Because I just can't leave things alone.

I can't figure my living room out.  For such a small house, we have a pretty big living room.  I am constantly moving furniture around to make the room feels inviting and warm.  Usually Wednesdays are Aurora and my antique shopping days.  Bella doesn't get out of school until late afternoon.  Today Aurora decided that she is just done with antiquing.  "No More, tiquing!" she said.  She can't say antique yet.  : )  So I spent the morning moving furniture all around the living room and put our rug down for the winter.  Ladies, how do you keep your rugs clean with dogs?  During summer time, forget about it.  Anyway, I got brave today and pulled out my rug.

I got rid of my big coffee table and put these gorgeous wood crates down as coffee tables.

I was using this blue chair as my dinning room chair but I like it much better next to this gorgeous dresser.  Don't you?  I think it is time for the lace curtains to retire for the season.

The antique daybed used to be right in front of the fire place but I decided to put two velvet chairs down to create another sitting area.  Aurora refused to move from her daybed and the dogs agreed with  her.  So here they are.

We will see how long this set up will last.  So far....I like it.  The best part about this living room is that every single piece of furniture is either from a flea market or side of the street.  Oh and here is a dresser I got recently.  Maybe about a month ago, I found this picture on pinterest and completely fell in love with it.

I love the color combinations and the gorgeous floral patterns.  Wouldn't it be gorgeous as a dresser?  Then I found this dresser a week ago.  The details are gorgeous.  It is the perfect shape and size.

What do you think?  I am excited to get started.  Happy Wednesday to you, my friends.  Hopefully I will get a chance to take pictures of the festivities this weekend.  Yes, the bridal shower is this weekend and as usual this procrastinator is leaving everything last minute.  Some things never change.


Love,
Victoria


Linking up with:
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A little footstool gets a makeover

Velvet.  I love it.  I can't get enough of it.  It feels luxurious and warm and decadent and just so sexy.  I use velvet a lot for my upholstery projects.  Even though I know it doesn't make a lot of sense to use such a beautiful fabric for a home with two young children and three dogs, I just can't help myself.  It feels like I haven't done any furniture make over lately and I was feeling a bit antsy.  Of course after visiting the Getty museum, I was just overfilled with inspirations.  I went through my hoarding room to find a project two night ago and came out with this broken little footstool my grandmother has given me 7 or 8 years ago.

One of the legs was broken and it was in serious need of a new fabric.  So I fixed the legs and went to work.

I painted it with Chalk Paint® Paris Grey then used gilding wax to go over the details.  I added a few left over Efex appliques to add more details to the legs.  I reupholstered the top with this gorgeous blue velvet.

I am loving how all the colors are looking together.

Can you tell how much I love velvet?  Everything just feels so warm and cozy which is perfect for our cold New England weather.  Now I can't decide where I want to keep this little footstool.  I need something for our bathroom.  Every time I give the girls a bath, I have to sit on the toilet and I thought it would be a perfect little chair for the bathroom.

A velvet chair for a bathroom?  Why not?  Don't you know that is how we fancy ladies roll? : )  The girls and I are so very excited for Halloween tomorrow night.  Bella is going as Cleopatra and Aurora is going to be Elsa from Frozen.  Bring on the candies!  Happy Halloween to all my sweet ladies!

Love,
Victoria


Linking up with:
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To Cali we go.

Where is the time going?  I feel like it is flying by yet I am not getting much of anything done.  Fall welcomed me a cold that lasted for two weeks.  I was utterly useless.  Then the girls went to Disney World with their father this past week and B and I went to California.  We were at this quaint little beach town called San Clemente and it was wonderful.  I have to say the high light of my trip was getting to go to the Getty Museum.  Oh my.  It was such an inspiring experience and exactly what I needed to get my creative juices going again.  They had a great display of French furniture and I was in my furniture heaven.

I apologize for the pictures.  They didn't come out clear since I had to use my phone.  Can we just talk about these chairs?

And this beauty.  I like how the cushions were done.  I am going to have to try it with one of my French chairs.  Oh dreamy velvet.  It just gets better with age.

After seeing this pink and gilded combinations, I decided I need one of these beauties in my living room.

The details! I can't stand it.

I literally wanted to jump on this gorgeous daybed.  It was huge and decadent and just yummy.

 

Of course I fell in love with this mirror.  

My phone decided to die midway through.  So these were all the pictures I got.  It truly was an amazing experience.  I got two more weeks until Jess's bridal shower.  Then I have so many projects line up and I can't wait to start working on them.  As much as I love the beautiful weather, it feels so good to be home with the girls.  There truly is no place like home.


Love,
Victoria

Eclectic dining room

Hello friends.  Happy October.  Normally the girls and I would be turning our house and yard into a witch coven or a cemetery but this year I have been totally and completely obsessed  with planning my best friend, Jess's bridal shower.  It is not until November but you know I can't do anything small.  She and I, like most crazy women out there, have been planning her wedding and bridal shower since...oh I don't know...before they met.  She always wanted to get married under the rose arbors at a rose garden.  Then he proposed a few months ago and she went all "OMG, I want to get married now and lets do a fall wedding with pumpkins and dried wheat!"  I love you, Jess but what!! I just can't shake that image of my best friend getting married in a flower garden with roses everywhere.  So for her shower, I am turning my house into a rose garden...and I have a month to do it. Can you just feel my craziness coming through your computer screen?  Because I feel it.  Ok, enough venting.  Now you know why I haven't done any projects lately.  I want to share with you my latest find.

You know my love for art...especially large art.  I found this gorgeous frame with a lithograph at the same antique shop where I found my oil painting.  It had to come home with me.

The frame is almost seven foot high and it fits perfectly in my dining room.  I don't think I have ever photographed this room before but here it is.  I built this farm table using tutorial from Miss Mustard Seed.  I painted the top with chalk paint® in Old White then Louis Blue for the bottom. I am not sure why I painted it white...not a good idea with the girls.

Mix matched chairs and shabby chic bunting banner bring a more causal vibe to the room.

I fell in love with the details of the frame first.  How gorgeous is it??  I mean this little fellow is pretty cute too I guess.  You can tell he felt too cool for school in this picture.

I love those shoes!

Does he reminds you of somebody we know?

Actually when Aurora saw it, she said "Wow, Thanks Mom.  You got a painting of me!"  Only my child would think it is normal to have a seven foot painting of herself.

Our house is pretty small with weird layout but we make it work.

It is hard to think about pumpkins and ghosts when all I can think about is planning a rose garden bridal shower.  I just love these pale pink roses.

I can't wait to share more bridal shower projects with you.  You know it is going to be good.


Love,
Victoria


Linking up with:
http://www.frommyfrontporchtoyours.com/
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http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/
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I like big mirrors and I cannot lie.

OK, so the title might be a bit misleading since this is actually a project where I will be making a big mirror into two smaller mirrors...because you know, bigger isn't always better.  This project has been in my head for a very very long time.  With some of the works I do, I can usually guess how the outcome is going to be.  This one...I really wasn't sure. So it stayed on my to do list until this weekend.  My parents left on Sunday and I found myself very sad.  As usual I dealt with emotions the only way I know how...I create.  The moment their car left my driveway, I immersed myself in this project.  Like most homes, I have this plain builder's grade vanity mirror.  I really really dislike it but taking it out and replacing it with two different mirrors seem like too much work...mostly the taking it out part.  I could have frame it with moldings like most people do but that's no fun for me.  So here is the before.

Plain.  Misplaced.  The fact that the mirror isn't perfectly lined up with the sinks drove me crazy but OK, I can work around it.   I sketched out the shape of the frames on the mirror.  I knew those little washable crayons would come in handy.  Then I painted the outer edges with white paint.  By this point, I know there is no turning back.

Before you start thinking that I actually work for Efex company, let me assure you that I don't.  It has become a favorite medium of mine to work with.  Just like I use clay to sculpt, these appliques allowed me to be creative.  I ordered a bunch of Efex appliques from Maison Decor.  I was hoping I could get three projects out of them but I am not really known for less is more.  First I painted the appliques.  I wish I have pictures of every process but I usually work after 11 o'clock at night and by then my brain is half fried and I am not thinking straight.  The next part is putting the appliques on the mirror.  This is always the hardest part for me.  I can spend days and weeks just trying to figure out how I want things to look like.  It is kind of pointless since I always end up changing it last minute anyway.  I use contact cement to glue the appliques onto the mirror.

Right about now was when I realized why I kept skipping this project.  Even my crazy brain knew this was one of those projects that sound really good in my head but it wasn't going to translate well in real life.  I stared at it.  I stared at it some more.  I hated it.  I wanted to cry.  I lost some sleep trying to figure out how to fix it.  As usual my solutions came around 3 in the morning.  Trumeau Mirror!  It was the perfect fix to hide the mirror edges.  Now if I were a good blogger, I would have taken the time to take pictures of the process and all that.  I am the worst.  I get an idea and I run with it like a mad woman.  So I added moldings on the top and the sides then painted it Chalk Paint® in Paris Grey.  Then gilding wax and dark wax to antique the frame....and....DONE!

What do you think?  So much better than before.  I am really happy with it.

I think it is a good balance to my shabby distressed cabinets.

I do have crazy amount of mirrors.  You can never have enough pretty mirrors.

The important thing with appliques is to think beyond what it looks like.  I cut up almost every piece of appliques to create different style combinations.  There are so many possibilities.  My antique French cabinet now resides in the bathroom.

Along with all the other little pretty things...

 Can we please take one last look at my builder's grade mirror turned gorgeous French trumeau mirror?  Love.

Now I can finally get some sleep.  I will be over at Pamela's From my front porch to yours for How I found my Style Sundays.  I hope you can stop by.  Here is a little sneak peek.

See you soon!


Love,
Victoria


Linking up with:
http://www.frommyfrontporchtoyours.com/
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http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/