Turning cloth napkins into pillows {DIY}

Hi all! Sorry it's been a little while since I've posted...y'know how life can get sometimes. :)

Today I'm sharing my latest pillows. I'm seriously obsessed with making pillows. I just made these ones out of a curtain. It's probably because it's one of the few things I can manage to sew (kind of)!

My newest pillows are made from cloth napkins I found on sale at Target (where else?). I just loved the floral pattern and the blues, greens and yellows of this pattern. I had eyed these napkins for a while but since I didn't really need them, I made myself walk away...until I saw the orange clearance sticker. The sticker said $6.98, but the receipt said $2.98! What a deal! I bought them with the intention of using them as napkins.

Then at Jo-Ann I saw this turquoise remnant fabric that was half off the marked price, and I snatched that up too, again not sure what I'd do with it but loving the color and thinking it reminded me of the colors already in my living room.

Then it hit me -- make some more pillows!

I simply cut the turquoise fabric for the back and didn't even do anything to the napkin -- I just sewed the pieces together. I sewed as close to the napkin seam as I could. The napkins aren't quite square, so I tried to compensate for that, which I dd only somewhat effectively. So if you look close you can tell my pillows aren't square either, or even the same size. But they're good enough for me!

I already had the pillow forms, so these two pillows cost me about $7 total. The pillows like this that Target sells? 24 bucks. What a deal!

As you can see by my pillow collection, I'm slowly becoming more comfortable mixing patterns in my living room.

I'm sticking to blues, greens, yellows and neutrals to keep things cohesive, but I'm mixing geometric patterns and floral patterns with solids, and I've got an embroidered pillow and a couple linen ones that lend some texture. My new floral ones feel like a breath of fresh spring air.

But my favorite couch accessory? This guy.

What a face!

I'm happy to report Colby is healing well from his knee surgery seven weeks ago. After six weeks of restricted activity, his bones have healed and the vet has cleared him to resume some activity. Yay! He's very happy to be taking walks and joining us on the couch again. He should be able to resume his normal puppy activity in about four weeks, just in time to enjoy the summer.

But back to the pillows. I still have two napkins left in my four-pack. What do you think I should do with them? I think I'm maxed out on pillows for now. Maybe I'll actually use them for their intended purpose...what an idea. :)

Linking up!

A new (old) coffee table {thrifty find}

Hi all! Hope you had a fantastic weekend! We are having some nice, sunny spring days, and I'm totally loving it.

I've got a couple random things to share today, and I'm super excited about the first one. Our living room has been really evolving over the last year and a half, beginning with our purchase of our sectional coach and more recently with our decision to repaint our living room blue. I'm really loving where the space is at now, except for one problem: a too-big-for-the-space oak coffee table.

This table is solid wood and has held up very well over the years. But style-wise, it doesn't have much anything going for it. And it makes the space in front of the couch feel crowded and we're always pushing it out of the way.

I've been itching to replace it with something smaller and round, to help break up the boxy lines of the sectional. If you follow me on Pinterest, you can probably tell I've been eyeing something gold and glass. Well, after a lot of searching around, I wasn't able to find a table like this in the size and price I wanted.

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Plan B was to find a wood coffee table, but let me tell you, it's been pretty hard to find a round coffee table that's only 30 inches in diameter, is made of real wood (no veneer) and is in my price range. We use our coffee table a lot, so I knew I needed something sturdy, which means anything veneered is out. I tried Craigslist a few times but couldn't find anything that fit my criteria.

I kind of gave up for a while, hoping the right thing would come to me. And it did!

This lovely little thing was on Craigslist for just $15! I had to drive over an hour to get it (which the hubs thought was crazy) but I'm glad I did. It's just 30 inches around and made of real wood except for some decorative veneer strips around the edge that are broken and peeling, so I might have to pull them off.

It's been badly refinished at least once, including this nice black matte paint job on the top.

It's definitely seen better days but I think I can fix it up and make it purdy again. I feel like it has a similar feeling as the glass tables I was looking at with its simple lines and its midcentury modern feel.

I'm not 100% sure what I want to do to it. I feel like our living room has a lot of dark furniture, including two wood-toned end tables and a black TV stand and media cabinet. So I think I'll stay away from more wood tones and black. I'd like to do something fun with it, like maybe even stencil the top. I'm thinking something kind of tone-on-tone, to keep it subtle.

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Or maybe I want to paint it a fun color...

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I also like the two-toned look, whether both the top and legs are painting, or when one half is stained.

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And how cute are these casters?!

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I'm also really digging the dipped paint trend. I worry it might be too trendy, but I keep envisioning those slim little legs dipped in gold.

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Okay, obviously I can't do all of this, so which style do you vote for -- subtle stencil, bright color, two-toned or dipped legs?

Curtain turned into pillows {DIY}

Hi everyone! Hope you had a good Monday.

Today I'm sharing some pillows I made for our living room. Did we need pillows? No, we did not. :) But I just love changing out my pillows, especially if I can do it on the cheap by making my own.

I searched high and low for a geometric fabric I liked in the colors I wanted but came up empty-handed. Then I spotted the Farrah Fretwork curtain at Target:

So cute, right? And it was just $20 for one.

Lucky for me, I had pillows at home I wasn't using (remember, I love pillows!) and their covers were removable.

As you might recall, I'm not great at sewing, but I can usually manage pillows. My favorite kind of pillow cover to make is an envelope pillow, because it's removable and I don't have to handstitch it closed -- and because I'm too scared to try a zipper!

When I spread the curtain out and saw the hem, I realized it was perfect for making the envelope part. Don't know what I mean? You'll see soon.

The pillow forms were 20 inches x 20 inches, so I cut my fabric at 21 inches square, leaving a half-inch for a seam. For the envelope part, I cut the two pieces 21 x 15 inches and 21 by 11 inches, with half-inch seams on all sides, making the final dimensions 20 x 14 and 20 x 10. The bigger piece is on the inside, and the smaller piece goes on the outside.

With just a little cutting and sewing, I got two new pillows for just $10 each!

Here's the envelope back. See what I mean about the hem? That's the finished edge you see here. It saved me some time from having to finish the edges myself.

I was worried they'd be blue overload with our blue walls, but I don't think so.

And I even have some fabric left over to make something else!

Have you ever used a curtain to make pillows? Shopping the curtain or sheet aisle can sometimes score you some great fabrics and patterns for a cheaper price than shopping the fabric store.

Living room update

Nearly a year ago, I decided I wanted to repaint my neutral living room. We painted it a light beige when we moved in, when we had a dark brown couch. But our big, beige sectional made me itching for some color on the walls. I got lots of advice about this -- and a good number of people suggested I leave the walls neutral and bring in color with accessories. I just knew this wasn't going to work for me, so I followed my gut and got out the paint brush.

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about it. I have not regretted it one bit -- I simply love our blue-gray walls! The color is Misty Morn by Behr.

After I repainted, though, I spent a while trying to figure out what to put on the walls. I decided not to rush things and just wait for inspiration to strike. Fast forward like eight months, and I finally put some holes in the wall.

The last time you saw the living room, it looked like this:

And here's what it looks like now with some stuff on the walls.

My inspiration for my living room came mainly from this photo:

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I love the blues and greens with a hint of gold accents. I wanted a living room that has a casual feel with a little homage to the beach -- something with a mix of neutrals, coastal colors, warm wood tones and some hints of gold and black to ground it all and give it a collected-over-time feel.

I also used this mood board by 7th House on the Left as inspiration. 

This convex mirror is from Home Depot, and I absolutely adore it.

I picked up this mahogany table at my local antique store for $75. The size is perfect, and I love that it has both a shelf and a drawer for storage. The top is made of leather with a gold design around the edge.

On the other end of that wall is a printing press type tray I found at an antique store for just $30. It already had hooks on the back to hang on the wall -- lucky! I don't think putting shells in a type tray is original, but I love the look.

This corner used to hold our media cabinet...

...but as I was pondering art, I decided to make a furniture switcheroo. I moved it to the opposite wall, where we used to have a console table. The table was kind of useless -- it was decorative, but didn't hold much and just ended up being wasted space. I'm in this total kick of making everything purposeful -- trying to get away from space fillers. So, the console table left and the media cabinet took its place. I'm really liking the change!

I got this gold-and-glass fixture at a flea market for just 8 bucks -- I'm smitten!

This change also allows us to have a lamp in this corner, which is handy because we have no overhead lighting in this room.

I still don't know what to do with the big TV wall. We'd like to mount the TV, but I can't decide if I want to put anything else on the wall or not.

I couldn't bring myself to move the puppy out of his sunny spot!

And that coffee table is on its way out. I've been dying to get rid of it, but I just can't find something I love to replace it with. It has to be small so it doesn't take up too much space, and I'm hoping for something round and airy so it doesn't add to the weight of the room, since that sectional makes the room pretty heavy. Maybe something glass...we'll see (check out my Pinterest board for my latest ideas).

It may have taken a little time, but this room is finally coming along! It's my favorite room of the house. I love the colors and that it has a mix of both antique/vintage and modern pieces. We spend so much time here, and I feel like it really reflects our personality, especially now with some art on the wall -- and a sleepy puppy. :)

Here's a living room progression since we bought our house a little over two years ago.

What a change!