Keeping it "real" post.... how I edit a room.

It's evening here in Florida so this won't be a long post because I need to go to Lowes but it will feature a few pictures. I get sick of our rental a lot... because well it's a rental. It's not "ours." I can't added a white beadboard ceiling or beautiful reclaimed wood floors. I can't buy a huge antique hutch and know that it'll stay because we move every couple of years. I would love to have white couches but we insisted on putting money towards a nice set that would last us from LazBoy. Two years in and they are still like brand new so I feel guilty for even wanting new ones! That and my husband refuses to even acknowledge the idea. Yeah, I know. It sucks! But I'm not alone in that right?

So, I decided to night to show y'all and I'm sure you've read before but how I "edit" a room. I take literally everything I can move by myself out of the room and put it in one area. To me, this makes me feel like I have a little clearance area and I get to have anything I want for free. That and because we are not millionaires and this girl had better shop the home rather than the store ;)

So here's what the room has evolved from in the past few months.... 

You get the idea? Lots of beige. Not that I am a fan because I am. But the walls are beige. My sofa is beige. My curtains are beige. The carpet is beige. I'm all beige out. But I refuse to paint this house because of it's high ceilings and I know the minute I paint, we'll get orders to leave or move. Just how it always seems to work! SO... working with what I got! 

I love the look of fresh greens. I also love antique inspired furniture, vintage and kinda beat up colors and textures. I really hate modern lines. I love anything with history or a patina to it. If I had it my way, in my dream house, well we wouldn't have a "Florida style" home first of all. I would live in a historic neighbor with mature trees covering the roads, large yards and wrap around porches... like these below that I took on Instagram (@homebyally)

Notice anything about this picture? This house surely stands out for it's beautiful curb appeal along with the creeper in the window...

And I was swooning over this beauty....

Like, seriously. My stomach is in knots because I would love a home like this... I just love the character, the history, all of it. The big porch, the mature trees, the not so cookie cutter house! But sadly, most of these homes require 100% repair or someone has already flipped it and is selling for a pretty penny...which is great for them! Awesome living, I would LOVE to do that with historic homes like Ms. Rehab Addict herself but this life we lead, moving every couple years.... well, let's just say I doubt that we'll be buying anytime soon! But it'll be worth the wait, right?!

So, on to our borrrrrringgggggg rental. Hah!

Here's a real life photo that happens when I get tired of things. I take EVERYTHING out and put it in my space. The only things that are left are my couch, chair & tv stand. 

Here are my new wire baskets that I scored from Ross a couple of weeks ago. I have been tired of my washed grey wicker set for sometime so I sold them. If you haven't followed on Facebook yet, you missed a huge clean out sell! Be sure to "LIKE" to keep up with all my latest posts. You can find Home by Ally on Facebook by clicking HERE!

I added little cards that I had from tagging my items at my sales and stamped them too with little sayings that I thought feeling comfortable for our home. Oh! And the drum table that the baskets are sitting on was cream last week. And then I painted it.

Here's a before of the drum table. Sometimes I just get bored. After searching for employment for 10 months here in Florida, a gal has to do something, right?! I also painted the mahogany rocker a LONG time ago to a nice warm beige to contrast against the carpet. The grey was too cold for me.

Ok, so here's a peek at how it looks today!

Below you can see a peek of my apothecary dresser which I LOVE. I painted it a nice and neutral light sage green. The knobs are from Hobby Lobby. I am desperately waiting on them to get 3 more in so I can reveal it already :) but I'm not impatient or anything... at all. No, never.

I adore these little boxwood wreaths. I ordered them off of my newly favorite site to visit, Decor Steals where you can order vintage items, boxwood wreaths like this one that were so cute when they arrived at my home! I bought 3 total and for a steal of a deal for boxwoods! Seriously, sign up already. I promise you that you'll love it. Or you're not normal.

They came wrapped so sweet with their little ivory bows. OH! And did I mention it's a pack of 3? Small, medium and large. The best thing ever. I'm waiting for the next event with these because I need one more set! I just adore them! What do you think of them?

I still am on the search for the perfect thing for this big, huge, ginormous wall that we have our couch on. I'm a fan of gallery walls but symmetrical gallery walls that are neat and not just random. Don't ask. But I also don't want to spend $100 on picture frames just for this house. I would LOVE to find a huge chippy mirror that was large enough above the couch. Then I could find some other stuff to put on either side of the mirrors, etc. 

I spotted one at HomeGoods awhile back and I REGRET not getting it. :( Don't you hate when that happens? I really do. If your gut is telling you to get something, darn it... get it! And don't feel bad about it. Just maybe not mention it to the husband ;-)

Here's my large wire basket that I was telling you about earlier... it reminds me of a clam basket from home. But I have it filled with all of my throws. I'm a throw, pillow, lamp, picture frame, wreath, pillow hoarder, didn't you know?

Well there are some new updates around here, I hope that y'all enjoyed them! I am really enjoying all the changes and the re-arrangement of the room. (again). Let me know what y'all think! And if you find an image you love on here, be sure to click "PIN IT" at the top of this post to reference it on Pinterest! Have a great Wednesday night everyone!

XOXO,

Ally

How to: Recover a seat using a table napkin

Hey y'all! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekends... I definitely know that I did! I spent some quality time with my husband and it was so nice to just relax together! He went back to work today so I took care of a few things that I've been wanting to do. One of those things included my little stool for the kitchen. I had it covered in a plain beige canvas cloth for sometime now but let me tell you, not practical because bare feet and doggie paws are on this stool so let's just say it didn't stay clean for long ;-) I've been searching for a fabric that I loved forever... similar to one I had on it before the beige canvas. Here is the before the canvas fabric. Very fun and colorful.

I was just wiping my counters off when I glimpsed over at my bar with my new World Market napkins on my plates. I wondered if the napkin would fit the stool at 20 inches by 20 inches and sure enough it did! So... I used a table cloth napkin instead of going to have fabric cut and recovered my stool! Here's some steps for recovering a stool. You would use the same steps for a chair or something with a single seat, etc. Hope it's easy for you and enjoyable!

Materials: Stapler, fabric (napkin), screw driver

First thing that I did was take the screws out of the bottom of the stool that were holding the top on.

I then laid the napkin pretty side down and put my seat centered on it. I didn't bother taking the older fabric off. I figured it would just add some more cushions for those cute little paws that like to sit on this stool ;-) As you can see below, it was a perfect fit. You always want 1-2 inches of fabric left on each side so you can staple easier. 

The way that I upholster my chairs and stools most people know how to do or at least I always think they do. I like the use the "butterfly" method which I will show you next. Below, I took one corner and pulled towards the middle of the stool cover. The represents the "body" of the butterfly fold. I stapled the very end of the napkin to the wood seat and also in the corner for a secure hold.

 Next as you will see below, I took the left side and folder over the body or center of the corner and stapled there.... By the way, if you plan on doing a lot of these projects with upholstery, invest in an electric stapler. Well worth the money people. 

Here you see me folding over the right side and a peek of my electric stapler. Perfect, neat and one corner down! 3 more to go!

Here below you see two sides done. It is not critical that any excess fabric is stapled down, just make sure you have most of it secure and where you won't see it hanging down or have a lot of excess once you put your seat back on the body of the stool or chair or whatever you are recovering.

I seriously am in love with this fabric! What do you think of it?

And here is the final product! Pretty and colorful goodness! The stool I found in Minot, North Dakota a year or so ago. It is from the 1900's and is in amazing condition! Probably something I will never sell because Winston loves it too much ;-) Usually when he wants a treat or an ice-cream, he'll run to sit on this stool and stand up on two legs...that little dork!

 So, have y'all ever used anything you had to reupholster something like an old t-shirt or a napkin like I did? I've used burlap before too! What do you think of this thrifty project? Do you have something that you want to upholster soon? Let me know and please show me your projects over on Facebook. You can find Home by Ally on Facebook by clicking HERE!

If you enjoyed and loved this project, please help spread the word about my blog by pinning this project to your personal boards on Pinterest. You can do so by clicking "pin it" below.

XOXO,

Ally

Goodnight!

XOXO,

Ally

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5 Tips for better curb appeal

Hey guys!

I'm so..so...happy to be posting about this tonight because I've been wanting to beautify our front yard for awhile! A lot of you know that we rent but like I have said a million and one times... just because you rent or won't be in a location for a long time doesn't mean that it can't be pretty! I've been urging my husband for awhile to let's add some curb appeal to our rental. We live in a development where all the houses practically look identical other than a few minor different shades of beige on the exteriors and an extra window here or there... boring! But they are still pretty for rentals anyways! 

I found myself looking on Pinterest and finding inspiring photos like below that just made me want to get to work and create a space that we could be proud of. Plus, I want yard of the month already.

source.

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I just adore the cottage below with all of the beautifully bloomed hydrangeas and of course the old chair sitting on the front porch. It probably is the tin roof and the cute puppy as well ;-)

source.

SO! We finally got to work this past weekend...and are still not finished completely but we are at a great stopping point and I thought that I would show you some of our progress! To top it off, we did ALL of this for under $75! Score! So first let me try to find some before's for you to get a better idea of what we were working with....

These photos were taken on Instagram or on my cell phone... below is for fall with the red mulch and an old rocker that I got off Craigslist. I wish we had a huge porch for multiple rockers but we don't:) 

And here's Christmas. If you remember, we didn't decorate very much because we went out of town for Christmas this year... but it was still pretty simple but pretty.

And lastly, here is a MAJOR before. The first picture I took of the house when we were moving in and just got our keys... wow... it needed some love.

Above and below you will see a colorful new door mat that I found on clearance at good ole' Target for just $9.00. I usually like to make my own but who can pass up this colorful beauty and for under $10, you just can't beat it. Found on either side of our colorful door mat are two grey barrels that belonged to my mama. I asked politely stole for them and loved the look rather than just normal old planters. Rememeber also, you can go to the Dollar Tree or Dollar General and get some for only a few dollars. You could also up cycle the boring ones you get when you buy flowers by spray painting them a pretty iron or gold color depending on your decor :) For contrast, I added hot pink flowers over flowing in the barrels. I compared costs against buying a hanging basket vs. a lot of flowers I would have to plant together in the barrels. I went with the hanging baskets and just cut off the hanging part. Best part about that was that there were around $7 each. YES.

Here is a wider few of our front area. Don't mind my boring colored monogram. It is now a nice lime green which is a perfect color for contrast and you can see it from the road now ;-) We went and bought brown mulch to line front areas. I've only seen one other house in our development with brown mulch, the rest have red so I'm glad to be different and I just think it's a beautiful contrast against the home. The two trees in front are gorgeous palm trees as well. And the large bushes directly below... they had more than a few wasps nests...and since we all know how much I love my puppies... we took them out just in case. We tried and tried to just keep them trimmed but they were just ugly and overgrown from the start... so now they are gone too! More pictures to follow this post of our progress!

I added new flowers to the front and did a curved detail on the mulch instead of keeping it straight just to add some much needed interest to the front. I need to edge to better define the curve....yikes. 

Here's a better view of the flowers. I hope I don't kill them. And like I said, yes, I need to edge :P

And here's another view. 

I picked up the hydrangeas out of the clearance section at Lowe's and I'm hoping that I can keep them alive. They are my favorite flowers....

This little bistro set I got off the local yard sale page here for just $50 brand new... what a steal for a cute little set. And the cute lime green pillows are outdoor pillow from Target for just $12 each!

So all together,

Bistro Table: $50.00

Barrel Flowers: $7 each X2 equals $14.00

Target Outdoor Pillows: $12 each X2 equals $24.00

Brown Mulch: $3/bag X15 bags equals $45.00

Hydrangeas Clearance X2 equals $12.00

but wait... that equals $133.00. I had a chandelier to take back to Lowe's for $99 and used that as a credit for all of my flowers, mulch, etc. which put me down to a total of only....

$74.00 total.

By simply adding something causal like chairs or a bistro set like this one, some pretty flowers, updated mulch... spraying off your garage door, sweeping your sidewalks, etc... you can total transform your curb appeal! Remember to always keep it clean and tidy. You don't have to have a garden of flowers but a nicely kept home will always look better than a messy one. 

And I'm loving it! What do you think? I need something for the outer wall above the table to the right there. I might just build something to put up there but it's definitely empty space. I wish they would have just put a pretty window there... but this is base housing and they don't care what I think :)

Toodles!

XOXO,

Ally

If you loved this post and want to "pin" a photo to your Pinterest account, you can do so below! I would really appreciate it if y'all pinned my images :)

Goodnight!

XOXO,

Ally