FALL MAKEOVER FOR OUR LIVING ROOM

News you might use: It’s the first day of Fall.

Our furnace is roaring.

I’m sporting flannel PJ bottoms, thick socks, a thermal top + a sweatshirt.

Meaning: I need to consume chili, anything pumpkin flavored

+ caramel apples by the dozens.

Plus I’ve got the nesting instinct like crazy

+ have been giddily adding an Autumnal vibe to our interiors.

Yesterday I blogged about our dining room re-do:

https://redbirdv.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/our-dining-room-gets-its-fall-on/

Today, it’s all about our living room,

which opens to the dining room through this graceful arch:

I love area rugs!
The kilim in the foreground
is from JC Penney, circa ’07.

Nobody loves this time of year more than I do . . .

. . . so, of course, I have a huge Rubbermaid tub o’ Fall + Halloween stuff,

somewhere down in our basement, a.k.a. ‘cellar hide-a-way’.

That just seems like a lot of work, though,

dragging all that up here + then putting it away later.

Plus, I can’t find it.

YESH, a huge, honking Rubbermaid storage container — LOST.

Think about that for a minute + try to envision such jam-packed squalor!

* * * *

Okay, now — quickly! — let’s think about something else, like pumpkins!

Much better!

So I’m just adding the feel of Fall,

using stuff I already have + maybe a spare pumpkin or two.

Luckily for me, all my reds + Beeswaxes (a.k.a. gold) work like magic.

All my yellow ware bowls
come in the perfect Fall shades!

I recently spent a happy a.m.,

rounding up all the yellow ware from my vast collection

+ distributing it throughout our living room.

* * * *

Meanwhile, I think there’s something about the patina of beat-up wood

that calls out: ‘FALL!’

We bought this table + used it for dining in the 80’s . . .

. . . after which its legs were chopped off,

making it the perfect, rustic coffee table.

That awesome wooden paddle is new to me —

I got it for a steal ($10!) at FourSided in Chicago this summer!

Foursided
on Clark Street in Andersonville

And raise your hand if you love striped Dash + Albert rugs as much as I do!

http://www.dashandalbert.com/

I bought this one, in the coveted ‘Kay colors’ of navy + Beeswax,

 way back in 2007 in Savannah (I love you!) Georgia:

That wooden box had been organizing my sewing supplies,

but I like it better out here, holding our remotes + ‘what-have-you’.

This awesome repro vintage basket’s warm color + texture
adds ‘Fall’, too!
I love its wire handles.

I mentioned previously that I thought my massive amount of red stuff

is a natural for this Autumnal atmosphere I’m craving.

Let’s have a look-see at some of it, shall we?  What do you think?

I wrote about this typewriter table re-do way back in February,

when I first started blogging!

https://redbirdv.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/typewriter-table-project/

Who doesn’t love
the Swiss Army blanket?

I made a pair of red ikat dot printed pillows
for our couch.

G.O. repurposed an old wooden surveyor’s tripod into that cool floor lamp.

Don’t you love that red striped lampshade from Pottery Barn, too?

Just yesterday
I whined about whether or not
this Cardinals pillow was ‘wrong’!

And now this!?
A STEELY DAN PILLOW!!??
Yes, I repurposed a tote into a pillow!

‘The Dan’ + Kay out cruising

Some times it’s just FUN, being me!

I love a house where you can walk in + TELL by the ‘stuff’ who lives there!

Speaking of which . . .

. . . one side of this vintage sign says ‘St. Louis’
+ the other reads ‘Rockford’
(Illinois) near where I used to live!

Which brings us to these — the ultimate in Cardinals memorabilia.

Frankly, I don’t really care if they’re ‘wrong’!

Seats from the most recent past Busch Stadium
(1966 – 2005)

And if that’s not enough good times,

 when one is me, one really has a lot of fun

with my + my beau’s initials, like here:

Typography. Vintage style. The color red.
All check check check!
When I saw these coasters
in the Sundance catalog,
I ordered an OK immediately!

Get it?

‘Ole’ or ‘O’ — G.O.’s nickname + K for Kay!?

HA! He’s not amused — AGAIN!?

Sadly, G.O. doesn’t really grasp the concept, or won’t,

but that’s okay — I have enough fun with it for the 2 of us!

I nearly swooned when I spied this vintage fruit crate
with the OK in the ‘Kay colors’ of red + navy!

Oopsie — on the glare at the window,

but please do notice those awesome Pottery Barn sconces I scored on eBay.

They were a splurge, I love them, + they’ll go with us to our new house!

So will this, my beloved vintage postal sorter:

As with my dining room art ledges of yesterday’s post,

these cubbies are jammed with my beloved stuff.

Note, please, all the yellow ware bowls that were previously in our kitchen.

I think I’m going to edit everything just a tad,

after which I’ll snap yet more photos + blog about it all.

Stay tuned!

Our Dining Room Gets Its FALL On!

 I recently came home with a carload of mums, kale, pansies + pumpkins,

+ next, I added FALL to our front porch!

It was such a huge morale boost that I opted to do something similar inside!

I started with our dining room:

This pair of black urns with the white pumpkins

were flanking our front door, just this morning!

Now they are looking swell inside, accessorizing our pine farmhouse table:

I have had this old Rockford, Illinois wooden box for years:

Why yes, I DO love red stripes!

KATHY + CINDEE oil painting by me, graduate school, 1978

Our bungalow doesn’t have a lot of wall space for large canvases like this,

so I’m using a vintage wooden easel to display my painting.

Here’s a similar look from Ellen Degeneres’ house:

Back to our house — here’s a close-up of that accent wall.

G.O. + I stenciled it together, + we love it!

That pretty wall color — Beeswax — is so warm,

+ it happens to match all the yellow ware that I love to collect.

Here are my tin quilt stencils, marching across the hallway door:

 

Don’t you love our art ledges?  I do.

G.O. made them with an old door casing from our house:

I like them because I can switch things out whenever I please.

G.O. likes them because we’re not driving 100’s of nails into our walls!

Right now, I’ve got a lot of fall stuff displayed with photos + artwork.

Yumm-O for our orange mercury glass votive cups:

Some old glass ware for some sparkle, inside a handmade basket:

Our dad caught this foul ball at a Cardinals game in the 50’s:

Next up: our living room gets its Autumnal make over!

Stay tuned!