Decorating Walls Dilemma!

I can't tell you how many friends have said to me, "I don't know what to put on my walls." This is the biggest dilemma in decorating!!! Way bigger than finding furniture! Because so many of us don't know what to put on our walls, we just don't put anything at all! Not good!! Well, hopefully this blog will help some.

First off, I am no expert by any means on decorating! I am just a mom, on a budget (a serious budget), who loves getting creative with used goods. I do remember the days, prior to kids, when I would go to any home decorating store and buy all new things. Well, those days are over. I don't have the time shop, nor the money and god knows it will be broken within 1 day knowing my luck and knowing my children:) So for decorating in my house I have become really creative. I first come up with a plan. You don't want to go aimlessly shopping. You will never find what you want, nor be able to put it all together. Look online at houzz.com or pinterest and pull some pictures of things you like.

 Here are some design ideas for your walls:
- Mirrors- Old, new, put them all together and make a collage of mirrors.
-Empty frames- Love this one because it's so easy and cheap! You can find next to nothing priced frames at yard sales. Give a pop of color with a can of spray paint. Put them all together and you have a decorated wall.
-Fabric- You can find discounted fabric just about anywhere. Glue it onto a piece of wood or glass and throw a frame over it.
-Old Posters- You can find really cool old posters at antique shops or thrift markets. Frame them and hang!
-Stencils- Stencils are great because if you hate it in a year from now, you can just pull it down. The only thing I don't like about them is that they can be pricey. Shop around online and make sure the stencil you pick fits the size of the wall appropriately. You don't want a tiny stencil sitting alone on a huge wall!
-Shelves- Shelves are fun because you put any treasures on them- photos, knick knacks, flowers, etc. Making your own shelf out of reclaimed wood is good on the budget too!
-Vintage Items- shadow boxes, signs, pictures, ladders, clocks, mason jars, reclaimed wood, phones, baskets, crates, etc. Anything old and cool looks amazing on the wall!
-Maps- Maps are fun and interesting. They add color and texture to any space. Find an old map at an antique shop and mount it on or in a frame.
-Plates- Old vintage plates are pretty in a dining room or kitchen. Having them out for everyone to see is much better than keeping them hidden in a buffet.
-Photos of nature or vacations- Print up some cool nature or vacation pictures in black and white and frame them. They will be a huge conversation piece for your guest.
-Monograms- Monograms are easy to make and can add so much color to a colorless room. You can paint, fabric, wallpaper or decoupage monograms. They are inexpensive to buy and easy to add to any photo or frame wall.
-Family Photos- I have tons of walls filled with photos of my kids and extended family. They not only add color on the wall but they make me smile every time I look at them.

Now that you have a plan, start searching for those items. Turn to craigslist, facebook, yard sales, antique stores and thrift stores for your used items. Most of these ideas listed above are inexpensive and easy to do. Don't buy new!! Take your time finding these pieces. Your wall isn't going anywhere;0 Once you have all your items, lay them out on the floor in an area the same size as your wall. This way you can move around pieces easily until you find the right look for everything. Once the items are set in place, take a picture of it!!! This is important! You don't want to forget the look if they somehow get mixed up. Measure out the spacing between each item and start with the middle!!! This way if you are off in your measurements, you can fix it easily.

Below I have posted some cool pictures I found online and some from my own house projects!! Enjoy:)

 Starting here and below are some of my DIY projects. I took some old frames and painted them. Using an old window I covered a piece of wood with burlap and attached it. I hung an old washboard I got for $3 at a yard sale. I made the latter using an old frame. I painted the shadow box I found at a market place. And I hung an old window frame with chicken wire and attached photos of friends on it with clothes line clips.

 Old phone from my late great aunt, shadow box, sign, picture I painted with friends. Anything I can find!

 Maps!

 These maps my husband found at an antique store. I bought these framed corkboards and glued the maps on them! Easy and inexpensive!

My yard sale find!!! Vintage shadow box I got for $8. I white washed it and then when to the antique trove and found some inexpensive goodies to go inside it!!!

Repurposed Old Chairs into a Bench!

I am all about finding a good deal!! Well, I found a great deal about 3 weeks ago. I was on facebook and someone posted 2 free chairs. I am no dummy, so I jumped on those free chairs right away! They didn't have a seat in them but they were in good condition. Over the summer I took vintage chairs and turned them into planter stands. They turned out so cute but I knew I didn't want to do that again. So I looked online for some ideas. I stumbled upon old chairs repurposed into a benches. Genius! So now that I had a plan, I needed supplies.

About the same time I got my chairs, my husband bought a nail gun and new compressor. We had a table saw and oscillating saw already. All of these tools were needed for this project. I still needed lumber for the seat. We had gotten reclaimed lumber at a thrift store near our house once before, so I went back to see what they had. What they had was an empty shop! They went out of business!! I knew that shop had gotten the lumber from the fencing company behind it, so I went straight to the source. I told them I was a stay at home mom working on a project and wondered it they had any reclaimed wood I could have. Guess what? They had tons of it! They were so kind and filled up my car with as much as I could haul. The owner gave me his card and said he would set aside wood anytime for me.

So with all supplies in hand, I went to work. First I cleaned the chairs with mineral spirits and sanded down any rough spots. Once clean, I mixed up some chalk paint. This is my formula!! I use calcium carbonate (which is chalk in powder form) mixed with warm water. Then I pour in the paint. Any paint too. Flat, satin, eggshell. It doesn't matter. This is a 1 to 3 ratio of calcium carbonate/water to paint. Mix really well. The paint will be thicker but not crazy thick! I painted the chairs with 2 coats of paint. I always do two coats of paint on all my pieces. Then I distressed the chairs using a 100 grit sandpaper. I cleaned them. Then I put on a clear coat of annie sloan's wax.

Now came the harder part, making the bench. The lumber I got was newer lumber but since I knew I was going to stain it dark, I didn't bother with trying to make it look old. BTW- to turn new wood into old looking wood all you do is put a steel wool sponge in a bucket with a gallon of vinegar for 4 days and close the lid. After 4 days put a gallon of water in the bucket. Mix well. Then take a rag or brush and brush on the solution to the wood. The wood will age right in front of your eyes! I started with the back board for the bench and marked my cuts. I used the oscillating saw to cut out notches where the wood and chair met. The table saw was used to cut the sides of the board. Once done cutting, I attached the chairs together using a piece of wood and then attached the boards to the chairs. This is where the nail gun comes in handing!! Quick and easy. Then I stained the wood and let it dry overnight. I put a heavy coat of polyurethane on it the next day. And there you have it!! My free bench!!!!

So next time you see chairs for free, grab them! You never know what they can become!!!

 

Before! Sturdy and free!!!

Painted and getting the boards lined up. These chairs were not the easiest to work with for this project but if I can manage this, you can too!!!

Under the chairs, I attached the chairs together using a block of wood.

Finished product!! The poly was still drying in these photos so the bench didn't turn out as shinny as you see. This was such a fun project and I am happy to report that this bench is now looking super fabulous in a wonderful friends house down the street from me!!!

Anyone want a drink?

This past November we celebrated our one year anniversary in our new house. We had tackled so much already inside and out but there was one area that was really bothering me, the bar! I love having friends over and entertaining, yet this bar we had was hideous. When we first moved in I knew we couldn't do much with it so in order for it to disappear, I painted the cabinets a similar color to the walls. Then I aged the cabinets with a dark wax. Unfortunately this really didn't make the bar disappear or look any better. Maybe even worse! But I was too tired to rework it so it stayed that way for about 6 months!

In October, my husband and I started the process of redesigning the bar. We talked with a carpenter we knew and went over some ideas. To put in new custom cabinets (top and bottom) it was going to run about $1500 to $2000. I know! Wow!!! For only a wet bar! This was out of our budget. So we sat on the idea for a while. Then one night we went downtown to the Red Rabbit Bar. We were sitting at the bar and I was admiring the décor in the place. They had hanging rakes on the walls for wine glasses (which I love) and behind the bar they had liquor bottles inside wine crates hanging on the walls. It looked amazing! I said to my husband, "let's do that!"

So we ran with this idea. Luckily for us my husbands sister worked at a winery in Napa at the time and got us 8 wine crates for free:) I stained 4 a walnut color and left 4 natural. We had our carpenter create new doors and drawers for the bottom unit to match our shaker style cabinets in the kitchen and a butcher block top. In the meantime, we took down the top cabinet. We had the contractor who did our kitchen come in and put in a recessed light (I can handle changing out a light fixture, but haven't attempted any electrical beyond that). The wall had some major holes in it so we had him repair the holes and retexture the wall. DIY TIP- Drywall is not difficult to put up. We had done it. What is difficult is texturing the wall!!! I have used the spray can texture numerous times in my kitchen but for small areas. If you have a large area that needs repair, it is worth the money hiring a professional otherwise every time you look at the wall, you will see the flaws!!!

Once the light was in and wall was repaired, we laid out a geometric shape on the ground for the wine crates. Then we attached some boxes together. We knew not all the boxes were going to hit studs in the walls, so if we attach 3 boxes together, than at least the 2 studs we hit will help support that 3rd box. DIY TIP- Hit studs!!! If you can't hit a stud, make sure you use a anchors in the drywall.
After all the boxes were hung, the cabinet doors, drawers and top was installed. I made sure I painted the old base cabinet with the same spray paint color as our carpenter was using on the doors and drawers. We had a nice shelf installed inside the cabinet for storage. My husband and I laid the tile backsplash. It was actually very easy. I watched a few tutorials on u tube before we installed. We borrowed a wet saw from a friend. It turned out great. This was not our first stab at tiling either. We retiled our fireplace in our old house. The next day we grouted, which takes forever! I installed the hardware on the drawers and doors. Just make sure you use a template when doing this!!! You can make a template or buy them at Lowe's. We hung up our rakes for wine glasses and filled our wine crates with booze! All in all I think we ended up spending about $1600 for everything. It is still a lot of money, but that is lighting, drywall, new cabinet doors/drawers, countertop, backsplash, sink, faucet, hardware and cost for labor. Remember, it could have been more! $2000 was our quote for just new cabinets, nothing else! Now when I look at my bar, I smile!! I love it because it not only looks great, but it something my husband and I did together!

Check it out!!

 Before!! Old, tired and needing to disappear! Yes, if you look closely enough you will see the missing floor to the left of the bar!

First attempt at fixing it, but you can see it didn't work!!! Still hate it!

 Cabinet down and I cut a hole in the ceiling to find the electrical wires and figure out which way the beams were running. Then I called a contractor;)

Not only did that hole need to be repaired but the ceiling had to be retextured too. That's why we hired a professional!

 We figured out a shape we liked for the wall.

I stained 4 of the boxes.

 After!!! Love how we kept the doors on 2 of the wine crates. We can store glasses in them and they won't get dusty. The shaker cabinets looks amazing and up to date. You can't even tell that was the original bottom cabinet.

I wanted the side detail of the cabinet to match my kitchen cabinets and they do. Love the wine rakes too!!! Anyone want a drink:)

$200 bathroom makeover!

If you ask any realtor what sells a house it's kitchens and bathrooms. Why? Because they are so expensive to redo! So what do you do when you don't have money for a full bathroom remodel? Design on a Dime!

My kids bathroom was a hot mess:) Everything was original to the house in this bathroom. But luckily it is upstairs and most of our guest don't use this bathroom. Since we were already bleeding money with this house, what's another $200! So this is what we did!

1. Painted the bathroom. Paint works wonders!! We got rid of the angels stenciled on the walls and painted a pretty blue/grey on the walls. Tip- When painting a bathroom, it is best to use semi-gloss paint. It helps prevent mold growth. $10 1/2 of a can (I used the same color in my downstairs bathroom so it saved me money)
2. Rather than taking down the huge mirror over the sinks, I had my father cut crown molding and we stuck it on the mirror to frame it out. We used double sided foam tape. You can pick it up at any local hardware shop. The molding was already painted white so I didn't have to do anything to it. $10 molding and $5 tape.
3. Repainted the cabinets. Great way to give any bathroom a fresh look. Make sure the cabinets are clean before painting. You may even need to sand them before you paint. I used chalk paint on my cabinets so I didn't have to sand:) $0- had this paint from another project.
4. Spray painted all the hardware in the bathroom. You name it, I sprayed it! Faucets, cabinet hardware, and towel racks. Make sure you tape off everything really well with painters tape and cover ever thing too! Spray paint floats in the air and can ruin your counters and mirrors. The key to this is sanding down the metal really well before you paint. You want the paint to adhere to the metal. I used spray paint specifically for metal objects. Also, when using spray paint, it is better to do a very light coat first. Once dry, spray another light coat. Once the second coat is dry, do a third it needed. If you over spray on metal, it will run and look horrible!!!!( I have learned this the hard way- specifically on a towel rack) I painted everything almost 2 years ago and the paint still looks good! $5 spray paint can.
5. Flooring- I redid the floor with laminate floor squares. They are super easy to use. You peel and stick. The hardest part was going around the toilet since I didn't remove the toilet. Great thing is is that when you grout, and you should grout this, what ever gaps you have around the toilet will disappear! Once the floor was done, we put up baseboards. This is not difficult it just requires the right tools. You need a table saw and nail gun. $80 including flooring, baseboards and grout.
6. Lighting- We took down the pineapple light fixtures and put up some inexpensive but pretty light fixtures. They cost $100 for both.
7. Décor- Now I had white towels, a white shower curtain from my old house and some bathroom decorations. I bought a window curtain which cost $5 or so. I had the kids do some art work for the walls and I put the pictures in old frames I had. I got 2 white bathroom rugs at home goods for $10.

All in all this bathroom renovation cost me a little over $200 with the decorations. Not bad if you ask me!!!

 Before! BTW, the pictures are right before we moved in. The people still had a house full of junk even though no one had actually lived in the house for a year!

Bad flooring, gold fixtures, angels on the walls and pineapple lighting.

The shower was dirty but the tile was still in good shape. We still need to reglaze the tub but that is about $300 and we just haven't gotten to it yet.

 Outdate faucet.

 Bad lighting and horrible stenciling.

I started in the closet with the flooring and worked through the room. Once done, we put up baseboard.

After! Huge difference but not a lot of money spent!

Daytime view. Just love the wall color!

No one sees the tub except my cute children, so reglazing will wait!

So I told you I used the same color in my powder room downstairs, well this is it! Extra bang for my buck!!!!

What to do with 1980's bookshelves!

Continuing with the "work with what you got theme", once we were done with our kitchen remodel, new air conditioner, roof repair, sprinklers, landscaping, carpet, painting, repair upon repair of various items, we were definitely out of money! So far in the year and half we have been here, I believe we have sunk over $60,000 into the house. So "working with what I got" is what I did in my living room and dining room!

We knew when we moved in we couldn't change the tile floors. Oh well! They really aren't bad, I'm just not a huge fan of tile. Too cold for me! The rooms are huge and luckily we had some big furniture to fill the rooms. We stuck with our blue couches that we have had for 10 years, but are still in great condition. We added a leaf in our dining table to help fill up the room and now we just needed some basics- rugs, coffee table, end tables, buffet, etc. Now where does a girl like me find all these great items? You guessed it- garage sale or craigslist! Once I found all the furniture, I had to address the last problem in the room- the 1980's bookshelves! I call them bookshelves but honestly they really weren't. They were build in glass shelves with mirrors behind them. It reminded me of the bar in the house I grew up in. Same 1980's look!

After lots of thought and countless hours looking at living room pictures on houzz.com, we decided the mirrors and shelves had to go but we wanted the cabinets to stay. It offers great storage and taking down the whole unit at this point, was not in our budget. The biggest lesson I have learned about home renovations is nothing costs what you think it will cost!!! Take whatever monetary number you have calculated for expenses and double or triple it! Guaranteed! So taking down the cabinets would mean filling the whole back up with something, which in the end would cost us more money!

So my husband and I removed the glass shelves first. Then we taped the mirrors with duck tape. This way it the mirror shatters, it won't fall everywhere. Wearing safety goggles and gloves, we pried out the mirrors with a pry bar. Both mirrors came out intact. Using a bed sheet, we laid the mirrors on the sheet and smashed them and put them in the trash. After the mirrors were down, I repaired holes in the wall with spackle and sanded the dry wall using a special dry wall sanding block. Then I repainted the entire wall a darker brown so it would pop. I also gave the cabinets a good cleaning and repainted them for a fresh look. If we had the money, I would tile the fireplace, but we don't. So for now it will stay white, thus not attracting too much attention to it. Final step was hanging shelves I bought at Lowe's. They cut them to size for me too. Then I decorated!

As for the dining room, all we added was some paint color, a new light fixture and accessories.

Here are some before and after pictures!

 Dining room before. No lighting and chair rail that I wasn't a fan of.

 Living room 1980's bookshelves/cabinets. So many things are wrong about this picture!!:)



The other side of the living room. Lots of tile which made the room feel very cold and the color is way off!

When we took down the mirror, this is what was left. I had to scrape off the glue. Then I spray textured in a few spots. Spray texture comes in a can. You can buy it at any hardware store. After the texture dried, I lightly sanded the wall with a drywall sand paper and painted.

Today! Removing the mirrors and adding shelves makes all the difference. It brings the cabinet up to date. Once I repainted the cabinets, I changed the hardware on them.

 Other side of the living room. Add some paint, curtains, rug and accessories and you are done!

Many of the things on the walls I made or picked up yard saleing. My mom was so kind to make pillows for me too! I ordered fabric online (which is so much cheaper) and we spent a day sewing pillows! There are some things I am funny about purchasing at yard sales. I tend to stick with things I can clean well and pillows are not one of those things!!!

 Dining room today! Add an new light from Lowe's and since I didn't like the chair rail, I just painted it the same color as the walls. This helps minimize it. I added a rug, curtains, furniture and accessories.

Again, most of things you see are repurposed goods! I even got the rug under the table at a yard sale. Good thing I have a steam cleaner at home:)

The other side of the dining room.

Important- When decorating your home, keep things that you love and mean something to you. Edit things that don't. I have things in each room of my house that some may think is weird or silly but they mean something to me! The phone on the wall in the above picture belonged to my Auntie who passed away a few years ago. The picture on the left is a painting I painted with a bunch of wonderful friends. The wine leaves pictures surrounding the mirror in my dining room were made and given to us by my husbands sister. All of these things mean something to me.
Remember- There is no right way or wrong way about design. Design is what you make of it. Create your own design. Who cares what others say, they don't have to look at it everyday, you do!!!

Who Knew Carpet Was So Expensive????

Flooring! Not only is flooring difficult to choose, but it can be a budget breaker! Now days there are so many amazing floors to choose from, ie. wood, laminate, bamboo, carpet, tile, tile that looks like wood, concrete, and cork. From those choices, their are a million different looks to choose from. This process can be exhausting and frustrating and sometimes cause you to stop looking!

When we moved into our house, we knew we could only tackle one floor change. This had to be the carpet up stairs. Downstairs we have lots of tile and laminate. It's not my personal choice of tile and laminate, but you know, I'm a girl who works with what she has, so that's what I have done for now. The carpet upstairs was not necessary old but it already had some gnarly stains on the stairs, it stunk and was way to light for this busy family. It was off white with speckles of brown in it. I knew that in 3 years from now it would be disgusting and I would be bugging my husband to have it replaced. So we went shopping for carpet.
On my list of wants:
1. thickest pad available (thick pad offers more cushion)
2. dark, multicolor carpet (hide the dirt)
3. no berber! (we have cats and they will ruin this carpet)
4. medium grade (I don't want to replace this carpet for another 15 years, so I need something good)

After going through my wants to the customer service rep at the carpet store, I was quoted $7,000 for my 1300 sq ft of carpet. What????? When the heck did carpet get so expensive??? Who can afford $7,000 for carpet? Not me!!! I knew that wasn't going to work. So I kept shopping. I found a store in Rancho Cordova that had an amazing selection of carpet. After telling the store rep what I wanted and how much I was willing to spend, we found a carpet that meet all my wish list criteria. So we ordered it! It would come right when we moved in.

Got a call about a week before move in. I was told my carpet was delayed overseas. They had a carpet very similar in color and the same grade available. I went and looked at the carpet. It was nice but it wasn't the carpet I wanted! I was told the carpet I wanted wouldn't come for 3 more weeks. This meant we had to move into the house, then move all our stuff back out of the bedrooms in 2 weeks and then move it back into the bedrooms. The thought of all this moving exhausted me! I could have this other carpet in the house today! So what do I do?

What I did was went with my gut. My gut told me to stick with the plan and the carpet I first chose. I chose it for a reason and a 2 week delay would be a mood point in the skeme of everything. So 2 weeks after move in, we moved all our stuff back out of the rooms and got new carpet. In the end I am so happy with my decision and following my gut!!

Here are some helpful hints to buying carpet!

1. It's all in the pad you buy. Pay the extra money and purchase the thickest pad available. The carpet grade is important but not nearly as important as the pad. The carpet will feel better and last longer.
2. If this is a heavy traffic area in your house, go with a darker carpet. It will not make your house look dark. If you fear that, lighten up the walls with some paint.
3. If you have pets, don't get berber carpet. The animals will shred it! Go with a frieze or textured carpet.
4. Don't buy the highest grade of carpet. Go with the middle of the road. If you have a thick pad under it, the carpet will appear and feel like the highest grade.
5. Stain resistant. Seems like most carpet now days is stain resistant but if it's not, you might want to find one that is. Who wants to change their carpet every 5 years due to unsightly stains??
6. Carpet seams are important. Make sure you discuss where you want your carpet seams before you purchase. Some carpet comes in larger pieces than others. I didn't want any seams in the rooms, only at the door. Seams can be trouble down the road.
7.Quality of work. When the carpet guys are installing, make sure you check on them. Look at their work. If you are not happy with the job, say something! Don't be afraid. You are paying a lot of money for this service, speak up!!!
8. Go with your gut. Your gut is their for a reason. If you d0n't like something, don't get it just because it is a good deal or you think that is the best you will get. Wait it out!!! The right carpet will come!
9. Pay cash if you can! This is a big one. When we bought our carpet, I was quoted $5,000 for carpet and install. I told them I would pay with cash so could I get a discount. They said yes! I ended up paying $4,600 instead. That is a huge saving! Well worth it if you ask me!

Before. The carpet was discolored and too light!

After. You can see the flex of color in it. I have light walls which helps keep the rooms light in color. The carpet hides the dirt!

Working with what you got!!

So when thinking about my house remodel, the first thing that came to my mind was "Working with what we got!" That has been our motto all through this renovation. Okay, maybe not for the kitchen but everything else! So with this blog entry I wanted to focus on the fireplace. In our house, the old owners had this huge entertainment center in front of the window. This is not necessarily bad, but to have the tv in front of the window, means you have to have the couch either next to the tv or blocking the entry to the playroom. In my opinion, both of these scenarios would look weird. So we knew we had to do something different. How about hang the tv from the fireplace? I have seen it done, just had never considered doing it myself. So I researched the heck out of it, like I research everything:) I figured out that actually you could have a tv on a fireplace as long as you know it won't get hot. So we built a fire and tested it. The bricks on the fireplace never got hot! So we were in the clear. Now we needed to decide on the look for the fireplace. Working with what we had, we decided to paint the cabinets flanking the fireplace white. We painted the fireplace bricks two shades darker than the wall color. In a world where money was no object, I would have loved to tile over the bricks, but then I couldn't blog about "working with what you got;)" Now we needed a mantel. The fireplace was a wall of bricks with cabinets flanking each side. So I researched rustic mantels. Do you know how much people want for those mantels?? $300 starting price. That's not even shipping included! Well we were working with what we got. We had little money to spend. So I went to Lowe's and bought a 4 x 4 post. I had Lowe's cut it to size. Then I took a bag of screws and a hammer and beat the wood. This distressed it making it look old. I stained it walnut to match my furniture and put 2 coats of polyurethane on it. Guess how much it cost?? $25!

Now that we had the mantel, we had to anchor it. This was challenging but not impossible. First thing we did was created cardboard examples of the mantel and tv. We wanted to figure out just were to place each. No one wants to get a neck ache from watching a tv that is placed too high on the wall! Then my husband made a channel in the back of the mantel so we could hide the tv wires. We put a hole in the cabinets adjacent to the fireplace so we could feed the cords to our cable box that was sitting in the cabinet. With my dad's help, we anchored 4 talcum screws on each side of the mantel from the inside of the cabinet. Talcum screws are massive screws that are used to hold up patio covers or main structures. This mantel will never come down!!!  Then, we drilled holes into the brick using a special drill bit and mounted the tv mount to the wall. Then hung the tv to the mount. Easy as pie, right;) Actually, it was not so bad. Anyone can do it, you just need to take your time, expect challenges and power through those challenges!

Here are some before and after pictures of the fireplace!

 You can see the previous owner painted the sides of the cabinets white but left the rest in oak. Lovely:)

The entertainment center was blocking that window and the couch would have blocked the opening of the playroom. The tv had to go up on the fireplace.

We used cardboard to determine where we wanted the mantel and tv to go. Don't want the tv too high!

Working with what you got! Some paint and the same hardware on the cabinets. Huge difference!

This is a picture of it today. You can see the tv cables are hiding in the channel behind the mantel. The mantel is not attached to the brick! It is attached to the cabinets on the sides. So if you open up a cabinet door you would see the heads of 4 talcum screws on each side. Pretty awesome:) All in all this cost about $50 for paint, screws and the beam.

Next time you think you need all new things in your house, pause and think, "how can I work with what I got??"

On another note, my fireplace screen was $3.50 at a thrift store, fireplace wood holder was $3 and fire pokers were $5 both at yard sales:)