Burlap and a Dog

Hi everyone! I wanted to share a little corner of our living room with you all today.  We haven't traveled into this room on my blog much lately, so a post like this is long overdue!

 

I picked up the cutest, squishy burlap basket at Home Goods the other day - $4.99! Woo hoo!  They had a size smaller, and two or three sizes bigger, all stenciled with a different amount of pounds.  The five pounder was just right for me, so in the cart it went!

 

For now, I just placed a houseplant in it, and set it on my harp-based end table. It adds a nice contrast to the shiny lamp (an old Home Goods purchase) and although it looks a bit shiny in the pic, it is truly coarse, nubby, beautiful burlap.  It also goes well with the burlap shade on the lamp.

 

 





 

 

This area is pretty representative of the type of colors I am drawn to - golds, burgandys, greens.  The picture on the left is a handpainted oil that I picked up several years ago at Goodwill for super cheap - like $2.00 cheap. It's kind of crinkly and worn - I love it!  The other two pictures are so pretty, but are Kirkland cheapies.  Still, they work well here.

 

The yellow checked ottoman is a Target find, back when they first introduced their Threshold line.  It has storage and is great for extra seating, propping up your feet, or simply adding a pop of color and pattern, as it does here.  I painted and stained the old harp based table several years go, picked it up at a thrift store for - again - cheap!

 

 

 

The little collie on the old book is a favorite.  Just a sweet faced, little guy that adds some charm to the setting.

All these flower pictures and green plants have me longing for spring! We are having an ice, snow, rain, and thunderstorm event today - yes, that is our actual forecast! That's Wisconsin weather for ya - all the seasons wrapped up in one day! But sooner or later, I will be admiring the outside flowers and greenery!  (I hope so anyway!)

Have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by,
Jane

Linking with:
Metamorphosis Monday
Make it Pretty Monday
Les Chateau Des Fleurs
Amaze Me Monday
Inspire Me Tuesday
Wow Us Wednesday

Oh the Agitation!

Laundry agitation that is!!  Today I submit for your approval: our humble laundry room.  When we built our home ten years ago, this room looked big on the plans.  Oh yes it did.  I suppose anything was an improvement over our laundry room in a closet in our previous house.  But, alas and alack, - this laundry room turned out to be too flippin' small! But it is what we have and we are grateful to have it!

Hopefully you have done your pilates today and ate your Special K, because it is a tight fit and we are about to go in........................

 This is a little jog between the kitchen, garage and powder room.  Love this little industrial stool!

 The cubbies hold shoes and cookbooks.  They also provide easy access from the aqua stool to the washer for our two cats who love to lay in the basket on the dryer and watch the birds out the window.  If you look carefully you can see Butterscotch curled up in there right now.

This is a better view of the washer/dryer area.  The cats also have their food bowl up here to keep it away from the hungry dog!  (I also added a little bunny pick in the plant to Easter it up in here)

This is a view of the burlap bulletin board panels I made for the sides of my cabinets.  Tied them off with jute and they are really cool for holding special pictures and things. I went for a very random, uneven look with the jute - didn't want it too perfect. Not sure why it is shiny on the left side of this pic, but it is not in real life.

This is a better view of the bulletin board.  You can also see the hook rack - it's usually full of coats! 

Keepin' it real here folks - you can see to the right we have another coat hook (with a coat on it)!   You cannot see it from these pictures, but to the left is a large coat closet that we have outfitted with a closet system that has drawers, metal bins, awesome shoe cubbies, and a double rod for hanging clothes up as they come out of the dryer. We removed the bi-fold doors and I added a dropcloth curtain to camo the mess.  Taking the doors off really gave us quite a bit more usable space.

This place lives hard.  It is too small - but I have tried to utilize every inch.  It is just so hard to keep clean & organized!  Last summer I painted the walls, cabinets, and added the white chair rail. I really love how it looks when it is clean and sparkly.  The "art work" is just a few sheets of black, white, & sepia tone scrapbook paper.  I am still looking for the perfect cabinet hardware, but it has eluded me thus far.  One of these days.

Thanks for checking out the source of my "agitation!"  Have a great Monday.

Wishing you happiness,
Jane

Joining in Metamorphosis Monday  Thanks to Susan for this Monday treat!

Joining in Debbie-Doos Newbie Party.  Thanks to Debbie for hosting!

Thanks to the sisters over at Bringing Beauty for inviting me to join their Beautify it Monday party!