DEMI GOT A MAKEOVER

On an April junkin trip I came across a beautiful Demi lune table.  It was wood with black legs and brass medallions.  You can see it below on the bottom right.    Yes this was the beginning of my junk pile....lets just say you cant see any of these items now. lol

My friend had been mentioning that she wanted an area by her front door to put her keys and mail.  You all already seen the door to mirror redesign project.   

She really liked this table and wanted to buy it from me....kinda akward to price knowing my FRIEND wanted to buy it.   I take the piece out to look at it more and find the Bombay Company metal tag underneath the top.   She told me to sell it because she said it was a good table.......I decided that it would work perfect in her living room with the mirror piece so this piece is now taken.

1st day of sunshine and it came up on the deck for sanding and painting.  The only damage was some ring marks on the top and the legs were loose.  A little sanding and a screwdriver and all was good.

A coat of Valspar (Seagull Gray) to the wood areas

A coat of bronze spray paint

Valspar  mocha glaze on top

I also painted the medallions to match the legs.

Here is the finished table

Here it is in my friends living room which I just redesigned

Sometimes just like love decorating dont cost a thing! lol  (love throwback J-Lo)

-MJ

SUMMER MANTLE.....THINKIN ISLANDS & COASTAL AS USUAL

Well the rain has finally stopped here in New Jersey and the sun has been shining with temps in the 80's!   So I decided it was time for a summer island mantle.

The decor in our living room has a lot of island inspiration......palm trees, banana trees, animal masks & prints.  So when doing my mantle I try to keep within the color scheme if I cant go with theme.

Finally here there was no issue.....sand, shells and glass and I had myself and mantle!

Here is the fireplace wall in the living room

An apothecary jar from Home Goods filled with sand and Ocean scented candle, starfish, seashells and some coral crustation under the glass lid

A glass bowl filled to rim with variety of collected seashells, 2 large shells on display and a palm leaf inside old pottery piece.

Here is our Summer Mantle!

-MJ

UPDATE:  I SWITCHED IT UP A BIT.

Since my little one is walking, I took the glass dish with shells from coffee ottoman and moved it up onto the mantle.  I added a few more shells.

Took this big shell from out beachside bathroom downstairs and also switched out the palm leaf for a ocean breeze candle (you can see I use my candles)

apothecary jar top with pieces of interesting beach finds

I think this will do.......for now

Linkin up to this party because I love this couple, their blog and their project ideas.

The Lettered Cottage

MEMORIAL DAY 2011.....Remember!

I've always been the house on the block to decorate for the holidays!   I had a busy year last year with the new baby and getting settled in the new house so this year I wanted to get back to basics.

Although Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday season.   I LOVE PATRIOTIC HOLIDAYS!    In fact RED-WHITE-BLUE decorations go up on our house in May and don't come down till after July 4th.

I think it's the least I can do to honor those fallen soldiers and for the men & women who are risking their lives everyday for us right this very moment.

Nothing rang more true to me than the time of May 2008 to April 2009 when my husband, a U.S. Marine was deployed overseas to Iraq.

Our hero!

The house was decked out in yellow ribbons for a year and our American Flag flew high on our flag pole, below it I honored my husband with the USMC flag below.  When he came home, we had a HUGE Welcome banner on the porch and people beeped as they road by, Vietnam Veterans came to ask him to be Grand Marshall in their parade!  

Our old little farmhouse (built 1912)

Im grateful to have him home for this 2nd year and I pray for those who weren't so lucky and for those missing their loved ones who are still fighting.

Here are some small decorations that went up this week.   I have to add more but it was a busy, hectic week but I will be adding some more and have a special project for the outside planned as a tribute.

The right side of the yard...Our flag flying 

My Uncle Sam telephone pole person

My Red-White-Blue birdbath with some beautiful turquoise!  I used this color scheme last year for a patriotic bbq for my husband's police academy graduation here (See Pics Here)

I hung my patriotic coffee filter garland outside this year.

Little magnets on our vintage milk box.  A antique red lantern on top.

Our flags fly for honor.....POW-MIA, U.S.A., USMC

View of front door wreath and my 2nd favorite Marine

Close up of my patriotic garland and my tin stars.

My RED-WHITE-BLUE-TURQUOISE handmade wreath from Leighann of A Crafty Southern Chick

She made a similar one for herself, I emailed her and asked her to make me one because it matched my birdbath...turns out she had the same birdbath down in South Carolina (seriously, we have way too much in common).  Check out her NEW line of wreaths!

My wooden U.S. Marine that guards our porch 24/7 with his loyal bulldog!  

SO I ASK OF YOU ALL.....as you decorate your porch, your table and your house fills with family & friends to BBQ and have pool parties.   

Please take the time to remember those who have given their lives for this country and it's people!  Pray for those who are doing it still today!   Thank the ones who have returned home and trying to get back to the normal life they left behind!

Let them know that it's not just ONE DAY that we remember and our grateful for what they've done, but every night that we lay our heads on our pillows!

Thank you!

We are thankful and remember our Marine everyday!

MY FRIENDS LIVING ROOM REDESIGN REVEALED

My friend Liza and I met when our oldest daughters (now 16 & 17) were in the 2nd grade.  We also were pregnant together more than once and have been through lots of things together as well.  Our 4 yr olds are 1 week apart exactly and are in the same PreK class at school.   Our youngest kiddos are 2 & 14 months....only difference is that I have 2 in the middle (12 &10).lol    Our husbands became friends and it's just an all around great situation for us all.

Liza reads my blog everyday and always encourages me in what I do.   Her mom also reads my blog and is a yard sale queen too.  When  Liza comes over my house for parties and stuff she always freaks out because she's afraid her 2 boys will wreck the place. lol      Which leads me to the idea of this redesign.   She has the 2 boys and they are active, they love all things cars, trucks, trains.   Did I mention that are the freakin most cutest things ever. They are boys..boys!   They were callin me the first hour I was there....the big one called me Maui and the little one called Mene....hey Melanie is a hard name to pronounce!  Even adults mess it up to this day! lol

She had been feeling like her living room became a playroom/frat room.   She said she wanted a pretty living room and asked me to help her out.    We wanted to do this makeover without spending money. However as we discussed it we decided that the sofas needed to go and came up with a tiny budget of $200 for the entire living room.

Here is the transformation...I arrived at 7 p.m. thursday night (Facebooked the beginning) and I was done by 10:15 p.m.(we were talking about everything and I didnt take a cell phone pic to post it) Then again it's much better seeing it all here first.  I will post it in a new album on the Lucky 7 Design Facebook page.   Also look for new line of vintage and handmade items in Lucky 7 Design Etsy shop coming in June. 

This is the LR looking toward front door

looking into kitchen (check out the M&M airplane toy) lol

Looking from staircase 

Shot of the window wall (dont know why it kept coming out dark)

Here is the redesigned room

The chairs were a craigslist find $15 pair...all items on wall shelf $0 junkin stash.  Vintage tray spray painted bronze.   Old red encyclopedia books.  Vanilla candle wrapped with twine.   Liza is a big reader and so I made the shelves from books.....it personalized the room for her.

I really like this wall a lot.   The only things purchased in this whole picture were the Waverly curtains for $0.10 a panel...yep 20 cents.    Oh and the new loveseat (part of a set)  Her mother Elsa made that candy shaped pillow from a window valance (I need to subcontract my sewing projects to her..lol)

She wanted a entry table so I had the Bombay Co demi lune and I gifted it to her because she is a great friend.  I sanded, painted, glazed and sanded the table parts that were wood.   I spray painted the former black legs bronze.   Reluctantly I also painted the brass medallions but I had to so the legs and hardware matching and looked authentic. I used Krylon spray paint & looking glass for these 2 projects.

The tables she found at a yard sale $20 for the pair.   Also she decided the day of the makeover to pick up this rug she saw at Walmart the other day $40....was a great idea and adds nice texture and color.  I mean could it fit any more perfect than that?

I made her a piece of homemade typography art from a burlap bag and craft paint.  It has FAMILY down the center and this family's names all connected.

I made this sign myself for them as a gift too. I love Barn Owl Primitives & 41 West Designs work and  I just received a family name sign last week from Word Whipped and I loved it so much it inspired me to create one for them.   All hand painted ladies....no stencils here. 

I sanded down the white chairs to discover lovely pink & cream loveliness.  I asked her if she was okay with a little shabby chic look.   She said Ummmmmm Yes!  I added their monogram because I thought it was fun and Im slightly obsessed with letters and her and I discussed a monogram somewhere.

This tabletop stuff needed to be boy proof so a bowl of vintage clothespins (round ones) a junk wood frame. handmade burlap nest wall hanging and a junk lamp (which I forgot to put on shade when i took this pic) lol

Here is a look at the large sofa piece...was listed on Craigslist for $150 but I was able to negotiate $100 for set since we originally didn't want to spend money.   But she deserved new sofas, so here they are in all their sandy micro-suede yumminess.  Mama also made that pillow on the sofa from a piece of toile fabric that Liza found somewhere....love it!  We are gonna make another pillow for this sofa!

A look again from steps..it looks cozy but tables can be moved if the boys want to play and have camp outs (which they do with Daddy and I think thats awesome)  I would definitely camp out in here.  You can see in the pass through, we relocated the Ikea bookcase to the kitchen where it now holds copper prettys and bins with potatoes and onions.  Love when things get new life (dvd holder to food holder).

Here is the staircase wall...thats the boys toy chest and dvd box.  I made the wall art from some scrap wood and hardware.  Thats her hubby taking pictures with his nice camera.

Love the border of the rug....she did good.  She also sanded these tables herself!  We like the end tables as double coffee tables and storage too!

She is a huge reader so of course I have to give her one of my book page dahlia flower hangings.  It's edges are painted red

Here is a close up of the wood door I made from wood & hardware.  I enjoyed beating...I mean distressing it with a hammer to give it an old barn feel.

She found the pillow (4 of them) at yard sale so we through one under there for color.

At the end of the night....they loved the room!   Her daughter said she was sleeping in there ( im blushing) .lol    She also told me that she would send me a pic in the morning before school and hopefully it wouldn't be destroyed. The boys fell asleep as I was decorating and they're gonna wake up to this instead of the play pad they had. lol  

I say nothing in there is really breakable...I thought about the boys and so I left nothing on the tables so they can race & roll their cars across them.  I added baskets underneath for their small cars and puzzles.  Wall art is hung out of reach.  I left no side table and used the ottomans so if they want to move them each table would go to the side of the sofa and the floor is open for fun.  Who says you a mama can't have a pretty room with 2 active boys!

THANK YOU TO THE KETCHUM FAMILY....for trusting me to come into your house and change your stuff around.   I hope you enjoy playtime, movie nights and UFC fights for the Mr.   

I  love you guys!

So here is the budget breakdown in the end:

Waverly panels      $    0.20

Wood chairs         $   15.00

Wood Tables       $    20.00

 Rug                     $    40.00

 Sofa & loveseat   $  100.00

TOTAL REDESIGN:    $ 175.20

I used Krylon Spray Paint & Looking Glass paint as well as Valspar paint for the projects in this room!

You know I will be linking this up to my favorite parties...but it's 2 a.m. so I'll add the links as I link up.  

- MJ

 
tp://"/>