Gates of Crystal: rug

April 16, 2018

Changes to our Family Room

Happy Spring, Friends!

I hope you're having a great start to your week! We're on day four of rain, freezing rain, sleet, wind, and snow. All the churches in our area canceled their services yesterday and all the schools have been closed today! So, that's Spring in Michigan!

We've made several changes to our family room in the last several months. The biggest change is the wall color. It's now 'Antique White' by Sherwin Williams. I painted the walls and ceiling the same color.

The other big change is our fireplace. Our fireplace mantel, that my husband built many years ago, was white and we had added moulding that went to the ceiling. When the walls were blue, it set the fireplace apart, but because we were painting the walls a more neutral color, I didn't like the white going to the ceiling. So my husband built a French trumeau for each of our fireplaces on the main floor.

The whole thing is attached semi-permanently to the wall. The mirror is the same one that used to be here. I painted it to match the trumeau and we used screws to attach it. I wanted it to look like it was part of the trumeau. The mirror will be easy to remove if we want to but I think it will be there for a long time.

Here's a before~

And here's the after!

He also built one above our fireplace in the living room that I'll show you soon.

Another new addition in this room is this coffee table. I found it on Craig's List and I love it! It looks like it was made to go with our armoire.

It's not in perfect condition but that doesn't bother me. (Then I don't have to worry about keeping it perfect!)

The 'book' on the table is actually a box and we keep our remotes in it, as well as a few other items that are nice to have handy when you're lounging on the couch. The armoire is an entertainment center and holds a tv.

I realized after I took the picture below that I forgot to remove our kleenex box that sits behind our couch. Oh well! (real life) My friends joke that it's the 'arc of the covenant' kleenex box! Ha!

The rug in here is also new and was purchased at HomeGoods several months ago. It's very thick and plush and much better for our grandbabies to play on the floor.

Hope you're getting some warm weather where you are! I know that not many people are!

love and blessings~

"But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven."

Deuteronomy 11:11

August 7, 2015

A Formal French Rug

Our main floor was decorated in French Country reds and yellows for the first decade that we lived in our house. A little more than two years ago I made some dramatic changes to the color scheme and went to the blues and neutrals that you see now.

For several years I had a beautiful rug in our family room that I purchased through QVC. It's a Royal Palace 100% wool rug that measures 9x12. When I changed our decor, I thought about selling it but just couldn't bring myself to do it.

I had purchased a jute rug at World Market for our living room that I really liked - until I realized that it was shedding. Badly. In fact, it was like the rug was made out of dirt. Every time I looked, our hardwood floors were covered with a layer of silt with little black dots in it. It traveled out from under the rug and was spreading around the room, making it impossible to keep the floors clean. And I was getting concerned that it was going to ruin the shine of the floors.

I had tried my wool rug in here before and I didn't like it but I had my furniture slip covered in a very bright white at the time. It suddenly dawned on me the other day that now that the furniture was a more neutral shade, the rug might work!

It's a much more formal look but I think I like it. What I really like is the size and feel of the rug. It's obviously larger than the 'dirt rug' and is a really nice, thick quality.

Here's a picture of the jute rug.

And here's my new/old rug!

It has my fleur de lis that I love. The beiges are good. It's has the added interest of the red roses which I'm not sure about but all in all, I would be really happy to use this rug again.