Styling DVD's

Having your DVD's on display can make a living/family room seem very man cave-ish. I bought my husband a DVD rack (from Amazon) before we got married which I should have put more thought into because it then came along with him to our house...It wasn't ugly but not a great piece of furniture.

So it sat in the corner of our living room all alone. Too small for the space and not really adding any interest to the room.

 Enter our built in bookcases. I had considered moving the DVD's onto the built-ins either on display or hidden in storage boxes. However once we built the bookcases we had this leftover shelf that used to hold my craft supplies (or attempt to hold). I really like this shelf from Ikea and it was only $20! Once we didn't need it in the office anymore we thought about moving it to the "garage" (the spare room we use for storage). However I liked it too much to just hide it in there and it was in perfect shape. So I decided to try it as a DVD shelf. We may eventually hide the DVD's for a more grown-up living room (when we are grown-ups?) but for now I like this solution.

I may center it on the wall at some point but since I am just testing it out for now I positioned it around the existing pictures. I think the key to incorporating your movies into your non man cave-ish room is to add some accessories for decor. I also stacked the movies in different directions to change it up some.

Yes we own all of The Fast and the Furious series. Don't judge.

I just used some accessories that I had around the house. I am running out of miscellaneous "stuff" now that I have two shelves in the living room and the built-in's in the office to fill... My favorite item is the movie reel from the library that I got for 50 cents at a yard sale!

And that is how I turned our movies into a decorative item in our living room. It works for now and it was a free solution so it doesn't have to be permanent. 

Bookshelf to Media Console

We did not buy a TV for three whole months after we bought our house. It was painful. My husband and I watched movies on the laptop but no HGTV (we didn't have internet either). We waited to buy a TV till Thanksgiving week so we could get a good deal. Once we bought the TV we still needed something to put it on...We went to Ikea (of course) but I didn't really like any of the TV stands. For one, I was looking for something black to match our coffee and end tables (I know, too matchy-matchy...) and a lot of furniture at Ikea is "black-brown". I am picky. Finally I didn't like the height of some of the TV stands-most were too low for me. We had given up and were in the the warehouse area where we saw a display with the Expedit series bookcases which were still just getting popular two years ago. There are lots of different colors now (Umm I need the turquoise one!). You can see them everyone on Pinterest now. Apartment Therapy even has a list of different uses. At only $70 and in the right height and width we decided right away to get it! The options were white, birch, and black brown so we bought the white one.

In order to fit our DVD player and cable box we just excluded two of the shelves when putting it together. I thought about covering the back with fabric but have left it alone for now. We bought the two baskets (also at Ikea) and the top one holds the power strip and cords. They also now have doors you can add to the Expedit but those are about twice the price as a basket.

I rearrange the shelves occasionally. The A & P are from Hobby Lobby. The gold vases are my favorite Goodwill find. I don't know about you but in our area Target seems to donate their leftover items to Goodwill. These vases are from the Nate Berkus collection and would have cost $50 total from Target but only cost me $8! They still had the price tags on them.

The art over top of the TV is just scrapbook paper! I bought one of those big books filled with scrapbook paper on sale and picked out a few that I liked. It's not fancy but we can always upgrade later. 

Credenza-My Favorite Word

Yesterday I started the living room tour with the couch where I spend all my time...Today I would like to introduce you to the entry way which has my favorite piece of furniture (so far). The credenza!

Our front door opens right into the stairs and the living room. This wall by the stairs (and the door to our bedroom) was empty for almost two years. I knew that I wanted to get an entry way table but could not find one I really loved. I looked at a lot online but most I saw were pretty boring/standard and $100 plus. I pinned and pinned but didn't want to spend more than $100. I finally found this credenza at a yard sale in May this year and my entry way could finally come together! It is a credenza. Not an entry way table, buffet, console, sideboard or any of those lesser words. I like credenza better-it seems fancier. Pascal even calls it a credenza.

I had already started the gallery wall not too long after we moved in. It is obviously not done. I have just been adding to it slowly when I find a frame that I like and is a good price. I added scrapbook paper and fabric to some of the frames for extra color. Besides the tray and wine bottles, I also have a Nate Berkus lamp that matches my two white ones with a light teal Threshold lampshade (both from Target $40 total), and a small metal box for keys that my husband made in his welding class.

But back to the real star...the credenza. Here is the before picture...I am bad at remembering pictures so I had already started disassembling it when I remembered to take these with my phone.

I bought this at a yard sale for $35, which is my most expensive yard sale purchase. However I knew it was what I had been looking for for two years. So somehow I fit it in the back of my car and brought it home.

It was a nice cabinet to start with but not my style. The doors were in good condition and solid wood. The top and sides had some scratches. To start out I used some wood filler to smooth out the deeper scratches on the top and then sanded. I am not a good sander so I always have my husband check it as I tend to give up too quickly. After sanding I used the same process as with this dresser.

I took my time with this piece since I knew I would have it for a long time and that everyone would be able to see it right when they walked in my house. I rolled on the primer and used a small foam brush for the doors. The doors took foreveerrr to prime and paint. Thankfully once I was on the painting stage I was able to set up the doors in the living room and paint during a Bones marathon. I did two coats of the gray paint. It is actually the same paint that we used in our office, which is visible from the living room. It is Wet Pavement in a satin finish by Valspar. On the office walls it looks a bit darker. I think it is the perfect gray and actually looks gray-gray not blueish, purplish, or greenish.

After painting I waited a day and then applied polycrylic with a foam brush to protect the finish. I did two coats of this. I usually just do one on a lesser used piece. Before putting the poly on I did consider using a glaze, like I did with this table, to bring out the detail on the doors. I think that would look really great but for my room I decided I wanted more of a crisp clean look so I left it alone.

Finally we re-attached the hardware. I briefly considered replacing it and then was going to spray paint it. I am so glad I just left it alone! I think it works with the gray and I can always paint it later if I want. The credenza was actually missing one drawer knob when I bought it so I bought two new ones at the store and rotated the old and new. You can barely tell the difference. Buying those two knobs was my only cost besides the $35 as I had all the other supplies.

You can see in the back where the previous owner cut out a whole for their TV cables. Doesn't bother me but it could always be patched. I may paint the inside eventually and would also like to add a shelf for more storage. Yes those are all tea candles. Just stocked up on all the different scents at Ikea. 

After picture again! Love my credenza. And I love how paint can completely change the tone of a piece of furniture.

Where We Live

Besides our bedroom, we spend the majority of our day to day in our living room. On the couch. Everyday when I get home from work I am on that couch. Unless I am painting furniture...We even eat in the living room almost every single day. Scandalous, I know. I love our living room which is a good thing since we spend so much time living in it. It is the most finished room in the house, after the kitchen.

Here is the main area of our living room. I will do a tour of the rest of the room in different posts. 

I need to move the chevron painting down...There used to be a larger picture there.

Most of the furniture in here we bought shortly after we moved in. Before I yard saled/craigslisted/thrifted/repurposed. 

We bought the Kivik couch and chaise from Ikea the day after we moved in while we still had the moving truck. We were originally planning on getting the same covers so we could make it into a sectional but decided to have the chaise separate. I think it would be more functional/comfortable to attach it now but I like having the chaise in the blue material. The couch cover is the Teno Light Grey and is more durable and is still in perfect condition after two years. You can see I need to adjust the cushion covers a bit...The chaise cover is machine washable and the couch cover is dry clean only.

The chaise color also helped us pick out our paint color. We wanted something greyish-blue. It turned out a little more blue then we originally planned but we like it. It is Skyline Steel by Behr in an eggshell finish.

I bought the end tables and coffee table from Target online (on sale of course) a couple months after we moved in. They are pretty good quality and are actually solid wood. I like that they are black and seem a bit Pottery Barn-esque. Now that I am over the whole matchy-matchy thing I want to get new ones...The end tables are bigger than I really need and I don't need storage anymore now that we have the built-in bookcases. Also I tend to just stick things under there when I am "cleaning". I would like a new coffee table too but am hesitant to get anything fancy/nice since we use it like a dinner table...

The chair is also from Target... Its another thing that I am "over" but it works for now.

The lamps I loveeee. Because they are new :) It took me two years to find the right lamps! I bought these lamps in black originally from Target literally an hour before we were having our first dinner party. They were way too small but we had them for two years. I bought at least 3 different pairs of lamps that I brought home but then ended up returning. I would go to Target, TJ Maxx, and HomeGoods at least once a month in the past year looking. My budget was $60 total which was hard. Why are lamps so expensive! I finally found these Nate Berkus lamps with Threshold shades at Target. I had seen the lamps a while ago but they were $50 a piece just for the base. They finally went down to $25 each! With the shades and bases I spent $80 but then I sold the old lamps on Craigslist for $20 so I still made my budget!

The pillows are from Target, TJ Maxx, and Ikea. The big clock was a TJ Maxx find for $20. The pictures to the right of the window were made by my husband. And lastly our lovely window shades! This took a while to find. We wanted shades instead of just decorative curtains because you can see in this window from the street. Also our TV is in here so we didn't want any glare from the window. I was worried that due to the size we would have to get custom shades and that would be expensive...But Amazon came to the rescue and we bought these faux wood blinds for a perfect fit.