FOR THE LOVE OF CHAIRS

I finally got around to adding some art to the empty frames in the newly painted powder room.

I used two of these paper place mats.

I bought the "Dining Chairs" CAKE Kitchen Papers at Lolli's in Mariemont, OH.

If you live in the Cincinnati area, check it out.  Such a cute store.

This quick little project took a total of five minutes.

 I couldn't find a link to the Kitchen papers I bought there, 

I did find some other great options here.

Hester and Cook also sells some fabulous chair paper products.

Here are a few of my favorites.

notepad

coasters

place cards

place mats

wrapping paper

All these beautiful chairs got me thinking about my love of chairs.  

I started to count, in my head, how many chairs we have in our home.  I quickly lost count.  

Clearly, my chair collection deserves its own post. 

I'll get to work on it right away.

Hope your week is off to a great start.  

I survived a sleepover with four 10 year old boys this weekend. 

I'm pretty sure today is going to be a breeze!

MY NEW DISTRACTION

 The new Waterlogue App has taken the world by storm (at least the Instagram world). 

Just in case you don't know about it yet, it is available to download for I-phones, I-pods and I-pads. 

You can buy it at the App Store for $2.99. 

Best $2.99 I have spent in a long time!

Once you start transforming regular old pictures into watercolors, you won't be able to stop.

Consider yourself warned.

Here are a few of my favorites. 

My three babies on the beach.

My favorite corner in our home.

(That big pile on the desk is our tax paperwork - just looks like beautiful art, doesn't it?)

My daughter's recently revamped room.

Isn't it great?  The giant mess on her desk just blends right in.

The colorful dining room.

 If you have a few hours to kill, be sure to check it out.

I haven't printed any yet, but I know others have, with no problems.

I will probably print them on nice heavy card stock. 

Like I needed something else to distract me.

FIXING MISTAKES

Remember when I went on a little thrifting adventure, 

all in the name of research, of course, for my thrifting tips post?

I almost came home empty handed. 

At the last second, I spied a hideous metal shelf in the parking lot.

This hideous metal shelf......

I gave it a good wipe down and then temporarily placed it here....

I knew the scale was off, but I liked how it made the space feel cozy.

I got a little antsy a few weeks ago when it rained for days on end and I fixed this mistake.

First I spray painted the shelves a glossy white.

And then I moved it to the opposite wall.

I added a little plant to the corner.

And dug some art out of the attic to hang over it.

This is my very favorite spot in the house to curl up and relax now 

and I love that I can just reach over and grab a book.

This is where the barn door will eventually go.  Yep, I'm still dragging my feet on that one.

Ahhh, much better.

I have a love/hate relationship with that love seat.  

I love that it is so unbelievably comfortable, but I hate those big awkward arms and those loose pillows.

One of these days, it will mysteriously disappear

(probably when the kids are at school and my husband is out of town).

I know how much they like surprises!

So what kind of decorating mistakes have you fixed lately?

MY GIANT GALLERY WALL

The wall in our stairwell has been bothering me since we moved in to our home.

I initially hung a few of our travel prints there, but was never quite happy with the look.

A few months ago, I took them all down.

The wall sat naked for quite some time and every time I went up or down the stairs 

(about 50 times a day), I cringed. 

I recently ran into Pottery Barn and noticed these large, square, gold frames hiding in the corner.  

I picked them up and noticed they were on sale for $31.99.  Not too bad since they were 18"x18".

To make a long story short, I bought four that day (and they happened to be on clearance for $21.99)

I then proceeded to call all over the country to hunt down nine more (five for me and four for a client).

Where there's a will, there's a way!  

The smaller square frames came from Ikea and I'll tell you all about those at the end of the post.

Now for some pretty pictures....

 I risked my life on a ladder and hung everyone of these all by myself. 

The frames are filled with prints/postcards/artwork from places we have traveled to 

or hope to travel to someday.

I really wanted to fill up the wall, but keep some frames open for future adventures. 

So I printed out maps or artwork from destinations we hope to visit someday

and I added "Adventure Awaits" to the bottom.

I have two more small frames to add here, but my 5 foot 3 self couldn't quite reach.

I'll con my husband into doing it someday soon.

The frames came without mats.  I simply turned over the cover sheets 

to show the sheets and taped the art on top.

Someday I'll have mats cut for them.

I would love to eventually fill up the wall over the window and the wall to the left of the window.

I love that you can see them from the foyer.

I never could find the Pottery Barn frames on their website. 

But I found these 12x12 frames at Ikea.

Of course, I had to add some rub n buff to them.

Ten of them, in fact.

Now, instead of cringing, I get excited every time I walk up and down these stairs.

Each time I pass by, I think back on all the fun adventures we have taken over the years

or I dream about the adventures that await us.

I finally got my camera back.  It was in the repair shop for almost six weeks 

and it ended up costing more than a week's worth of groceries to have it repaired. 

I sure wasn't happy about that, but I am thrilled that I can stop using my Iphone as my camera. 

Have a fabulous weekend!

CORNERED

Decorating corners always perplexes me.   

When I moved my favorite piece of furniture, the blue secretary, onto this wall 

in the new dining room, I new something would need to happen in that corner. 

It remained empty for a few weeks until I could come up with a plan.

Who am I kidding, I didn't have a plan.  

I hung the three silhouettes of my kids first.  I've been meaning to display these for over a year now.

Once they were up, the other wall was looking very lonely. 

I picked up two square frames at the thrift store and took out the hideous artwork that was in them.

I added the two brass trivets I found on my shopping adventure with Carmel.

The squares frames were begging to highlight something circular.

These two trivets couldn't have been more perfect.

I also picked up this piece of art at the thrift store. I added a little rub n' buff to the frame. 

This painting was a souvenir from a trip my husband and I took to Paris a few years back.  

For some strange reason, it was hiding under my bed. 

One the other side of the secretary is the antique map of downtown Cincinnati 

that I purchased on a trip to Scott's in Columbus earlier in the year. 

It sits just below three frames prints of landmarks in Germany that I picked up at a local antique store. 

Since the secretary is on the small side and it is sitting on this rather large wall,

I needed to fill up some space. 

My Bolivian Jew (beehive) plant is still hanging on, barely.  

I had to let the other one go last week.

You're dying to know what is in this cabinet, aren't you?

About 3/4 of my daughter's tea set collection is now displayed in here. 

Now that she is 10, going on 15, we don't have as many tea parties.  

But it's still fun for her to get them out and play with them every now and then.

 How do you deal with corners in your home?