Photo Shelves!

In our family room there is a wall that I displayed a bunch of photos on.  Loved my display (even though a picture is sideways – I’ve been meaning to change that) but we used some of the frames for the photo display at dad’s memorial.  Two are missing – kind of ruins the photo display.

I have been wanting to put up shelves, but like the sideways picture I never got around to it.  Enter my momma … she is amazing.  She is retired now and bored with nothing to do all day (lol – she is not bored at all but she’ll laugh reading this)!  So, she made me some 10 dollar shelves cut just the perfect length for this wall.  Then … (you’re not going to believe this) she painted them, and came over to put them up for me!!  I told you she is amazing!!  

The space is transformed and I can add or take away pictures whenever the mood strikes! 

I love the dimension of stacked frames and the interest created by using frames of different height.  I’m still playing with the layout but I LOVE my new picture shelves!!

Quick and Easy Fireplace Facelift

As I was working out on Tuesday, I decided to paint the gold part of the fireplace.  I can’t stand gold and I thought painting that little part would give the fireplace a little facelift.

Here it is before. 

A close up. 

I took the wood handles off. 

Cleaned the gold part with degreaser – look how much soot came off!  We’ve never used the fireplace, so don’t know where that came from.

I let it dry then taped if off and put newspaper up. 

Since this is a fireplace, and it is supposed to get hot – I used High Heat paint that we found at my dad’s house when we were cleaning it up. 

Gave it a thin coat, let it dry for 20 minutes which I did other things around the house and gave it another coat.  The paint covers very well, so one coat would have been good, but I decided to give it two. 

Repeated the process for the bottom.  I could have done them at the same time, but that would have been too easy! 

Lookin’ good!

There you have it – I think it looks great!  Makes it look updated and it was a FREE update! 

I love before and after pictures, so here you have it – side by side. 

What do you think?

New Flooring!!

When we bought our house 2 years ago we knew we would have to change out the carpet.  It was white with stains all over it.  We have dogs who made new stains all over it.  We got it cleaned before we moved in but the original stains came back after a little while - we cleaned it a few times since and the stains wouldn't come out. 

Here is is before.  All of the furniture is in the bar and dining room - our house was a mess!

The tile entry and the formally white carpet. 

Old stains and new stains make for some pretty disgusting carpet. 

The "tile" in the kitchen - hate it!

So, one Sunday we had Michael's cousins, brother, and Bruce over for a super fun flooring party!  We ripped out the carpet, the pad, and the tack stripes.  We swept and vacuumed.  Put the under layment down and put laminate flooring in. 

I was pretty much no help but the boys were amazing!!  They got all the way to the kitchen done and then Michael and I finished the kitchen and the bar area after work a few nights last week. 

I am SO HAPPY with the new floor - it looks AMAZING!!

Here are the after pictures:

I didn't take a picture without the furniture - but you can still see how amazing the floors look!

The floor look great even with the blue floral tile!

And the best part - no ugly tile in the kitchen!!  LOVE the new floors!!

We still have the dining room and the office to do.  I LOVE how they look - it makes such a huge difference in our house!

What do you think of our new floors?

Halloween Mantel

I saw this idea in Country Living last year and I fell in LOVE. 

Source: manolohome.com via Sarah on Pinterest

I wanted to do it to our front door but I never got around to doing it.  So, I was planning on doing it this year.  Paula found some bats on sale at Joanne's and bought them for me so I didn't have to make them. Then I saw this . . .

Source: kimmccrary.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

when I joined pintrest two weeks ago and again I fell in LOVE!  Stacey made it for me (I helped a little) and it was just too beautiful to put on the door.  I didn't want anyone to ruin it - or touch it.  It was so pretty that I wanted to look at it all the time. 

As you saw from the Family Room tour, we have a beautiful fireplace.  It pretty much stays the same all year, but I decided to "dress" it for Halloween.  Here is our naked mantel: 

I put up the amazing wreath - tutorial is here.  Just to warn you it takes like 4 hours with two people - so, be prepared.

And got the bats . . . Here is the template for making bats if you would like it. 

Here they are . . .

Fold one wing towards the body.

Fold the other wing in too.

See how it looks like it is flying now?

Put some duct tape on the back

And put it on the wall (or the fireplace in my case).

I started the bats at the bottom - I wanted it to look like they were coming out of the fireplace.

I tried to duct tape the bats on the felt wreath but that doesn't work.  So, I hot glued a safety pin on the back of two bats.

Just put a dab of hot glue on the back of your bat.

And put the safety pin in the hot glue.

Let dry and attach to the wreath. 

I knew I wanted the bats to go up toward the wreath and stop at the top edge, so I made a rough path.

Then I just had to fill it in with more bats.

When bats fly they fly in a line, then it becomes and group, then they all kind of disappear.  It is pretty amazing to watch them!  I wanted the bat path to look kind of real.  So, I put them in a line, then a group, then fizzled them out to a line then they disappeared. 

I LOVE it!!

What do you think?  Are you going to decorate for Halloween?

Family Room Tour

Welcome to our family room:

Our family room from the breakfast nook.

And this is the view from the entry way.

Our amazing couch.  I LOVE this thing!  We bought it off Craigslist years ago when we lived in the duplex.  Michael would always lay on the couch and I had no where to sit so we got a longer couch (with a chaise so we both could lay).

There is the entryway again.  Notice the adorable dog?  That is Chance.  He is such a great dog!

Our picture wall.  Yes, I know some of the pictures are sideways - but I am slowly (really, really slowly) replacing them.  I reused frames from high school (hence the sideways FFA officer pictures) and painted them all black to make them all work together. 

View from my spot on the couch.  Michael made the entertainment center in high school woodshop.

The other view from the couch.  The love seat is across from the couch.

Our beautiful fireplace.  LOVE the bricks!

On the mantel is my grandpa's flag.  My dad's dad was a principal and he saved all of the flags when they replaced them (when Hawaii and Alaska became states and every few years when they wore out).  After he died my aunt got me that figure holding the flag. 

A flag star that Michael picked out from (of all places) Safeway.

A candle holder and a framed picture of baby Heman.

A few pictures I took and framed.  The top picture is Michael and Tyler with 'the girls' (the Tyler's cows) and the bottom picture is Michael walking along the bank of the river when we were fishing.

Our new sliding glass door - it looks out onto the backyard.

The kitchen connects to the family room.

And then there is our wall behind the couch.  I never really look at this wall - it is behind me most of the time but my goodness it is boring with nothing on it.  I would love to put up a few big pictures . . . I don't know.  I would love to hear some ideas for that big blank wall!

So, that's it - the family room! 

What are your ideas for the wall behind the couch?  What is your favorite part of your family room?