a NEW house!

I alluded to some major home redecorating in the post about Rachel & Hollis' Engagement Party.  It was stressful, almost didn't come together in time, fun to pick out, and so worth it in the end.  Ben & I were still working with a whole bunch of college furniture so it was about time to update!  Here is the finished product in the den!

I am almost embarrassed to show this, but here are the BEFORE pictures for comparison purposes!  OMG, HUGE difference.  

Ok, so I'll start with the rug.  Green dark rug is out and a beautiful piece of bound carpet is IN.  It's soft & doesn't show dirt like you (or at least I did) may think it would... 

Our old TV cabinet was from Ben's college apartment and it felt like it was about half the width of our actual TV.  I had been eyeing this piece of furniture for a few years and FINALLY ordered it.  Oh how I love it so!  

Ben's chair was one of the biggest and MOST needed changes (yeah just scroll back up and take one more look at it).  Blue jean fabric chair & ottoman with rips in it and stains galore.  It made it through college & should have stayed there.  We went to 12 furniture stores and FINALLY found this beauty.  It's big, great quality leather, it reclines, and passed Ben's seal of comfort approval and my seal of style approval.  I even got that little pillow made for him too! 

The artwork over the couch (5 frames) just always felt too small an insubstantial for such a large wall space.  SO I went with the same concept, just bigger and better.  All of these are 8x10 black & white pictures that I have taken on different trips we have been on together.  They are matted and framed much bigger and in prettier frames.  Clockwise from top Left: London, Beaver Creek Engagement, Cabo Mexico Honeymoon, Napa Valley California, Boca Grande Florida, Spain, Charleston South Carolina, & Hawaii.  

The couch was basically the only thing we had bought since we got married and was definitely going to stay.  Although I was OK with the pillows we had before (red & black ones), I wanted to go much lighter and brighter direction with a new color pallet (green and blues).  I found a lady who made all the pillows for me the week before the party.  

I LOVE the floral fabric, the colors, the flower pillow, and the solids I found to match. 

Once we got the new chair, it seemed like a better idea to have a round table between the chair and couch.  I absolutely love this fabric over a 30" round table and a piece of cut glass over it.  The lamps were a Christmas gift! 

The 96" ivory linen drapes also made a big impact with allowing more light to come through.  I also used to say that I actually did NOT like how tall our ceilings were because it made it difficult to decorate and everything looked so small in the room.  But now that the drapes are taller, I think it adds a lot of height to the room and fills the space better.  

Other changes around the house were a new mirror, table skirt, and lamp shades in the entry way/foyer:

 Sitting area chairs were recovered (they were free & used to be red) with this gorgeous neutral leopard chenille.  Don't tell Ben it's leopard though because he doesn't like animal print & couldn't tell that it was! hehe

 We put the same drapes in the dining room and used the green pillow fabric that's in the den to recover the dining room chairs (I had a small issue with the staple gun but finally finished them 2am the day of the party).  Flowers from my sweet hubby this week finish off the table for this picture.  

Finally, the floral pillow fabric was brought into the kitchen with this gorgeous valence that my momma made!  I love the fold details and the fun bottom fringe.  

Ben texted me the day that everything was being finished and said "it looks like a magazine" to which I said "so does that mean you like it?" and he said "YES!".  So I got the seal of approval and now we can't believe we didn't do some of these changes sooner.  I made an agreement with Ben that now we don't need to spend any more money on the house! :) 

Hope y'all enjoyed the tour of our "new" house.  It's been for sale by owner for over 2 years and apparently isn't going anywhere with this housing market so we may as well enjoy it!  Special thanks to my 3 designing sisters (Amy, Natalie, & Rachel) for helping me pick everything out and make it all come together and my momma & mother in law for helping with last minute needs and implementation while I was working!