We've been in full blown home improvement mode around here lately. It all started when Mike gave me new slip covers for our family room couches for Mother's day. They are great, and I'm super happy with them. The new slipcovers meant we needed new pillows for the couches, though
I also re-did the kitchen valance in the polka dots, but seem to have deleted that picture off the camera. :(
Just last night I finished the living room curtains. They had been a green and blue plaid, which actually went with the couches we had 7 years ago when we moved in, but didn't after the face lift :) I can't get a great picture of them, but they are a pretty tan linen... I ripped the linings out of the old ones and used them to line the curtains because the room gets so much sun. They still need to be distributed better across the curtain rod, but here's the general idea.
At that point, I had really caught the sewing bug... and Mike was cleaning out the basement. I had bought two chairs a couple of years ago, with the intention that the kids could use them as extra seating in the living room. Mike hated them from day 1, one ended up banished to the basement and the other never even got assembled. Since they are basically just pillows on frames, I re-covered them and put one in each boys' room. Jack's is pirates (natch) and Ben's is Buzz Lightyear (double natch).. My friend Tracy had given me some other fun pirate fabric a while ago, so I recovered all the little pillows in Jack's room with it. He then spent two days telling everyone he saw how he "re-designed" his room. Cute!
Next on the list was the bathrooms. I painted our master bathroom, and it looks great. No pictures yet, I'm still working on some finishing touches. Our main floor powder room had been covered in a hideous red wallpaper... cabbages roses in abundance. I stripped the wallpaper, scrubbed the walls with steel wool to get the glue off the wall, and painted it a really pretty yellow. It's not quite as dark as the pictures make it look. Then I added some wall decals I bought on Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12715464
I put a couple of the decals on some inexpensive vases I bought at Michael's, and made these cute candle holders. Last, I painted these little canvases that I just hung up today. I'm really happy with the room so far. It needs a new mirror and light fixture, and I'm toying with the idea of priming and painting the vanity. We've been saying since we moved in that we were going to put a pedestal sink in this room, but it hasn't happened yet, so we'll see.
Next up is Christies' room. She has already painted the room a lovely blue, and she is painting polka dots on the walls in a pretty chocolate brown and white. She has two walls done (two more to go!) Mike has bought all the stuff he needs to put wainscot and crown molding in there, and I ordered fabric this week to re-do her curtains and window seat cover, and to make her a new duvet. Pictures to come soon !