Sea Side Living Room

I have been working on a project in the living room since August.  I was trying to make the living room a bit nautical like a sea side cottage. Cool colors and white covered sofas and some home made wide striped cushion covers.  I may not live by the ocean anymore but I can pretend, right?  Well, life got crazy, then horrible, then sad and now it just sort of is. A blend of sad and hope that the future will be better.   Well anyway, I decided to finish what I started.  I am so sorry it is so late and now on the 2nd day of fall here in the U.S., I am doing my summer living room post.I actually started with the couches.  I found them on the Ikea website and loved them.  They are the Ektorp white slip covered sofa and love seat.  I had been looking for awhile on Craigslist for these sofas or something similar but I could only find a dark gray or a reddish color and that was not at all what I wanted for my seaside shabby chic kind of cottage feel. 

These sofas are great. The slip covers can be thrown in the wash and hung out to dry in the sunshine as they get dirty and it is as easy as can be.  The Table in the first photo is a set of wicker plant stands with a wooden shelve from the cabinet in the master bedroom that was extra.  It makes a great little table. 

The end table I got at an auction that friends of ours had when they moved to Africa.  I used Annie Sloan's paint on it and you can see the process that I used here.  The lamp I found at a thrift store and bought the plain lamp shade for it and dressed it up with fabric roses that we made and applied.  I have a post here about how we did it. The shell frame we bought at Ross and the photo coasters we got at Belk for my mom for a Christmas gift.  The slipcovers we made with white and dark navy blue striped fabric that we had in the house.  We usually use the fabric for bunting at the 4th of July but I thought I would use it for these to make the room a bit festive for the summer. Under the table is a fabric lined basket full of books to read as you sit and relax on the couch. The back wall is covered in 8x10 photographs of the family.  

I went through and picked the ones that made me smile or had a sweet memory attached to it.  The frames are mostly a mismatched batch of oak frames that I spray painted to look similar.  The last four are frames that we bought at Ross and painted. The oar we bought at Burke's.  We bought one for the baby's room as well but it is red and is holding his sailor hat and his nautical towels. The large brown side table is from a yard sale.  It is a restoration hardware table I believe.  On the table is a drink holder that looks like a large canning jar.  We bought this last summer at Sam's Club. There is a basket on the table with sea shells from a long past trip to the sea and a picture of our family apple picking in the orchard. The wall unit holds some of our favorite things,our love of many books and beautiful nests that we have found while gardening with blown out quail eggs.  

The jar at the top of the wall unit has blown turkey and chicken eggs topped with a nest of quail eggs. The table is a piece we found at a yard sale and the chairs we found a listing online on Craigslist.  The end large chairs we found at Ross.  The candle holder on the table came from Kirkland.                On the fireplace, we have a garland of shells and star fish that we got at Big Lots a few years ago.  On the mantle, there is a sailboat that we found at Burke's that added the sea side feel.  The large framed mirror above the fireplace we found at a yard sale in our neighborhood.  It used to be gold but I used Annie Sloan's paint and made it shabby chic. Click HERE for the post on how I did the mirror.  The paint on the walls is called Crocodile Tears and if anyone is interested in using it I will find out the brand name (I can't remember right now). We know that we use the no VOC paint.  

 
We bought a vinyl piece for the photo wall. It was sort of the inspiration for that wall.  We bought it at Hobby Lobby. You can sign up on the website for coupons and they will notify you of sales.  The coupons are on average 40% off.  Love that store! You can get some really beautiful things there on sale for great prices.  We have a couple of them locally so we have never used the online store.  This was our first time using the vinyl lettering and although we were a bit nervous it was really pretty easy to do.  Just make sure that you lay out the wording as it goes before you do it on the wall so you don't get confused as you are putting it up on the wall.  

 Tutorials:

Rose Lamp
Shabby Chic Table
Shabby Chic Mirror

DIY Lamp Shade Re-Do

We decided to re-do this lamp and shade we picked up at a local thrift store. This was super easy and actually pretty fun- that is if you like making things. What you will need:

Needle 

Thread 

Strips Of Muslin

Glue Gun

Lamp Shade 

and a bit of burlap or other fabric.

Start with a circle patch of fabric and begin sewing the strips in tiny circles branching out until you reach the desired size.

When your done tuck the end under your rose and stitch in place. Knot your thread and snip. You can add a leaf of burlap if you want but be careful because burlap frays a lot. 

Figure out where you are going to put the roses and heat your glue gun. 

Dab a bit of glue either on the roses or the lamp shade itself. Either will work. Press the roses quickly onto the lamp shade and hold in place until the glue hardens. And your done! You have a brand new lamp. 

Shabby Roses, Burlap, Muslin, Shabby Chic, Cottage Chic, Feminine, 

DIY Shabby Chic Mirror Re-do

We found this great mirror at a yard sale for $5. Isn't it pretty? 

The only problem was that the gold didn't match the house... at all. So we decided to paint it. We took paper and spread it over the glass then taped it down to keep the paint off of it.

Then we took a dry wash cloth and dusted the frame just to make sure there was no dust or dirt on it. (don't worry we did put paper down under the mirror so we wouldn't get paint on the floor)

Closer shot of the details on the mirror

We used Annie Slones white paint, it took about two coats to cover the gold.

After the paint was dry we applied the clear Annie Sloan's wax to the frame and let it dry.

Here are some closer shots of some of the details on the mirror.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

Annie Sloan, Shabby Chic, Chalk Paint, Furniture Make Over, White Mirror, Crafting, Decorating, DIY,  Furniture Re do, decor

Shabby Chic Side Table

We bought this little table from our friend's auction when they were moving to Sierra Leone, Africa to become missionaries.  I liked the lines of the table but it was black and the room is a little dark so I decided to work on it a bit.

I found Mrs. Cottage's CeCe Caldwell Chalk paint in white and decided to use it.  I like CeCe Caldwell because it is easy to use, easy to clean up and is non-toxic.  I also love it because the paint names are after places here in America and that just makes me smile for some reason.  :)

I took the table and put plastic under it and began the first coat of CeCe's paint in a white.  It goes on sort of thin so I knew that I would need a couple of coats.  I was not wanting a solid white, though.  I was looking for a shabby French looking table.

From there I just let it dry and went into the kitchen to put on a loaf of bread.  Have to keep busy!

Then I did a second coat of paint.  After that coat dried I sanded it a bit to give it some age.

Here it is after I sanded through to the black in spots.  

A quick coat of wax to seal it and that's it! It was super easy and I really love the way it turned at.