Floored- Our Texas Home Makeover Post #19

I stumbled upon flor.com during my search for flooring, and then I found out they had a showroom in Dallas.  So I went there and found these inspirations- they might challenge how you think about carpet:

Oh my- what they can do with mix and match carpet squares!  Color and texture explosions all over the floor could make me fall in love with carpet after hating it for so many years.

A few of my favorite squares...

At Flor's price point- about $16-20 per square- I was discouraged.  Discouraged but still inspired... I started thinking about the floors differently- floors with lots of color and texture... I wondered if I could pull off a similar look by layering various rugs instead of carpet squares.  Layering a couple of rugs is very fashionable right now, but could I stretch that trend wall to wall?   

I found a little inspiration from google searches (but not as much as I had hoped to find).  

I decided to go for it- the master bedroom floors were hopeless concrete floors with a really bad stain job that never felt clean... I needed a solution even if it was temporary.

There are thousands of rugs for sale on Dallas Craigs list so I spent some time collecting a list of possibilities... then the kids and I drove around Dallas bartering for rugs.  

Here is our master bedroom floor now:

Five large rugs in various colors/ textures anchored by a sisal rug at the foot of the bed.  I filled in remaining bare floor with some smaller finds.  It works for me!  I love that I can change it anytime I get bored with it.

Traditional rugs were the cheapest to obtain, so I stuck mostly with traditional prints.

This worked so well for me- it was quick, cheap, and easy to 'install'.  I think we'll go with traditional hardwood eventually, but for now I am loving my rug room!

Grey Loves Gold- Our Texas Home Makeover Post #18

As soon as I saw the dark grey bedroom walls in this Texas house, I had one thought: gold.

Inspiration

I found these rooms via internet searches that inspired me to go for the gold/grey combo:

This one reminds me of my grandmother's house in the late 70s... I think it's the tufted headboard/ king sized bed combo and the gold accents... Oddly comforting.    

I love the sophisticated messiness of this dark grey/ gold room.  Brass is back and it's taking no prisoners!

This was the moment I knew where my heavy gold mirror would go- definitely the bedroom.  It was my MIL's and has been in my basement for 7+ years waiting for the perfect wall space... 

This pic inspired other aspects of my room that will be thoroughly covered in a future blog post.  I don't know that I can explain why, but I love it... It haunts me in just the right way...

Going for the Gold... and Red...

The first thing that went up in this room was the mirror.  I thought this was the perfect place and all furniture placement was worked in around it.  We'll explore other aspects of this room in future posts... I love the bed and the mirror and I wanted the combo to get its own blog post....I didn't want them to get lost in the drama that is the rest of the room.  

I use red unapologetically in practically every room in every house... I get this from my Gran who loved to decorate with red as well.  The red star quilt was actually handmade by my Granny Ruth Foster while Granddaddy was serving in Guam just after WWII.  It is one of my most prized possessions.  

The bold gold/ grey floral painting was a cheapo find at Ross for $25- it could not be more perfect for this room or for my budget!

The bed is a family heirloom- Tommy's Aunt Tee's antique Lillian Russell.  I adore it... And, yes, we really do sleep in a regular size bed!  

This is the original mid-century add for our bedroom set... It's American black walnut and it looks incredible against the grey walls.  We have exactly the set listed in the add- Aunt Tee saved this add when she bought the pieces.  

This is dear sweet Aunt Tee- the original owner of these antiques.  

The oriental lamp is an estate sale find.  The linen pillows are from Company Store (I got the  linen covers at an additional 50% off of the clearance price... I used old pillows to stuff them);  

The three pillows in front are from TJ Maxx.  I have had the matelasse bedspread and quilt for years.  

Way out of character for me, I paid full price for this pillow.  A woman knows when she finds her perfect throw pillow.  This was mine.  

Charleston- Our Texas Home Makeover Post #17

THE BEFORE

The foyer looked fine in the MLS listing:

...but the door is very old and the prior owner's dog tried to chew his way out of both windows:

We're still in awe of all the wood the dog destroyed!  We have replacements for all of it on the work plan, but it will be quite awhile before we get that far down the list!

THE CURTAINS

I had two green voile panels from another project available- think Annie Sloan Antibes green.  I pondered using them in the foyer to hide the damaged windowsills until they are replaced.  These panels were only $11 on clearance from The Company Store so I really wanted to make them work!

You cannot go wrong with these ring top curtain panels from The Company Store... You can get lucky and find them at 50% off of the clearance price if you catch them right.

OUR BELOVED CHARLESTON

We love Charleston so very much!  My sister and I taped the North & South miniseries when we were kids and we watched it over and over and over again! 

Tommy took me to the plantation where North and South was filmed on our 1996 Charleston honeymoon... It did not  disappoint.  

Anyway, I already had prints from my Charleston honeymoon flanking the foyer windows:

Rainbow row...

Our favorite Charleston dream houses...

Once I hung the green panels- just to try them out- I could really see a Charleston palette coming alive in the foyer, and I decided to go for it!  

Tommy drove me to Lowes, and we spent $3 on this sample of Valspar Rolling Sea:

And here we are now with our Charleston-inspired foyer:

We are no longer in a hurry to replace the door, and the gnarly trim is no longer staring me in the face.  We love it.

Curtain rod (Big Lots) $9

Paint and paint roller $5

Voile panels $22

Rug $25

Total foyer makeover: $61

The light shining through the curtains in the morning is gorgeous!