Hot Pink Anyone?

I'm hoping to get my Christmas decorations up right after Thanksgiving. "Hoping" being the key word. It all depends on my knee. The thought of carrying a crapload of boxes up from the basement doesn't sound appealing to me. But we'll see how it goes. Anyway, my point is that as I was thinking about changing out all the decor for the holidays, it occurred to me that I haven't shared the new living room makeover with all my peeps.

Remember back in April when I had the living and dining rooms painted? Well, I'm still not quite done with the whole re-do. Ah c'mon.... you know me. The procrastinator that took over a year to complete her bedroom makeover. That's me. LOL! But don't worry. I'm almost done. I just have to finish sewing the beading onto the curtains and then have someone help me hang another set of rods. Then it'll be complete. So I won't reveal the entire room until then. But I'll show you a few of the finished corners, okay?

First of all, there's the fireplace. I originally had the chimney painted the same color as the two accent walls. But the more I lived with it the more it just didn't feel right to me. It felt off balance. The color was too heavy for the top of it. So I decided to paint it back to white but change the mantle to the hot pink color.Then I had an epiphany! I love damask. Love love love it. My new curtains have a damask print. As do a few accent pillows on the couch. Wouldn't it be cool to stencil a damask print onto the chimney, I thought? Hmmmm... why the hell not. It's my house, right? So I did.Here's an "in progress" pic. And down below a close up. Isn't it beautiful? So dainty, so detailed.But it was a pain in the ass to paint. Let me tell ya. But whoever designed the stencil was a genius. Because it's only one large sheet. I just had to line up the design and overlap it. Kind of like doing a puzzle.
Here's a before shot. Before the paint job, new accessories and the room makeover.........Here's the new look. Wow... what a difference paint makes on that brick. I had no idea it looked so dirty before. I love cheap and easy decorating so I'll share a few of my tricks with ya. See the apothecary jars on the mantle? I paid half as much buying them from a discount store. Yet they look exactly like the Pot-tery Barn ones. Some of the filler items were so expensive. So I came up with this on my own. Those balls look like moss or some other fancy looking thing, right? Again something out of PB. Go ahead and click on the pic to check it out up close. But it's just a $1 bottle of green craft paint and a $3 bag of styrofoam balls. Uh huh... pretty clever, eh? The other jar is just shiny green glass marbles. Another before pic.Ta da..... after. The accent walls are a brighter hot pink now. Here's another cost saving idea. Instead of buying all new picture frames, I spray painted almost all of them black for a new look.I love my wall words. My house is my sanctuary. There's no place on earth I'd rather be than safe and warm, cozy and comfortable in my own home. The home that reflects me. Who I am. My bold, bright, colorful, eclectic, hot pink personality. There truly is no place like home. So I put that sentiment on the wall.But of course I had to credit the person who originally clicked her heels together three times and said it first. :)Another favorite thing is my new glass candle holders with my pink and green polka dotted candles. Love these!! Another great budget buy. I've seen the EXACT same candle holders in the PB catalog listed at about 5 times what I paid for these at Hobby-Lobby during a half off sale. Seriously addicted to that store. Art can also be very expensive. I knew I wanted a trio of frames here matted in white. I wanted to hang them high because I wanted my wall words at eye level. Three frames at Wallymart on sale for $15 a piece. Woo Hoo! Since I couldn't find a matching set of three prints that I liked, I just found some pretty scrapbook paper to put in the frames. I created my own art for less than $50 bucks.While I'm on a roll here I'll show you some of the dining room. This is the new china cabinet I splurged on. But hey... when I'm saving money elsewhere I can afford to splurge on some things. (Plus the store had 3 yrs same as cash and China has a 4+ yr wait so I couldn't resist. LOL!) That's a finished pair of curtains. Notice how the top panel matches the chair cushions. My mom made the curtains and I re-covered the chairs. Also added the new light fixture.The back window only has one half of a curtain. I need to bead the other panel and then do the living room curtains, too. But it took me 2 and 1/2 hours just to finish this one the other night!This is why. The beading has to be sewn on by hand. And I'm not very good at it. The living room curtains were originally gonna match the ones in the dining room. But I re-designed them. I decided to use the damask fabric as the two side panels with the stripe as a valance that hangs on a separate rod over top of them. But the valance will stretch across my entire front window. All 128 inches of it. That's 128 inches of beading that needs to be hand sewn, peeps. Now you understand why it's not finished?Oh and remember way back when I beaded my new lamps to match these curtains? Well, clearly it was before April because in this pic the wall behind it hasn't been re-painted yet. Again more proof of my terrible procrastination habit. LOL!So whatcha think of it all? I'm certainly gonna have to do a lot of painting if I ever decide to sell this house. Cuz I realize my taste is pretty bold and not everyone will share my love of these colors. But it's my house. And I absolutely love it! It makes my heart smile every time I walk thru the door. Sometimes I just sit on the couch and look around at how beautiful it's turning out. It feels like home to me....