Its the Simple Things

If you are ever in the north Texas area, you must visit 

Simple Things Furniture Company.

They are re-opening their store this week

in a brand new location and it is amazing!

I asked them if I could share the news and

some of the pictures here on my blog because 

you just have to see this place.

This isn't just a regular furniture and home decor store 

where you walk in to see the merchandise.

It's an experience. 

   How many stores do you go into and actually marvel at the walls of the building or notice the ceiling and the floors.  

The place is a beautiful structure.  

You'll want to move right in. 

Can someone put these floors in my house please?

Once you get past the stunning architecture of the building

 (which they created from a generic warehouse space),

get ready for your jaw to drop.

Here are some pictures of inside Simple Things.

Those seltzer bottles are not just any bottles.

See the tag?  It says Joe T. Garcia's which 

is a restaurant icon around here. How cool.

This is so me.  Love the pop of red!

Not only will you want to buy everything,

but you will be inspired with decorating ideas.

I know.  Your jaw dropped.

Close your mouth before you drool.

Are you wanting more?

Get ready to blow up your Pinterest account.

Click here to visit their blog and see more pictures

of how they built this store and more of what is inside.

Better yet, visit them at 

7401 W Vickery

in Fort Worth, Texas.

What do you think?  Are you in love with this place?

What did you pin?

Reworked

Remember this?
I went a little bold for a change.

I wanted an impact wall in my second entry area and wanted to go

a little vintage industrial.  When I posted about this in June, I said

I kind of liked it but wasn't sure if I loved it.

I asked you for feedback and I got some great feedback 

and suggestions from you.  

I now know that I didn't love it.  

It looked like I slapped those on a wall and called it a day.

Maybe I did.

So, I reworked it a bit.

Some of you suggested I frame it in or paint the background a different color.

It needed some kind of perimeter to define it and finish it out.  

I have a piece of old moulding that has traveled around my house

and currently didn't have a home.  

So, I added it here to define and contain my collection of Gs and 3s.

I also add some smaller ones to fill in some of the big blank spaces.

There is still room to add more if I find just the right ones

but for now it looks more finished.

I like this a lot better.  

This is my favorite one.  It's an old thin metal stencil.

What do you think now?

Honestly.

You were all so kind last time when it really didn't look good.

By the way, they are all hanging straight.  

For some reason, some of them look a little crooked

in the picture but I assure you they are perfectly straight

in real life or it would drive me insane.

going industrial...a little bit

We have a "2nd entry" area that baffles me.  

It's between the foyer or main entry area and the main living area. 

It serves no purpose really except that it creates a very small and short hallway 

with a huge blank wall.   There isn't enough room to put a piece of furniture there

and Mandi doesn't live close enough to build in a bookcase with some rockin' moulding for me.

I'm tired of looking at the blank wall so I decided to do something about it.

I'm going a little bold for a change; a little bit industrial.

I hung my collection of "3"s and "G"s, or at least the start of the collection.

I hope to fill it in a little more with some smaller ones.

It's a little crazy isn't it?  I like it but do I love it?

I don't know yet.

By the way, they are all hung very straight.  

You just can't tell it in the pictures :)  

Honest feedback anyone?

I'm back

After a couple of weeks away, I'm back and so ready to catch up on things I haven't been able to do lately. First, I need to thank all of you who left comments in the past two or three weeks, especially those  comments left after I posted about the loss of my godfather.  I'm so happy to hear how so many of you have godparents or are godparents because it's such an important role in life.  Your messages were comforting and made me smile.  Although I haven't been able to respond individually to each comment, I can't tell you how much I appreciated every one of them.

I need to catch up on my blog reading.  I have been reading some of your posts hit and miss over the past couple of weeks but haven't been able to leave many comments.  I hope to catch up on what all you've been doing.

A lot has been happening around here.  We had some teenage drama with my son which needed our attention.  He's fine and he didn't do anything wrong but it all made me start to think that texting and Facebook are a bad bad thing in the hands of 14 year olds who sometimes can't think their way out of paper bag.  Once our son was good to go, I was stopped in my tracks with the worst cold I think I've ever had.  It  was so bad, I kept thinking it must be the flu but nope, just a horrible cold that had me out of commission for several days.  So, needless to say, I haven't posted about things I had planned to or even started projects I wanted to have completed by now.  To top it off, the Dallas-Ft. Worth area is supposed to have the coldest temperatures maybe ever on record this coming week so there won't be any way to paint or work in the garage and with possible freezing rain, sleet and snow, I guess there won't be much shopping in my future this week either.  Oh well, I don't live far from where all the Super Bowl action will be over the next week so I guess it will be easier to just stay home...or get out of town since Canton First Monday is next weekend :)

Before I was sidelined, I did pick up the coolest "G" I had intended to show you.  It's big and industrial and metal and awesome (at least to me).  It's just over a foot tall and about 3 1/2 inches deep.  It has rivets and a few little dents and scratches with just a touch of rust.

So cool.

Vintage Yardsticks

What could one do with a bunch of vintage yardsticks?

How about...make a chair-rail.

A friend of my pal, Jennie, used vintage yardsticks to make a chair-rail in this room.

What until you see the rest of the room.  It's not what you think.  I'll share more about it next week.

For now, what do you think of the yardstick chair-rail?

Cool, huh?

Here's even a little yardstick charm added just above the baseboard.

I love this.  Now, I just need a bunch of vintage yardsticks.

linking up to my favorite link parties listed above or down below on the right

Sunroom to Project Room: Mission Accomplished

Finally!  FINALLY! My sunroom is done. For those of you who have been following this saga, I have a great sunroom that had become a storage room while we worked on other rooms in the house. Here's an embarrassing picture of the before:

You can read all about the before here.  The plan was to turn this junk-filled room into a new project room for me.  I wanted a place where I could spread out on a project table or on the floor, have a lots of storage for all of my supplies and tools yet still be a pretty place to sit with friends.  After seeing inspiring pictures of calm rooms with beautiful neutral palettes, I decided that's the direction I wanted to go.  After a few weeks, I changed my mind.  The neutral palette just wasn't me.  So, I started all over.  The room has a neutral backdrop but I added color which is way more me.  So, here is the new project room:

The room has pretty french doors as you enter.  You can see the concrete floors covered with a Pottery Barn rug I got for a steal last year.  You can read more about the floors here.

Some of these pictures may be a little dark because it was difficult to control the light in this bright room. You can see the work table I painted and talked about in any earlier post.  

My cousin had given me the old window that hangs on the wall.  I'm using it as a dry-erase memo board. On the table in the corner is an antique gold scale my father used in his jewelry business.

Here are the old drawers I had in the garage.  I cleaned them up and just put a coat of sealer on them.  I made labels for each drawer which right now are numbered.  After I get them filled and organized, I'll change the numbers to words/labels so I'll know where everything is.  Then, I'm sure some of the drawers will be open quite a bit since I'll be using the stuff in them but that's okay because the drawers are galvanized metal and will look so cool left open.  That's my kind of storage.

Here's a close up of the dry erase memo old window.  

This little old child's rocker sat in my parents' house as far back as I can remember.  I think every kid in our whole extended family has sat in that rocker.

This old cedar closet was from my parents and I think my grandmother before that.  It was  red and had a fake crackle finish.  I painted it with a pale grayish white. I added a an old chippy clip holder to one door and some junk on top.

I still need pillows for the bench next to the cedar closet but some lively quilts and throws add color right now.

Tip: I put petroleum jelly on the hardware of the cedar closet so paint wouldn't stick to it and I wouldn't have to tape it all to protect it.  I'm just lazy that way.  I didn't have to be careful and could paint right over everything.  Once I was done, the paint peeled right off of the hardware.  I actually left bits of paint on them because I liked the way it looked.

There is lots of storage in that cedar closet. I have 3 metal baskets on the top shelf and may add more later.

Here's some of the junk on top of the cedar closet.  There's a child's red rocker,  an old soft drink crate I had hanging in my room as a kid and a metal red arrow I got on clearance from Sundance Catalog.

I picked up this chippy clip at the Red Shed.  It holds my inspiration photo.

I still want lots of pillow for the bench but I can take my time to find just the right ones.  I do like the bench recovered in drop cloth.

I used another soft drink crate (in favorite color RED) to hold craft paints and glue.  That idea is stolen straight from Funky Junk Interiors.

My pal, Jennie, gave me this wooden slotted storage piece.  I can put office supplies, magazines, paper, camera, or just about anything else in those cubbies.  

I love that this thing.  It's just tons of cool storage.  I put my new galvanized tote on top to store spray paints.

I like the old paper labels still stuck on the side. 

This piece is really sturdy too. I could add cushions and it would be extra seating if needed.

Back around next to the entry is the fireplace.  On the wall next to it is a metal baking rack.  It can hold more supplies if needed.

On the mantel, I sat one of my favorite green shelves.  I like the shape, color and the chipped worn finish of this shelf.  In the future I can add decorative elements or perhaps a row of buckets or other containers to hold more supplies.

I just love this shelf.

Above the shelf is my printer's tray that I've had since I was a kid.  You know all those little trinkets and mementos kids bring home that they want to keep?  I kept mine in this printer's tray that hung on my wall in my bedroom.  It was my mom's idea because even way back then, she was a junker with good taste.  Now,  I just need to fill this back up with some cool things.

Did I mention that I love this shelf?

Yep, another shot of that shelf.

Some of you saw the blue and white material I had placed under the glass on the project table.  I replaced that with drop cloth and painted two red stripes on the drop cloth.

There's my awesome stool that I got here from a fellow blogger.

Yes, that drop cloth is a bit wrinkled but 1) they will work themselves out eventually and 2) it will get covered up with photos, notes, etc. that will go under the glass over time.

I added my big 2 ft. tall chippy white "G" I picked up at the local antique mall.  There's also another jeweler's scale on top of the drawer unit.

I'm lovin' this room.

It's so me.

There is still so much more potential in this room.  It has tons of storage and I still need to move in all of my supplies and tools.  I want to add a few pillows and smaller details but overall it's done and I like it.  Since I had almost everything, this room cost very little to do.  I had almost all of the furniture and decor and almost all of the paint and supplies.  So, here's the breakdown:

• one gallon of paint for the table an cedar closet: $25.00
• one piece of glass cut for the table: $30.00
• bar stool with the 3: $30.00
• huge galvanized tool tote: $20.00
• large G: $30.00
• drop cloth for recovering bench/put under glass on table: $10.00 (and there's a lot left)
• new Macbook Pro computer:  priceless

Total costs: $145.00 for the whole room.  That's not bad, huh? This is one of my favorite rooms.