Keeping It Real

It's easy to stare at pictures of beautiful rooms and swoon over their beauty.

It's easy to look at a design element in someone's home and decide to incorporate it into your own.

It's easy to find inspiration.

It ain't easy livin' in the Land of Inbetween.
You know the place ~ the land you live in while taking what you had and turning it into what you want.

It's scary.  And oh is it messy.

In my effort of keeping it real I give you, my friends, the Fiorucci Land of Inbetween.

This was our front porch while we were laying down the new floors.

Not very welcoming is it?

While putting up the new trim, our front living room and dining room was my painting station.

Just want to curl up on that sofa and share a cup of coffee don't you?

The seemingly endless task of painting cabinet doors took over the living room and dining room.

All available counter space was used for stacking drawers to be painted. 

There were plenty of days where it was difficult to find space to simply make a sandwich.

As we did all the work ourselves, we lived in a state of disarray for 3 solid months. 

There were days it seemed unending. 

There were days I thought I would go crazy. 

There were days the only sanity I found was sipping a glass of red wine while sitting on the corner of the bathtub because it was the only clean room in the house.

The only way to live in the after picture is traveling through the Land of Inbetween.

Just don't park there.

Up next, our beautiful revamped kitchen!



My New Front Porch

Working in the front yard one day, I was looking at my front porch and the only thought I could think of was BORING.

I saw you yawn.  It's ok.  It made me yawn too.

 

Then my son ran by me while playing tag with the neighborhood kids.  He was wearing a bright neon green shirt and it got my creative juices flowing.  I drove to the local hardware store and after staring at the many, many colors of spray paint I decided on two really fun colors ~ Green Apple and Orange.

Next stop was the fabric store.  I purchased two foam pads for $10 each bought 2 yards of outdoor fabric which was on clearance.  Oh how I love clearance!  The fabric came to $8. 

Last but not least, I had my eye on a big paper mache letter "F".  With only one left, I grabbed it as I knew I would kick myself later if I didn't.  Even the $10 price tag on the letter didn't deter me - I knew it would work perfectly for what I wanted to do.

Once I was home I got to work.  The longest part of the process was taping off the furniture for the spray painting.  After the painting, I tackled the pillows and then the monogram.

Without further ado, here is what I created in a single weekend.  No more boring front porch!

I LOVE how the color pops bringing cheerfulness to our entry!

Many things I found laying around the house and repurposed them.  The great thing about paint is you can always change it.  It's that easy!

 Shortly after I finished, my neighbors wandered over and told me how much they love looking at my front porch and it brings a smile to their faces.  And that brought a smile to mine.