New Years Redo

As I mentioned earlier, I want to share some of our family room "redo".
I wish I took some before pictures.  It was very dark and dreary. 

And it was very cluttered!  
First step was de cluttering (New Years Resolution!)- getting rid of all the stuff I had that had piled up over the past few months and clearing out and starting with a clean slate.  

I decided to do the room redo via outlet stores.  Trying to save money where ever we can.
...It proved to be a bit difficult because you have to curate a collection that works together with the bits and pieces of returned and discontinued items that they have on hand on that particular day.  
And you have to check it over real good to see if it was returned or just a discontinued item.  Always ask the sales associate, they usually know the reason.  
Sometimes it is a minor flaw that doesn't matter when you look at the price you are getting it for and what you can do with it.

We started with my favorite store - that I can't ever afford at retail, but at the outlet it was much more reasonable.  
Arhaus Loft outlet in Cleveland.
I knew that they have very high quality furniture so even if it was returned it would still be of high quality.

Here we scored a new table and chairs and a great sleeper sofa (didn't need a sleeper, but what an added bonus!), two chairs and a leather ottoman.  Great deals! 

We were there all day moving things together and back and forth.  (thanks to my little sister for helping me do it!)
While we were there (all day), they dropped the price of this table by several hundred dollars!

We couldn't pass it up, and now its one of my favorite thing we got.
The table had a tiny little chip in it on the underside that didn't matter because it is a very rustic wood table. I put some dark Old English on the spot and you would never know.

The chair had a really ugly yellow slipcover and the couch didn't have any slipcover at all.  We threw a blanket over them to start with and then we had to order the new slipcovers from Arhaus and we were told that it would take 14 WEEKS and they were very expensive...

So, I got online and started researching.  
I came across a wonderful blog while researching http://evolutionofstyleblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/slipcovers-arhaus-vs-ballard.html 
that mentioned that Ballard Design slipcovers fit Arhaus furniture.  
And, that they have Outlets where you can get them very cheap!
So I googled again... and low and behold.. there is a Ballard Outlet down in Cincinatti where I was headed later that week to hit the Ikea (another of my favorite stores, where I get all my curtains from... so cheap!)  It was literally right across the street and I never knew!
So I headed down and I couldn't believe it.  

They had slipcovers and they were 75% off the SALE price! 
So, I got slipcovers for the chair and the sofa for less than $100!
Again, you had to chose from what they had, which was slim pickings, but I managed to make two mismatched covers work together with pillows (40% off sale price) and other accessories, all at a very discounted price!

Then we had to choose a paint color.  For me, that is soooo hard.  
Even though I am a designer by trade, I find it very difficult to choose paint colors for my home that I like once the whole room is painted and in the many different lights through out the day.
I spend more money in samples than I do on actual paint.  
We chose Rockport Gray from Benjamin Moore.  And so far I really like it!
Here are some pictures of the finished room.
It is a much lighter and a more colorful room than we have ever had.

Now to keep the resolution... of NO CLUTTER!
I have to get the whole family on board for that!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday!

We had lots of snow and it has been very cold, but very pretty.  

We got to see all of our families and we had a lovely time!
We had great Holiday, but I must say, it was not too relaxing!....
We decided this year, that our gift to each other would be redoing our family room.
Last year we redid the kids room and the bathroom.... now it was our turn.
In addition, one of my New Years resolutions that I started before the New Years was 
de-cluttering my house.  
Over the past year I have just let the piles of papers and magazines grow and grow.  
They had taken over my home and made it very stressful to come home to the piles.
I took two weeks off over the Holidays and I decided to take back my home.

I will be sharing with you this week pictures of our family room redo!

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday and wishing you a wonderful, happy, healthy New Year!

gentlemen...start your engines.....

One of the sweet treats my daughter and I made for the sale were these little candy Santa sleighs.
You can pick what ever candy you like and create lovely little gifts that are great for the kids to give to each other or sweet little teacher gifts.

Start with a full size candy bar and hot glue the candy cane sled rails (as you see at the bottom of this picture).  I used my two favorites: Reese's and Kit Kats. 
I secure the rails with a little extra hot glue on the sides.
Then pile up the mini candy bars.  Add a  pretty ribbon and a little bow.  
I finished mine off with these cute little chocolate Santa's I found at Aldi's.

 And yes,  a glass of wine is always nice to accompany any creation :)

a huge thank you!!

Wow!  We are humbled!  

We want to say THANK YOU to everyone who came over the weekend to visit us.  

We thought the pouring down rain would keep everyone away!

It didn't!!

It was so great to see so many old friends and make some new ones!

Thank you to all our wonderful friends and customers who stood in the rain.

Thanks to my darling son who worked the muddy parking lot and made sure no one got stuck! 

Thanks to my sweet daughter who helped me so much.

Thanks to my wonderful French Hen Farm crew, which without you this wouldn't be possible...

Thanks to my sisters, Becky and Sandy; my cousins Judy, Jane and Bonnie; and my friends Anne, Cindy, Kim, Carrin and Jeff, Jenni and AJ, Mechele; and my mom, who instilled this love of what we do here.
And a very special thanks to my hubby who helps me every day and loves this as much as I do!

fa la la la la!

hope to see you tomorrow night or saturday!