Easter Home Tour

Come on in! The house is finally cleaned up, the table is set, all that's missing is YOU!

We had another first in our new home on Sunday, our first Easter dinner. It went much more smoothly than Christmas did, probably because we're getting more settled in here, and because the dining room is no longer being used as a holding space for boxes, a refrigerator and a huge big screen TV. 

Notice that we used the bench that we found curbside about a week ago. We haven't made any changes to it yet, we haven't been able to decide how we want to finish it, we're either going to paint and upholster it, or cut the whole top off, and paint and upholster the seat. I wrapped the seat in a coordinating fabric to cover up it's damage and make it usable. 

Have a look at my new chargers, I am thrilled about them, mostly because I got them on clearance at the Christmas Tree Shops for only fifty cents a piece! Seriously! Eight new chargers for a whopping $4! 

Ready to eat! Just waiting on Mike to finish cutting the ham.

Here's some shots of the Living Room with our Spring Decorations, I know there's not a lot, but I like to keep the seasonal decor simple. This is the view from the living room looking into the dining room.

This shot was taken at the doorway into the kitchen looking across the house.

We had a wonderful day celebrating Jesus' resurrection with our family, and we hope you did too! 

Spring Mantel & Burlap Garland

I always struggle with decorating our mantel. It is one spot in our home that continues to stump me when it comes to styling. I think a lot of it has to do with the big black box that hangs above it, and all the cords that come along with it. This is pretty much how it has looked since we moved in right before Christmas.

While our mantel is far from perfect, it's much better than just a few picture frames and a ton of wires everywhere. I was trying to think of a quick and cute idea for making a garland when I came upon some burlap in my stash. Perfect. I cut it into 4 strips that were about 6 inches wide and the full width of the fabric (probably 60")

I folded those in half to find the middle, and pulled on the middle string from both ends until the ruffles looked right.

They ended up being about a foot long each when the were fully ruffled. I just tied the string into a knot at each end to hold the ruffle in place, and added them to the mantle.

I am pretty happy with how it came out. Please excuse my dark shots. I haven't posted in what feels like forever, and I wanted to get this one in. Also, I don't know about you all, but the majority of my best creative work happens between the hours of 8pm and midnight, if not even later. The house is quiet, and all the ideas I've gotten during the day are flowing through my mind.
Anyway, back to the mantel. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I LOVE the burlap garland, and how it camouflages the TV cables. I might make a few tweaks to the rest of it, but I am just relieved to have something there.

The Easter Banner is an awesome free printable from Itsy Belle. This site is a great place to go for holiday/ party inspiration. If you stop by be sure to let them know I sent you!

The subway art in the frame is another free printable from eighteen25, (do you see a pattern here) they have a great blog with lots of free treats. If you have a moment stop over there and say hello!

Almost everything I used to style the mantle came from around the house. The only thing that we bought was the little tree with carrot ornaments ($2- Dollar Store) and the bird on the pedestal ($4- Christmas Tree Shops). I love my new little bird, and I'm sure I will continue to use him in our home long after spring has passed. I shared about the flowers last week in my blooms of the month post.

I'll have to take some pictures of it tomorrow, when there will actually be some natural light in the room or any light for that matter. Who knows, maybe it will look completely different by tomorrow afternoon.
What have you been doing to get that spring feeling in your home?
Does anyone else have design add when it comes to styling your homes?

Time for New Rugs!

I am SO super excited about this!

These beautiful, fabulous rugs are on their way to my house!!! I have no idea how, but somehow I stumbled onto the RUGS USA website, and realized that almost all of their clearance rugs are an additional 75% off when you use coupon code: CL75OFF

what what! When I spotted that Morrocan Trellis beauty I immediately called Mike to tell him about it. I REALLLLY wanted it. (for me to be willing to improperly spell a word, you need to know I mean it)

He told me that if it was meant to be it would still be there when he got home and could look at it too. It was!!! YAHOO! So, I showed him that one, and a few other options, but we decided that the Moroccan Trellis was the best choice for our living room. At only $112 dollars for a 100%  wool rug there really was no question in my mind.

I also really liked this Wrought Iron pattern.

Mike liked it too, I was a little concerned about how it would lay with furniture on top of it, and how well it would hold up. So... We bought the 2'1"x4' version of this rug, and we're going to use it in the entry! It was only $23!!! Which is an insanely good price. I have been admiring this type of rug for a long time, and I couldn't find an 18"x30" for less than $40.

Some of you might be wondering what we're going to do with our current living room rug, now that we bought a new one. After all it is only 4 months old, and that chevron pattern is pretty awesome!

I do love this rug, and it has worked really well for us. I think it's a little to big for this space, I know it's hard to keep clean, and it doesn't fully allow the hardwood floors to shine. I love how it ties into our chevron wall in the entry without being identical or to "in your face". However we spend a majority of our time at home in this room, and I don't think the polypropylene will last very long in this space, definitely not like wool would.
Now that you've heard my full rationalization of why we should purchase a new rug after having this one for just 4 months, I'll tell you what we're going to do with the old on. I am thinking we will take it upstairs to the playroom. I eventually want to put hardwood or laminate flooring up there, so we'll need something soft to protect little knees and elbows. For now, it should work well to protect the carpet.

What deals have you found recently that got your heart pumping?

What We Worked On - Early February 2012

As usual we have been very busy trying to get things done around the house while still tending to our everyday life responsibilities. Here's a post to catch you up on all that we've been working on these past two weeks.


Wall Lamps
Before we even found this house I knew I wanted to do wall mounted lights in the Master. When I found these Pivoting Swing-Arm Pin-up Lamp for only $33 I had to snatch them right up. There were a few others we had our eye on, but the prices for ones this size were much higher. So, I showed them to Mike, and we snatched them up right away. I was tempted to buy some matching cord covers for $8 a pop, but I'm going to try to rig something up myself before we do that. I added one onto this photo to show you what they'll look like once we add the covers on.

just in case you were wondering. yes, that is a pink plastic elephant. i got him for $2 at target. we sprayed him pink, then I covered him with the pink Martha glitter paint from Home Depot. I LOVE HIM!

Here's the shot without the cord cover, this photo also gives you an idea of our progress in the master bedroom. I am pretty happy with how it's coming along. I think I'm going to take down the capiz shells on the ceiling, it's a little too repetitive now that the lamps are hung on the walls. You can also see where I was testing out my technique for the painted wallpaper that I mentioned wanting to do before.

The Frame is Painted and Art is Hung!
this is one of those things that I really should have took a before picture of.  This print has been in my grandparents house for for.eeevvvv.er, my whole life, probably much longer than that. anyway, I really like the art, in fact it makes me happy, the picture is nice, but there are also lots of grandparent memories that go along with it. 

so, to get to the point of it. I would've loved to get it matted and framed, and made it really beautiful, but that's not at all practical on our budget. The frame was originally a poopy brown color and the inner part of it was a velvety texture. 

Before we started painting we put a few brads in the corners to reinforce the originals and reduce some of the wobbliness. Mike also filled in all the nail holes and the corner cracks with shrink free.

I first attempted to paint it with a brush, I used a deep maroonish brown, but that wasn't working very well, the wood looked very brushed and the velvety part was just soaking it up, so much so that you couldn't even see the paint. 

Mike and I both decided that it needed something to make it really pop, so we got a can of spray paint and he got to work. He started by spray priming it first and then 24 hours later he did a coat of the blue followed by another about an hour after the first. 

Chevron Stripes in the Entry
I have been drooling over these stripes for a few weeks now, and we finally got started on some stripes of our own over the weekend. In case you forgot this is our inspiration photo from apartment therapy.

This is our wall and our current progress on it. Mike painted the wall with a white semi-gloss over the weekend, after waiting a few days we marked for our chalk lines. We still need to do the vertical lines and tape off the stripes, hopefully we get a lot done over the weekend. I will be doing a step by step post once the whole project is complete. 

Flower Arrangements

some hydrangeas for the living and dining room

some roses for the master bedroom

some more roses for the kitchen
(i thought i bought a dozen, but actually got about 30)

New Curtains and Tablecloth

I found some fabulous deals in the Target clearance section. Here are some of them! We had some really nice grey cotton duck curtains with grommets on this window before, but when I saw these I knew they would be perfect! Then I found the tablecloth a few minutes later, and I was a pretty happy camper. 

I purposely framed this picture with the walls of the Living Room to show the look I was going for. I love how it ties the two rooms together. The fact that they're one of my favorite colors doesn't hurt much either. This photo also clearly displays the fact that we have a LOT more painting to do.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing our progress, and will be 

inspired to get started on one of your own dream projects! 

What have we been up to?

I have been working on a timeline over the past couple of days to see just how much progress we have achieved since purchasing our house two months ago. It's interesting to me how differently my brain processes data when it's presented in another way. Before we actually owned the home we put together a timeline of what we thought we would be able to get down in the first two weeks. WOW! those two weeks went by fast, and we still haven't gotten everything done that we thought we would right off the bat. I think that is a prime example of what HGTV has done to my mind as well as the minds of other innocent viewers. You see these dramatic transformations completed over a few days, and it makes it hard to be realistic when scheduling work on your own home. I suppose it would be possible if I had a staff of 30 plus people and some of that TV "magic" but alas I do not. We are just two average homeowners putting all we've got into our poor beat up house trying to love it back into a home. So far, so good. I am quite happy with what we've accomplished.

If you want to have a look at what we've been up to just check out our timeline and you'll be up to speed in no time. (hint: it'll be much easier to read if you click on  it and open it in a new window)

I hope you enjoyed checking out our progress. We have sure enjoyed the process. We still have a to do list that is 3 pages long, and always growing so check back soon to see what we're up to!

Lots of Love,

The Barkanics

Enjoying the Process and Making Progress

Our home is coming along little by little. My husband is an amazingly talented painter, and over the weekend he finished painting the main and accent walls in the living room. He did the ceilings a few weeks ago before we brought any of the furniture in. I am thrilled with how dramatic the change is. It is really amazing what a few gallons of paint can do to a room.

here are the before and after shots

I have also been working on making our bedroom feel less like a dorm room and more like a serene haven. We certainly have a long way to go here, but progress is progress, and the more we get done the happier I am. The master still needs paint and the shelf above the windows is in desperate need of styling, but it is amazing how big of a difference hanging the draperies made as far as my peace of mind.

master before and after shots

So, as you can see our home is still definitely a work in progress, and to my dismay we were not able to get the whole house painted the week we bought it. Apparently Mike and I do not have the same abilities as a whole team of designers and workers like they do on TV. At first I was a little bothered by the pace we were moving at, but when I think about all that we've accomplished in the past month and a half it is really pretty impressive, and I am thoroughly enjoying the process.

I am currently working on a timeline of all the projects we have accomplished since buying the house. I should have it up sometime in the next few days.

Busy Busy Bees!

So it has been forever since I've been able to sit down and write a new post, and until last night we didn't have our computer here at the house, or even hooked up. Today is a new day, a day filled with Internet access and a day in which my office is functioning much better (doesn't function very well at all without a computer or any Internet access.) So my sincerest apologies, and a promise of some wonderful and meaty posts in the very near future. We have been quite busy, painting, hanging, changing and rearranging around our new home, and I cant wait to share all of it! Here are some photos of the progress!

blinds and curtains hung up in the kitchen

the rug is laid down, and the sofa and chair have been delivered

I've been having some fun decorating the mantel, it certainly is not anywhere near how I want it in this shot, but at least it's clean and I am loving my candle holder and the fact that we successfully mounted the TV above the fireplace

Our master bedroom is starting to come along, I finally took the time to hang up the rods and draperies this week, and I am SO glad I did. The fabric tacked up ala college dorm was really starting to grate on my nerves.

I'm not sure if this is the permanent solution for the window dressings, but its working well for now. I am keeping my eye on all things drapery clearance in search of the perfect patterned drapery in a 96' length for under $15 a panel, but I may decide that the mismatched look works just fine for us. We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the New Year!

the Lay of the Living Room

We have been trying to do as much planning as possible for the new house so we can get to work as soon as we close on our new place. Here is what we are thinking for the Living Room.

We don't have all of our furniture picked out yet, but there are some pieces we already have that we will definitely be using. One of them is this Entertainment Center that we bought after getting our amazing flat screen for Christmas.

We also have a bookcase/ cabinets that we will be using in the living room, we got these from my Mom's house,  and Mike is planning on staining the shelves, doors and exteriors to match the entertainment center. I will either wallpaper or paint the insides a bright color to bring them up to date and really make them pop!

Once we hear that the bank has approved our offer we will purchase a couch similar to one of the ones from this post. We still haven't decided whether or not we will go with a sofa with a chaise or without. It all depends on the best deal we can find that best fits our style.

We have been on the lookout for an ottoman that is an amazing multi tasker meaning it will have storage and will be able to be used as seating when we need a few extra seats in the room. Possibly this one from overstock.com - I am even thinking that two of them might make a nice "coffee table"

We have been hunting for rugs and accessories for the past couple months, and have found a few that go great with our style, we haven't found one for the Living Room yet because it needs to be super big [at least 8'x10'] but I'm sure we will find something soon. I will let you know as soon as we do!

Coordinating but not Matching

So, Mike and I have been hemming and hawing over what kind of furniture to choose for our future living room. We hadn't really looked into leather as an option for the room, but when I found this chaise on sale at JCPenney I started to consider mixing in a little bit of leather. We know that we prefer the look of coordinating furniture over a matching set, but I hadn't really considered using leather as one of the main pieces.

Then I saw this in the store a few weeks ago, and I just love it. So, I am trying to figure out a way to incorporate it into our design, unfortunately I don't think it's going to end up working unless we change the whole style, feel or even the color scheme that we are going for.

Here are some of the other pieces that we have been considering.

the lily from raymour and flanigan

then there's the ashton which is also from Raymour and Flanigan, and is one piece that I think has some potential to coordinate nicely with the chaise, my only concern is that this sofa is a little smaller than the other options

JCPenney also had some reasonably priced options like the Possibilities 4-Piece Loveseat and Chaise Sectional, which is available in 20 different colors. I really like it in Thunder.

We also really love the KARLSTAD Sofa and chaise lounge in Isunda gray from the wonderful IKEA. I only wish that this one came standard with wood legs rather than chrome plated

We started looking at our options in the beginning of last month when Olivia and I took a trip to Unclaimed Freight, and they had incredible prices, check out that post from the past for the details about what we found there. Here are some of our favorites.

Even back then the thought of mixing in a little leather to add some more texture was on my mind. Remember this lovely little ottoman that I was and still am totally crushing on.

We are beginning to see what we are most attracted to, what we think is a reasonable price, and what will work/ fit in the room, unfortunately we have to wait to take the plunge until we get word from our realtor that all is good in short sale land and our offer is accepted, until then we will keep on browsing and dreaming . I swear by the time we finally settle on this place every single detail of every room will be worked out. I hope the wait is almost over!