Family room

Our family room has undergone some changes recently. This is what it looked like when we moved in:

And here it is now: 

The only major things we changed about this room (besides adding our furniture and decorating) are we painted it (Wheat Bread by Behr), we got new white faux wood blinds in the three windows, and we painted the trim. 

I just recently purchased these curtain panels from IKEA, for a total of only $20. They're thin and sheer, but perfect for this room. I love the back tabs. 

The dresser is one I've had since childhood that I added new knobs to. It holds table linens and lots of serving pieces. Above it is what I like to refer to as our "mantle". It is a beautiful piece of cedar from Aaron's mom's property that I added some metal brackets to. 

It has an old mirror I've repainted a few times (currently gray), a succulent and pot from IKEA, some gardening books, three votive candleholders with quatrefoil cutouts from the thrift store that I spray painted, and a capiz picture frame I got on clearance at Marshall's.

I love the raw edge on the shelf, you can see it in this picture. 

The vase on the dresser was hard to photograph because it is all white, but I absolutely love the texture. When I found it the other day at my favorite thrift store, it looked like this: 

 It was $12.50, and like I said, I loved the texture so much. It reminded me of the very popular hive vase from West Elm. I sprayed it white, and I'm happy with the find. I've been on the hunt for some accessories for the dresser for a while, and I love how it is a little larger scale than the usual things I find.

A Next to New Lamp

The Next to New shop on Burnet Road is one of my favorite thrift shops in Austin for furniture and home items. It is a mix of donated items, consignment items, and estate sale goods so it is a refreshing change up to the Goodwill or Salvation Army scene or any other shop I've found in town for that matter. Some things may seem overpriced at first, but if you look closely at the tag you will see they operate on a discounted "schedule" where on a certain day the price drops by 50%, and then another 50% which is great for true bargain hunters that can control their impulses! Everything there is very gently used and there isn't a bunch of crap to rifle through. They have nice vintage furniture pieces, amazing china sets, beautiful silver items including some incredible tea sets I always lust after, a good selection of oriental rugs that are in good condition, and lots of milk glass and pottery.

I've had my eye on a dresser there this summer, so I'll be going back next week to see if it's still there. If it is I'll get quite the bargain :)

Last week I visited specifically for a lamp to make over. After continually checking my Home Goods for the perfect lamp for months I have given up. I found a lamp with a great shape and size at Next to New and it was marked down to $7.50, the lowest it would go. This little guy had been sitting on that shelf for quite awhile!

Never mind that lampshade and that the scale is totally off... I knew a new lamp shade was in the cards.

I got a can of Rustoleum's Oil Rubbed Bronze at Home Depot for about $6...

And I gave my lamp two quick, light coats...

Then I went to Target and came away with a new shade. I got this one from Target, about $15. Target sells shades for lamps without harps, so I had to take the harp off my new lamp. I was happy about that because the harp was unusally large and it looked funny. It was as easy as pinching the sides of the harp to get it off.

Here's my lamp in it's new home!  

When I was at Target I saw similarly sized oil rubbed bronze bases for $34.99 just for the bases! So happy with my decision to upcycle a lonely old lamp from Next to New!