Live, Laugh, Love: Feathering the Nest

So I'm not sure if it's because of the nesting urge or the fact that I've found a wonderful blog with all kinds of different decorating ideas (probably a combination of both) but I've been on a decorating kick the past few days. It all started with coming across this blog... http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/ .

It's a blog perfect for someone like me-someone who wants a warm, welcoming, beautiful home but doesn't have the skill or money to do what I thought it would take to make it that way. I was totally inspired by her "window mistreatments" and decided to try my own.

On Thursday we headed out to the fabric outlet, coupon in hand, and I found 2 fabrics that I just fell in love with. I bought 7 yards of one, 2 of the other, and 3 yards of trim for a total of $60. Later that day at a garage sale, Russ and I found a table we thought would be perfect with the fabric and new look we were going for. So that night I posted our current table on Craigslist and, thankfully, sold it by noon the next day so we headed back to the sale (which was then closed but Russ so wonderfully knocked on the door and asked if they still had it) and bought the new table. After some folding and tacking/clipping of the fabric, we had beautiful window mistreatments! No cutting or sewing involved, took me a total of about 30 minutes-can't beat that.

Here are some before and after pictures of the kitchen.

Sliding doors and table before....

And after...

And the kitchen sink window....

After the kitchen windows, I tackled the family room. These curtains were beautified with some hot glue and that's it! I just LOVE how they turned out and how much warmer they make the room feel. I have 4 panels and was short on fabric so just did two for now. I'll be making another trip to the fabric store this week to get more to finish the other two panels.

Before....

And after....

Once I got the kitchen and family room done I was so happy with the results I couldn't stop there. So I picked out new paint colors and spent Saturday painting the living room and bottom half of the playroom (technically dining room but that's not how we use it) painted.

I still had a lot to do and it's not easy perching up on a ladder with a roller while 6 months pregnant (don't worry, I had all the windows open and it was very well ventilated) so I told Russ that all I wanted for Mother's Day was for him and Katie to help me finish the painting. So today we tackeled the top half of the playroom (light yellow is a TOUGH color-it took us a few touch-up coats), the entry way wall and the upstairs hallway wall.

All the walls we painted started out a sort of minty/sagey green and we really brightened things up. I didn't take any before pics this time so these will have to do.

Here's the playroom before...(it's really hard to see the color and we were using it for the classroom when this picture was taken)

And after....(took it tonight and the color isn't as true in the pic as in real life but it'll have to do. The living room and bottom half of playroom are the same color)

And the living room after....

Everything in that room is an heirloom. The blue chairs were my grandparents and the hutch was the big piece my mom handed down to me when she sold our old house. The couch also came from my mom so is really sentimental to me now that she's gone.

My plan is to have a slipcover made for the couch in pink and white toile and get some pretty vintage floral pictures to hang on the walls. I'm also going to do some coordinating window mistreatments once the slipcover is done.

The upstairs hall and entry way wall were the same color.
Here's a pic of the old hallway (only one I have, ignore me)....