Entryway Progress and a Surprise

Today was the day, the day when our fabulous contractor friend "Joe the Builder" (his name choice) came back into town and was set to help us with our tile entry. He volunteered to help because it's an old floor with a giant hump in it and it needed an experienced hand to build up the thinset in the right places and make it as level as possible, a feat made more challenging by the 12x24" tiles I chose. Iam an expert at being high maintenance.

So this morning Joe came over and I was excited and ready to go, but before we got started I wanted to run a quick idea for my kitchen by his professional ear. A lot of you know that I would love to gut my kitchen and open it up to the rest of the house. Unfortunately, that's not in the cards right now...  but a way to inexpensively make the most of it for the time being had recently occurred to me. Joe thought it was a doable project, we talked costs and it seemed inexpensive and a great thing to consider.

I admit, we got sidetracked for a while. But now it's evening and the tile is going in...

But back to getting sidetracked. We got sidetracked about this much:

Anybody in the mood for a kitchen project?

Color Pop with Pillows

Yesterday I took a few minutes to sew a couple new pillow covers for my living room sofa.

Oh, my living room. My perpetual work-in-progress, never-gonna-be-done space that I'm never fully happy with. Maybe one day. My aqua lamps need to be a different color, and I'd like another chair and while we're on the subject that mini wall needs to come down so I can do some rearranging.

I knew I wanted to add a deeper, more saturated color to offset all the aqua and help ground the space. I thought a rich teal would do the job nicely, and I found a faux velvet type fabric that added some warm texture as well. When I was at the store I also stumbled across a burst design fabric in aqua, gray and citron -- which helps pull my lemongrass chair in a bit more. Finding it was a happy accident.

I'm always on the lookout for fabrics or pillows that I like... random assortments appeal to me more than perfectly matched sets. I make most of my design decisions as I go along, and I'm good with that -- if it feels okay, then I say it's okay.

It's In The Details: Painted Pianos

I feel like this could be a dangerous topic if anyone feels passionately about pianos, but it's been on my mind for a while and I thought it was worth discussing; not because I'm going to paint my piano, which I grew up with (so please stop hyperventilating, Mom!) but because a lot of people go this route and it's intriguing to me!

I'm not afraid of painting wood in general (unlike 85% of all males I know) but I also don't have anything against stained finishes. As in, I don't walk around singing, "I see some stained wood and I want to paint it black!" (do you see what I did there? I'm so classic rock.)

Something about painting a piano just gives me the jitters; apparently it's not supposed to really affect the sound quality if done very carefully, but I can't completely wrap my head around that. I think it's that I view a piano as an instrument first and a piece of furniture second -- and the musician in me just says no.

Having said all that, I think it's a good idea for people with basic pianos that aren't great quality or family heirlooms, if you're comfortable having a focal piece the size of a Mini Cooper in your living room... because once you paint that sucker blue, or red, or yellow, you'll have to decorate around it and it's the first thing people will notice when they visit!

Check out a few more striking examples:

 

What do you think? Is painting a piano something that would work in your home? If you've already done this, do you love it or regret the decision?

My only advice would be to go slow, and be careful not to get paint on any of the inside parts like hammers!

{Photos: 1. Pennington Point; 2. Bake at 350; 3. Centsational Girl; 

4. Design Mom; 5. Sweet Pickins}

Dollar Store Decorating - Skeleton Garland

Halloween decor is starting to sneak into my house, and I've decided that I may as well decorate for Autumn too... I think I have a difficult time with this transition because of how long we wait for summer to arrive where I live (as much as I love fall once I settle into it). The only way to fix that is to move somewhere warmer, and since that's not happening any time soon I'm putting on my big girl pants and I'm throwin' some pumpkins around.

And skeletons.

I found these little garlands at the dollar store a couple days ago, and pieced three of them together. Love them. Hopefully soon they'll have some Halloween buddies out!

Oh, and I also bought this:

I'm 99% sure that the one that bit me (twice!) looked just like this. I need to keep this around to help me remember my past mistakes so I don't make them again. So, you know... I'm just going to need to stay inside. Forever.