Living Room Reveal

You have no idea how long I've been waiting to be able to do this post. I started redecorating my living room over A YEAR ago. It has taken this long to pull the pieces together {and of course there are still some tweaks to be made here and there}, but I am finally in a place where I can say, "It's good."

Let me show you where this living room pretty much started. This is in 2010, though we moved into the house in 2008. The decor was pretty much the same all that time.

You can see the room isn't that large in size, nor does it get a lot of good natural light. Let's just say I wasn't really thinking when I decided to paint the space a medium taupe/brown. It literally felt like a dungeon in the evenings, and the daytime wasn't that great either. I'm a bright, natural-light-lovin' girl.

The first steps I took when I started redecorating last year, was to pick some accent colors that were bright and cheery, unlike my earth tone go-to's of the past. So naturally, pink and yellow it was! {To the discontent of my husband, but it has grown on him as the space has evolved into my original vision.}

Even with these bright changes, the paint color in the room still made it feel dark. I knew we had to go lighter. I thought a nice light gray would be just the right fit, plus I had wanted to paint the kitchen that color too ever since our remodel of that late last year. So here you go...{beware: pic overload!}

I'm sure you noticed the large blank wall above the couch. Before we painted, I actually had all the wall pictures in one large gallery there, but it was a little busy and I really need something to fill the small walls, so I thought splitting the frames up into three different galleries was the best thing. My plan with the large wall is to put my artistic skills to use and make a custom painting on canvas. I will keep you posted on that.

Overall, I am so much happier about the space. It is fun, bright and bold...a true reflection of me. I want our boys to enjoy a happy space...it is modern, yet playful at the same time, and has some personal touches - i.e. my artwork, Tanner's artwork and some DIY pieces. The couch doesn't really go so well anymore, but we are not in the position to get a new one any time soon, so it will have to do...and that La-Z Boy, well it's an eyesore and doesn't really match, but Jake needs a comfy chair in front of the TV. One day it will be replaced with something better. So other than those few things, this room is pretty much done! It feels so good to say that.

Info/Sources:

Paint: HGTV Brand at Sherwin Williams in "Silverlight" - This was the most gray-gray...without purple, blue or green hues in the shade of gray we wanted. I'd say it's a light-medium gray.
Yellow Console Table: Crate & Barrel - but I got it on Craigslist!
3 Paintings in a Row: My artwork
White Frames: Misc. from Walmart, Target, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, etc.
Large White Mimosa Quatrefoil Frames: ZGallerie
Magenta Accent Chair: Overstock
Floral Pillows: TJ Maxx
Pallet Art: DIY Project
Faux Ivory Coral: ZGallerie
Yellow Lamp Bases: Target
White Lamp Shades: Target


So what do you think? Please remember to "pin" it if you love it! xoxo

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Trash To Treasure: Decorative Mirror

Some of you may know, I used to have a blog called [just had] A Bright Idea where I focused mostly on interior design & decor and some DIY-ing. When I started Style Oyster, I wanted to incorporate those things along with my love of fashion and all things, well, stylish. Unfortunately, leaving that blog for a new url posed it's challenges. I lost the readers I had acccumulated over the 6 months of having the blog as well as the content...but wait, that content is NOT lost! Thanks to Blogger, I was able to move it over to Style Oyster. However, it was a little outdated (the wording in some, etc.) and of course the pictures were all tagged with my JHABI logo (and a few with even older blog logos than that! I had some name change issues...) I am putting this paragraph here as a preface to these posts because even though they are from the past, they are still projects that took a long time and are dear to my heart and I didn't want to lose them when I officially take my old blog off the Internet. So I apologize to those of you who have followed me since [just had] A Bright Idea, as you will be experiencing some deja vu, but I know some of you are new and this may all be new content to you. So bear with me, I plan on posting these once a week until they are all on Style Oyster. Thank you so much, and I do hope you enjoy. xoxo

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A few months back, the neighborhood next to us had a community yard sale. I decided to stroll over there with my boys and check out some of them to see if I could find any good DIY-worthy items. I found this decorative mirror for $3.00 {bargained down from $5.00!}

This of course is a picture of it after I taped off the mirror part.

Not diggin' the gold color so much, I decided a nice bright sunny yellow would make it a stand-out piece and make it appear a little more modern.

So I pulled out a can of yellow gloss spray paint and went to work. I did about four light layers to make sure I had nice coverage and to be sure I got all of the crevices.

Here is how it turned out:

I just realized based on the reflection that this picture is sideways. But oh well, it looks the same either way! You got to see how this all came together in my living room gallery post. The living room is really coming together and I just can't wait to have everything in place and ready to show to all of you.

So are you taking on any DIY projects lately? Any projects completed - big or small? What do you think of this mirror transformation?

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Playroom / Home Office Wall Art

A long while ago, hubby found six of these pictures of trains up in our attic - must have been randomly left there from previous house owners. At the time, he had suggested hanging them in Tanner's room {Breckin was but a sparkle in our eyes back then} and I declined because Tanner has the surf/beach theme going on and trains simply would not go. Because the matte in the frames was made of colored rattan, I thought they were kind of beachy and maybe I could do something else in place of the trains that would go with the theme of his room.

Well, long story short, I never got around to that. They've been sitting around being moved from closet to closet ever since.

Now that we are putting together the home office/play room/workout area, I thought they would be great to personalize and put on the walls. I bought two cans of spray paint, one of each of our accent colors, pink and teal. I decided to spray the rattan those colors.

The yellow was for something else...

But first, I of course primed them.

The rattan took 2-3 good coats of spray paint, drying about an hour in between coats. It pretty much sucked up the first coat and I wanted to make sure it had a thick even finish, not spotty.

Since the neutral tones in the room will be black, white and gray, I decided to paint the frames white {they were originally black, and I had already painted them white long ago when I thought I was doing something with them.} And the small frame around the center picture would be painted black.

It took me a little while to decide what I wanted in those small center squares. I figured they had so much color already with the rattan, I wanted to keep the center pictures black and white. I wanted it to be classy, yet playful to fit the overall purpose of the room. So -----

Black handprints of the boys! Perfect! {Plus, they had fun getting to be a part of Mommy's project and I think they like seeing a part of themselves in the room - Tanner at least, Breckin is a little too young to understand!}

Those middle prints are ones I made on the computer and cut to size. The one on the left has the shape of the state of SC and says "Our Family was made in Charleston, SC." And the one on the right says "Little Boys Leave Smudges On Your Heart" - I thought that one was fitting for a group of handprint pictures!

I'm really happy with how this room is turning out...it's a total creative outlet room {art studio/office/play/exercise room!} and I wanted the style of it to reflect that. I get to take more risks in this room and play around with it more.

The Making of a Picture Gallery

Some of you may know, I used to have a blog called [just had] A Bright Idea where I focused mostly on interior design & decor and some DIY-ing. When I started Style Oyster, I wanted to incorporate those things along with my love of fashion and all things, well, stylish. Unfortunately, leaving that blog for a new url posed it's challenges. I lost the readers I had acccumulated over the 6 months of having the blog as well as the content...but wait, that content is NOT lost! Thanks to Blogger, I was able to move it over to Style Oyster. However, it was a little outdated (the wording in some, etc.) and of course the pictures were all tagged with my JHABI logo (and a few with even older blog logos than that! I had some name change issues...) I am putting this paragraph here as a preface to these posts because even though they are from the past, they are still projects that took a long time and are dear to my heart and I didn't want to lose them when I officially take my old blog off the Internet. So I apologize to those of you who have followed me since [just had] A Bright Idea, as you will be experiencing some deja vu, but I know some of you are new and this may all be new content to you. So bear with me, I plan on posting these once a week until they are all on Style Oyster. Thank you so much, and I do hope you enjoy. xoxo

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As you might know, I have been working hard on redecorating my living room over the last few months. It is mostly complete, but many of the walls were left bare as the artwork I had up previously did not go with the new color scheme.

However, the largest wall space, which is above the couch, was left completely bare. I spent weeks searching Pinterest for inspiration. I knew I wanted to put together a wall gallery. I also went to buy various white frames as I mostly had black and brown. I definitely wanted the white to help make my overall color scheme really "pop".

Once I had an assortment of frames and the pictures I wanted to use, I spent some time rearranging the frames on the floor until I had an arrangement I liked. (I recommend doing this before nailing holes in the wall and then changing your mind.)

After I had the arrangement set up how I liked it, I went to putting it on the wall. The mirror was already on the wall, so I used that as my center. In the end, I ended up with this:

It's a tad off from the original plan, but I still love it. Here is a wider view of this portion of the room:

So what do you think? (And hey, you just got a pretty big peek at how the living room is starting to look!) Oh, psst...I got the frames from Walmart and Target (always good deals to be found!)

I plan on adding to it as time goes on...but this is definitely a nice start and it already makes a huge difference in the space. I hated staring at that empty wall every day.

I'm so excited about how this room is turning out! Have you got a nice gallery wall to share? Post a link in your comment!

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Wall Galleries & Floating Shelves

I am feeling inspired by all the amazing wall galleries and floating shelf arrangements I've been seeing on Pinterest. I've been redecorating our living room the past couple of months and currently have some bare walls to fill.

Originally Pinned via www.charmhome.blogspot.com - Lots of great arrangement ideas!

Originally Pinned via www.imonmail.com - This would be great on either side of my fireplace!

Originally Pinned via www.thehouseofsmiths.com - I absolutely love this and the way the accent color pops!

Originally Pinned via www.ana-white.com - I am in love with long, white floating shelves!

Originally Pinned via www.apartmenttherapy.com - I love beach-inspired wall art. This is well done.

Originally Pinned via Kim Leshinski - This is a fun setup - so creative!

Do you have a great wall arrangement to show off? Link it up in a comment for me! I can't wait to finish mine and share them all with you. Thanks to Pinterest, I've got loads of inspiration to work with. Follow my Pinterest Boards! Happy Pinning!