How to corral and camouflage wires and other tech

We got our internet service upgraded over the weekend (yay! for being able to watch a video without it stopping after five seconds!), but when the serviceman left, I was left with this:

A giant new modem and even bigger wireless router. In my living room. The old modem and router plus all associated wires used to fit within that smallish basket, but now... not so much.

Baskets are my favorite way to corral wires, power strips and all that other small tech junk we can't live without. They make a tangle of messy wires look just a bit tidier.

So I grabbed a new larger basket on sale at Michael's for about $8. I was just happy to find something in the right dimensions that would fit underneath the table legs without a lot of searching.

Baskets don't conceal everything completely, but this stuff gets hot! Devices need to breathe. Put them inside something with a lid and you're probably asking for trouble.

I did the same sort of thing in our office next to the desk. Not the most beautiful thing ever, but easy access if something needs to be moved or unplugged.

p.s. I realize a closet or a cabinet might be a better hiding place for this stuff, but this is an old house, where outlets and phone jacks are not always in the most concealed of places!

Artwork switcheroos

The artwork in this house is in flux again. I guess that's what happens when you bring new things in; some old things have to rotate out.

I took down my paint chip artwork. I was getting pretty tired of it, but the people on Pinterest never seem to get tired of it.

I added a couple of recent thrifty purchases (dogs & whale) and my framed psychic postcard. In fact, I'm noticing now that four of the pieces are from antique malls and the other one is a found object in a thrift store frame.

Let's move to the hallway where I had a similar arrangement of frames going on. Some things had been moved over the course of a few months, so the before photo isn't 100% accurate. But more or less, this was how it looked.

And now, not a whole lot different. The addition of a few recent thrifty finds. It's not a major change, mainly because I didn't feel like hammering in a bunch of new nails. In fact, I only moved one nail. 

I removed the whole bottom row of frames. They kept getting knocked off the wall. I should show you the baseboard underneath them. Totally chipped up and gross.

Honestly, one of the big reasons I'm even showing this minor change-up is so you can see I do actually hang up my thrift finds... eventually. Like the Disneyland plate above and the ski photo below.

Like many spaces in my house, this is a horrible spot to take a photo. The hallway's only 2-something feet wide, and I can't get any distance on the wall. Plus, it's dark and gloomy, so this was the best photo I could get on the whole arrangement. Sorry for the glare!

A look at my living room, revised

About a month and a half ago, I showed you my living room along with how I planned to spruce it up.

It didn't need major changes, but it was looking flat and boring. Everything was brown on brown on brown. With some small tweaks like moving secondary pieces of furniture, swapping out the rug and adding throw pillows and artwork.

The changes are not dramatically different; I didn't replace any furniture or paint. But I think they go a long way to making the room feel cozier and more put together.

Just for fun, here are some before and after pairs.

And my to-do list is complete. (Well, almost. For now, anyway.)

Short term plans

• Declutter
• Restyle the bookshelf
• Restyle the mantel
• Rearrange/make/buy throw pillows (and here!)
• Add more artwork
• Try swapping furniture/accessories from other rooms

Longer term plans

• Find a coffee table
• Find a bench or other solution for left of console table
• Restore stained glass to the square windows

And now some more photos for good measure.

p.s. I am fully aware the adjacent dining room needs some attention, but I have to finish up some other projects first. I do not love our dining set. (It was Dan's bachelor furniture.)

p.p.s. I took the after photos without my homemade fireplace baby deterrent. The room undoubtedly looks better like that, but unfortunately, it had to go back up.

Living room bench transformation

I'm finally finished with the bench makeover, but the process was not without a few mishaps.

As a reminder, this is what the bench looked like when I bought it. (Well, this is the product photo from HomeDecorators.com. I didn't actually assemble before painting.)

In real life, the wood was even orangier than I expected. Luckily, I never intended to use the bench as it was; I wanted to add a painted piece because there's enough stained wood in the room already.

I decided to use spray paint rather than regular brush-on paint because I thought it would be a quicker process, but I have to admit, in the end, it really wasn't.

The bench came unassembled, so I opted to forgo putting it together and just paint the pieces. First, I hand-sanded all the surfaces with a fine grit (220) sandpaper. Then I primed them with a white spray primer. (On one of my subsequent visits to Lowe's I noticed they have gray tinted spray primer, which might have been a better choice when painting black. Oh well, next time.)

After the primer was dry, I started painting. Midway through the process, I got a little anxious and sprayed too thick. This lead to some crackling. Ugh. I was able to sand most of those areas smooth (or smooth-ish, at least). Mainly I was annoyed because I had to buy a third can of black spray paint when I probably could have gotten away with only two cans if I hadn't had to sand and repaint.

Upon assembly, I discovered I had missed a couple of edges, so I had to get a fourth can of spray paint. I only used a bit of it for the touch ups, but yeah, annoying. After all was dry, I gave it a couple coats of polyurethane. I hadn't planned on that, but I thought it would be best for long-term durability. And with a water-based polyurethane, it's super easy and quick to do. The finish is a little more mirror-like than I expected, using a satin finish polyurethane.

The bench came with a cushion, but it was plain white and the fabric looked kinda cheap. I didn't think that would last all that long at toddler level, so I bought this pretty Waverly home decor fabric and decided to make a slipcover.

I bought the cording to make my own piping, but then realized I didn't have enough extra fabric. I left out the piping altogether, and I'm so glad I did. This slipcover was such a pain. Never again! Being a beginner-level sewer, it was really difficult to make a cover that would fit snuggly on a pre-existing piece of foam. (That's one reason I fill all my pillows with loose filling and don't use forms.)

I fumbled through, but all my corners are wonky. If you come over, just pretend you don't notice, thanks. I'm not sure what makes me think I can do some of this stuff. The one bright spot of making the slipcover was that I learned how to sew a zipper (using Prudent Baby's tutorial) and did it perfectly and without a hitch.

Here is the bench in its natural environs. I think it fills the space pretty well and gives that side of the room more weight.

Trash to treasure: Monogram wall art

I'm in love with monograms. It's true. It might be my secret, subconcious mission to incorporate one into every room on our house. I'm well on my way to acheiving that goal and here's one more.

Remember this cutie? My 70-cent little kid side table (in pieces) from the clearance racks at T.J. Maxx?

I wasn't crazy about the (potential) silohuette of the table, so I thought the MDF circles would be better used as foundations for wall art.

I took the table top (approximately 16 inches in diameter) and painted it a nice blue-black with artist acrylics. I brushed each coat of paint perpendicular to the last, which gave it a nice cross-hatch linen-like texture.

I wanted to trim the circle to give it some dimension and started looking for something around the house to use. I found a leather belt that didn't fit me anymore, but it wasn't long enough. (I should be thankful for that, right?)

I tried a number of random objects and had almost given up when I found some extra slats for our window blinds. They are wood-look-a-like, inch-and-a-half slats made out of plastic. The extra pieces were in the basement when we moved in and I've held onto them for whatever reason. I didn't think the slat would be flexible enough to bend gracefully around the circle, but it worked perfectly.

The slat was white, so I spray painted it black and then attached each end with a small nail hammered into the edge of the circle. I drilled some small pilot holes through the slat and into the circle to make the process go smoother and it worked perfectly.

The piece itself needed to be bold and graphic to contrast the paint chip art, so I took a papier-mâché letter H (our last initial) and painted it a bright yellow. I got this H at Hobby Lobby; the regular price is $2.47 (so, you know, less with a coupon or sale). These papier-mâché letters are hollow and super-lightweight, but they look solid and hefty once painted.

While I like the H, I'm not in love with it. I have a sneaking feeling I might find something better to mount to the circle in the future, so I attached the H with a 3M Command strip instead of glue. That should allow me to take it off and attach something else without damaging the paint.

I hung the H and my new stained glass window over the space where my bench is going to go (when I get finished with its makeover). I may have created a weird negative space to the left of the H, but I'm going to have to wait until I get the bench in to see if I need another piece of artwork to fill it.

The total for this project came under $2, if you don't count the paint I had on hand. That's $1.25 for the letter and 35 cents for the table top (half of the table price!). These "trash to treasure" pieces are some of the most fun for me. Are they fun for you?

Pillows with piping: Not as scary as it looks!

Wonderful news, everyone! I learned how to sew piping! Well, actually there wasn't much to learn, but I was intimidated. It looks hard. It looks fancy.

I thought I needed a special piping foot for my sewing machine, but it turns out you can get away with using a zipper foot, which is pretty standard and comes with most machines. Hooray!

So I changed out the foot on my sewing machine, pinned, pinned, and pinned some more and voilà! Pillows with piping! I really shouldn't have been so hesitant. If you can sew a straight line you can sew pillows. And if you can sew pillows, you can sew pillows with piping. I don't lie.

I can't remember what directions I referred to, but this looks to be a good tutorial at Design*Sponge. I bought pre-packaged piping, but maybe next time, I will make my own with these instructions.

I ripped open some old throw pillows I no longer wanted and ripped the stuffing out of them. Sounds violent; it wasn't. They weren't doing any good hidden away in a closet, and the fabric wasn't something I was interested in ever using again.

I also stuffed a handful of fabric scraps from recent projects into the middle of one of them as a little surprise to my future self. Hey, it keeps it out of the landfill.

I hand sewed them closed because I didn't want to mess up the pretty piping. I should probably start hand sewing all my pillows shut because it just gives a nice seamless look. Except for the meeting of the ends of the piping, you can't tell where they were filled.

I used a little less than half a yard of fabric for each pillow and not quite two packages of piping. Adding it all up, I think these pillows cost around $5 a piece. I already had the stuffing (obviously), but if I had to buy new Poly-fil, it would add approximately $2.50 for each pillow.

p.s. Both of these home decor weight fabrics are in stock at Jo-Ann. Oh, yes, I see you digging (and simultaneously questioning) my use of gingham. If it bothers you, just pretend it's houndstooth.