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Preface: Check the end of this post for some exciting blogging news!!!

Happy Friday to you! I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Fourth of July – We ended up having a nice, quiet evening at home just the two of us. Pigs in a blanket + baked beans + corn on the cob + viewing of Thor = perfect way to enjoy the holiday. We didn’t really bother trying to track down fireworks this year, but ended up seeing a few colorful bursts right outside our bedroom window over the tree tops – Definitely a happy little cap to the day.

But on to the meat and bones of this post – I’m fairly certain that if I had all the money in the world and could spend it on anything I wanted for the house, it would go towards rugs. A room spread with an area rug, even if it’s just a natural jute, is so much warmer and more inviting then one without. Although, in this fantasy imagination I would be sure to keep size in mind. We have an 8’x11′ shag rug in our living room, but after seeing this post I realized that we probably should have sprung for a size up. We are saving our pennies for that upgrade, although I’ve also considering the idea of layering an inexpensive rug underneath the shag to give the illusion of a bigger one.

Until then, I’ve made a few manageable rug upgrades throughout the house, the first being our new front door mat. This adorable mat is to-the-point with its big “hello” and features two of my favorite things – birds and bikes. Okay, maybe bikes aren’t my FAVORITE thing, but I purchased a little cruiser after the wedding a couple of months ago and it’s definitely one of my most exciting new toys. When I saw this mat, it seemed fitting to place in front of our home.

For details and to get your own, check out the information here.

Another new rug gracing our home underfoot is this little chevron beauty, hailing from Home Goods. You may have caught a glimpse of it in this post from last week when I photographed our new pet portraits.

I adore the happy yellow color and the trendy chevron print grabbed my attention instantly. I have a feeling that chevron, as fabulous as it is now, is going to peter out eventually, which is why I am trying my hardest not to buy into the more permanent idea of a chevron tile backsplash or wall paint treatments. For now, I’m focusing my chevron obsession on things that can easily be folded away (like this new rug) and small-scale paint applications. Don’t worry though – I’m loving the heck out of this rug and have zero intention of folding it up anytime soon.

At only $14.99, I couldn’t very well leave the store without it – It’s been parked in front of our oven for the past couple of weeks and it’s brought just the right amount of warmth to the mint-and-brown-dominated space. Now I wish I had grabbed the matching runner too – How cute would this be in front of a bathroom vanity?

Onto the final rug purchase…Like most DIYers/home mavens, I’ve been in patio upgrade mode for the past month or so now that summer is well underway. I’ve been keeping my eye out for colorful accessories and textiles to add to our tiny little back deck to make it feel more like an outdoor room. I haven’t shared much in the way of my little upgrades because, so far, it’s not really even worth showing.

One thing I’ve been pining after is an outdoor rug. We actually had one out there for several months but, again, it just wasn’t looking “wow” enough to even post about. I knew I wanted to replace it with something bigger and something a little bolder and, after reading this post from Yellow Brick Home about their own patio rug upgrade, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and shamelessly pulled the trigger on the exact same one.

It’s a beautiful blue and white Moroccan-flavor rug, made of a soft woven polypropylene found online at World Market. Amazingly, the final price tag including shipping for this large, 6’x9′ rug was only $37.79 – Sold. It looks like the rug is no longer available on the website, but they have a ton of gorgeous, super affordable options here in their indoor/outdoor rug section.

Alas, after excitedly ripping it from its packaging and unfurling it onto our back deck, I realized that I should have measured twice, clicked once. The rug was too big by only a couple of inches, but it was enough to force us on to Plan B.

My thought after the initial disappointment was that an indoor/outdoor rug made of durable materials would actually be perfect for underneath our dining room table. As you may know, we had an inexpensive fabric IKEA rug under the table, but it was a little bit small for the space and definitely not great for handling dinnertime spills.

Moments later, we had the new patio rug slipped beneath the legs of the kitchen table and stepped back to take a good look at the new set up.

It was bold – Like SUPER bold. But I knew it would take a moment to get used to the major change from soft gray to rich, deep navy. We stepped back a few more paces in all sorts of directions to gauge our feelings and even had my sister, who was visiting for dinner, weigh in with her thoughts. To get the full impact of her opinion, let me just tell you that she has zero interest whatsoever in home things, at least my type of “home things.” She and DIY do NOT mix and she rarely (only when forced) looks at my blog. So when she immediately responded with positive words on the new rug situated inside, I was a little taken aback. I wasn’t so sure about it until she pointed out how fabulous it looked from the front door.

The pattern and color from afar really DID jazz up the view from the front door. In the end, I decided to leave it in place for the weekend before making a final decision.

Fast forward a few days, and I knew what I had to do…

Yup. I went back to old IKEA faithful…

After giving myself some time to acclimate to the new rug being under the kitchen table, I still just couldn’t fall completely in love with the over-the-top boldness. You guys know that I love me some color, but it was just a little too much. The other deciding factor was the feel of the material. While some outdoor rugs have a natural, sort of rope-like feel to the weave, this one felt a little more plastic than I liked – At least for inside. Whenever we walked across it, it sounded like we were walking across a tarp. Not good.

So we rolled it up and put in the basement for the next house. We are planning on moving within the next three years or so, so it won’t be banished for long. I have dreams of it gracing a great big patio or back deck very soon…In the meantime, I actually realized how great it would be for picnics and even beach time. It’s SUPER light for how big it is and has handy little ribbon ties on the end, perfect for rolling up, tying up and tossing in the trunk of a car. I definitely don’t regret buying it, even though it won’t be used quite as often in the immediate future as I had planned.

If you want to see how the World Market rug looks in all its beautiful glory, do yourself a favor and click over to that Yellow Brick Home post I linked to above (and again right here) – Their patio is all spiffy and gorgeous for summer. Hopefully ours will get there eventually!

Have a great weekend!!

P.S. I was SO HONORED to be featured on two of my favorite blogs this week – The first, which I mentioned already but can’t help but say again, was a guest post over on Bullfrogs and Bulldogs where I chatted about our framed catch-all. The second was a hugely exciting reader reno feature over on 7th House on the Left, sharing our studio transformation. So thankful to both Amanda and Ashley for sharing a little DreamGreenDIY love!!!

NOW I can safely and happily shout a “Good morning!” to you!! This morning was my first since having the power restored yesterday and, let me tell you…It was A-W-E-S-O-M-E. To be able to sleep in my own bed again (and not be boiling), to be able to take a hot shower and use a hair dryer…Electricity is something that I now realize can be so taken for granted – I hope that I am able to appreciate it more from now on. The safety of it, the ease of it, the COOLNESS of it. I am a changed woman.

But before I jump into today’s spraypaint foray, I just want to thank you guys. THANK YOU for your outpouring of well-wishes and sympathy after Monday’s post. It meant so much to me to know that I had your support. One comment I will never forget was from Stacey (of A Goode House) who told me that, after being battered by hurricane Rita, she was without power for 22 days. 22 DAYS!!! I seriously felt like slapping the back of my hand for complaining so harshly about our measly little 3 days, but I guess it’s not fun no matter how long it’s gone.

Seriously, how did the pioneers do it??

But anyway, enough about that. Let’s get this painting show on the road!

So a few weeks ago (I know…Sorry it took me so long to tell you guys about this…) I decided to add a little somethin-somethin to our coffee table in the living room. It initially had little piles of books and magazines along with our television and DVD remotes, but I knew it needed a little more. I’ve been lusting over beautifully styled coffee tables for ages and decided to put a little effort into our own thrifted surface.

You may have seen our new vignette in that photo above, but let me give you a few more detail shots.

Not wanting to wait a few weeks until I could scrounge something up at our local thrift stores, I decided to check out the immediate selection at one of my go-to Big Box Stores: T.J. Maxx. After meandering the aisles of their home section, I came away with a metal candle holder, a decorative glass orb and a white serving bowl. I knew I wanted a tray, but the store didn’t have any – Not in the traditional wooden, rectangular sense, at least. This low profile glass kitchen bowl would do pretty much the same thing, so into the cart it went. I liked that it was a little different then the average coffee table tray, with its stark white color and upturned corners. The candle holder and glass orb were different heights (a must when styling pieces together) and completely different sheens and textures – Loving it.

The only thing I WASN’T loving was the finish on the candle holder. It was a little more “rustic” than I typically go for, but I picked it up anyway because spay paint could easily remedy the issue.

While I was getting my spray paint supplies out, I decided to grab a few other pieces that I had been meaning to fix up – One of which being Mrs. Goose. Ever since posting about her in April, I’d been meaning to give her a fresh lease on life with new gold paint. If you remember, her tail feathers were chipped and many different original colors were showing through the wear in her top coat of fake brass.

I also grabbed this little owl from my studio closet. I liked the shape, but the painted details read a little “childish” to me. Imaginations of a solid bold color had me motivated to cart him down to the garage along with the candle holder and goose.

But I wasn’t done yet…The fourth and final spray paint update I did that afternoon involved a couple of wooden candlestick holders that you might remember from this post of yore. I had initially thought to give them some hand-painted stripes for a bit of interest, but that didn’t turn out so well. Something about the optical illusion created by the curved shape of the base left me feeling like the project wasn’t there yet. So into my already crowded arms they went.

Next up, a trip to the garage where I set everything on old pieces of cardboard. Each piece got its own separate spray treatment out in the sun before being carefully dragged into the garage for overnight dry time.

As evidenced below, I got a little spray happy on the owl – You can see little drips coming down from his eye on the right. His destination is the back deck anyway, so I wasn’t too concerned. Although now I feel like I should rename this post “How NOT to spray paint”…Learn from my mistakes people – Light, even spray. Patience is a virtue, one that I clearly do not have.

The candle sticks were sprayed two different colors, one in bright green and the other in more of a pastel teal. I taped them off about half way up and gave the edge a slanted look (you’ll see some details a little later on). Mrs. Goose came away with a lovely new gold look, one that made her feel all fresh and new once more. The new layer of paint really did mask the broken chunk out of her tail feathers, just as I’d hoped.

For the chunky T.J. Maxx candle holder, I decided on a neutral black. We don’t have a TON of black going on in our living room, but we do have the television, DVD player and record player in close vicinity. I was hoping the extra pop of black out in the center of the room would make it all feel cohesive and intentional.

I am loving the dark new color. I think the rich black and shiny finish feels more modern, plus I added a taller candle to make its function more obvious (you can hardly even see the two inch tall glass candle surround in the first couple of photos at the top of this post).

Mrs. Goose actually got a post-spray-paint-party remix – After her new gold paint was all dry and she was brought upstairs, I realized how monotone she would look on the brass side table. I went a little wild after that, putting on a fresh coat of bold teal, which matches the entry way lamp only a few strides away (seen in the background at the end of this post).

Isn’t she lovely?? I adore her.

But my favorite transformation of all was the candlestick holder redo. They turned out exactly how I WANTED them to look (the first time) – A sophisticated, modern take on the trendy wood dipping that has been catching like wild fire lately on Pinterest. I love the slightly competing colors and how they play off of the colorful plate wall and the yellow chevron runner (a new staple in the house after using it at the wedding).

Can you see now how the edge is a little tilted? I didn’t want a hard, level seam, thinking the off-kilter look would be a little more edgy – Pun intended.

Isn’t the power of spray paint wonderful? My favorite DIY tool of all time…

And happy Fourth of July to you and you families!! I’m at work today (life of a page designer at a 365-day-newspaper…) but we are ringing in the holiday this evening with pigs in a blanket, corn on the cob and fun sweet treats. Hope you enjoy your own celebration!

A few new rugs underfoot

Spray paint facelift

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