Heading in a new direction

My design ideas of my home that is.   Have you ever noticed every new piece of furniture you bring leads to moving a lamp, then a rug, then a picture and before you know it you've rearranged your entire house because of a little table?!  Well, that has never happened to me.  Okay yes it has, a lot.  Today was one of those days.  I set out for pillow inserts and found they were too expensive for my taste.  I'd rather buy some ugly old flower ones at good will and make covers for much much less.  So then I went to an after market store looking for some throw pillows.  I found a great set but I need two.  Which led me isle by isle where I ended up with some great old looking book boxes.  You know those old looking books that are actually a keepsake box when you open it?  I love those. 

I snagged five of them to go between the gorgeous new pillar candle holder book ends (whew, say that three times fast!) that my wonderful mommy bought me the other day for my desperate and naked mantel. Then of course I needed some candles that played nicely off the smidgen of color in the books.  When I was finished teetering between two sets of candles and settled on the perfect pair I came across a mirror for a steel!  Let me just say I'm amazed each time I can pick up an entire dining room set for less than I can find a used mirror.  They don't come cheap so I snatched this one up immediately. 

Of course I had to find a little green to throw into the mix.  So I grabbed that cute little grassy thing.

Then I stole these pictures I had hanging on some other walls and leaned them against the right side of the giant mantel.  I also added the little black lantern.  You might remember it in red from this post.  I've since finished it black, threw in a green candle and some little berries and grapes to fill the bottom.

And Voila... My living room has gone from this...

To this...

I have a few more little touches up my sleeve that I plan to add soon and I'll keep you posted.

Now onto the next...The dining room.  When we first moved in I didn't want a formal dining room.  That meant I had to buy a new dining room set for oodles of money that we would only use once a year and yet I had to dust weekly.  Needless to say I wasn't real motivated to use it for it's intended purpose.  Instead I wanted it to become my craft room.  The windows in this room face the front of the house and the cul-de-sac.  So I thought it would be wonderful to sit in there in the summers, sewing, with some iced tea and watching the kids play out front.  I wanted it to be a functioning work space that tied into the rest of the house. 

Here is how it started... The wall was red when we moved in so I painted it back to white.  I liked how it contrasted with the taupe.  I bought a cute little white desk with one drawer and a cubbie from Target that I would put in the niche there and use for sewing.

I planned to have all these nicely kept spools of thread on a shelf right above the desk.

And I painted this ribbon holder to sit on a little table next to the window.

Then I ended up putting this in the niche to hold all my fabric and other creative goodies.  I loved her but hubby never was overly thrilled about the bold color choice.

There are the two windows you see on either side of the niche and two more side by side to the right of this room that look to the covered porch out front.  I planned to have two french provincial style chairs by each of those windows with my desk now on the wall to the left.

This was the desk I traded for the Target desk =)

That brings us to yesterday...When I found the dining room set of my dreams.  See recently I refinished a dining room set.  A table with four chairs and a buffet.  It sat in my dining room until it sold.  And from that point forward I knew I didn't want the dining room to serve as my craft room.  It needed to be a dining room.  It needed a table and chairs, a china hutch, a beautiful chandelier, some antique french accent chairs and a beautiful painting on the wall. 

Well when Mr Garden found out I was going to sell the "sexy beast" aka "big blue" he was more than happy to indulge me in my new dining room set.  So without further delay...

I have a lot of work ahead of me but I'm so pleased just to have it here.  The table will be cream on the bottom, distressed with a solid black top.  The chairs will be cream as well and have a black, cream and grey damask fabric.  Not sure about the hutch but leaning toward black right now since it's on a white wall. 

You might remember this little tea cart.  I picked it up from a garage sale for $5.  Even though the room will be black and white I want this little girl to have a splash of color, so suggestions are welcome!  I will also have a picture with a black frame above this.  This is where the little white desk used to sit.

This pretty girl you should all remember.  I still need to finish her as well but she will sit to the right of the hutch in the corner between two windows.

I'm not thrilled with my craft stuff in there like I thought I would be.  I'm rethinking it AGAIN.  Like I said, this is how my day started and a million and one things have changed in this house since this morning.  There are empty walls where pictures used to hang, dusty surfaces where I stole nic naks from and new spaces filled with new life.

It's an exciting start to a whole new design idea from where I started.  I can't wait to take you into phase two.