The story of a simple fireplace screen

For the past 4 months that I have been working on my little ugly duckling, I have been searching for a fireplace screen.  Now little did I know, that it would not be an easy task.  I thought, measure the hole - find the screen.  Well.....maybe I should say find a goodlooking screen that will properly fit the opening for a bargain price.  I looked high and low: online, HD and Lowes, consignment stores, etc.  Now mind you perhaps in the South we may not have as large of an offering because we rarely actually use a fireplace - but I swear I could not find one that a) I liked b) would fit or c) could afford. 

So what did we stare at for nearly 5 months?  This....

How pathetic!

Even when I decorated the mantle for the holidays to try and distract the wandering eye......

and even tried hanging stockings .....

The ugly big hole was what your eye was drawn to.

Kind of like a woman dressed up for a party without any shoes on....

before she's drunk and kicks them off to dance!

Despite my search for weeks, I could not find anything that would work.  Fast forward to yesterday - I run into Target (I am a huge Target lover!!) and lo and hehold.....what catches my eye but a fireplace screen.  not just any old fireplace screen, but THE one.  I look at the measurements and sure enough - it will work.  so there I am in Target trying not to do the dance of joy, grabbing the big 'ol screen and trying to balance in on the cart to check out.  Imagine this scene, me pushing cart, twins balancing the screen. 

We come home - complete with all items needed to make s'mores for the very first time, put the fireplace screen together and now have this:

Award: Most Improved

If I were to give an award for "most improved" room to date, it would definitely have to be what we are now using as the TV room.  When I first saw it, after the renters vacated, I think it may have been the room that triggered my anxiety attack.  The room was dark and drab, painted in a khaki (is that how you spell that???) color, not a cool khaki, but more like the color of an Army jeep.  The plaster ceiling was cracked and caving in and although I thought we could just repair it, we actually had to replace it.  There were also large holes in the walls and the heavy window treatments made the room look even more dark....I swear it reminded me of a vampire cave.  In fact I wondered if the 3 teenage boys that formerly lived here were really vampires.

Then I came in after the house was vacant and ripped down the heavy window treatments, open the blinds and let the light in.  I immediately felt better, because I knew it could go from looking like a vampire cave to something more refreshing. I wish I had a picture of when the renters were here and the room looked like a dark cave, but the best before shots I can offer are the cleaned up, windows letting light in shots - and it doesn't look nearly as bad as it did. I know I have posted little snippets before, but completed Before and After shots below..... 

Before of Entry Doors

After - ahhh it's amazing what white paint can do.

Before shot of the room

Imagine dark vampire drapes and in this shot you cannot see the holes in the walls or the ceiling falling in.

After Shots: make me happy to see the lighter brighter version.

I have never painted a room white before.  My painters were pressuring me to pick the color so they could get going and I was in the undecided column for a while.  Kept thinking of the cave and that I just wanted it to be a bright cheery room - and voila...completely inspired by Bob and Courtney Novogratz to just go with white and bring in pops of color.  I am SO happy with my decision, despite the fact my painters kept saying - "white-you really want bright white???".  They know me well and have never ever seen me go with a white room - ever!

And since I know that Y and J will be checking this post to see progress, here are a few more angles:

Before

After

Before

After

Last Before

and some After shots: woo-hoo...I LOVE progress!

My free chair!

Voila: our nice sunny cheerful T room!

New Year = New Attitude!

Happy New Year!!  I am always so happy to see a new year begin.  The promise of what will come in the new year continues to intrigue me.  Sort of like a clean slate - in a "let's start again and see what we can do better this year" sort of way. 

OK, so I didn't make it through my 12 days of Christmas plan (Sorry YH), but the good news is I really enjoyed the holiday season.  Actually, it was because I enjoyed the holiday season SO much, that I didn't have time to get to the blog :)....but that's ok, because my only resolution made for this new year is to:

and just how is it I plan to do this?    Hmmmmm.....let me count the ways:

10) Schedule more time to relax (yes I need to schedule it, or my neurotic OCD nature has me working on some big to-do list)

9) Enjoy trying more new recipes and attempting to get my little guy to finally eat some veggies.

8) Travel - I have been blessed to travel much of the globe, but I have new places still yet to explore.

7) Be grateful for all that has yet to come.  The good, the bad, the path yet to travel has not been set ....but I want to embrace it and remember that every experience enriches my life, often in an unknown way.

6) Remember to enjoy the small things in life: a perfect tomato, the smiles of my children, a beautiful day, etc.

5) Appreciate the kindness of others and say thank you more often.

4) Blog more often.  OK, maybe that should have a higher ranking :)

3) Be spontanious - understand that a plan can be changed and that projects, appointments and a calendar of events can often be rescheduled.

2) Commit to finding a job that I will enjoy and want to get up and be excited about every day.

1) Don't sweat the small stuff and continue to remember that I do not need to have all of the answers TODAY!

In other words.......Here's to being less of a control freak and more of a free spirit in 2012!  Thanks to my fabulous Mr. S for his perspective, grace, wisdom and advice.

PS: TV room reveal tomorrow.....and now I'm off to read the newest magazine in the pile and have an hour of peace and quiet to myself instead of cleaning the garage......see I have already started working on my top ten list!

Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 4

For some strange reason, for the first time in my life - I am into orange.  Absolutely no idea why since I have never really been drawn to or used this color before.  Like many of us, we go through periods of time where we have our phase of a color.  Let's see, I have had my phase with blues, beiges/creams, peaches/corals and even some greens.  Orange just never really did it for me.....until now. 

While in Atlanta on a girlfriend visit (aka shopping trip), we are out hitting some of our favorite haunts and what do I stumble upon but an orange glass lamp with a lucite base.  Thought to myself....hmmmm....that could look great in a future place.  It certainly didn't go with the color scheme that I had going at the time.  But, I held myself back and walked away.  I return from ATL and open the newest issue of House Beautiful or Elle Decor and I see the most beautiful Italian glass lamps that very closely resemble the lamp I had sadly left behind.  Guess what shocked me the most was a) how close they were in appearance and b) the price on those in the magazine was $695.!!!

So what does a smart woman do?  She picks up her Iphone and calls her sister to ask if she will run down and pick up "my" orange lamp.  she agrees and later calls to tell me she has my large orange lamp at her place.  Then SHE opens the same magazine article I had seen and sees the price of the Italian version and immediately calls me to say "I know why you wanted me to go back and buy that lamp"!  guess I was happy that she was a little behind in her reading :)

The lamp also reminded me of one that Johnathan Adler (I adore him) has for $275.:

http://www.jonathanadler.com/optionlarges/17190_5724.jpg

except his did not have the lucite base and wasn't quite as cool of a shape.  Sorry Johnathan - please know I still adore you.

So - finally I get my coveted lamp from Atlanta and I say to myself "Hello Gorgeous"!  I LUV LUV LUV this lamp.  Can a person really LOVE a lamp???

Voila - take a look at my most loved lamp and the very best part of the happily ever after part of the orange lamp story is that the consignment store price was $37. and on top of that, my very sweet sister who picked it up for me, gave it to me for my birthday present.  Ballard's outlet lampshade, was hmmmm....I think $19. 

Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 3

Another step toward a completed TV room that we actually like to go into and enjoy.  I guess it looked so bad when I first started, the task of improving the space without a huge budget seemed a bit overwhelming.  A complete report and shots of the finished room by the end of this month - I'm waiting for one more thing to arrive before I can show the entire space.  

until that time.....a sneak peek of my recent solution to the BIG blank white wall behind the sofa.  I had hoped to have a large contemporary piece of art done for the space - but I decided that this month was not the month to blow my wad on new art. 

 A few weeks ago my sister had put this in a garage sale:



When I mentioned I liked the poster and especially the colors - her response was "take it".  So my free poster was the beginning.  I knew it wasn't large enough for the wall, but decided that I could let my creative juices flow and come up with something that would work as an interim solution.  So, a quick trip to IKEA for some frames came next.  I get home to find that the matting is just a wee bit to large for the print I have to work with.  Next up a trip out to pick up some black poster board and ta-da my little vision turns into this:

and a close up , so that you can see how the black poster board not only serves as a filler for the .25" shortage once the print was cut into the 4 individual squares.  It actually looks like it's double matted.

Total cost for my short-term solution to art ..... until I can purchase that contemporary painting that is out there waiting for me:

4 IKEA Ribba frames $80.

Poster Board $2.

Poster FREE (Thanks MB and CW, who long ago gave it to MB)

I'm very happy to have completed the project for $82 and every time I see the cheerful color on the wall it makes me happy.  Can't wait to add up what I have ended up spending on the entire room - but I'm contently finding inexpensive solutions for the space.  Truth is, every single budget minded find I come up with, makes me just as happy as spending small fortunes on things as I once did in a former life.  Maybe even more happy! :)

Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 2

OK, almost everyone has a room in their house where they just shove all the crap and think I'll get to that later.  Well when we arrived at TUD, for me it was the TV room.  Left over furniture, none of it matching or looking like it belonged anywhere, boxes, bolts of fabric....you name it and it and it was probably thrown in this room because the garage and storage units were already full.

so....I finally decide I can no longer stand the dreary little storage area and decide I will turn it into a TV room.  This was also the only place the large armoire with the TV would fit - so I suppose that was the deciding factor.
Although the room is not quite finished, I thought I would give you a shot of something funny. 

In my storage warehouse, I had a good Candice Olsen couch that was really comfortable.....so I have it picked up and brought over, thinking I could maybe slipcover it and it would be a good comfy (cheap) solution for the room.  As soon as it gets here, I realize that it won't fit through the opening to the room.  Does the term "trying to fit a square peg into a round hole" ring a bell with anyone?  Determined woman that I am - and only about an inch shy of shoving it through.....I saw off a piece of the door casing and with the help of my very strong ex-husband (who still helps me move furniture!!) we heave-ho it through.

Shot below is as it sits, once into the space and definitely in it's "I'm blue and don't match anything" state:

Truth is absolutely NOTHING matched in the room!  But ahhhh.....I did have a vision. 

See the couch after I put my Ballards Outlet (Atlanta) super-priced slipcover. Can you believe I got this slipcover for $16???? It's great to have friends in Atlanta that help me in the hunt - thanks CW.  It was not a perfect fit, so I retro-fitted it and it turned out pretty darn good :)

So now I have a sofa and an armoire.....it's definitely coming together.  Hope to have final shots of the room to you very soon.  Stay tuned!

Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 1

On the first day of Christmas, a blogger gave to me: One FINISHED room!  My goal this month is to post 12 times - hence the 12 Days of Christmas theme :)  Think I can do it?  well, I promise to give it my best college try, but am also glad that nobody is holding a gun to my head.  Between time spent taking care of life, twins and enjoying the fabulous Mr. S - it is really difficult to finish projects here.  On top of that this month, I have holiday parties, family and guests arriving and twins out of school for 2 LONG weeks.  Ahhhhhh.....the excuses challenges!

so while many of you are wondering where in the hell I have been, I am continuing to make progress here at my current Ugly Duckling project.  Voila - ONE room finally done. 

Before pictures:

Shot from hall leading into bedroom

Sorry - no wide angle lens available to shoot this small room

The best thing about the room - the nice large window and natural light

The worst thing/s about the room, the color, old doors/colonial trim and size (a little small)

And now the after shots....much more cheerful and makes one of the twin duo very happy.

 Same angle as before shot - from hall entry into room

Still no wide angle lens or good camera (hello.....Santa!!) - but shot of room

Lego art! I used the old wooden valances from the LR to make long display shelves for Lego creations.

Genious thought I might add, as it cost absolutely nothing and is his favorite item in the entire room.

Bargain score - the nail head headboard - $35 at a garage sale

All other items already on hand from previous life.

Study area in front of window.  Had to purchase blinds and curtain panels,everything else already on hand. 

 Note: this WAS my desk, but an alien took over my brain and decided it was better in this room.

My favorite part of the room might just be the freshly painted doors and update on the trim.

Sometimes it's the little things in life!

And the happily ever after end of this little room is that my persian rug, which was a gift

that I dragged back from Kuwait, finally has found a home - and it truly looks fabulous here! 

And yes the pressure is now big-time on me to work on the other half of the twin duo's room, who has already lodged her very LOUD complaints that his room was done first.....to which I replied "well he was born first" - by 2 minutes. 

PS Please know that I am now fast and furiously working to get her room done.  problem is that like most women, she has an opinion about almost everything and most definitely wants to weigh in on the entire project.  my little guy simply says....."oh that's nice mom - I love it" :)