living room in with the new and out with the old (table, that is)

We're in the process of rearranging our living room (more on that later!) and needed a new end table for one side of the Klobo (our Ikea loveseat, incase you have no idea what we're talking about...see this post for our re-do of the Klobo slipcover.)

We decided to visit one of our favorite local vintage housewares stores to see what they had to offer. 

We found this little side table with really nice detail.

Here's a close up of the detailing.  

We purchased it for the mere price of $22.  The table itself was painted a really light pink color which didn't quite fit too well in our living room.  So we knew we'd have to paint it.  I was leaning towards a super bright color, but didn't want to overpower the orange wall which it would be in front of.  So I looked around at what leftover paint we had and found a sample color we got for the kitchen.  (Which didn't quite look as we thought it would in that room.  It's actually still on a patch of the wall...we're still figuring out what color we want.  Another work in progress.)  Anyway, the color is called Carolina Inn Club Aqua and is a blue/green color.  

Here's a process shot.  I'm still deciding in this picture if I like the color or not for the table.  

In the end, we ended up really pleased with the overall table and color.   It adds just enough color to not be overwhelming and fits in to the colors of the room well.  Actually the color is pretty close to our lining set of curtains.  

Here's looking down.

I don't think I've talked about our new lamps we got a few months ago, but here's a close up.  They're by Thomas O'Brein for Target.  I love the crackled glass circle shape of the lamps.  I've been looking for lamps similar to these for a while, but never found anything really affordable.  I actually saw a very, very similar style of lamp, only blue glass, in a recent issue of County Living magazine for over $300!  Needless to say, these were much, much less than that!

One of the major things we wanted in end tables were a shelf or drawer to put things on/in.  Often drawers can seem a bit heavy, so this shelf is really nice and open.  The side detail is really interesting here, too.  Just big enough to hold things in place, but not too boxy.  

This is the hot mess that used to be our living room.  Actually it usually wasn't such a mess.  We were in the process of moving things around when I took this quick shot.  The table to the right of the Klobo is the one we replaced.  I love the table (Kinsey actually made this table in high school!), but it's destination in life isn't to be used as a side table.  It's much too big and as you can see, it was often used as a dumping ground for mail and other non important things when we came in the door.  This picture looks so crazy now that we rearranged everything.  (More on that soon!)

living room redo take one

I've never really gave much thought to curtains.  I mean, I've thought about the color they should be, but that's about it.  I've always just sewed curtains for rooms out of really simple fabrics.  I remember sewing bright red curtains for my bedroom when I was 10 or 11.  I sewed these by hand, it took all night, and it was one of the first things I ever sewed.  

When Kinsey and I moved into our house (almost a year ago), we needed curtains fast because there were no blinds or such downstairs.  I headed to the fabric store and picked up some standard brown cotton and sewed them up fast.  I for some reason decided to add small red loops to the top instead of just sewing a straight line to slide the curtain rod through.  Anyhow, they served their purpose, but weren't anything fancy.  Here's an overall picture of the set-up.  

We've been wanting to get new curtains...maybe something to brighten things up a little.  Not that it's dark in our living room at all, two of our walls are orange.  So we were at the Target today and ended up in the curtain aisle.  First of all, we were a little surprise about the price.  $25+ for one panel, which means $50 for just one complete window.  Of course, compared to other places, this may seem like a bargain.  We couldn't really feel completely okay with spending $100+ just for curtains in our living room, so we were going to pass until we found a few packages with that pretty little red clearance tag.  The curtains we chose were sort of a satin finish and a light aqua color.  At first we weren't completely sure, but after comparing the hue with similar shades from on our walls, we realized it had the potential to look really, really good.  So we got four packs.


And we put them up.  No sewing.  Just slid them right through the rod like probably 95% of America does.  

Here I am sewing up a project that we'll show off tomorrow.



Now I will say, these do need ironed.  Badly.  But I couldn't wait to get them up and we only have a terribly small ironing board.  It's a tabletop one that's literally 18 inches long.  I wasn't quite feeling up to attempting that today.  So squint and pretend not to see the folded lines, and that's how the curtains look (or will look soon).

Total price for all window panels = $36