RE-invented style: March 2012

CASUAL BREAKFAST TABLE. I posted this week about using a Butterfly Theme on my Living Room Mantel which left all my cutesy, pastel Easter stuff unused. I decided to use it in my family room. The pink felt placemats are from Target. They are in the Dollar bins. The bunny placemats are from Pottery Barn Kids. I bought them 9 years ago for playdates and I still really like them. The coordinating egg shape plate is also from Pottery Barn Kids as part of the same set. I used a white cotton tablecloth and white napkins. I used the green and white polka dot paper left over from my St. Patrick's Day table to decorate the napkins. The crystal old-fashioned is by Gorham.

Bunny Convention. I gathered our stuffed bunnies and put them on a cake stand for a centerpiece. I have pink and green tulle remnants that I used for make believe and different parties when my daughter was young so I wrapped some around the centerpiece for a bit more color.

Got Bunny? We have a lot of bunnies left over from when my daughter was young so Easter allows us to get a bit more use out of them.

Big Centerpiece. I normally don't have such a big centerpiece on this table, but I had so many bunnies to use that the centerpiece grew and grew. I didn't even use half of our bunnies. I was especially sorry to not be able to figure out a way to use our moss bunnies, but the table was just not big enough.

Green and Pink. The Pottery Barn bunny place mats and plates come in 4 colors: green, pink, blue and yellow. I have 2 sets (btw, wish I had a third, but I haven't seen them again, not even on ebay, don't you hate it when that happens?) so I decided to only use the green and the pink to emphasize those 2 colors since it is a smaller table. This also allowed me to use items like the green and white stripe candles and polka dot paper covered tin cans left over from my St. Patrick's Day Table which was nice.

WRITTEN BY ELDAROSE

You can see Reba's Easter Table with Vintage HandPainted Eggs HERE

See My Butterfly Spring Mantel HERE

A Peter Rabbit Themed Party is HERE

A Christian Cross Bead Craft for Kids (Great for Easter Playdates) is described HERE

LINK PARTIES:

See more Tablescapes HERE

I had posted about remodeling my living room and promised an update so to keep my word, here is a living room update. You can see Part 1 HERE, Part 2 HERE and Part 3 HERE. The big changes are 2 seagrass rugs, a zebra skin rug, a vintage midcentury modern bar set and a decorated mantel. I have new chairs that I am having reupholstered and I need a chandelier so there will be more, but here is where the living room is currently.

THE LIVING ROOM THE WAY THE PREVIOUS HOME OWNERS HAD IT.

THE LIVING ROOM THE LAST TIME I POSTED.

LIVING ROOM TODAY. As per Reba's suggestion, I got 2 seagrass rugs to divide the room into 2 distinct sitting areas. The rugs were a good deal from Amazon. The vintage bar set is also new to me, as in bought 3 days ago. My friend, Martha, spotted it in an antique store in Blanco, Texas and insisted I buy it. I loved it, too, but I hesitated because I already had crystal decanters out that I liked. Martha brought up how well this set would go with the midcentury modern touches that I am trying to add to my otherwise traditional, verging on frilly older stuff. Martha was absolutely right. I love the brass stoppers and the lucite tray. It replaced a silver tray with crystal decanters that we had just put out recently. The crystal decanters were very pretty, but had an overall feminine feel. Since I am trying to be more gender neutral in my decor, I like that the masculine, Don Draper-esque air of this bar set will offset the feminine crystal figurines and bowls it sits among. Thank you for insisting Martha!

OUR NEW LIVING ROOM WAS A STORAGE AREA FOR OVER A YEAR.

THE LIVING ROOM SOFA AREA THE LAST TIME I POSTED.

THE LIVING ROOM SOFA AREA TODAY. The coffee table and rugs I wanted are above. Kinda funky, right? I know, but I think it is fun and bold and that is what I am trying to go for. And again, I wanted it nothing like my FORMER YELLOW LIVING ROOM IN OUR FIRST HOUSE which I felt had gotten a bit old ladyish. I wanted youthful. I hope that is the feeling this gives. A chandelier has to come next. I bought the lucite coffee table on Ebay from a mega seller called Southeastflorida and I couldn't be happier with my table so I thought I'd give him a plug. The lucite coffee table was $320 plus shipping which is a great price if you've shopped around for lucite tables. Although it was well packaged, the coffee table came in with a slight scratch and as soon as I emailed the man from South East Florida about it, he promptly replied saying he had already called FEDEX to come pick up a new table and it would be at my door in 2 days - and it was! No muss, no fuss. The zebra skin rug was a bigger decision. We debated whether to go faux or do a cowhide rug dyed like a zebra rug or go with the real deal. I feared the real deal would be a bit creepy, but my husband really liked the idea of one and so we went for it. I am happy to report that I don't find it creepy as I feared I would. I know it isn't for everyone, but I live in Texas so animal skin rugs are not too big a deal here.

A TOUCH OF MIDCENTURY MODERN. I like how the new bar set picks up on the gold trim of the mirrored chest. I am also pleased because I think it will also go with the new chairs I bought to go by the fireplace. The chrome legged, midcentury style chairs are in my hometown currently waiting to be reupholstered. They came in black leather and I want to have some blue velvet slipcovers made for them. When they arrive, I will update once again my living room remodeling saga. I hope I have a chandelier for the room by that time. If you have any ideas on my light fixture, I am open to suggestions. I wanted a drum shaped gold leaf chandelier, but because I have low ceilings (8 feet), I cannot get the one I wanted because it would hang too low. I considered making one, but I am not sure how to go about doing that.

THE MANTEL LAST TIME I POSTED.

THE MANTEL TODAY. I am pretty excited to have a mantel to decorate for the seasons again. Sharing my Easter/Spring mantel was actually what got me to take pictures of the living room. I found it hard to decorate for Spring with this living room color scheme because most of my Easter stuff is cutesy pastel stuff and I didn't think it would go with the style of the room. I had a few ideas of what I might be able to do, but I ended up going with butterflies. My husband bought me 3 wood folk art looking bunny figurines pulling carts from Wisteria. I decided they were ok for this room so I used them as my centerpiece. Then, when I complained of being uninspired, my husband suggested butterflies would go with the eclectic and colorful style of the room. My husband can be very helpful when he wants to be. I took that idea and ran with it. I dug up some old butterfly prints that I meant to sell in our garage sale, but forgot about. They were in gold frames which goes with the mirror already on the mantel. I also saw that Michael's had butterfly magnets at 4 for $1 and single fabric butterflies for $1.50. I bought some of those and spread them around. I pulled out some old cards with butterflies on the cover and placed them in gold frames to fill out the display. I like how colorful the display turned out. I am also happy because I don't think it is too cutesy, but it is still whimsical which I enjoy.