My neighbor (and sometimes babysitter) Erica, asked me to help her makeover the living room at her
Her mother went down to help Erica's older sister who just had a premie little girl. Her father unfortunately was not also leaving for the week. We had one week to work some magic on a very drab, run down room and we had a budget of $1300 to do it. And a very change-phobic, not-a-handy-bone-in-his-body gentleman overseeing our every step.
I took stock of what we had to work with and what
IKEA here we come!
Erica and I spent 3 hours shopping at IKEA. We fit an EKTORP sofa in svanby gray, EXPEDITE bookshelf in Walnut (on clearance since they are discontinuing that color), matching LACK coffee table, Vilmie curtans and Vilmie throw, two RIBBA picture ledges, two RANSBY cushions (no link online) and some accessories all in my car! They'd already removed one of the boxes from the back when I took this picture.
Erica was really stressed out but actually knew what she wanted - modern, uniform look, pet friendly furniture, some vibrancy. So the first thing I insisted on was that they paint at least one wall to bring in some happy color. I felt blue would compliment the orange color of the fireplace so we'd make that wall the focal point. We grabbed a bunch of blue paint samples from the Ace down the street and she picked a medium blue color that's the color of a clear sky. It's called "Mellow Blue" and I thought that was appropriate since her mom is really laid back. And as I told her dad when he
So over the course of the week with her uncle's (and dad's) help we put the room together. Her dad painted and helped assemble the coffee table and offered wonderful advice every step of the way.
Her uncle assembled and hung and leveled everything. We visited Bed Bath and Beyond and Michaels for rods, display easels and frames. The IKEA curtains that matched the throw for their existing lounge chair were very bulky for her windows so I cut them in half and hemmed them up. I separated their collections, bringing most of the American Indian stuff out to the living room and rearranging the rest into more cohesive groups in the family room. One of the bookshelves from the living room got moved back to a corner in the family room, which helped house some of the rest of the knick knacks there.So the day of the big reveal, after chiropractor and dental appointments, and Pixie's piano practice, and errands, and sewing the curtains, I went over there for the final hanging of stuff. About 20 minutes later I was about to come home to get some stain remover for the older lounge chair when I see the mom in the driveway! I closed the door and said "she's here, get all the tools out of the room" And 20 seconds later, we were as done as we could be.
When her mom came in her words were "Wow, this is incredible. I've been wanting to do something like this for years." And guess who excitedly showed her every little detail and told her all that we did? Yup, you guessed it. Her husband.
So I guess he doesn't hate me and I'm still allowed in the house. Which is a good thing, cuz her mom was over in my yard yesterday and made the comment that she's ready to tackle the rest of the house! 
*I've been thinking lately that instead of Engineering I should have studied Interior Design, Textiles, or Graphic Design based on all my interests. If I ever have to go back to work, one of my dreams would be to become a professional organizer. But I don't actually have any plans to quit my day job of running Foxden and taking care of the Foxlets. This was just helping out a friend........however I did get paid with dinner at Cheesecake factory!
