Room Makeover {Inspiration}

Finding inspiration for a room is tricky sometimes.  The original motivation behind the  living room makeover was 2 fold:

• Wanted an 8×10 rug
• Wanted to incorporate Van Gogh prints my grandfather gave me a long time ago

The 8×10 rug thing was a big ticket item on the living room to do list. I bought the green 5×7 rug for the Austin condo almost 4 years ago from the Pottery Barn Outlet. The green rug worked with well with the brown couch, but as you might recall, the brown couch now lives at a consignment store here in Fort Lauderdale. (It wouldn’t fit in the elevator.) It was a good rug, but Sunny needed an 8×10, badly. I’ve been searching. I searched Amazon, Overstock, and I loved the IKEA Stockholm rug, but it was not in stock at our local IKEA, so I sadly gave up on him. Ultimately, they were all too expensive, and I hadn’t fallen in love with anything. The subtle search has been happening for a months now, and on my birthday weekend, I decided I was bringing home some rugs just for a test run. I needed to settle the rug debacle happening in my brain once and for all. Did I really want an 8×10? Did I just not like the green one anymore? Would a 5×7 work? What colors look best in the room and work with the dark grey fancy futon? I’m visual, and really need to see it in my space. I went to Home Goods, Marshalls, T.J. Maxx, and then Target, where I found this bad boy:

An 8×10 rug for $104.98… I’ll certainly give it a try. And that’s the end of the rug story. It’s the only one I even brought home. It’s basically a rug miracle.  Here’s the old rug:

And here’s the new 8×10 rug (don’t mind the antlers and vacuum back there):

So much better, right? Once the rug entered, the living room became a neutral playing field and was begging for color! Oh, I love color. Inspiration item #2 was the Van Gogh prints from Grand Buddy. I’ve had them in a folder in my drawer for at least 4 years now. I love the warn colors,  and I love that Grand Buddy gave them to me. I wanted them in  frames on my wall, the end.  I took a trip to Wal Mart, and found these suckers with mats for $5 a piece. Sold.  The only picture I took of the frames before they got painted was horrible, but this is to show you the brand and my sneaky trick.

I wanted the mat, but only one opening… so I chopped out the middle. Super easy fix. Yellow worked with my prints and it was left over from the kitchen on a door project. I bought 5, not realizing that one of my prints went horizontal… which is how the blank frame thing came about. Everything looks better in odds anyhow, right?

The little square in the middle happened after the fact. It was in the Haven swag bag, and the fabric is leftover from my pillow sewing madness. I just used a staple gun and stapled the fabric to the board. Easy peasy, 5 minute craft… I stuck in on the wall with one of my rental miracle hangers. I’ve posted about them before. You must use them as directed… My 11 x14 frames get 3 strips. The tiny piece and empty frame only need one. Ive used a lot of 3M strips on my walls…

I had the rug, Van Gogh prints in yellow frames, and a half empty bottle of spray paint… what do you think I attacked next 🙂

If you said side table, you’re right! But, more on that soon. I’m attempting to give you a peek inside my brain in maniac living room makeover mode. I had the super neutral rug and the Van Gogh prints, so I knew I wanted to work with the yellow spray paint I had on hand. Which brings me to the inspiration pillow that finally tied it all together. Drum roll please….!

She’s $14.99 at Target right now, and it was love at first sight. Dark grey aztec inspired arrow things (couch color), white neutral background (like walls and rug) with a few bold pops of color. Exactly what I wanted. The rug started the makeover, the Van Gogh prints and yellow spray paint fueled the fire, and the Target pillow made me do it!

Where do you find inspiration? What weird things motivate you to finally take the plunge and makeover a room? I asked on C.R.A.F.T. facebook last night and many of you said similar things happen to you to inspire the makeover (husband tearing down walls, an awesome thrifty find, pinterest)! Do you agree that the 8 x 10 rug is so much better? How do you make a final rig decision? Are you a sucker for frames in odd numbers? Do you love my Target pillow? I’d love to hear…

• Tuesday: Room Inspiration (Rug, target pillow, Grand Buddy’s Van Gogh prints)
• Wednesday: How to sew a pillow (and how to make a feather pillow not stick you)
• Thursday: Creating Really Awesome Free Trips: Washington, D.C.
• Friday: Metal table makeover and antlers
• Tuesday: DIY felt art
• Wednesday: Wood slice coasters
• Thursday: Creating Really Awesome Free Trips: Curacau Island
• Friday: Guest post by my mom and her steel wool coffee table