Chomping at the bit to make this dream room transformation a reality

I know I still have some unfinished projects in the front sitting room, kitchen and dining room and I won't even get into the laundry list of things I need to do on the second floor, however, I have now set my sights on transforming the den.  Funny how we spend most of our time in this room and I have yet to do anything to it. 

Our back room is an addition and part of the reason we fell head over heels for our house.  We were able to get some much needed extra space that the other homes on or street do not have along with getting our wood burning fireplace which was a must have on the house hunting list.

Let's get right to it.  Here is the den now:

I also came across these from the day we went to look at the house for the first time, seems like an eternity ago! 

And now for the fun part :) Welcome to the inside of my mind:

Den Transformation by joneal on polyvore.com

First off, the paint color. I love the dark grayish blue that gives some warmth to the room and makes it feel cozy like a den should be. I don't have a picture of the plan for the fireplace but I am currently testing some bricks with a liming technique so I will keep you posted on that.

A new sectional is not in the budget just yet but I will replace it one day with a cream slipcovered twill sofa (lucky for me the cats don't seem to bother that material). Oak colored blinds will take the place of the white venetian blinds that we have up now and a distressed wood O will go next to the window. I love the idea of the distressed ivory wood on top of the deep gray paint and hanging next to the oak blinds, such a pretty combo.  Next up and most certainly not in the budget right now, my true love, the Pottery Barn Manhattan leather chair. Drool fest people, have you ever sat in this chair? AMAZING, and it should be for the price tag!

My inspiration picture is in the bottom left corner (sorry for the wacky coloring, not sure what happened there). I plan to knock off the picture arrangement above the couch, the mix of wood tones with light colored mats helps to break up some of the darker coloring in the room.

The mantle and mirror you see in the before/reality pictures above need some jazzing up but first to tackle that fireplace! Enough of me yammering on and on, let me know what you think and if anyone out there has used this liming technique please let me know how it worked for you.

Happy Monday everyone!  Here's to a great week :)

See you swoon,

Souped Up Desk Chair On the Cheap Vol. III

And today is the third installment in my three-part series on transforming inexpensive chairs around my home!  So far, I've shown you the kitchen desk chair and Little's desk chair, which cost about $75 total (for both!).  Last but not least is Big's desk chair.  I ended up finding his chair for $20 at IKEA (the Stefan chair).  Here it is before in a brown-black finish:

I had a ton (and by "ton" I mean 3/4 of a gallon) of navy blue paint left over from Big's dresser and desk project, so I was happy to use a little of it on the chair.  It was really simple: I just primed the chair and then painted it with three coats of the navy blue.  

I decided to upholster the seat to break up all the blue, since his chair and desk were that same navy blue.  I found this navy and white striped fabric at Fabric.com for about $7/yard.  I wanted to customize the chair (and Little's too), so I just used some foam and batting leftover from my ottoman project from over the summer and covered the seat with the foam-batting-fabric.

First, I placed my seats on the foam and traced them with a Sharpie.  I labeled them just to be extra careful.

I cut the foam and then used some spray adhesive to attach the foam to the seats.  Once the glue dried, I placed the seats foam side down on some batting and cut that so there was enough to wrap around the seat bottom.  Finally, I put the seat on the fabric and cut that to size.  I stapled it all under the seat bottom and ... voila!

Here is the chair now:

What do you think of the look?  So that's three chairs transformed for hardly any coin.  The total cost was about $100 for the three ($75 for two at Pottery Barn, $20 for the one at IKEA, $7 for fabric and the remaining supplies and paint and fabric I had on hand)!  Not bad at all.

Have a great weekend! Good luck baking, shopping, and merry-making :)

See you swoon,

What Would Jamie Wear: Christmas Brunch

Every year my husband's family has Christmas brunch at the country club where he used to work and his parents have been members for years.  It is such a fun time to visit and the food is so, SO good!  I usually cannot get past the eggs benedict and mimosas but each year I am so very happy when I leave...and full! 

Brunch is a dressy occassion so every year I find myself trying to figure out what to wear about a month prior to the event.  It's not formal dress dressy but definitely something you want to feel pretty for and and an outfit you are hapy taking pictures in. 

On our last visit to the outlet, Shanna and I actually did more shopping than the usual stop at Pottery Barn (don't get me wrong, we did that too but added a few places).  We actually finished almost all of our Christmas shopping.  Ladies, you know how this goes, one for you...and maybe something for me :)  It is super hard to shop all day for others and not come across something you love too, so in the spirit of giving why not give a little something to yourself along the way?  Anyway, enough of me justifying my purchases and back to showing you the outfit I picked out for brunch this year.  I know it's a lot of black but I softened it a bit with a blush toned cardigan and the sparkly tank is so festive!  I already owned the skinny cords and I have a pair of black boots so my outfit this year didn't break the bank.

Christmas Brunch by joneal featuring a chain bracelet

J Crew sequin tank
$60 - jcrew.com

Superfine long sleeve shirt
$84 - theoutnet.com

High waisted pants
£40 - topshop.com

Miss Selfridge high heels
£50 - missselfridge.com

Morra Designs gold earrings
$95 - calypsostbarth.com

Aamaya by priyanka chain bracelet
$173 - my-wardrobe.com

What do you think?  Would this be something you would wear?  Anyone going to brunch or have a Christmas party coming up that needs help with what to wear?  Let me know, I would love to help!

See you swoon,

Souped Up Desk Chair On the Cheap Vol. II

Up today is part 2 of 3 in a series on how I transformed a bunch of chairs that I scored at great deals for the kids' desks and my kitchen desk! I've already revealed the transformation of the first chair that I got at the Pottery Barn Outlet, which went in my kitchen.  Today is the chair I got for Little's desk.  Here it is before I did a little magic on it:

This chair was free!  It was part of a buy-one-get-one-free sale at the outlet.  Even without that promotion, it was a great deal at only $38 because it had a nick in the back of the frame of the chair, which was really visible (more on that in a second).

It is the Hayden Chair and retails for $249!  I will repeat: I got it for F-R-E-E.  Swooooooon.  Of course it would not do as-is.  First thing I did was address the nick in the back.  I just used a little wood putty over it, let it dry, sanded it down and it was good as new.  

Once the repair was taken care of, I decided to paint it pink!  I have 5 cans of "ballet slipper" spray paint that I scored from Sherwin Williams a few months ago. They were liquidating their supply of several colors and I guess there wasn't a real demand for a soft pink.  I got the cans on clearance for $1.50 each I think.  I knew I'd find a use for them, so I grabbed them.  Even though I had really bad luck with spraying chairs before, I decided to try it again.  I reasoned that this time I had more than enough paint.  So I used some oil based primer and then braved the spray paint.   I am happy to report it worked fine - I just used 3 cans of the paint for full, even coverage.  See?

I wanted to upholster the seat and used a pink toile that I've had laying around in my stash for years.  {I'll do a tutorial on how I made the hard seat super cushy soft and pretty when I post the reveal of Big's desk chair soon.} 

Here's the whole she-bang all together again!

It's come a long way, baby!  Here's a quick before and after for you:

before

after

before

after

What do you think?  I am thrilled with my two chairs so far.  Up next will be Big's desk chair complete with tutorial on how to upholster the seat.  Stay tuned! 

See you swoon,

This is it. As promised, the final front door post

I bet you thought this day would never arrive!  Alas, it has and it was worth every darn second I had to wait to complete this project.
My neighbor, husband, and I worked so hard on this door, I would have never guessed when we started working on it in May that I would be showing you the final pictures in December.  I wish it was as easy as just popping the door into the open frame but it was a lot more involved than that.  We ripped out massive wood pieces, nails, and stone to make this baby fit back into the opening and then making sure the door would close was a challenge in itself. 

I am happy to present to you the final product :)  Now I have to get the energy to replace the back door when the weather warms up next spring, I hope that is enough time to recover. 

Door before (I know I have shown these to you once or twice before):

And after demo:

After six and a half months, DONE.  Painted, spackled, caulked, sanded and then sanded five billion more times:

Here is a shot of the pretty threshold that my neighbor made.  I stained it with the lightest stain I could find, it is doesn't match exactly but it still works well with the wood floor.  I am so happy with how this turned out.

Have you been working on any projects that have taken much longer than expected?  I would love to see some pictures of what you are working on and then the finished project!  Send them our way so we can feature all of your hard work.

See you swoon,