Moodboard Madness

So it's been a while since I last created a design board, and with the mood board collaboration we have coming up next week, it just got in the designing mood again. After designing my board for the Spring collaboration{which you will see on Monday}, I got the urge to keep going!

Here are a few of my designs that I recently came up with. Oh I swoon at all of the designer finishes that I can so easily put into a virtual mood board. I just wish that translated in to my real life budget! Oh well - until then, I will just keep designing on paper... or technically speaking, on the computer:)

To see more of my design boards, click [here].

And just a quick reminder that Google Friend Connect will be GOING AWAY on July 1st, so please please please follow along with Bloglovin. It is SUCH a great blog reader, and I even like it better than GFC! Who knew?? Anyways, you can follow along from the link below, or see my sidebar to click on the button. It took me 2 seconds to sign up for FREE and it literally transferred ALL of my blogs over in about 30 seconds. Can't get much better than that, right??

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Who I'm linking up with:

My Repurposed Life

Finding Fabulous

Shabby Art Boutique

French Country Cottage

Serenity You

Sweet Little Gals

Living Room Reveal

So the day has come! My first room reveal in the new house:) As I have stated since the move, our new home is MUCH smaller - I think 990 sq. ft. to be exact. I was a bit nervous to sign the lease at first because of the drastic difference, but SO thankful we took the leap in the end! It also presented me with the challenge of learning how to design in a small space. And who doesn't love a new challenge?? I know I sure do:) 

The living room looked especially small, which was my biggest concern.  When we walked in for the first time, it looked like one teeny tiny little box. Thankfully I kept reminding myself that rooms always look smaller without furniture - strange concept I know, but it's very true. 

Here is the box I'm talking about...

Could that really be the same room as this.... ???

Woah! What a difference! It's pretty amazing how some thoughtful furniture placement can really make a difference. This living room is less than half the size of our previous home, but you really don't feel like it when your in the space. We also have the same amount of seating as well (minus one chair that really wasn't used). You can't tell from these photos, but our living room opens up to the dining room and office. I think that's also why the space looks much bigger than it actually is. The room is also taken over by these massive windows which let some amazing natural light into the space.  As you can tell... it made it quite difficult to take photos with all of that light coming in! That's what I get for having a six year old camera!

Anyways - I hope you enjoy my new living room as much as I do. And now for some eye candy!

I will try to write up a post of where to find my items in the room. More to come on that later:) Hope everyone is having a great week so far. Happy Tuesday!

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Who I'm linking up with:

DIY Showoff
Keeping it Simple
Coastal Charm
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Not Just a Housewife
The 36th Avenue
Be Different Act Normal
No Minimalist Here
Common Ground
French Country Cottage
Crafts A La Mode
Pieced Pastimes
Serenity You
Shabby Creek Cottage

Living Room Re-do!

Over the past few weeks, I have been working with a wonderful client of mine to re-design her living room. We started off with an hour long consultation and then moved to a mood board to represent the space. Below is one {of many} mood boards that I created for the room. Our theme for the room was neutral animal print with a pop of orange. We used many beige's, browns, blacks and whites to off set our orange accent color.

We worked with some of what she already had (ie. wall color, rug, etc), but most of the furniture was new. Some of my favorite pieces were the couch and media stand. The couch was found at Haverty's for right around $850 and the TV stand was actually a Craigslist find! It's so fabulous and was only $200! Most of my pillows and accessories were found at places like Home Goods, Ross, Steinmart etc. I also advised my client to paint her wainscoting, trim and fireplace white. I'm SO glad she took my advice because it truly opened up the space and make the room feel so much lighter and brighter. I also advised her to paint her entry way drawers orange for a nice pop of color.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed my latest room re-do!

It's done! Formal Living Room Updates

How long have I been updating this room? Too long if you ask me! Thankfully after many months of buying, selling, moving and re-arranging, I am finally finished - and very happy with the outcome might I add. So what all have I done? Keep reading to see my process! 

Here are a few pictures of the rest of the finished room:

Now lets get down to the fun part and start listing out some of my furniture pieces and accessories!

Where I found my Items:
5x7 Floral Rug: Target, $180 (I think this item might be retiring, so it might be on clearance)
Linen Chairs with Nail Heads: Home Goods, $199 Each
Red Jute Bordered Pillows: Pottery Barn, $40 per cover
Yellow Ikat Pillows: Garden Ridge, $9.99 each
Small Bee Pillow: Antique Store, $14
Matching Lamps: Target $36 per lamp base, $12 per shade
Coffee Table: Hayneedle.com, $220
Small Metal Shelves: Home Goods, $16 each
Settee: Antique Store, $100
White Curtains: Target, $7.99 per panel

After all the changes I've made to this room, most people think I must have spent a fortune. Well, I actually haven't spent really anything on the room. Crazy, right?? How is that possible? I've bought things that I end up switching out, so what do I do with everything I replace? Well get excited, because the answer is coming up in my next post! Keep reading to find out how I successfully re-decorated this room on a near ZERO dollar budget;)

Who I'm linking up with:

Formal Living/Dining - Phase 3!

As you all may know, I have been working in phases to re-design our formal living/dining room. Today I would like to show you the 3rd of 4 phases. Yupp - That's right! I said 3 of FOUR phases!! Totally didn't think I would be changing this room so much, but hey - why not?? 

In my defense, I will attempt to explain myself. It got to the point where I would change one thing, and realize I didn't like something else. For example, I found that amazing rug for a great deal and just had to have it! Well... The "icy grey" of the wall color just didn't match with the new "stone grey" of the rug. It DROVE ME CRAZY and so I made the decision to paint the walls - SO glad I did! I am just in love with the new wall color. It's still in the "grey" family, but much warmer. Just perfect.

So like I said, it has basically been a snowball effect. Change one thing, and in the end.... it's all different! In this case, I've been very happy with my slow progression. In fact, even since I took these pictures, I have moved into phase 4 (and hopefully the FINAL phase) of this room:) I can't wait to show you what all I have done with the space! That will come soon, but until then I hope you all enjoy my {phase 3} reveal!

Scroll all the way down to see my 1-2-3 {before and afters}

And here are the steps I've taken to get to where I am now:

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

Phase 3:

So what all do you see different??  Here are the top 3 changes:

1. The HUGE buffet has been moved to it's proper home - behind our dining room table.

2. We've got a NEW rug! And I'll tell you all a little secret - it's actually 2 rugs up against each other! Finding a large rug like that for a reasonable price it just about impossible and this is a great solution. The pattern matches up perfectly too:)

3. NEW paint color - The paint color is called Stone Manor by Valspar - I've been very happy with it!

Stay tuned to see what I have next! I'll give you a few hints. There might be some sort of new table, and some new upholstered pieces as well. Yippee! 

More to come:)