Hello there

curvy lady.

I am obsessed with this latest creation.

When we moved our furniture into the living room we realized we can really only arrange the couch one way. I'm okay with that because I'm not really a fan of change. Ever.

This is the view from the couch to the front door. Slightly angled to catch those tiny tiptoes that sneak down after they've been tucked in for the night.

If we centered the couch on the fireplace, it created a terrible view from the front door. All you saw was a couch arm. And to my eye it was just a line of brown. By pushing the left side of the sofa back and angling the couch it opened up the room a bit for more play space and walking space. Now instead of seeing just the arm of the sofa from the front door, you see the pillows and the front of the sofa. {and a little boy, mouth wide open}Make sense?

The only "me" time I have during the day is at night once the kids are in bed. Right now Josh doesn't get home until 11pm so I have from 7:30-11 to do what I need to get done. Many times that's working on my part time writing gig, getting blog posts ready, or reading. I love reading. And I was totally devastated when I lost my kindle on our recent trip to Disney (I'm pretty sure I left it in the hotel). So I have gone back to reading REAL books. Checked out at the library books. #dinosaur #oldschool

After a couple nights of sitting on the couch squinting to see the book {cause once I plop on the couch I'm NOT getting up to flip the light switch}I decided we needed another lamp behind the couch.

I have one in the other corner of the room, but it just wasn't giving off enough reading light to reach the couch on the other end of the room.

I decided that I would keep my eyes opened at thrift stores until I found one I couldn't live without. The first thrift store I visited after making that decision I found this lovely lady.

For nearly $7 she was mine. I love tall skinny lamps. With curves. It was slightly reminiscent of the lamp I made for Emberly's room.

I honestly had no idea the direction I wanted to go color wise. Josh's only input was that it didn't stay gold. A Kmart near my parent's house is closing and after dropping Luke at preschool one morning I decided to pop in there to look for curtain rods (we need some in our living room). Although I didn't find any rods, I did manage to spend $145 on stuff that was super duper on sale. I made sure to hit the spray paint aisle and I grabbed this beauty for $3.99 plus 30% off. Considering these are $5-7 on Amazon I quickly jumped. I've sang the praises of Rustoleum spray paint for a while and it is still my go to spray paint. I grabbed the Ivory Bisque for the lamp and a bottle of Key Lime since it's the color we painted the baskets in our old laundry room (figured it wouldn't hurt to have touch up paint).

I went with Ivory Bisque because I like the depth and richness it gives that white doesn't quite accomplish sometimes. I'm really stepping out of my comfort zone and embracing the ivory/cream/off white trim in this house. And this was just another way to share that love. Also I usually stick with the Satin finish but since Semi Gloss was all they had I went with it.

Spray painting is no easy task when you live in a town house so I set up a nice little spray paint station on our deck. We do have a driveway in the back and a front yard (in the front) but I didn't want to run the risk to spraying someone's car. This set up worked well and there was no overspray. I did lots of thin coats over the course of an afternoon. I also made sure to not spray when the wind was blowing.

For the shade I knew I wanted some sort of print.  Nothing crazy but besides our quatrefoil area rug I don't have a bunch of color or patterns going on in this room so something spunky was what I wanted. I considered grabbing a plain shade from Ikea and covering it with fabric (which is what I would have done if I hadn't found one). But I came across this lovely at Target (I can't find it online- sorry).

It had the blue to pick up our area rug and soon to be accent wall, and it had the happy pattern I was looking for. It was $19.99 but I found a coupon on Cartwheel which saved me $3. So she was mine for $16.99! A Ikea shade would have run $10-12 and then add the price of the fabric+ the hassle of making it to that. I thought $16.99 was perfect.

And it adds the perfect height and pattern that I was going for. I love the curves and how it blends in, yet stands out!

I love when a crazy idea in my head comes to life! And projects like this typically don't happen this fast. From deciding I wanted a lamp to being completely finished with this project was about a week and a half! This living room is coming together slowly but surely. Can't wait to get curtains on those bare windows!