For this week's What's on your wall Wednesday, I am going to show you the walls in my family room. This is one of the few rooms in my house where I get to girlify the room. My family room is actually a great room that encompasses my kitchen & family room area. Since I have already shown you
what is on my kitchen walls, I thought I would show you the other half of the room.
We will start with the East wall. I have my china hutch & TV armoire on this wall. I found my china hutch about 15 years ago at an antique store when I lived in El Cajon (San Diego county). I was living in an apartment at the time so I needed something smaller. I have always wanted to paint this white, but since I am the procrastination queen, it still is wood. Now I am kind of leaning towards painting it black. I can't make up my mind, and that doesn't help me getting it painted. Since this is up against my wall, I consider it as part of what is on my walls. This is how the hutch currently looks. (I so need to polish my silver.)
This tin sign hangs above my hutch. I love what it says. I found this a couple of years ago at JoAnn Fabrics.
To the right of my china hutch is my huge TV armoire. This came from the JC Penney furniture outlet about 10 years ago. It holds my huge 27" TV. Someday I will get a flat screen TV & then I can get rid of this monster. The only redeeming quality is that this has a lot of storage. So if I get rid of it I'll have to come up with something else for the storage.
Right now on top of the armoire I have some birdcages. These were all purchased for my wedding 3 years ago. Two of them came with this green color. The other two I had to paint to match. The Christ tile was a Christmas gift from my sister 2 years ago. You can't see the white ironstone vase that holds the flowers. I consider all this decoration for my wall as well.
Then in the south/east corner is our fireplace. Right now it is set up as a gas fireplace, but the gas logs can be removed & we can burn real logs if we choose. I hate the look of this fireplace. Someday I will change out the tile & have hubby build a wood surround & mantel. And maybe even an over mantel. But for now, this is what I live with.
This is how my mantel is currently decorated. I just took down my mantel clock & added the "Family" letter art that I made this past weekend. If you missed my post about it, you can find it
here.
The Paris oil painting was an ebay find. It didn't come with the frame. I bought the oil painting from ebay for a Penny. Then paid $20.00 shipping. It came unstretched rolled up in a tube. We bought stretcher bars at Michael's with 40% coupon & stretched it ourselves. Then I purchased the frame at Aaron Brothers Art for $20.00 at one of their sales. So I think the total amount for this framed painting came to less than $50.00. I thought that was a deal. I love the painting & I love the frame. I have had this for probably 6 years. It reminds me of our trip to Paris back in 2003. This painting is 24" x 24".
This iron thingy came from a store that is no longer in business & I can't remember the name of. It was a fabulous store that opened up right before 9/11. I called it the Home Depot of Decor. It was a huge warehouse type store like a Home Depot, but everything was for decorating. I loved it. But when 9/11 happened the economy went down & the store didn't have enough business to stay in business, so they shut their doors. I was soooo sad. I'm sure I paid less than $10.00 for this. It is quite heavy & I wouldn't want to be standing under it if we had an earthquake & it came crashing down. That is why it is above my fireplace. I don't stand there very often.
I can't remember where I got the candle sconces. I've had them for years. They came bronze color & I painted them white & then distressed them. I added a vintage crystal prism to each one. I'm getting tired of these & will probably change them out this summer.
I didn't take a photo of my south wall as it is our sliding glass door & another window. My windows were filthy, so I didn't want to show you. I don't have any curtains or drapes on my windows as there are transom windows above & I am not sure what I want for drapes or curtains. Plus these windows look out into our backyard to our pool. And luckily you can't see the neighbors so privacy really isn't an issue. Besides the dirty windows, the back porch view is currently not good. Hubby is in the process of moving stuff around in the backyard. Someday I'll post photos, but not today.
The west wall I have divided up into 2 different areas. The area on the left has a small shelf with a Thomas Kincaid print of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Here is a close up of the shelf. The pineapple finials came from Home Goods & Marshall's. The books, urns & candlestick/pillar came from various thrift stores. The 2 larger green balls I got on 50% clearance at Michael's & the small variegated ball came from the Dollar Tree. I will probably change up this shelf for summer as well.
Here is a close up of the Thomas Kincaid print. Sorry about the reflection/glare. It is so hard to take photos when glass is involved. I got the print off of ebay a few years back. It was less than $10.00. The frame was another sale item from Aaron Brothers Art, a few years ago. Back then they had fabulous shabby chic frames. So I stocked up when they had a buy 1 frame get 2nd for a penny sale. I change this print at Christmas time with another Kincaid print of a Victorian house at Christmas (another ebay find).
To the right of the shelf & print is the main part of the wall. Here I have another Paris oil painting, a frame with vintage Venice post cards & some of my mirror collection. My couch sits right below this arrangement.
Here is a close up of the left hand side. The wood plaque at the top I found at an antique store in Old Town Temecula. I loved the chippiness of it. The middle mirror came from Mervyn's years ago. And the bottom window mirror came from ABC Distributing catalog years back. The keys hanging from the doorknob on the mirror came from Kirkland's. Yup, they are old too.
This mirror was a thrift store find. I toy with the idea of painting it white & then distressing it. But so far, I haven't. Do you think I should paint it?
This oil painting is 24"x36". I bought the unframed/unscretched painting from ebay for a Penny plus $20.00 shipping. Same as the Eiffel Tower painting. I found the frame at a thrift store for $5.00 & then went searching ebay for a painting to fill it. Stretched the canvas ourselves. So this painting cost me about $30-35.00. I'm not really digging the color of the frame, but I haven't painted it yet. Are you sensing a theme here? And I am not talking frenchiness. I'm talking procrastination & lack of decision making.
Right below is a frame with my vintage Venice post cards. These came from ebay as well. The frame I think came from Kohl's. I've had it about 5-6 years, so I don't remember. I bought the post cards to remind me of Venice. If you have never been to Paris or Venice, you must go. Make sure you do it. You will never regret it!!!!
A close up of the cards.
I want to go back to Venice & Paris in the worst way.
And the mirrors on the right. The mirror on the top came from a thrift store. I painted it white & distressed it. The middle mirror came from Big Lots just this past year. And the bottom mirror I purchased at a craft show years ago. I love the tin. This mirror however never wants to stay straight. I'm constantly straightening it out. In fact I am constantly straightening all these mirrors & paintings. Since the couch is right below, my son always bangs the wall & everything moves. I'm thinking of gluing them to the wall. But then that would make it kind of hard for changing around. Which I am thinking of doing since I am getting bored with this arrangement. Not sure what I will put up instead.
This little area is technically part of the kitchen. But since I just put these items up, I wanted to share them with you. The mirror came from Welcome Home store years ago (I miss that store). I used to have it on an easel in another place. I love it on the wall now. And right below that is my new vintage plate. I won this plate from CC Catherine of
Catherine de the Cups on her blog giveaway. You can see it
here &
here. I was so excited to win & receive it. Isn't is just darling? It works perfect under this mirror.
Here is a close up of the plate. I love it!!
And here is the back. Thank you Catherine for having the giveaway. I love this little plate & it goes perfectly in my kitchen/family room.
I was a lucky person a few weeks back. I not only won this giveaway, but I won some white pizza cheese dip mix from Kate at
A Romantic Life. I guessed the exact amount of corks in her apothecary jar. Click
here to see what I won. I haven't made the dip yet, probably will this Sunday (I'll post photos later when I do make it). Then I won a moss monogram letter from Barb at Grits and Glamour, she is making it for me & I should receive it soon. You can click
here to see what she is making me, only mine will be a "C". I'll show you in a later post once I have received.
And speaking of Barb at
Grits and Glamour, she is the fabulous host of
What's on your wall Wednesday. So be sure to visit
her & all the other participants. This is a fun meme. I love seeing what everyone has on their walls. It tells you a lot about the person. As you can see from my walls, I love anything Frenchy and Shabby Chic. My family room & the
walls at my office at work show my true style.
Thanks for visiting & don't forgot to leave me a comment. I promise I will come & visit your blog & leave you a comment as well if you do. Deal?
Kim
The Paris oil painting was an ebay find. It didn't come with the frame. I bought the oil painting from ebay for a Penny. Then paid $20.00 shipping. It came unstretched rolled up in a tube. We bought stretcher bars at Michael's with 40% coupon & stretched it ourselves. Then I purchased the frame at Aaron Brothers Art for $20.00 at one of their sales. So I think the total amount for this framed painting came to less than $50.00. I thought that was a deal. I love the painting & I love the frame. I have had this for probably 6 years. It reminds me of our trip to Paris back in 2003. This painting is 24" x 24".
This iron thingy came from a store that is no longer in business & I can't remember the name of. It was a fabulous store that opened up right before 9/11. I called it the Home Depot of Decor. It was a huge warehouse type store like a Home Depot, but everything was for decorating. I loved it. But when 9/11 happened the economy went down & the store didn't have enough business to stay in business, so they shut their doors. I was soooo sad. I'm sure I paid less than $10.00 for this. It is quite heavy & I wouldn't want to be standing under it if we had an earthquake & it came crashing down. That is why it is above my fireplace. I don't stand there very often.
I can't remember where I got the candle sconces. I've had them for years. They came bronze color & I painted them white & then distressed them. I added a vintage crystal prism to each one. I'm getting tired of these & will probably change them out this summer.
Here is a close up of the shelf. The pineapple finials came from Home Goods & Marshall's. The books, urns & candlestick/pillar came from various thrift stores. The 2 larger green balls I got on 50% clearance at Michael's & the small variegated ball came from the Dollar Tree. I will probably change up this shelf for summer as well.
Here is a close up of the Thomas Kincaid print. Sorry about the reflection/glare. It is so hard to take photos when glass is involved. I got the print off of ebay a few years back. It was less than $10.00. The frame was another sale item from Aaron Brothers Art, a few years ago. Back then they had fabulous shabby chic frames. So I stocked up when they had a buy 1 frame get 2nd for a penny sale. I change this print at Christmas time with another Kincaid print of a Victorian house at Christmas (another ebay find).
To the right of the shelf & print is the main part of the wall. Here I have another Paris oil painting, a frame with vintage Venice post cards & some of my mirror collection. My couch sits right below this arrangement.
This oil painting is 24"x36". I bought the unframed/unscretched painting from ebay for a Penny plus $20.00 shipping. Same as the Eiffel Tower painting. I found the frame at a thrift store for $5.00 & then went searching ebay for a painting to fill it. Stretched the canvas ourselves. So this painting cost me about $30-35.00. I'm not really digging the color of the frame, but I haven't painted it yet. Are you sensing a theme here? And I am not talking frenchiness. I'm talking procrastination & lack of decision making.
Right below is a frame with my vintage Venice post cards. These came from ebay as well. The frame I think came from Kohl's. I've had it about 5-6 years, so I don't remember. I bought the post cards to remind me of Venice. If you have never been to Paris or Venice, you must go. Make sure you do it. You will never regret it!!!!
A close up of the cards.
I want to go back to Venice & Paris in the worst way.
And the mirrors on the right. The mirror on the top came from a thrift store. I painted it white & distressed it. The middle mirror came from Big Lots just this past year. And the bottom mirror I purchased at a craft show years ago. I love the tin. This mirror however never wants to stay straight. I'm constantly straightening it out. In fact I am constantly straightening all these mirrors & paintings. Since the couch is right below, my son always bangs the wall & everything moves. I'm thinking of gluing them to the wall. But then that would make it kind of hard for changing around. Which I am thinking of doing since I am getting bored with this arrangement. Not sure what I will put up instead.
This little area is technically part of the kitchen. But since I just put these items up, I wanted to share them with you. The mirror came from Welcome Home store years ago (I miss that store). I used to have it on an easel in another place. I love it on the wall now. And right below that is my new vintage plate. I won this plate from CC Catherine of Catherine de the Cups on her blog giveaway. You can see it here & here. I was so excited to win & receive it. Isn't is just darling? It works perfect under this mirror.
Here is a close up of the plate. I love it!!
And here is the back. Thank you Catherine for having the giveaway. I love this little plate & it goes perfectly in my kitchen/family room.
I was a lucky person a few weeks back. I not only won this giveaway, but I won some white pizza cheese dip mix from Kate at A Romantic Life. I guessed the exact amount of corks in her apothecary jar. Click here to see what I won. I haven't made the dip yet, probably will this Sunday (I'll post photos later when I do make it). Then I won a moss monogram letter from Barb at Grits and Glamour, she is making it for me & I should receive it soon. You can click here to see what she is making me, only mine will be a "C". I'll show you in a later post once I have received.
So what do you get when you combine 1 frame,
One Gothic window mirror,
One garden finial,
One french flower basket,
And one mini greenhouse.
Have you seen letter art like this? I've been seeing more & more of it & I love it!!! I had seen one in a store just last weekend that said family for $90.00. Mine cost me $10.00. I really wanted to make mine with stuff I had around my house & yard. That made it a little harder. But it's amazing when you start how you see letters in almost everything.
For the "M" I used my Gothic window mirror. I originally was going to use this for the "Y", but hubby thought it made a better "M". My new garden finial from WalMart was used for the "I". I had just seen this on someone's blog on the Procrastination party last week & I went right out & splurged on one. It was on clearance, but still more than I would usually pay. I love it!
I took lots of photos of things to use for the "L", but ended up using the "L" on my french flower basket. The basket originally had succulents that had died. I got it on clearance for $6.00 at Costco at the beginning of the year. The "Y" is part of one of the windows in my mini greenhouse. I was going to use photos of this for the "M" originally, but switched them around with the Gothic window mirror. I got the mini greenhouse from Big Lots years ago. It is getting quite shabby from being out in the weather all these years.
I put the artwork on my mantel in our family room. I put a "Families are Forever" plaque in front of it. I picked this up last weekend at Deseret Book on 50% off clearance. I paid $8.00.
And one final look on my mantel. Doesn't it look good? I am so happy with how this turned out. And it will mean so much more to me since I made it myself & used my own items for the photos.
I love the pattern on these saucers.
And I love them even more as they are Royal Staffordshire from England.
And here is where 2 of them ended up.
In my wall cabinet display. I love how this turned out.
Thanks for visiting & don't forget to visit Rhoda to see her fabulous chandelier and the rest of this weeks participants. You will find them here.
Here is the center of the wall.
And the right hand side of the wall. The buffet & mirror were my hubby's before we got married. The Lenox bowls on the buffet are hubby's as well. I did a post about them last week. You can find it here (if interested). The print of the ships falling off the edge of the world is my hubby's favorite. We still need to frame it. Right now it sits on an easel. The clock is on the west wall & to the right of that is a window (not shown) and then our huge entertainment center.
This framed print belonged to my hubby. It is really old. I don't know the history of it. I'm sure hubby has told me, but I seem to have forgotten. It sits above our pump organ. I'll have to do a post about the organ someday. It is so hard to get a good photo of pictures with glass. I tried to take it at an angle, but still got reflection.
I bought this mirror off of ebay a few years back. I loved it because it is all "frenchy" and we know I love frenchy.
This clock was hubby's. He found it at a thrift store.
The opening to our living room is on the east side. There is a small wall that is next to the organ. This picture hangs there. The photos were taken by us on our trip to Europe in 2003. This photo didn't turn out very good. The top photo is of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The 2nd photo is the stone archway that sits next to the Colosseum in Rome. The 3rd photo is of Big Ben in London and the last photo is of Venice. If you have never been to Europe you must go. It is fabulous!!! I want to go back someday. It's hard to wrap your head around how old everything is there.
This is also the east wall but on the other side of the entryway to our living room. This is the wall where our couch is. The candle sconces came from ABC Distributing catalog. I love fleur de lis!! Why, because they are frenchy!!! The London & Paris prints came from Walmart.
I loved these prints as they reminded me of our trip to Europe. And I loved the vintage suitcases.
The colors in these 2 prints are fairly muted. Makes them look old & vintage. I can't remember what I paid for them but I'm sure it was less than $20.00 a piece as I'm sure I wouldn't have bought them if they were anymore than that.
The north wall in my living room has a big window in the middle with 2 small areas on either side for hanging things. This is the right side of the window. The mirror came from Bombay years ago. I think it was the first thing I bought from Bombay. The lamp & table were hubby's. The lamp came from Bombay too. It is one of my favorite lamps.
This print was given to me by my sister a couple of Christmas's ago. I just love the mat with all the pictures of Christ.
This is the area on the north wall to the left of the window. You can tell I don't have any drapes on my windows, just the icky blinds. I have drapes, just haven't put them up. I just got hubby to put up the drapes in our bedroom & we have lived in our house for 4 years. I've told you before, I am the procrastination queen. The leaf candle holder came from Target years ago.
Here is a closeup of the picture below. My sis gave me this one at the same time she gave me the Christ one.
And here is the beast that takes up most of our west wall. I've only shown you half of it. The desk area was too much of a mess to share with you today. This part was messy enough. Hubby bought this in sections from the JC Penney furniture outlet. If I had to guess, this beast is probably 10-12 feet wide. It houses our TV, our computer, stereo equipment (at least that is hidden away) as well as all my hubby's knick knacks. Yes, most of the items you see displayed are his.
Well that is what is on my wall in my Living Room. Maybe someday I'll show you photos of the entire room. But I will have to get hubby to clean up his desk area first. As you can probably tell, hubby & I like to collect stuff. There isn't a wall in my house that doesn't have lots of stuff on it or furniture up next to it. I hope I never have to move again. We have too much stuff. But we love our stuff. We need an intervention. Just kidding!!!
