Decorating Archives - Page 2 of 29

Yard Sale Finds

August 31, 2013 jennifer Decorating, Happy Finds

I’ve pretty much quit going to yard sales, not because I don’t love it but because I just don’t need to bring home more stuff. This year I’m trying to simplify our way of life and fewer things in the house is part of the program. But a few weeks ago my neighbor told me she was having a yard sale the next day and invited me down to her garage to get an early peek a the stuff her mom had brought over to sell. (Thanks Lindsay and Gloria!)

Soooo, I ended up bringing home a few new things.

I have a weakness for vintage children’s chairs and this pink one had me at hello. I love the sweet details on it, from the holes to the handles to the scallop detail below the seat. It’s also the perfect kind of vintage – still sturdy but distressed in all the right places. And pink. I really do like pink. It’s the perfect size for my youngest who was turning four the next day so it came home and became one of her birthday gifts.

I’m happy with how much fun she’s having with it, and also with how it looks in her room at the foot of her bed.

The second item is this coral colored corner shelf which fits perfectly in the corner next to her closet. I’m trying to help my little girls with clutter – they take everything to their room! So far they’re loving the shelf and it hasn’t been overloaded with stuff.

There is still a lot for me to do in here since painting the walls gray. When it’s clean, I love the simplicity of what we have in there and I especially love this bed, from a yard sale in Denver (thanks again, Dad!).

There you have it: my two new finds. I actually bought a couple of other things as well, which I have big plans for.
It’s Labor Day weekend, which is kind of the last big hurrah for yard sales. Are you out finding something awesome? I hope you have a relaxing few days!

Jennifer

One comment Decorating, pink, vintage

15 Days of Happiness :: Rearrange Something

May 28, 2013 jennifer Decorating, Musings on Life and Beauty

Today’s happiness task is closely related to my post about painting something.
Sometimes we get going and the beautiful things in our lives become part of the backdrop. We love and appreciate them, but because they blend into the landscape of our days we fail to really see them. When we no longer see them, their power to bring joy is diminished. We can do this both with people and with things, and when it happens it’s easy to start looking around at other people, other things, and think we need THOSE to be happy.

I caught myself being tempted to think this way recently when I saw this picture in the Wisteria catalog:

I love the bright blues against the white. The painting, rug, lamps and vase I particularly like, but I don’t really need any of them.

I do have a white living room that I love, so I decided to pull a few things from other places and see how it would turn out. This is what I did:

I moved a pillow from another room and placed my Water and Sky quilt over the arm of the couch.

I pulled vases from other rooms to make an arrangement I liked, then cut my first peonies of the year.

That was it, but it was enough. All of a sudden I had a splash of the color I wanted, and doing something different gave me new motivation and pride in having my house look nice. Sometimes that is just what I need to feel energized and willing to clean. Rearranging things makes me notice them again, and restores the pleasure I find in them as well. I didn’t need anything new; I just needed new eyes to see what I already had.

What will you rearrange today? A room? A shelf? Or will you do something far greater, like rearrange a schedule to restore a relationship to it’s proper priority in your life? Whatever it is, may it bring happiness!

Jennifer

15 Days of Happiness :: Paint Something

May 23, 2013 jennifer Decorating, Musings on Life and Beauty

With the change of every season, I often feel tempted to go shopping for pretty new home accessories. Stores and catalogs are transformed by seasonal color and designs that make the coming season feel even more exciting and beautiful. They plan it that way, and while I believe it’s fine to update things now and then, I also know that if we update our fashion at the rate the retailers hope we will, the result will bring pleasure at first, but will end up robbing us of happiness in the end. There is nothing wrong with liking pretty things; the fault comes in buying too many of them. Falling prey to retail therapy brings more stuff into our already cluttered homes, gives us more to store/maintain/care for, and usually ends up being a roadblock to our long term dreams by pinching us financially.

One of my strategies to benefit from the gorgeous advertising without sacrificing my goals is to paint something. It’s usually the color that sucks me in, and I’m particularly vulnerable to the colors of spring when they hit the stores. My favorite pictures this year came from the Wisteria catalog that arrived in my mailbox covered with every shade of blue – my favorite.

Wanting something new, and wanting it to be blue, I decided to “shop my house.” In the basement I remembered a votive candle holder that my sister gave me 3 (yes, three!) years ago. The plan was to paint it all along, but I never got around to it. I used paint I had on hand from another project and got started. My candle holder looked like this:

Pretty, but not me, especially with the metal inserts. I decided to simply paint over all of it, and a few coats later I had this:

I also decided to put it to use with flowers instead of candles.

This project allowed me to be creative, to use something I already had, to display the flowers from my yard indoors, to save my money, and still feel like I had something new and exciting to enjoy.

Isn’t it wonderful what a little paint can do! Perhaps you’ve got something you can update, too. Making home more beautiful – and doing it with self-discipline – is a happy thing!