Living Room

I Bailed on Fennel, And Then I Redecorated
August 14, 2012
free decor!

After sharing my swatch testing experiment I had good vibes about painting the whole upper half of the living room in #3, a Behr color match to Valspar's Fennel Splash (if fennel could …

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Decor  / Dining Room  / DIY  / Living Room  / Organized

Living Room Limbo, Popping Champagne
August 1, 2012
Living room paint updates?

It's not often that I feel compelled to change wall colors. When it comes right down to it, painting over and over again is a total bother, and I don't …

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Dining Room  / DIY  / Living Room

Because Who Doesn’t Like A Good Knob Story
June 15, 2012
mortise knobs.

File this under "things that are broken but I manage to ignore until someone smart points out a fix to me"... because if I admitted to it more often, there …

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DIY  / Entryway  / Living Room  / Sunroom

Dainty Details: Leaded Glass Assistance
May 9, 2012
Stained glass panel.

It's been awhile since I posted to the Dainty Details series, nearly 13-months now that I reflect back on it. Initially meant to highlight some of the quaint details of …

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Dainty Details  / Living Room  / Windows

A Lighter Way (For $10)
May 1, 2012
Khaki curtains.

With almost as much eagerness as when I had stripped the felt covers off the living room pillows, I updated the sunroom door curtain over the weekend. The heavy felt …

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Decor  / DIY  / Living Room  / Windows

Meet The Newbies, A Striped Bunch
April 24, 2012
Khaki striped pillow cases.

I'm not much of one to totally overhaul a room or totally swap out my decor from season-to-season, regardless how highly House Beautiful suggests I embrace Hunting Coat Red for …

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Decor  / DIY  / Living Room

Pretty In Pleather
March 19, 2012
Faux leather ottoman DIY

Last fall, I spent several days making a trio of ottomans to accent the living room. They've been a perfect foot rest when seated at the couch, the perfect extra …

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Decor  / DIY  / Living Room

Learn How to Hang a Floating Shelf With an French Cleat
February 7, 2012
DIY floating shelf.

I don't know about you, but it takes every ounce of willpower to not buy every secondhand IKEA EXPEDIT shelving unit I see. I love shelving, but I don't have …

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Decor  / DIY  / Living Room

Secret Storage (Thanks To My New Blue Shoes)
January 16, 2012
Shoebox book storage.

Little bit of style, lotta-bit of resourcefulness happening in this post. During one of my Christmas shopping excursions, I happened upon the Anthropologie sale (where it was 50% off already-clearance merch). …

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Decor  / DIY  / Living Room  / Organized

Win/Lose: Fireplace Hearth Upgrade
December 30, 2011
living room hearth makeover.

Little bit win, little bit whomp-whomp. I got busy yesterday updating the brick hearth in front of the fireplace. Originally beige, I had painted it gray back in August (a project …

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DIY  / Living Room

Potted Tree Branches
December 12, 2011
DIY mini trees

I resurrected one of the last issues of ReadyMade (RIP) and flipped to this tutorial on using potting tiny pines for holiday decor. I liked their idea, although I didn't …

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Decor  / DIY  / Holiday-Related Projects  / Living Room

It’s Tree Time
November 29, 2011
Our little rooted christmas tree.

Little factoid: I haven't bought a Christmas tree since December 2008 when my last roommate and I negotiated on a "damaged model" from the Boy Scouts. Shameful. Living alone in the …

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Holiday-Related Projects  / Living Room

My West Elm Interpretative Dance
November 14, 2011
side table with west elm inspiration

Alternate post titles: Black Walnut is Bitchin'. or Buh-bye Shoe Rack End Table. There's not actually going to be a lot of interpretative dancing, unless you bribe me with cold, hard …

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Decor  / DIY  / Living Room

Scrappy and Clothed
November 11, 2011
DIY felt pillows

Naked pillows, no more. They're dressed to impress. At least I think so. I had some leftover scraps from my gray felt ottoman project, and in that waste-not-slash-I'm-sorta-cheap mentality, I put …

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Decor  / DIY  / Living Room

Shoe Rack End Table
November 2, 2011
Living room fake sidetable.

Not-so-fun factoid: I'm using a shoe rack as an end table. Yes, it's weird, but resourceful. Not sophisticated, though, I'm aware. Give me a minute to explain myself. It's one of …

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Decor  / Living Room

A Novel Reinvention
October 28, 2011
Rainbow books on shelf!

For no real reason, I spent an hour reorganizing the books on my living room IKEA EXPEDIT bookshelf. Book chaos was transformed from this (photo taken last June): To this: Notice anything? …

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Decor  / Dining Room  / DIY  / Living Room

DIY Colorblocking Gets Orange-y
October 21, 2011
color block painting

This artwork has hung in the basement since Pete moved it in from his apartment in April. It's a decent quality canvas, although I'll use the term canvas loosely because …

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Decor  / DIY  / Living Room

Workin’ The Rainbow
October 14, 2011
My home's paint palette.

Not terribly long after I launched Merrypad, I posted about my then-current paint palette. That graphic looked something like this: But in the last year, likely because I was challenging myself with …

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Ottoman Adoration (Volume 3 of 3)
October 13, 2011
fitting a DIY ottoman.

The votes rolled in, were tallied, and... I still went with my gut. When I started looking online for fabrics to cover the ottomans, I fell in love with this pretty, watercolor-esque …

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Decor  / DIY  / Living Room  / Tools