From Ugly to Pretty With a Little Paint

A few months ago I was dying for some new lamps for our den and started looking... Not only did I not really find what I was looking for I came to realize....lamps are expensive!  Wow!  I guess I hadn't shopped for lamps in awhile!  That's when I started "shopping my house."

We already had some ugly well-made lamps in the den that hubby had before we married - they were, shall we say, not my faves, if ya know what I mean...

We thought hey, let's paint these or get rid of them, so we chose to paint.  First we primed them and let that dry, then we painted them a very nice, creamy beige.  We also removed that fake "key" sticking out of the side there.  It was a one-hundred-percent improvement!  I ordered black shades from Lamps Plus, which were beautiful, but we realized once we put them on the lamp that they were really too small for the height..  sooo - Hubby took to shortening the lamps...

And in the end they look pretty good.  Although, I'm not super happy with the color.  I always tend to go with a "safe" color as I did here with the beige.  I try to imagine them being red, or yellow, or even gold - but then I'd kind of be right back where I started!  For now they'll do just fine - until I get the itch to paint them again.

How about you, have you ever done a quick little paint job on something that totally changed how you felt about it?   I'd love to hear about it if you have :o)


Love, Kelli

Dining Room Wish List

Here’s my little dining room pretty much cleaned up as good as it gets.  And there are my pretty red chairs!!

This is the next room I want to paint. Then we can see about a new light fixture, table cloth, and rug.  I have no idea what kind of rug I want, but I know I want to paint the room gray and have a beautiful brass and crystal chandelier.

A new, to-the-floor table cloth in black with some fabric overlay will hide the old table nicely. 

OR…  I could do the Rub N’ Buff on the table and forget the table cloth – now there’s an idea~  It would go nicely with that big ol' gold mirror that's leaning over in the corner.  I got that from my office when they redecorated the lobby - for $10!!  If that's not a steal I don't know what is!  We're going to hang it over the piano.  Just got to catch Mr. Renovator when he's not busy...  :o)

So, what do you think?  I would love to hear your opinions!  And what about a rug?  I have never bought a big rug before! 

Love, Kelli

Babies do grow up

They do grow up fast!  I always thought, as most mothers do, that my babies were the cutest.  But really, he was one of the cutest babies ever…  People would stop me wherever we went and say “Oh my goodness!  What an adorable baby girl!”  haha! Yes, he was so pretty with his blond curls, and it did not matter what I dressed him in, people still thought he was a girl.  And today he is all boy.  Happy Birthday to my baby.  I’ll be 58 when he graduates from high school  O.o

Love, Kelli

Found it!

I found it!  A beautiful mid-century looking dresser for my TV to sit on – found it on craigslist!  Love that website!  It is a little bit big for the space we have it in now, but otherwise it’s perfect.  The drawers hold all of our movies with room to spare~

Now I have a dilemma..  I had originally thought I would find something and paint it.  I had imagined it being white or black or maybe even red, with some gold on it somewhere on either the handles or trim…  but…  I don’t think I can.  Not yet anyway.  It’s just so pretty as is! So I’m going to live with it for a while and see how it goes.  

 I may even end up moving the entire room around so I can put it on the one long wall in the space.  Oh joy!  [can you spy me in the reflection of the TV?  It's hard to take a picture of a TV...  especially when you are using a $50 camera...lol]

Love, Kelli