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how much did it cost? family room edition

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Recently I freshened up our family room.

It looks great, but how much did it cost?

Let me give you the facts and figures…

GRAND TOTAL – $237.02

While $237 is no small chunk of change, especially to the broke among us, it’s not such a terrible price to pay to give a complete facelift to my old, boring family room. And best of all, it looks awesome!

*I will note that I spent more on the pillow covers and number 5 pillow than I usually spend. Typically I’m more of a clearance shopper. These were not small purchases. But I decided that I wanted unique, durable accessories and that I want to begin to support artisans, crafters, and artists with my dollars when I can.

 

choosing an accent color

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Recently I freshened up my family room by adding some simple accessories and not spending scads of money. My new accent colors are orange, yellow, and a vibrant green.

I chose those colors by taking a look at some of the accessories I already had in the room (that I knew I’d be keeping) and picking out some of the more vibrant colors, like the orange and yellow in this lamp shade (which has a great story behind it)…

The spicy pumpkin orange and greens in this chair…

The golden lamp…

The yellow in this vintage advertising art…

And the vibrant yellow lemon zest in the poodle’s martini…(and what poodle doesn’t deserve – hell, even demand – a martini?)…

All pieces that I already had in my family room that either I love (the art and the striped lampshade) or that need to stay because the lotto fairies didn’t leave me a winning ticket (the 90s chairs). Bottom line…I built an entirely new look based on what I already had with just a couple of colors that are now here…

and here…

Plus, just to keep everyone on their toes with a little design surprise, I didn’t just stick to orange, yellow, and green, but also added in a little zebra and black and white…

…because doesn’t black and white zebra match just about anything? Just shake your head yes and agree with me and no one will get hurt!

See it all pulled together in the family room here.

freshening up the family room

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Recently I did a little refresh on our family room. It used to be all green on leather…

BORING. So I decided to add a touch of mod to the family room. And I created this AWESOME zebra ottoman…

While the ottoman looks AWESOME and is shouting STYLE, the chair is now screaming 90s! And the couches are saying in a monotone voice, dull, dull, dull.

Nothing is really looking very stylish or pulled together. But the chairs and couches aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so I need to work with what I have. (And apparently neither is the dog, who is not dead, despite how it looks.)

So for a small investment, I added some accessories to change up the look from drab to fab!

I started by adding these faux fur zebra print throws from Pier 1 Imports…

See how the throws make everything look tied together and the ottoman doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb anymore? But the throws aren’t an exact match to the ottoman fabric, so things aren’t looking too matchy-matchy. (And I promise you, the dog is alive and well.)

But something is still missing…throw pillows!

No more boring colors! Some bold oranges and greens on this fab pillow cover from The Cottage Cupboard on Etsy. And a terrific upcycled vintage sheet turned pillow cover from Olive Handmade on Etsy…

Handstamped with RELAX…love it!

Suddenly I’m not thinking 90s when I see the red chair. Same goes for this one…

…after adding the Number 5 pillow, a recycled sail pillow from Reiter8 on Etsy, the red geometric chairs get dialed back to neutral status.

The black and white of the Number 5 pillow ties in with the black and white of the ottoman, making it all work.

A couple more touches of color…

Green candles and other tchotchkes on the mantle…

A new spot for an old Buddha statue that I found in the basement…

A little vignette on a giant old-school stereo speaker…yeah, I still have those.

More pops of color (but please ignore the not-so-fab entertainment center…it’s on the to-be-replaced-when-I-win-the-lotto list)…

The whole shebang (with the not-dead dog still on the couch concerning animal lovers everywhere)…

A definite improvement, don’t you think?

Showing off at Funky Junk Interiors.

*No animals were harmed in the writing of this blog post.

ottoman before & after

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About a year ago, I found this ottoman in my neighbor’s trash…

It was in pretty bad shape, but sturdy nonetheless…

Obviously trash picked, since there was even garbage in the springs…

Gross, but salvagable!

So, I let it cure in my garage for a year.

Eventually I picked up some zebra faux fur, which I bought from Joann, using a 50% off coupon from the Joann app on my iPhone. I bought a yard and a half, which cost me around $12 with the coupon.

This weekend the moment of inspiration finally struck!

I already had high gloss black spray paint, so I cleaned up the ottoman and spray painted the legs.

I didn’t worry a whole lot about getting paint on the original fabric, since the faux fur is thick enough to cover any discoloration.

The legs weren’t looking too bad…

It’s amazing how much of a difference just the black paint makes.

And now for the faux fur…

I began by stapling the prewashed fabric in the middle of the wider side of the ottoman.

As an aside, if you’re in the market for a staple gun, let me recommend that you consider an electric staple gun.  They’re just a couple bucks more than a manual one, and totally worth it, because the electric one won’t kill your hands the way a manual one does. It’s still a workout and you’ll still break a sweat, because you need to press firmly to release the safety and you’ll need to pull the fabric taut as well. But overall, it’s much easier to use.

After stapling several places in the middle, I stretched the fabric taut and stapled similarly on the opposite side.

I stapled my way out from the middle, and then did the same on the shorter sides of the ottoman, working my way to the corners.

When I got to the corners, I folded them like I was wrapping a present, tucking them in and under as flat and tight as possible.

So that it looked like this on the side after stapling…

And like this underneath…

I wasn’t terribly concerned about how things looked underneath, just as long as it looked good on the visible surface. And I think it turned out looking pretty darn good!

Isn’t it adorable?  I love it!

Best of all, it was a super inexpensive project.  Only cost me $12 for the fabric, plus the spray paint I already had on hand (approx. $4), and my time an effort.  Can’t beat that!

I’m not sure if I’ll keep the ottoman with the red and orange chair, since they’re both pretty bold, but the combination is growing on me, and boy do I love the zebra faux fur ottoman!

Would you keep the chair and the ottoman together?

Showing off my new ottoman at Funky Junk Interiors and Kammy’s Korner. And jumping into the contest over here…

 

 

funky zebra table

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Out of the ruins of my daughter’s room came a damaged occasional table…

…the top was ruined with nail polish and who knows what else…ew!

Because the surface was damaged and the laminate was peeled in a couple of places, I was ready to simply throw it out, which didn’t thrill me, because without that table, other pieces of furniture would eventually be used for the very activities that ruined this one.

After thinking on it for a day, I remembered the zebra print Duck brand duct tape my ex-husband gave to me. Eureka! I could cover the tabletop with zebra print duct tape!

(If you don’t have an ex-husband giving you gifts of duct tape, you can get some at Target for about $5.)

Simply apply the tape to the tabletop, slightly overlapping each row of tape.

In less than an hour, the table was repaired, and better than ever!

Isn’t it adorable?

And easy as pie! (Well, actually way easier than pie, since I don’t find pie to be all that easy…)


There may be other pieces in my daughter’s room that may get the duct tape treatment! Stay tuned as the Great Clean Up continues…