Updated decor

So since I really couldn't buy many clothes for my birthday, I decided to use my birthday money to update my home decor. Plus now that I have nice walls to decorate (instead of paneling that was SO hard to hang things on!) and we have nice carpet everywhere and tile floors where they need to be (like in the bathroom!) I decided I was ready for a fresh update. Not everything changed of course, but I found some cute ideas that I wanted to incorporate, so I did! I made a few things that I think turned out nice, so I will explain it all.

Here are some of the additions to the living room. (I've got some fall decorations up, so I guess permanently it won't always looks this way). I bought some willow balls to add to my metal bowl on the piano, bought matching lamps, painted the green A on the collage wall, and made a coat rack since we use the coat closet for food storage/garage stuff (thanks Candy for the coat rack idea!) My dear friend, Ashley, sent me this vinyl lettering quote that fits perfectly above it! I also made another that is behind the door where all our backpacks, umbrellas and purses hang. I also painted all the frames black that I had to match better. My sister painted the little square canvases for us for Christmas one year, so that added some cute pop of color to the frames, and I decided to have kind of an "A" theme to it as well.

Ashley also made me the "cooking is love made visible" quote and I couldn't figure out where to put it b/c there aren't a lot of spaces in the kitchen, but I had a piece of left over wood from the coat racks, so I decided to paint it, add the quote and then copy the design from a piece of sb paper that I used to made another decoration for the kitchen and then paint the design . I love the way it turned out! I also put together the flower picture that is hanging in the downstairs bathroom. The flowers are at my Grandma Elzer's house and I love the peeling painted shed behind them! I found a perfect use for my dark brown baskets I had in my breezeway in Waynetown. They made cute storage! I decided it was time to give up my shabby-chic clock and bought this nice big black one. I cut out the back of the shelf that had a heart cut out of it (SO not into hearts anymore!) and painted it black. I bought the wheat grass to add to the shelf. I was originally going to set the framed A on the shelf, but it was just too big, so I hung it in the kitchen. I painted my rod-iron basket black (it was kind of a dark gray) for a cute way to store my bathroom towels and bought the boxwood topiary. I found that bathroom sink set up on a fun blog. I loved re-fashioning all sorts of things and making homemade items, because it was a super cheap way to update my decor!

I decided to go with the colors I had used in the breezeway since we don't have a breezeway to put the pillows, table, etc in. I found the candlestick, lamp, vase and brown wooden vase at Goodwill this summer. I love finding cute things there! And of course, as I already posted, I painted the nightstand and dresser to match.

Now on to the bathroom. I was so sick of my shower curtain, having had it for 9 years, plus it was getting faded and stained, so I found this one at World Market - thanks Kelly for introducing me to that AWESOME store! Anyway, I was so proud of myself because if I hadn't looked for deals, I would have had to use almost all of my birthday money on the bathroom. BUT because I am such a savvy shopper ;) I was able to spend HALF of what I would have paid for everything!!! I also got the cute blue containers at World Market as well as the floor mat. A friend of mine bought the wall hanging at Goodwill, painted it green, but didn't have a good place to put it, so she gave it to me. Thanks so much Tiffany!!! I got the towels at JCPenny's white sale (plus I had a $10 off coupon!). Oh, and you can't see them very well, but I got the shower curtain hooks and the toothbrush holder (not shown) at Kohls.

So anyway, I love how everything turned out! It's so nice to be able to decorate the walls (it was driving me crazy having plain white walls to look at all summer!) and to have a newer looking home to live in. I had a lot of fun putting it all together. It makes me happy every time I look at what I did and gives me a sense of self-satisfaction and accomplishment. I was able to do a lot with all the good deals I found using coupons, Goodwill finds, and refurbishing things I already had.