new decorating dilemma

I generally have a "no paint" policy when it comes to wood. I love the look of painted furniture, but I've never had a piece come out really, really amazing.

But now I'm faced with a dilemma. I found this fabulous dining table at a secondhand shop for about $150. The top is pretty trashed, but that was part of its charm.

Then yesterday, after a year and a half of searching, I found chairs for about $10 apiece. The upholstery needs to be redone, I'm thinking something in cream and pink, but all that dark wood is messing up the girly vibe in my pink room.

I'm armed and ready to paint with $150 worth of supplies, which amounts to 2.5 litres of white paint and .75 litre of laquer. Can you believe those prices? The paint costs almost as much as the furniture, sheesh!

I see a few ways this could go...

1) Replace the upholstery only.

2) Paint the chairs white and replace the upholstery, leave the table as it is.

3) Replace the upholstery and paint the whole shebang.

What's a girl to do?

living room makeover

I was really leaning towards red, but it seemed too heavy and in a way, too masculine. I took a chance in the hallway and it paid off. After that, I knew there would be deep pink somewhere in my living space, but it seemed too bold a choice for the living room. But why? Once I asked that question, pink became the only choice for the living room.

Pink is a leap of faith... the wrong shade can be tacky, trashy, ugly, dated, Barbie-like, overpowering, and so many other shades of wrong. In order to work, it needs to be the perfect shade, so I let the inside of my favorite shoes be my inspiration...

Turns out it's also Pantone's color of the year. Who knew?

Ready for the great reveal?

Here's the room in the very beginning...


Then, I replaced the daybed with the thrifted sofa...


Then, I dove deep into the color pool...

And now I have a pink livingroom that's so me!

It's almost an exact match to the insole that inspired it, and now I'm a young(ish) woman who lives in a Kate Spade shoe!

I can't wait to accessorize! I'm going to add a mirror or some artwork over the sofa, and there's a whole end of the room that you haven't seen yet!

After a year and a half of searching, I finally found dining chairs this morning at the secondhand shop! They're upholstered in a dreadful country blue, but I'm going to redo them in cream and pink, which should lighten up the dining area.

I don't know about the sofa. I finally got rid of the homemade Febreze smell, but now I think it smells like cigarette smoke. I'm on the prowl for a replacement, but in the meantime, it works, for Opie. I sit on the pretty fringed one ;)

Also, Sage & Simple is now on Facebook, so if you enjoy reading my blog, please consider "liking" it. I'll be posting things in the same style as my blog, but in snippets that don't warrant a full blog post. (Psst! I posted a photo of one of the dining chairs over there...)

close call

When "they" tell you not to worry about how it looks in the can, it will look "just like the chip" once it dries, don't believe them.

The pepto bismal looking stuff in the can dried very red, but not a good red. It sort of reminded me of day-glo BBQ spareribs, like the ones they serve at chinese take out. It was so not good.

I fell asleep last night calculating what it would cost me to prime and repaint the room. That one 5 litre can of paint ran me $128, that's like $35 more than my "new" vintage sofa!!! This could've easily been a $500 disaster. Oy vey!

But, in the calmness and clarity of morning, I decided to see if it could be remixed. I went back tonight and explained that it was too dark, too red, and too saturated.

I'm afraid the paint store people are starting to know me as "that eccentric color-crazed American chick who is probably off somewhere right this moment ruining a perfectly white Scandinavian flat."

But I guess I sort of ask for it when I do things like bring in my Kate Spade leopard print pumps and ask them to color match the insole ;)

Anyway, the paint store guy had a good laugh and he was able to fix my paint. It's not exactly Kate Spade pink, but it looks great on my walls and that's what matters!

I'm literally about a cup short on paint and will need to buy another 5 litres to finish (ugh!). Maybe I'll give it a 3rd coat, just to make sure the spareribs aren't poking through...

it's on

The metamorphosis has begun!

The idea of rolling Pepto Bismal onto my walls is a bit stressful, but the lady at the paint store promised it would dry very close to the color on the paint chip, which is nothing like pepto pink.

Yeah, I've heard that before...

unplugged in denmark

Find me over at Unplugged Sunday today!

thrifted sofa

I mentioned the other day that there was a fabulous thrifted treasure being delivered on Wednesday. Well, it's here!

It's a new to me vintage sofa with red velvet cushions!!!

And I love it!

It's replacing the daybed, which was always meant to be a temporary solution until the perfect sofa came along.

There's only one slight issue, it smells like attic. As a seasoned thrift shopper and vintage aficionado, I have my own steam cleaner, so it's gotten two thorough steam cleanings. But that hasn't helped the smell :(

They don't sell Febreze in Denmark and I actually abhor the scent of it, but desperate situations call for desperate measures, so I bought a bottle of fabric softener, mixed 1 part to 2 parts water, and sprayed it onto the sofa. The attic smell is gone, but now it and my entire place reeks of fabric softener. I cannot stand scented laundry soaps and fabric softeners, so I should've known better.

I've been misting it with straight white vinegar, which I'm hoping will cut down on the fabric softener scent, plus it's a disinfectant, and never hurts to disinfect furniture of unknown origins. I need my place to stop smelling like a laundromat!

If I can't resolve the smell issue, I may need to donate it back, which will break my heart. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them :)

P.S. I still haven't picked a paint color, but now with the red sofa cushions, I'm leaning towards red more than ever.

love

thrifted spanish bowls

After the week I've had with driving (or not) and plumbing, I needed good day at the secondhand shops! The thrifting gods smiled down today and bestowed me with these 4 little handpainted bowls from Spain...

They were less that $1 each :)

But that's not the best part! There's something even better coming, but it won't be delivered until Wednesday. Stay tuned, it's gooood :)