Lighten up!

First of all, the winner of the $50 HomeGoods gift card is Cindy from The Flipping Couple! Congrats Cindy! Email me and I�ll get your card sent out to you!

Sooo�this post could also be titled:

�Hello my name is Sarah and I suffer from DOCD (Decorating OCD)�

or

�I am obsessed with the color green.�

or

�Spray paint is ahhhhmazing.�

I couldn�t decide.

I don�t know what�s come over me lately � but I want to paint everything in our house cream. I mean, that�s typically not me. I�m more a warm, cozy, Black Suede paint from Behr kinda girl.

I don�t know if it�s spring or just that my tastes are changing just a bit, but it�s happening and I�m not sure why. I�ve been making minor changes lately to see if I like the lighter colors around here and so far I quite like it!

I�ve shown you the steps of my mini family room redo I�ve been working on over the past couple of months. Last week I was going to do a final post with the changes because I thought I was pretty much done.

Buwahahahaha! Pushaw�that is just something I should never say to myself. Very much like I should never utter the words �This should only take a few minutes.� Because that is the project kiss of death.

I made a few changes to this wall in our family room:

Some of you remember when I moved this Ballard Designs art to this spot last month. I like this so much better because it adds some color to this spot � it was all brown before.

What? What is that you say? It�s STILL ALL BROWN? Ummm�yeah. That was bugging me too. I�ve mentioned lately that I�m obsessed with contrast. I was craving more of it in this space, especially because the brown table, chair and storage ottoman were all melting right into the floor.

My first project was the ottoman � it was a half off purchase at Joann�s a few years ago. I bought it to house diapers and wipes when the Bub was born and it�s turned out to be great extra storage. It now holds toys. (Lots and lots and lots of toys. Help me.):

I got a yard of a patterned fabric at Joann�s for the base and two-thirds yard of a solid fabric for the lid. I took the lid off, then started wrapping the ottoman�

And realized I was inches short � because I am so freaking cheap!! Argh. So what should have been really easy (simple wrapping the fabric all the way around the ottoman and stapling inside) turned into just a project that was (just a little) less easy. I had to cut a piece of fabric for each side:

I just hot glued it down on the sides. Then, to cover up the rough edges, I made a hem using hot glue as well, and just applied each section, covering the rough edges as I went:

Then I stapled the fabric down on the inside and on the bottom and did the same with the lid. You can see how I made the �seam� here:

I cannot even tell you how much I love it now!:

The print is a cotton fabric and was $10 a yard and I used a 40 percent off coupon. The top is a cotton duck and was $8 a yard, then 40 percent off. Not bad for hot glue and a staple gun, eh?

I was so excited at this transformation, I just kept going! Whoohoo! I took a dollar frame from Goodwill and then covered a leftover mat with the same green fabric:

    

The frame has no easel, and the Plexiglas that was inside was a mess, so I propped it up on my own easel and will get a new piece of plexi to go inside soon. The picture is about two years old, but it�s got a cute baby Bub, so I�m OK with it.  ;)

The pull of HomeGoods forced me dragged me lulled me in the other day, and of course I couldn�t walk by the lamps. I fell. in. love. with this glass beauty:

 

It was $30 with the shade � a beautiful luscious creamy drum shade. I walked past it five times and tried so hard to get it out of my head�but I couldn�t. It came home with me. And it is is SO much brighter than my cute button lamp I had there before.

My next project was the Bub�s cutie patootie little rocking chair. I spray painted it brown last year and loved it�but my cream obsession was whispering in my ear�

�Spray paint it Sarah. Do it! And use that Heirloom White color every decorating blogger in America has used but you. Do it. C�mon. You know you want to!�

So I did:

Heirloom White had me hello. I also added a simple initial on the chair, which is one of those little things I have been meaning to do for the past year anyway.

It positively pops now! I adore it!

I rearranged some of the accessories, and found these beautiful chunky candlesticks at Target for less than $10 for both:

The price tag was hung by the jute and I just left that on � I love it! The little birdie was from the Dollar Store and I spray painted it with HW (now that I�m a user, I can make up nicknames for Heirloom White.) I have another project in mind for these cuties � I�ll show you soon. Aren�t they precious?

I added a huge basket from another spot in the house to the bottom of the table and piled it with blankets:

And now this dark spot:

Is now light, bright, creamy, loveliness!:

I know the picture sucks! I was losing natural light, so I had to use a flash. Argh. And YES I KNOW, there is a cord. I�m fixing it! (It was either cover the cord or get a picture before the sun went down. Priorities.) But otherwise, I LURVE. (If the sun is shining tomorrow I�ll take a better pic!)

Many of you will not be surprised to know I have one more idea in mind for this wall � I�m just not digging the candle sconces anymore so I�ve got a project in  my head. Let�s just hope it turns out like it does in my noggin.

You just never know.  ;)