Celebrating Life, One Moment at a Time: an official designer

So while Aunt pam was in town I decided to put her to work. I mean it would only be right. I'm not sure she has ever come out to visit without a "project" (as my dad calls it) to work on. Whether it be painting the ENTIRE basement, or Michael's room, or Joey's room, we always have something for her to do. So I decided to enlist her help in reupholstering our dining room table chairs. There are four chairs and two bar stools.

So this is what the chairs looked like before:

and from another angle:

The chair I used to take the before picture of doesn't look horrible but I think 2 of the chairs and both barstools had tears along the front of the cushion and the fabric was SO dirty!

So after several trips to the fabric store, Michael's craft store, and Lowe's and recruiting the help of my dad we set to work. We finished all of the seats but decided to leave the backs for another day. They were especially hard because all but a quarter inch around the edge shows so you have to be very exact. One night while I was hard at work, my dad and pam were amazing and finished covering the backs with fabric and then my dad helped me to install all of the cushions on to the chairs.

So this is what the chairs look like now (drum roll please!):

Isn't the fabric great?! I think it helps make the chairs look so much more modern. And the darker fabric will help hid stains and dirt in the long run.

Here's what the whole dining room looks like now:

Now the problem I'm having is with the gold and glass lamp. It looks old and I think it takes away from the modern look of the room.

Here's a close up:

So I've been looking at lamps. Unfortunately lamps are super expensive. And I haven't found one I'm in love with yet. Then I was reading one of my interior design blogs and wha-la. A lamp I love!!! And it is a do it yourself project! So I can say that I made it and the whole thing costs about 12 dollars! Right about my price range.

So here's what it looks like:

And another blogger's version:

Take this picture with a grain of salt because this is a much larger scale than I would make my lamp. The lamp in the top picture is like 42". I was thinking about 24". I love the light and fluffy look of it. And I was thinking it might correlate well with the sun burst print on the fabric of the chairs. But then I was in my bedroom and I was thinking... How well would little versions of this lamp look hanging on each side of our bed??!!?? I would probably do two 12" lamps hanging on each side. A modern twist on night stand lamps! So let me know what you think! Dining room table or bed side light?

My last purchase for my room was a leaning ladder bookshelf.

Here's a picture of it:

I still need to move my painting up and to the right. But the bookshelf helps so much! It organizes all of my books and magazines and the printer fits perfectly on the bottom shelf!

So last I've been collecting some inspirational photos I'm loving right now that I thought I would share with you: