Still Rambling about My Fireplace

You’re probably wondering if I’m ever going to shut up about my new fireplace.

Probably not.

I still love it, but I felt like maybe the black and white were too contrast-y. My furniture suddenly seemed so dark. So I switched out my couches, tables and fireplace cover. I’m still not sure whether I made the right decision, but I feel okay about it because at least I broke even.

Before:

After:

I found this lovely little number at the thrift store. I think it might have had a glass top in its former life.

I found a piece of wood luan (left over from the fireplace project) in the garage and glued it where the glass would have gone. Then I painted, stained and got new hardware and it’s good as new.

I found this end table on KSL. I didn’t take a before picture, but it was all white. I started sanding down the top and found wood underneath. Eureka! So I stained it to match the coffee table and switched out the hardware. Don’t they look like they could be siblings?

The couches are from Ikea. I really wanted the cream slipcovers, but they were dry clean only and three times more expensive. So I bought white covers and washed them with a tiny bit of tan Rit dye. They came out just how I hoped they would. I love it when that happens.

I made the fireplace cover from the cheapest wood you can find at Home Depot. I think it’s supposed to be for fences. I bought 30-feet of it for like $6, chopped it up, and attached it together with a couple of hinges.

Sometimes I wonder why in the world I would buy white couches when I have little kids, but people all over the Internet say they love their white slipcovers because they can just throw them in the washing machine any old time. I might have huge regrets in a month or two, but for now I think I love them.

Right Here in River City

We've got TROUBLE.

"You think you can do something productive for 5 seconds while I'm alone with this bag? THINK AGAIN, MOTHER."

The Removal of Red

Since we took out the only bit of color in our front room when we transformed the fireplace, I decided to keep going with the neutral theme and remove all traces of red from my kitchen, too.

Here it is last week:

And here it is now:

Last week (actually like two years ago, because I didn't take a Before picture and this is the only one I could find):

And now:

Turns out it's really cheap and easy to make art out of wood. Who knew? 

And the wall above the stairs went from this:

To this:

And here's my favorite part. This little homemade box with too-tall grass is serving not just one, but TWO purposes.

It's hiding all 45 electrical outlets that someone thought we needed on this wall, and it charges Ben's gadgets when he gets home from work and stashes them there. Multi-functional! I'm like an inventor.