replacing them so I get why you wouldn't want to invest if you don't think they'll get enough light.

Popular posts from this blog

Swiss Oatmeal {Copy Cat Recipe}

I'm obsessed with Swiss Oatmeal.  I particularly love   Corner Bakery's Swiss Oatmeal.  If you are not familiar with Swiss Oatmeal, it is a cold oatmeal cereal with fruit and nuts. I've had a similar recipe for years, but it was only similar.  It wasn't close enough for my liking.  So I finally set out into the land of Pinterest to find a recipe that was a good Copy Cat.  I found a few, combined them and came up with what I think is a very close Copy Cat Recipe of Corner Bakery's Swiss Oatmeal. Here's what I do (note, this recipe is really just pictures, because I don't really have measurements for these things.  The photos aren't great, but it's easier if I show you what I do)... Here's the Phase 1 ingredients...   Milk Honey Yogurt (I use a vanilla greek yogurt) Oats (old fashioned, not quick...you probably could do steel cut too)    I've simplified this to where you only need a bowl and a spoon for Phase 1 becau

Europe 2023 {Day 9 ~ Munich & Bavarian Alps}

 On Tuesday, December 20th I grabbed breakfast at the hotel and then walked about 15 minutes to where I met my tour for the day.  On my first visit to Munich, I only had time for one "day trip" outside of the city and I chose to go to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, but I always knew I wanted to venture down to the Bavarian Alps and see some castles on my next visit.  I had booked the premium tour and it was so fancy.  There was a snack bar and they even served beer and wine on the way home after the last stop of the day.  First stop was at Linderhof Castle. This was a "small" castle of King Ludwig's that was a partial mini-replica of Versailles.  It was a snowy walk to the castle... Interior photos were not allowed, but you can see some pics of the interior HERE Like Versailles, there are fountains and sculptures surrounding Linderhof, but they cover the statues with wood huts to protect them from the winter elements. After visiting Linderhof, we made a (to

It's all about the dress...

I mean I guess it's really all about getting married, but come on, you always anticipate the dress right?  Well holy moly folks!  Today a big secret was released to the press.  No, we still don't know which dress or tiara Kate will be wearing, but we heard for the first time that Princess Diana had a back-up dress!  Here are some of the pictures and sketches... Real dress on Left~ Back-up on the Right Here are the sketches of the back-up dress And you know what?  I like the back-up dress better than the one she wore!  I know, I know.  I'm going to get blasted for saying that, but I'll just confess it right now... My name is Kara and I've never thought Princess Diana's dress was all that and a bag of chips.  Nope.  Not my favorite Royal Wedding Dress by any stretch of the imagination.  What is my favorite?  Probably the one that Sarah Ferguson wore when she married Andrew... It had beautiful beading and stitching throughout.  Also on the train it had an &quo