We then ventured off to a little consignment decor store here in Ankeny called "The Attic". Kara and I had gone in there a couple weeks ago just to check it out and honestly, I thought it was a bit expensive. It is a pretty sprawling space that is very organized and decorated nicely. Julie my GO-TO for COLOR person spotted this striped piece of art. The inspiration is a painting that I received from the crew that started Love Takes Root - a non-profit from Spencer that is working in Haiti right now to start a new orphanage for about 60 kids. This is a beautiful painting (you will see it later) and the colors are vibrant. The picture below pops many colors and this will allow me to change vases, pillows (note the pillow colors we got), etc out as I get bored with them.
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| Living Room wall BEFORE |
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| Living Room wall AFTER |
The next place we went was Homemakers. This is the most fantabulous furniture store in the LAND! That isn't their slogan, but maybe I should suggest that. Hmmm.........
Julie and Dawn had not been there before. After the first half hour of being overwhelmed regarding the sheer quantity of items there, we buckled down and began our quest for decor and a small console table to put inside the front door and any other items that would work in various parts of the house.
I have a wine theme in the kitchen. This theme is not overwhelming and the main focus is rich colors like rusts and greens and browns. As we are going throughout the store, I find a very large print for a very small price that I (okay Julie and Dawn) knew would look great on the opposite wall of the dining area in the kitchen. And it does.
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| Dining Room Wall AFTER |
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| Dining Room Wall BEFORE |
Also for the kitchen, we found these wine trays. They were a little weird not because they were in the clearance room - I LOVE clearance - but because they were on these very strange legs and weren't very sturdy. Julie had the idea to take the legs off and use them as wall hangings. She is so smart! We did and this is what they look like.
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| Kitchen above cabinets BEFORE |
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| Kitchen above cabinets AFTER |
Note the wine bottles are the start of a collection so that I can put lights in them. This project I think I can complete. Yep - me crafty - I am trying. I am going to add some grape vine and hanging grapes between the bottles to hide the cords. What a great way to recycle icicle lights and they create a bit of ambiance to the kitchen. Check back periodically for those, but here is what they look like so far. And if I don't get them done, Dawn said she would come back and help me "finish" the project. We both know it is an excuse to drink wine because we need a LOT more bottles.
The last project in the kitchen/dining room was a craft project inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. This is a work in progress project as well, but I am trying to find a couple corner shelves that are big enough for a hurricane lamp and my wine cork barrel. That was a task yesterday that didn't get completed so I am still on the look out. But Dawn took care of organizing and creating this little baby and I LOVE it! She even brought a garbage bag full of corks so we could do it. We didn't need an entire garbage bag, but it is impressive to see none the less.
And as you can see we were contributing to the project by drinking wine as we (okay she) was working on it.
After Homemakers, we headed to Kirklands. If you have never been there I suggest it because Kirklands is like Gordmans without the clothes. Many decor items that are inexpensive. I liked it a lot. We found some accessory things there along with a very cool print for the bathroom downstairs. I won't be putting that up yet, as Curtis and I need to paint the walls down there and do some re-arranging of furniture. There will be BEFORE and AFTER as that project progresses.
Kirklands had some prints for our bathrooms too. They are small and not a big deal as I just needed a couple things in there. But the bathrooms are now DONE!
From Kirklands, we fought the crowd at Trader Joes for some flowers and wine and hummus. Busy, busy place but every body was happy to get a few items and bounce off the shoulders of the rest of the crazy shoppers there.
Bailey decided we all needed to go into T.J. Maxx. And good thing we did. We found some panels for the living room that were really inexpensive and a couple pillows. Now I have a hard time buying accent pillows. So Julie had an intervention with me. Julie's words of wisdom: "Pillows and curtains are like the jewelry for your outfit." She is correct, but I don't wear much jewelry so not sure that analogy was a good one. We were looking for green and blue and think we came up with pretty great pillow accessories.
Julie is very detailed when she is on a decorating mission. She decided that the panels would be better if the hem was out. So she and Bailey worked to get them done and Bailey will come back with gray thread and take care of finishing them off.
The last piece of this puzzle today was putting together the painting that I "found" in my items that were in the closet. The centerpiece of this room. Like I said I have been looking for a table for this room to go by the door for months. No luck! Things are either too expensive or don't really match. Curtis and I had looked at this piece of furniture at Homemakers a few months ago, but didn't pull the trigger on it. So the decorating team was in the store on Saturday and out of the acres and acres of items in that store, the crew is drawn to the same table. I was a little astonished that they picked it because we had looked at it once before and didn't buy it. And of course it is on back order until the end of April, but I think we may have found the item for the space.
The painting from Haiti will go above the table and I will add colorful bowls, vases, etc.
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| Entry way BEFORE phase 1 |
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| Entry way AFTER phase 1 |
Keep in mind this painting has only been on the wall for less than 24 hours but every time I walk by it or glance that way, my heart skips a little beat. It is beautiful. I am so glad that I opened that storage room door in the basement and pulled this rolled up piece of art out of the closet. It is so very inspirational and the memories that go with it are forever in my brain.
Thank you my dear friends Dawn and Julie. They helped tremendously and I owe them such gratitude.
"It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help." Epicurus
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