Uncle Rico's 24 Piece Set

Jonah just put himself down for a nap 2 hours before he usually does.  Unheard of.  I guess the poor kid was tired.

So I got my act together and took pictures of the family room.  I actually had it clean AND the sun was out?!   Meant to be.

Okay, here's the room from the MLS pictures.  Cute but with the red and dark brown which permeate throughout the house.

Here's one from Aaron's final walk through of the house before we closed.

Here's how it looks today.  We started by painting all the walls white.  And I love the light!!  The walls in the kitchen look more green in the picture than they look in real life.

We needed to buy new furniture because we didn't have anything for this room really at all.  That's what happens when you go from a 1300 square foot home to...well, anything.  The couch came from a GREAT store in Portland called City Liquidators. They carry everything from art supplies to bedroom sets from kitchen sinks to lawn decorations.  I could wander this 3 level warehouse for hours.  It is a fascinating collection of junk/great things/one-of-a-kind decor. They actually construct some of their own furniture and so we bought this sectional from them.  The color is "taupe" but it's more green than anything.  Oh well.  I still like it.  S.u.p.e.r. comfy and made with velvet microfiber.  Yum.

The curtain material I actually bought at Joanns!   I had scoured the internet and found much more fun patterns and bolder colors but then I realized I liked the more subdued tones of this floral print.  And the colors were exactly what I wanted.  It tied in the couch with the turquoise.  After a Super Sale and Christmas gift card I only paid $33 for 8 yards of this heavy linen decorator fabric.  Score!

The coffee and couch table are from World Market (love their stuff!) and the Godfather horse's head is Target Clearance section.  I bought the two little gold frames from Michaels for a $1 each. And the used to be in front of the most wonderful mercury glass owl from West Elm that Genet bought me for Christmas.  But some toddler feet knocked it over and it splattered to a thousand pieces.  I still can't talk about it.


Lamp is from Ikea.  I had bought a pendant one of the same style almost 2 years ago, but since the electrical didn't gel with a pendant, I just switched it to a floor lamp.  The word art is one of my favorite DIY pieces. You can see how I did it {HERE}.

I was going to paint the brick white which I really like the look of, but Aaron preferred the brick as is.  I listened and really like it too.  Adds a little depth to the room., don't you think?

The mantel mirror literally was left by the previous owners of our Seattle home. Can't waste a good mirror, right?  I got the greenery from Michaels years ago, metal pig from Pier One 10 years ago, the "urn" as Aaron lovingly calls it from TJMaxx and the white ceramic flower from Michaels for another $1.

I bought these three pictures from Groopdealz, one of those email-a-deal-everyday places.  I chose the colors and states.  The artist/seller has an Etsy store found {HERE}.  I got them for a deal at half the price, but I still think they are cute!  Apparently I should have gotten an Indiana AND an Ohio but Aaron will just have to . :)  And I wasn't ready for an Oregon one quite yet.

Lampshade: Target Clearance section. Gotta love it!

I of course am not quite done with this room.  I've been looking for a new buffet/dresser for the TV stand.  I want to raise the TV up a foot or two and then paint the buffet grey or something to balance out this side of the room.  I have literally been to 9-10 different thrift stores in the area over the last 6 months and they have NO furniture.  It's pathetic.  I've realized this a Craigslist town and I'm trying to jump on the bandwagon.  I have found pieces I could refinish but they are either more money than I want to pay, too far, or the timing just isn't right to go pick it up.  Someday the stars will align. 

I did the board and batten myself.  Bought a 1/2 inch-thick board at Home Depot, had them cut it into 4 inch strips, primed them all white and then measured and carfeully cut them with our circular saw.  And once I got over my fear of losing a finger or worse, it went really fast.  (My cousin's wife actually lost half her finger a few months ago from just such a run in with a circular saw.  She is amazing and I LOVE their new blog picture.  You can check her story {HERE}. )  They nailed up like butta' and then I caulked the heck out of it and painted it up. Viola.

I'm thinking of putting one more horizontal row near the bottom of the wall right over the electrical sockets but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

It was a fun and satisfying project.

So again, before.





And after.

Aaron named this blog post. Don't ask me why. Don't ask me how it ties in with the family room. Don't ask me why I actually used it. I asked for help and this is what I got. I think I am still off kilter from Jonash asking for a nap. Oh well. Life's too short to care about titles actually going along with the post, right?