Coffee Table Makeover

Last Fall, I bought an Antique (50's era) coffee table and two end tables from Craigslist. I loved the way they looked and that they were in really good condition after all these years. The end tables are being used in different rooms in the house, and the coffee table has been off-and-on in my den. This is the table in its original state.

I never was happy with the color and I knew I wanted to do something with it, I just wasn't sure what. So I saw this post on YoungHouseLove. Now, the furniture piece, use, etc... were completely different from mine, but I liked their idea of a white top surface and a dark base. So I got to work sanding down all of the shiny surfaces and went through my collection of left over paint to see what I had!

For the top, I used left over oil based trim paint that we had used to paint ALL of the trim/crown molding in our house. How we had any left over, I'm not sure. For the legs, I used the coffee bean colored paint that we used on cabinets, the beams in our great room, a shelf, and who knows what else.

Here is my coffee table now! My new, bigger rug is also darker than the previous one, so the white really helps the pattern pop and brightens up the room at the same time! And you may recognize these vases from a previous post. This is their final resting spot!
I am also really excited about the rose bush that is blooming on the side of my house! Since the azaleas that I used for these little white vases have died, the roses make a great replacement!

So far I am really happy with my decision to paint the table. It was a $20 Craigslist find that I have made my own! And if it turned out scary, I was only out 20 bucks, right? So don't be scared to paint furniture pieces that are tired or no longer work in your space! It can really bring new life to a piece that you thought had run its course!

Stay tuned for a new Southern Living Project of the Month coming soon!

Vases and Blooms on a Budget

I apologize for the lack of posting last week...I have been really busy with work and also working on a few DIY projects that you will soon see on the blog!
Today's is about bringing a little of the outside in and spending as little as possible without sacrificing style! I have been eyeing some "Found" vintage wine jugs on PotteryBarn.com for a few weeks. I love them, not the price tag. With prices ranging from $99-$279, these were NEVER going to be in the budget. So I started my wheels turning to figure out how to get the look without the price. If you've read my blog before, you know that I love a good thrift shop find. So this is where I started. But first, my inspiration:

These are the Pottery Barn wine jugs that will cost you a pretty penny. But I love the color and the simple, natural look of them.

I also love the shape and size of these vases, also from Pottery Barn.

These are some more "Found" bottles from Pottery Barn.com for $36 each. A little steep if you ask me. So I set out for the thrift store. After spending a grand total of $4, I was pretty proud of myself. I also made a 50 cent find at a neighborhood garage sale. I rounded out my shopping trip with a stop in TJ Maxx and shelled out $16 for a large vase (more than I usually spend, but after comparing to $279, I couldn't pass it up!)

Here is my complete new vase/bottle collection! Total price was 20 bucks! The flowers were free. They were from a bush outside of my house (ok on a bush that could possibly be my neighbors', but they won't know the difference).

A closer look at my thrift store finds! I love the blue tint and how each bottle and vase is different and unique.

I really think they add a lot to my little dining room corner and the white flowers look great with all of my white accents in the room!

While thrift shopping, I also found some great white vases for another grouping. My inspiration was from the blog YoungHouseLove. If you have never read this blog, you should! This couple are who I strive to one day be. They have redone their entire, old house on an amazing budget and it looks like it came straight from a magazine!

These are some vases they have in their house, from IKEA, and I love the look of them grouped together!

So with 3 more 99c thrift store finds, I made my own grouping! And I again used azaleas from my yard (these actually are from my yard!). My mantle is just a temporary home for these. They will hopefully end up on my newly refurbished coffee table that I will be posting about soon!

What have you found at a thrift store that you are proud of? I love to see how people make one person's trash their own treasure!!

Make Sure Your Pretty Spring Plants Are Also Pretty Winter Plants!

Today is a perfect Spring day and I just couldn't help but take some pictures of the pretty flowers that are starting to appear in our yard! This gave me a great idea to post a little about landscaping and plants. We always talk about the inside of your house, but the outside is important too! No one wants to venture inside a house that looks scary from the street!

So, I thought I would use our home as an example of this. When we were looking for a house, we stalked the internet until we had a list of homes that we wanted to see. After looking at our house online, the ONLY reason we decided to see it in person was because of how beautiful the yard was! I have shown you the inside pictures of our house before we moved in, so you know the yard must have been pretty spectacular. This is the front of our house. Now these pictures don't show the entire front because the flower bed on the left side of the house is a work in progress.

I thought the shadow of the tree looked really cool. It doesn't have all of its leaves yet so it makes a great shadow! Our grass is still in the process of turning green...

This is another view (yes that is a dog wandering around my flower bed). This brings me to the purpose of my post. When you are looking for plants for your yard, make sure to do several things:
1. Pick out several heights in order to layer your plants, highest in the back, shortest in the front. This creates a lot of interest and depth in your flower beds.

2. You are more than likely shopping in the peak blooming season, but make sure your background (largest) plants stay green year-long. A good example of this is the azaleas in the front of our house. They make beautiful blooms in Spring/Summer but keep green leaves in the winter so the front of the house doesn't look barren and boring. A plant like hydrangeas will give great color in the Summer, but come winter it is a little scary looking and should be an accent plant, not the backdrop for all of your other plants.

3. READ THE LABELS on all of the plants that you purchase (I have learned this from experience). If you have a shady flower bed to fill, don't fill it with plants that need full sun!!

These are some of my lovely azaleas and my dog, Riley. I didn't want the neighbors to think I was crazy just taking pictures of bushes, so he makes a great subject. That is his frisbee that has seen better days, and that he takes everywhere!

This is just a shameless way to get more pics of my sweet puppy on the blog!
This is a flower bed on the back of my house and a great example of using plants that stay green year long/can live in shade! I can't take credit for much of anything in my current yard, as that was all the work of the previous owners. They did a great job!!

My backyard is fully shaded, as I'm sure many of you can attest to, so learn to embrace your "wild" side and appreciate your ground cover. I love these little purple flowers that grow in my grass-less back yard.

This is me being a stalker and taking a pic of my neighbors' backyard. They don't ever use it, but it has such great wild flowers it almost looks like snow! This was the best pic I could get without climbing the fence/being arrested :) I love the way it looks...it almost makes me feel like I don't live in the city! Almost...

I am by no means a plant expert, in fact, I've learned alot by trial and error, but these are just a few things that I have learned and would like to pass on. Good luck with your planting this season!

Great Cordova House For Sale!

I wanted to share a house with all of you that just went on the market in Cordova. I helped them with alot of the staging and it is a great house! It has been really well maintained and they have added a lot of character with some great flooring updates and an extra bonus room upstairs! Here are a couple of pics from its listing on FSBO.com.

This is the front of the house. Very cute!

This is the very large master bedroom

This is the dining room. It is a great size!

This would make a great starter home for someone just married or just starting a family!

Check out the listing and all of the details HERE.

My Herbs are Here!

In January, I started my Southern Living "Project of the month" with a cool weather herb box. Truthfully, I had pretty much zero confidence that I was actually going to be able to grow my own herbs from seeds, but I thought it would be fun to give it a try anyway. If you remember, this is how my box looked after planting my seeds.

A couple of weeks ago, I went outside to check on it like I do every day (ok more like when I remember), and this is what I saw! There were little herb sprouts everywhere! I couldn't believe the seeds actually decided to turn into real plants!

So, I decided to wait until my little buds grew up a little before I posted about it, since the previous picture isn't THAT impressive. This is what my herbs look like now!!

I have 4 different herbs planted: Cilantro, Basil, Chives, and Parsley. The Basil is taking its time and being a little slower than the rest, but it is starting to peek through the soil!


This is a close-up of the Parsley. It is even starting to LOOK like Parsley! Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will have enough to use in one of my dishes! I hope this is encouraging to those of you who have a not-so-green thumb like myself. I can't wait to plant more things that we can use around the house!