Thank you Sure Fit!

To the Re-decorating. I have been wanting to do 'something' for quite some time. The curtains were old and ratty, the valances dated and dusty, the couch a mess. So when we inherited the two white couches I was excited.

Then we tried to fit the monsters into our "Great Room"--which just means it's one room and everyone can see all your debris! The white couches were really big (four persons per couch!) and I could just see the stains waiting to attack. So we shopped around, attempted the Target brand but discovered that Sure Fit is the brand to go with when it comes to couch covers! They're super stretchy! We chose a chocolate brown, it's sort of a micro suede, so when you sit on it, hilariously, there's a lovely 'butt mark' and the kids like spelling on the fabric too! LOL, who knew?



It was big enough to go over the couches and the main cushions, but not the pillows, so those stand out a little. But it did match my rug.



The next step was getting new curtains. We bought panels at JC Penny instead of ordering one big and over priced curtain with a draw. I ended up buying six panels, they're thermal, and look golden in the sunshine, browner at night.

The next thing we did was found furniture! For years I had these wire bins that held the kids' stuff, backpacks etc. Unfortunately they were the first thing you saw when you walked in because they were right at the back of the opposite side and were always overflowing with debris. So I found this (TV console) set, and shelving, at American Furniture on sale, and put them all by the front window area.

And the baskets were all 50% off at Michaels, so I loaded up on those. It's nice to have separate places to put the backpacks, hats, homework stuff, other various debris and not have it fall through the wire holes. Still shows some debris, but it's sort of contained...so far. ;) It is it's own little area now instead of being a kind of empty space that waited for the Christmas tree. No idea where we'll put the tree next year! LOL.

Because we moved furniture where the swords were, we had to move them too, behind the door and the family sign Felicia gave us a couple years ago looks nice underneath I think. :)


Then I found some matching pillows at Costco and they sort of hide the 'white' of the other pillows and mix in nice I think.


And then finally, I replaced the valances with new rods and some swags from Target. AND very on sale, whoo hoo!

Not lit correctly, but this is the one in the kitchen to tie them together. I had only one 'long' one for the front window, so this is two tied together. :) I kind of like the bow, I hope it doesn't get old on me too fast.


Oh, also got a hall tree that I put where the old bins were. It gives me a little extra room in the coat closet (which really needs to be re-cleaned!) but it also sort of hides the one set of wire bins I left to keep school junk in. I am afraid even with the new configuration it will always have a cluttered appearance with the massive amounts of paperwork, homework, shoes, and other things that seem to breed in my house. But still, I feel good about a lot of the cleanup that was involved and that it's slightly easier to tidy.



All during this re-do, we had to do Josh's science project. I must say I thought it turned out good...Curtis helped him with the actual testing and I helped with the poster...I *cough* he got a 70/70, 100% on it. YES! I er...we rock.