Good Mood (Board): Living Room

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We’re participating in Cassity’s Good Mood (Board) series, this time working in the living room.

Yesterday, Cassity, Beth, and Ashley shared their mood boards.   Today, I have the privilege to post along with Allison from House of Hepworths and Cristin from Simplified Bee.

Before we share our mood board, take a look at our inspiration photo.

I’ve had this bookshelf saved for several months now, and I still love it.  The styling is fantastic, and that sunny yellow back is divine.  To get a similar preppy and happy look in your home, stick with bold yellows, neutral gray, oil rubbed bronze metals, white ceramics, and nature inspired elements.  Here’s our interpretation of it:

Paint the walls First Snowfall by Benjamin Moore (1618) or Silver Crest (1583) for a soft blue.  Or neutral walls painted with Heaven (2118) or Gray Owl (2137) will make the yellow pop even more.  Delightful Yellow (335) or Sunburst (2023-40) are perfect yellow accents.

For the major pieces, I like to stick with neutrals.  This tailored sofa from World Market has clean lines, which should translate well over the years.  A bluish-gray patterned rug adds a pattern with out being distracting and taking attention away from yellow accents.  Keep a few light weight chairs, like these wishbone chairs, for additional seating to pull around the room.

Storage is a necessity in any living space.  Ikea’s Expidet storage system is cheap, good-looking, and easily customized.  Back the unit with thin plywood or MDF painted a sunny yellow for a splash of color you can change out with a coat of paint.

Give this side table a coat of oil rubbed bronze spray paint for a darker finish.  An industrial metal and wood coffee table on casters not only provides warmth, but you’ll love being able to move it around easily for large gatherings or game nights.

Give the room your personal touch with accessories.  Carry the bold yellow throughout the room in splashes, like these chic lamps.  Etsy is a wonderful place to shop for hand-made home accessories.  A bird pillow cover from Joom is cute and cozy.  Balance the cute with a gray designer pillow from Milk and Cookies, another Etsy favorite of mine.  Or try our your sewing skills by making this felt circle pillow.  While I love hand-made accessories, CB2’s rise pillow is great, too.

Last but not least, deck your walls with nature inspired art.  Our bird, tree, and feather gallery wall has all the colors of the inspiration: black, white, yellow, and blue.  Hang a deer head above the fireplace or in a corner for a dose of fun.

For more mood board fun, check out Design Dump and the rest of the mood boards tomorrow.

Monday, November 28th:
Tuesday, November 29th:
Wednesday, November 30th:
Thursday, December 1:
12.  Link Party  for your boards here at Remodelaholic

Handmade Holidays: Glass Ball Ornaments

Published on by Our Humble Abode19 Comments

Christmas is only 27 days away, so we thought it would be fun to share our handmade ornaments.  I decided on a ‘Winter Wonderland’ theme this year.  So snow, snowflakes, trees, pine cones, feathers, reindeer, birds, owls, and polar bears were the main focus.  Some are super simple, others are a little more complex, but all are cheap.  I thought we should start with the easiest ones.

To start, find clear glass (or plastic) ball ornaments.  HoLo (Hobby Lobby) sells a twelve pack for $7.99, but Christmas stuff was 50% off making the balls four bucks.  While at HoLo, I bought a package of brown and teal feathers, also half off, costing $1.00.

I bought the feathers for the teal colored ones, so I pulled those out.

Then, it’s as simple as removing the cap, tossing a few feathers inside, replacing the cover and hanging on the tree.  Ben said these are his favorite.  I kind of agree, but I still have a few more ideas so we’ll see.

I bought the iridescent balls, but I think I’d buy plain glass ones for the feathers if I could do it again.  The coating makes it difficult to see the feathers clearly.

After making six feather ornaments, I made six snow filled balls.  Instead of spending money on fake snow, I poured a little Epsom salt inside.

For the snow ornaments, I think the iridescent finish is fabulous.

Once you’ve filled the ornaments, hang those suckers on the tree, too and admire the sparkle.  Yes, I am a raccoon.  I like shiny things, so Christmas is the best time to appreciate all things sparkly.

If you’re looking to keep your Christmas decorations cheap, these are perfect for you.  I spent $4 on the glass balls and another dollar on the feathers for a total of five bucks for twelve ornaments.  Each ball cost $.41 cents.  Score.

The boys and I put up the Christmas tree this weekend while Ben installed our upper cabinets.  We still have ornaments to make, so here’s a fun bokeh picture of the tree.

What did you do this weekend?  Set up your Christmas tree?  Did you make ornaments?  Do some Black Friday shopping?

Gimme a Giveaway: Eloise Renouf

Published on by Our Humble Abode100 Comments

This giveaway is no longer accepting entries.  See who won here.

It’s Black Friday, but that doesn’t mean you have to leave your house to snag something great.  In fact, we have something great to offer today, coming all the way from England.  Eloise Renouf is an artist with a unique style.  I immediately loved what I saw.  So much that I had to have this Passing Shower print.  I still have to find the perfect frame to fit in our stair gallery wall, but soon it will adorn our walls.

Eloise has tons of other great prints, like Blue Clouds:

Autumn Leaves:

Poster Flowers:

And Line Print:

This I Love Winter Trees print would be a perfect art piece on your winter mantle.

Now, how about the usual details.

The Goods: One original, signed A4 sized print.

To Enter: Subscribe to follow Our Humble A{Bowe}d, if you’re not already.  To subscribe, click the “Sign Me Up!” button under “Be the first to know.”  Once you’ve subscribed, leave a comment, which can (but doesn’t have to) include our Just for Fun question.

Just for Fun: Tell us your favorite thing about the winter season.  Do you love the snow?  Cuddling by a warm fire?  Christmas?

For additional entries:

1. Add Eloise Renouf to your Etsy favs, come back and leave a comment telling us what your favorite item is.

2. Like Our Humble A{Bowe}d on Facebook, come back and leave another comment.

Contest Closes: Thursday, December 1st at 11:59 pm, central time.

Number of Winners: One!

Ships: Anywhere on the globe.

Other Info: We will select the winner using random.org and announce on Friday, December 2nd.  Good luck!!

Thankful for…

Published on by Our Humble Abode1 Comment

You, dear readers and our sponsors, IHeart Organizing and S and S Babee.

To show our appreciation for all of you, we’ve designed a new, completely custom cut out, similar to our Family Tree Cut Out.  For a more personalized art piece, we’ve added this cut out, The Whole Family Tree, complete with each family member’s name.  Jen, this one is for you:

We’ll have to discuss cut out and card stock colors, but the basics are there.  Jenna at S and S Babee, you’ve got one coming your way, too.

Friends, we didn’t forget about you.  Which is why we’re offering you a 30% discount on all orders placed now through Tuesday, November 29th.  Enter the code THANKS30 at checkout to receive the discount.

Thank you all for your never-ending support and encouragement.  We’re thankful for each and every one of you.   Happy Thanksgiving!

All Oiled Up

Published on by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

And ready for the body building competition.  No, not me, our counters are all oiled up.  Now they’re ready for competition.  Last week, Ben sanded the filled areas, which means we could finally coat every counter with mineral oil.  We still have more oiling to do, but they’re looking good so far.

So far, we’ve applied four coats of oil, letting it soak in completely.  Between each coat, we lightly ‘sand’ the surface with super fine steel wool.

Our goal is to get the counters well oiled before installing the upper cabinets.  It will be much more difficult to oil thoroughly with the cabinets resting on the counters.

While the surface isn’t impermeable, it does hold up well.  Right now, we’re careful not to leave water spots or other semi-liquid stuff on the counters for too long.

As for our home-made wood filler, it worked quite well.  The seam on the peninsula is barely visible.

A small crack on the counter by the stove filled in nicely, too.  Ben accidentally hit the cabinet with the sander, so I’ll have to repaint this cabinet bay.

The peninsula had a crack as well.  These are from the center of the tree, but we couldn’t cut this out.

Because the crack wraps around the end of this piece, the color difference is most visible at the end cut.

Ben had to make a few special cuts by the stove because the top sits above the wood.  We also cut a 45 degree angle so the counter didn’t stick out beyond the stove.

Sorry for the lack of kitchen progress posts, too.  We have had cold weather, so Ben can’t do much work in the garage.  Yesterday, we finally had a day above freezing, but we used the nice weather to rake leaves.  Fortunately Wednesday is our trash pick up.  I bet our garbage men loved us because we left them this little gift.

With about ten more bags on the other side of our driveway.

What about you, how has your weather been?  Raked your leaves yet?  Do your kids request photo shoots when you pull out your camera?  Do they request to see their pictures?