How to have Decent Furniture with a House Full of Boys

This is our breakfast table. From a distance it looks pretty good.

 But the closer you get, the easier it is to tell that a house full of boys use this table and it's {unfortunately} cream colored chairs on a daily basis.

 Now don't get me wrong, these chair started out a beautiful cream color and they stayed that way for a few years in my {rarely used except for crafting} dining room. When we finally outgrew our 4 seater table, the logical thing to do was to move this bigger table into the breakfast nook for everyday use....the only problem was those beautiful cream colored chairs. We tried being careful, we tried cleaners, we tried scrubbing...nothing was going to keep those chairs clean! The only solution was to recover....using something a little more durable than cream colored fabric!

I considered using a vinyl type fabric so that spills would clean up easy, but who wants to eat dinner on a chair that squeaks like Marie Barone's couch:) That is where this bolt of fabric comes in. I picked it up at Hancock Fabric on clearance for $6 a yard...and it is outdoor material! I figured outdoor material would repel stains and clean up easier than normal fabric, plus it was so cheap that I got a few extra yards so I can recover them again if we have any major oops!

To recover your chairs, simply remove the seat from your chair. Cut out a piece of fabric big enough to cover the front of the seat and wrap around the sides.

Use a staple gun to attach the fabric to the underside of the seat and then cut away any extra fabric.

Covering up those stained cream cushions made our chairs seem like they were brand new...now we are just waiting for our first spill to test out our newly recovered chairs!

And just for fun here is a before and after....though I almost considered labelling them the opposite because the first one is "after kids have been here" and the second one is "before kids have been here":)

So how can you have decent furniture with a house full of boys....cover up their stains and have an extra stash of fabric just in case they when they inevitable make more!

Master Bedroom Redo: Halfway There

In June of this year, we will have been in our house for 7 years. And for the most part our house has stayed pretty much the same. We have added new pieces of furniture here and there. Jason made a few built-ins to make life with three kiddos a little more organized. Most of the rooms in our house have stayed the same colors that we painted when we first moved in....partly because we love the colors we choose and partly because our ten foot ceilings make repainting a major affair. 

However, as we get closer to the anniversary of our moving in I think I am starting to get the "7 Year Itch"! I have more than a few projects on my mind {including a playroom makeover, under stair storage, and a breakfast nook bench} BUT the major thing that I really want to redo right now is our master bedroom. Maybe it's because we just recently rearranged some furniture and added an armoire to our bedroom, or maybe it' because our old bedding was getting tired...either way, last week I set out to make a few changes in our master bedroom.

Before:

The before is not too terrible. I really like the color of our walls and the bedding was a great match....kind of neutral with just the right shade of turquoise in it. However, you can tell that our bedding has seen better days, and after at least four years of rough and tumble boys who think mommy and daddy's bed is a trampoline....it really needed to go. My dilemma when picking out new bedding was the fact that I knew Jason didn't want to repaint, and I really wanted to change up the color palette a little bit.

After:

After finding this black and white bedding at Target, I decided that maybe adding in a little red was just the right way to change up the color in our room. I also worked on removing as much of the brown and tan colors as possible {like the lampshade}. I think the contrast between the walls and the bedding is too strong, so I still need to find some pillows to help incorporate the wall color onto the bed....and I think I need to add a little bit of red to the wall too. All in all I think I am off to a good start, but I am keeping all my packaging and receipts just in case I change my mind:)

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So what do you think?!? Good change, or not so great?

I would love some suggestions on other ways to change up the room or specific fabrics or bedding that you think might look great in this space.

Decorating Dilemma

I got a ton of great advice from the last time that I participated in Amanda's fun Decorating Dilemmas party. So I'm linking up again with the hope that I can get some more great feedback!We are still in the middle of redoing our living room. This redo seems to be the project that will never end....hopefully with your help it will be a little closer to the end though.

My dilemma is this table:

My hubby built it to go behind our new sectional. The couch was just not quite centered in the room the way we wanted it, so he built this table to sit behind the couch and make it more centered in the room. Now I have an extremely long flat surface to decorate.

The biggest problem is that we built it to the height of the back of the couch, but the cushions stick up a little higher. That means that the bottom 3-4 inches of anything that is on the table can't be seen from the other side of the room.
Notice how the birdcage looks so small in this last shot. I am thinking of putting a stand underneath the birdcage, but I don't think I can do that with every single thing I put on the table. I am also having trouble deciding what to put on the wall behind the couch. We have a big wall of pictures to the left of this wall, a wall of windows to the right, and the tv is in front of the couch.

Any suggestions for how to decorate this {kind of} awkward table and the big empty wall behind it would be greatly appreciated!

Wordless Wednesday: A Work in Progress & A Decorating Dilemma

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We are working on redoing our living room...which includes a new couch, a new arrangement, fresh {but not a new color} paint, new blinds, some furniture makeovers, new wall hangings, and some new accessories.

For the most part the redo is going great, but the accessories are giving me a little trouble. So today I am linking up with Decorating Dilemmas hosted by Amanda!

So here is my dilemma:

This is a candle holder that is made to look like an old sugar mold. I love it, but it is in need of a makeover. As you can tell, my monkeys {mainly Eli} have gotten their little hands on the candles and broken three of them. That means I need a new idea of what to put in the candle holder. I also think the color could use a facelift as well. Any tips or ideas are greatly appreciated!