Pretty Storage Idea

This picture was on my previous post, and I forgot to talk about it. Using old-fashioned wire-bail jars for dry storage in your home is an attractive way to decorate with spices, flour, popcorn, barley, etc. We got most of these jars from my grandmother, but we've found tons at yard sales for next to nothing. They're not as reliable as regular jars for canning, so I don't recommend that, but for dry storage, they are just beautiful. We use them as vases as well, which always looks great.

Red

I don't wear red...it's a little too loud for me, but I must admit that red really is a great statement in decoration. Brian says that whenever a photographer takes a picture of something with red in it, he has to make the red the center of the picture, because your eye is naturally drawn to it. We've incorporated some red into our home decoration, and I love it:

This is just two boards that Brian found at the local dollar store, put together by two small pieces of scrap lumber, painted red, and adorned with hooks from the dollar store.

This is just an old chip-board shelf that we've had forever that was an ugly shade of white. We painted it red, and now it's beautiful!

Picture Shelves

Brian came home with this idea one day. I was super skeptical at first (as usual). Shelves on the wall with pictures? But as usual, he was right. I just don't have the eye he has.

It works like this: Brian got some wood from ReUse (see "...Or make your own furniture" for what this is) to make these. They are just simple 2 x 4 boards cut lengthwise to a couple of inches. Then he put a small piece of board in the front section of the 2x4 to keep the pictures form sliding off. He drilled holes almost all of the way through the boards front to back, then screwed them into the wall through these holes. The holes were unsightly, so he covered them with another thin piece of wood. You can see all of the components in the picture to the right. I love these shelves. We had a huge wall that needed to be filled up with something, and every other previous attempt didn't turn out so well. Brian is a hobby-photographer as well, so it's an opportunity for us to display his pictures. He takes pictures of rural nature (barns, fields, fences, and some waterfalls), so his pictures blend into our home

Nix the electronics.

We don't have TV. I think that having dish or cable inevitably ends up creating a lot of wasted time, so we just don't have it. We do, however, have a TV and DVD player for movies. I like movies, and somehow the intentional decision to sit down and watch a movie prevents me from wasting time like I would with TV.
I hate to go to people's homes and find that their sitting room is designed around a monstrosity of an entertainment center and TV.  TV is just not the center of my life, so I don't want my living room designed around it. They have those fantastic close-able entertainment centers like my Mom has, but those are just slightly over our budget. We puzzled ourselves for a while over the trick of having a TV without making it the center of our home, and this is what we came up with:

  

It's all there: a TV, DVD Player, Speakers, and Subwoofer. Here they are unveiled:

The TV in this picture is actually a bit of an embarrassment to me. Brian found it on Craigslist for $150 complete with speakers and a nice carrying case. It's a good deal for a flat-screen, but I was super embarrassed to have such a huge TV. The fact that it's so hide-able though, is worth it, and this design would never have worked without it. The tapestry (just a piece of batiqued material from JoAnn Fabrics that I sewed loops on to hang. The pole holding the tapestry up is a stick that Brian whittled down to smoothness (same with the wood hooks for the pole). The Tapestry comes down to the top of the dresser, concealing the speakers and the cords. 

The DVD player is in the top drawer of the chest of drawers. We drilled a hole in the back of the dresser through which the cords go from DVD player to TV. The subwoofer is under the red material to the left of the dresser. We just draped a piece of gingham from JoAnn Fabrics and put that piece of pottery on top of it. It works out perfectly, giving us the benefit of watching movies while ensuring that TV is not the center of our world.

More on Barnwood

Brian is getting creative with Barn Wood, and is now making my new favorite thing: Barnwood Frames. I don't have tons of pics, but these hang in my kitchen:

We got those pictures sometime ago at Ikea. I just love the middle one. I haven't found a frame that works for them so well, or atleast that I could afford. Then I showed up at home one day and these were waiting for me! I just love them.