Change Takes Time

Anyone who has followed Art and Sand for very long knows that I love color.

But, over the last few years I have switched to a white background 

with colorful accents - primarily blue.

Change takes time and we are finally done (until I get a new idea) with the living room.

Lulu is modeling her favorite change in the living room - the jute rug from Rug USA which she thinks we bought just for her to roll on.

Most of our changes are designed to make rooms seem larger so instead of a regular sized sofa we went with the IKEA Ektorp love seat.

And as you can see from this "before" photo, we placed the love seat against a wall instead of beneath the window.

I tried having nothing in front of the sofa, but I like to put my feet up so an old tool box from my dad was brought down from the attic.

Striving for a less cluttered look, we removed a cabinet from the living room and replaced it with a tall candle stick I painted.

The SUN pillow and its mates SEA and SAND had been in the dining room and I found a fun blue and white floral to break up all the white.

An old cabinet from a local shop, Tattered Door, took the place of Old Faithful (Steve's leather chair that will NOT be shown) and we gained about 24" of space along this wall.

This wall is not finished, but I just don't have any ideas yet so it is "done for now".

 We replaced the BIG overstuffed chair that matched the old sofa with a smaller chair for me and another of my father's tool boxes gives me a place to put my feet.

We have always had a white mantel, but I usually avoided showing pics of the dull brown fireplace.

Painting the fireplace white has been on my list for a long time and a few weeks ago I finally grabbed the paint and started painting.

The way I feel about our living room has completely changed.

I love the crisp clean look

and it works well with another change we made.

We did not own a television until 2013 and I have always hated looking at it even though it's a small black box.

Steve nailed strips of wood together, I stenciled the quote and now all we need to do is set the sign on the floor when we want to watch a movie - the sign hasn't been removed for about 2 weeks.

With a jute rug, new furniture, a bit of white paint and

 a beautiful sailboat from Caron's Beach House.

we now love our living room.

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Shabby Art Boutique - Create, Bake, Grow & Gather

5 Years!

 In January of 2012, I posted my first blog post with this pic as the header.

I've been looking back at blog posts over the last 5 years - boy have I learned a lot.

The quality of my photos has improved just a bit from the first pic I posted -

lighting is crucial!

The sofa is the same except for new slipcovers,

but gone are the yellow walls.

I do miss the checkerboard floor in the entry although it was difficult to keep clean.

This cupboard with the top and bottom reunited is a much more practical piece for the entry.

This was the top of the cupboard before I fell in love (through blogging) with white.

The bottom portion had been with my daughter, but she returned it and now the cupboard is an important piece for storage.

I do love red, but it can overwhelm a space

so now red is merely an accent color.

The pie safe in the earlier entry pic is still in use - after 3 different paint colors!

The garden has definitely changed over the years

and that is all due to retirement - TIME to play!

My color palette has softened over the years,

but color still abounds.

So what's next for Art and Sand?

There will be changes on this wall in the dining room - the plans are with the handyman!

I will continue to drive Steve nuts with constant changes

both in the house and the garden.

I am doing less and less crafts

although I have a few more stenciling projects lined up.

Lately, my creative energy is used in trying to improve my photography.

And I will continue to learn from all my blogging friends.

And to those of you who have been with me since the beginning, thank you for following on the journey.

Comparing and early mantel pic with a recent winter mantel makes me question why anyone  kept reading!

Thanks for stopping in to see what's happening at our "little cottage by the sea".