Learning About Paint

Another area of unchartered territory for me is in paint.  Perusing through blogs and magazines, I often admire the use of color that so many talented designers have utilized to bring into their works of art.  Being an apartment tenant, I do not have the liberty to paint my walls, so I am given the challenge of bringing color into my home using other means. 

I went into Home Depot the other day and picked the brain of the helpful store associate in charged of the paint section.  I learned so many things!  I picked up the two sample colors that you see below and another that I had them mix from a color swatch that I brought with me. 

Anonymous

Dark Granite

New postings to follow as I figure out how to incorporate these new colors into my home.... 

Delighting in His Thoughts Towards Us

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!  How great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand...Psalm 139:17-18

If you have ever taken the time to sit and ponder this scripture, you would marvel at the thought that such a high and lofty God cares about us and we are constantly on His mind.  And if His thoughts are on us more in number than the sand, then it means that He is concerned even when it comes to the little things in life.  This is how I feel about my living room redo.  I feel as though the Lord is right here, discussing and interchanging ideas with me.

This week, this thought was affirmed when I found this chair on my way home from a preschool meeting.  My initial thought was that it was going to be a reupholstery project.  When I go it home however, it was in such great condition.  From underneath, the chair looked very clean and the fabric was intact.  When I put it next to my window, it was the ideal size for that corner and the perfect color to go with the color scheme that I have chosen for the living room.  As I got a closer look, I was delighted at the detail of the tufted buttons.  I am happy to accept this chair as His special gift to me.

Have you considered the thoughts that the Lord thinks towards you?  He cares for every little detail in your life.  Even the ones you would consider to be trivial.  When we come to the point where we begin to see how much He loves us, it becomes that much easier to surrender to His will for our lives.  It also becomes much easier to trust in Him.  How much more must His thoughts be upon us when we are struggling through weighty matters.

Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you...1 Peter 5:7

The Shoemaker and the Elves

Do you remember the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker by the Grimm Brothers?  The Shoemaker would leave some leather out overnight and would wake up the next morning to a very well made pair of shoes that little elves had made through the night.  I feel like the those little elves sometimes as I am taking advantage of the late night hours to finish my projects without interruptions.  In the morning I am too tired to get up with my husband but there is something new to admire in the living room.  Last night it was throw pillows.

Throw pillows in my home go through so much.  If you look close enough, you could see stains on these dark pillows from my children drooling on them during their naps.  My solution for this: slipcovers!

I started by measuring out enough fabric to have a 1/4 inch seam allowance on each side but leaving enough fabric on the top end to overlap about 10 inches over.   

Then I brought the first side of my fabric to the middle of the pillow and pinned the ends.  That is the point at which I would close the sides. 

I sewed the left side and the right side up to each pin.  Then I folded it again, allowing some fabric to overlap again and closed the right side and the left side. 

When I was done sewing, there was an opening in the middle which is where I would slip the pillow into.

Then I slipped the pillow inside the cover.  Here it is hugging the

pillow nicely.

And when they get dirty, which I already noticed some pencil marks after putting them out last night, I just take the covers off and throw them in the wash.

A Little Extra Fabric



At the end of a bolt of fabric the sales associate will always ask you if you would like to buy the rest of it at a discounted price.  It's usually less than a yard.  With this particular fabric, the woman told me that I had enough to make a pillow to coordinate with the curtains that I was planning to make.  At the time, I couldn't think past the curtains, but I ended up buying it anyways. 

Now that I had completed my curtains, I was itching to do something else.  Lately, I have been sitting in the middle of my living room thinking about what project I am going to do next.  That's when that little ottoman caught my attention.  I have always wanted to reupholster something, so I starting taking it apart.  What I discovered was that there is not much to it.  I removed all the hardware, pulled out the legs and matched up my decor fabric to the fabric that was on there. 

I pulled the fabric tightly over the top part of the ottoman and stapled the center first and then worked to the corners.  It was much like wrapping a gift.  This ottoman had buttons on the top, which I recovered and then put them back into place with a curved needle.  Once the buttons were in place, I pulled them underneath tightly and secured them with the staple gun.  This is what creates the tufted look.  Next, I stapled down all the black lining and replaced the legs and hardware. 

Not as Hard as I Thought

I have very little experience with the sewing machine.  I once took a class where I learned how to make a standard pillowcase.  I enjoyed the pleasure of creating something, but never thought I would go any further.  Until I started looking for curtains for my living room.  There was nothing that appealed to my taste as I searched the stores.  So I opted for Jo-Ann's and was pleasantly surprised to find some fabric that caught my eye. 



I knew I wanted my panels to be about 84 inches long, so I bought three yards for each panel.  I  hemmed the sides of the curtain by folding ever each raw edge a 1/4 of an inch, then about a half inch.  Then I folded the top edge with enough fabric to put the curtain rod through, ironed it flat and sewed it in place.  The bottom I folded leaving a little extra fabric to create some weight, ironed and sewed in place. 

Very simple and perfect for a beginner.  We'll see how ambitious I will get in the future.

Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself

One of the most common rationalizations for not getting things accomplished in my living room is just plain fear.  A girlfriend and I were just talking about how we allow ourselves to become paralyzed in our tasks because of fear.  She made a reference to a man name John Fischer who writes a daily devotional and had just posted about fear.  You can read his blog here:  http://catchjohnfischer.wordpress.com/  But John says, "Fear rules where inactivity festers. Fear dissipates where activity flourishes."  He illustrates his point using Peter coming out of the boat to walk to Jesus on the water. 

So I am going to take his advice, I am going to take the sewing machine out, research a couple of tutorials online, and I'm going to make some curtains.  Above is the fabric that I am going to make them out of.

Here goes nothing...

Delighting in My Living Room

The thought of decorating any of the rooms in my house seems so overwhelming.  Even the very thought of hammering a nail into the wall immobilized me.  I have been married nearly seven years now, have two children, and have never completed my bedroom, a nursery...anything!  I figured that one day when I got some friends over to help me, it will happen.  Or one day when we have a little extra money, I could start decorating.  Or one day when we move into a house.  Or even just move into a place where they would let me paint the walls for crying out loud!

This January, I have decided that I am going to do it.  I am setting small deadlines to keep me on track and to give me a starting point since I am a hopeless procrastinator.  I desperately need a deadline so that I can wait to the last moment.  I am no longer going to let these moments of enjoying my home slip me by. 

So here we go....

Although you cannot tell from looking at it, the living room has a couple of updates that have already been implemented.  But yes, it still has a long way to go.  We replaced a very small bookcase that was about 3 feet tall with the one you see there.  We also had a tan, microfiber sectional, which has since been replaced with the white.  I always said that one day when my kids grow up, I will have a white sofa, but we are going with the theme and living in the moment.  Who knows what sofa color will be popular when they become of white sofa dwelling age. 

Changes I would like to see:

• Curtains
• Throw pillows (currently they are red)
• Some kind of organization in the bookcase and with my kids books to the left of the armoire
• Rug
• Coffee table
• Additional seating...chairs, ottoman, etc. 
• Artwork on the walls
• Family photos
• Paint the armoire

Delight in the joy of redecorating my living room with me, and join me if this is something that has been on your heart to do.