Living Room Sofa Slipcovers! Yay! ;-)

We bought this sofa nearly 10 years ago when Nathanael, our oldest, was a baby! It has held up really well and is still so comfy! But the upholstery is a little dingy and worse for wear now. When we bought it we lived in Australia and I couldn't find a sofa with washable slipcovers. So, I found one in the basic style I liked and thought that when the upholstery wore out I would make or have slipcovers made for it.

 This finally happened, and the slipcovers were finished today by a very talented local lady. Yay! So happy with them! Looks like a brand new Pottery Barn style sofa. :-)

 I think the lighter cream color brightens the room up a lot and since it's an off white, should not get dirty or dingy looking as fast as pure white would.

 Another angle with more of the room. ( I leave the greenery and lights up all Winter to cheer up the darkness of the shorter days.)

                                            Jessica

A Christmas Tea Party

I like to have a Christmas themed tea party every December with a few close friends. :-)

 

Tyndale, admiring the table before the guests arrive.

 

 

 

Teddy chose to dress like a little gentleman for the party. ;-)

 Tyndale was worn out after all the festivities and took a little snooze in a chair by the fireplace while Christmas tunes played.

Christmas Tour~ The Living Room

This is our "formal" living room. This is where we always put our Fraser Fir tree that we get from a tree farm in the nearby North Carolina mountains. :-) It's a fun family tradition.

 

 

 I made the sofa pillows last year from napkins, table runners and placemats. :-)

  I love this joyful pillow I found at Home Goods. ;-)

 Ben and the boys gave me this vintage look decoration last year. So cute!

Christmas Tour~ The Family Room

This is our "white Christmas" themed room. With plenty of pink, as well, of course. ;-) I made all the pillows except the white ruffled one on the left of the sofa and the "peace on earth" pillow on the right, both of which I found at HomeGoods- my favorite store. ;-) Both of the comfy throws are from HomeGoods, too.

 I love these pastel, sparkly Christmas house and church! :-) And the pretty bottlebrush tree....

 This electric fireplace isn't just pretty, it adds some much needed warmth to our family room. The heating/air ducts are smaller in here making it chillier than the rest of our house.

I am hoping to do tours of some more Christmassy rooms in our house soon. :-)

Yes, I am still among the living ;-)

It's been a whole year since I last posted! Guess I don't have as much time for blogging as I used to- it may have to do with 3 little boys and homeschooling-ha.
Anyway, thought I'd just drop in and share my new Fall/Winter quilt. :-)
I found it at a deep discount on the JcPenny's website.

Autumn is Here!

                                 A warm Fall welcome to you. :-)
                                               Jessica

~Bathroom Mirror Swap~

This wicker framed mirror was in one of our guest bathrooms when we bought the house. I've never really liked it, but since it wasn't hideous, it stayed in place for two years.

 Finally I got around to looking for a prettier mirror for this bathroom, that I think better compliments the beautiful style of the vanity.

 I found this oval, silvery framed mirror at Homegoods. One of my favorite stores. ;-)

           Ahhh, much better, don't you think? :-)

Chair happy :-)

My last post was about our new chair slipcover, and this one is about a cute and comfy chair I found on Craigslist last week. So, I guess I'm a little chair happy of late. ha Every time I walk past our living room and see this adorable chair, I do feel happy. ;-)

 

 I've been looking for a pretty armchair to go in this spot for over a year now. The chair I had here before actually belongs in my study/ library room and since it doesn't have arms wasn't really comfortable to use often.

The chair had been reupholstered by the previous owner in a pink toile and green gingham. Very cottagey/romantic. :-) And perfect for curling up with a good book. Which I have done several times now....
                            
                                     Jessica

Chair Slipcover!

The chair slipcover I ordered several months ago from an Etsy shop finally arrived a couple weeks ago. I am so excited about how perfectly it fits and finishes off the family room! :-) The seamstress did a great job, so it was worth the wait.

 

 So far I have not had to wash it. And it gets used all the time by our 3 little boys. However, the ottoman slipcover that I made gets dirty more so it has been washed several times. ha

                                                 Jessica

Wallpapering the Dining Room Hutch

 

Before

 

 Years ago, when we still lived in Australia, I found this hutch/dresser at a garage sale for $20 or so. We placed it in a corner in our dining room, and one side was facing the wall. I was in a hurry to get it painted, since I hated the bright blue distressed finish it had at the time. So, I just painted the parts that showed. ha When we moved to Missouri, it happened that it could again be placed with the blue side to a wall, so all was well. However, in our current home, the blue side has been showing since we moved in nearly 2 years ago! ha I just now got around to doing something about it.

After

 

 Instead of painting the side white, I decided to order some pretty peel and stick wallpaper from eBay to cover the chipping "wood". The wallpaper was in Korea, and after a couple weeks, an opened empty tube arrived in the mail. :-( Thankfully, the seller sent more wallpaper to replace it quickly.

 

 This little cowboy seems very pleased with the effect. ;-) Can you believe how big he is getting!?

 I papered the other side to match, of course. And I also did the edges, since the edge on the right side was blue...

Now every time I see this hutch, it makes me smile instead of cringing. :-)

My first slipcover project!

 

Well, once again it has been a while since I last posted- exactly 2 months, in fact. Oh, well...such is life right now. ha

The upholstery on this comfy chair and ottoman has been getting more and more stained and worn. We have had them for 8 years, and when we got them I thought that when the fabric got worn and dirty, they would be a great set to slipcover. So, I decided to slipcover them in a "soft white" colored twill. Easy to wash. ;-) Although I have ordered a custom slipcover to be made (from a seller on Etsy) I decided to try and make the cover for the ottoman myself.

 

 I am very pleased with the result! :-) Overall, it was a fairly simple project, aside from some issues with gathering and sewing layers of a thick fabric like twill.
I used some pale pink gingham for the piping to tie it in with the pink cover on our nearby sofa.

 Tyndale looks like he approves, don't you think? ha He always wants to get in the photo. ;-)

Another change that has happened in our family room is that it has finally been painted my favorite wall color- Diverse Beige by Sherwin Williams. Ben painted the walls as a special Valentine's gift for me. ;-) You can see the paint color it was before in the first photo of the chair and ottoman.

I can't wait for my new chair slipcover to be done, but I think it likely will not be until sometime in May. Which will probably be the next time I post, judging from previous sporadic postings. ;-)

Christmas Tour 2014, Part 2

The boys and I had fun decorating the lower level of our house for Christmas in a more colorful way than upstairs. It is the boys' play area and the level their room is on. It looks a lot more rustic in style than the upstairs does. It came that way. ha

 The boys decorate this tree every year with their own special ornaments. :-)

 The kitchenette area and stair way got just a touch of Christmas, too.

Have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!
                                       Jessica