Have you seen those decorative Christmas pillows with whimsical quotes and images? Last Christmas when I was in Homesense I saw the throw pillow of my dreams. It was white and had the word, “Hope” in gold glittery letters. In my mind I had images of an all white farmhouse, with white walls, white furniture, white dishes, and that pillow would have looked PERFECT on my white sectional….the one I didn’t have.
Yet!
I have often thought about that pillow. I could have picked it up, although my husband D was with me when I saw it and he often reminds me of my minimalist path when I start vibrating in the household furnishing section of stores. We did not buy it. The thought of it, however, has stayed with me since last Christmas.
I believe the Universe shows us things that we might, or might not want to manifest in our lives. The things we want to manifest are TOTALLY within reach. All we have to do is;
Ask and you shall receive,
Seek and you shall find,
Knock and the door will be open unto you. ~Matthew 7:7~
(sometimes the timing, or what we eventually receive may be a bit different than what we ask for….but trust that it’s coming!)
A few posts ago, I started talking about creating a simpler Christmas, one that was less consumer driven. I’m proud that we have stayed true to our intent, decorating with nature inspired items, really thinking before we made any purchases and moving towards experiences over things. It was when I looked at our family room though, with it’s extremely well worn brown, leather sofa and love seat, dark wicker chairs( with faded cushion) and dark wicker coffee table, that I decided the whole room needed a face lift. This is after all where our family spends all their time together.
This is our gathering room.
I started by taking a picture of the family room and tried to look at it with a critical eye. An eye that had never seen the room before. This was a good exercise and I immediately knew the dark wicker had to go. Thankfully, the weather wasn’t too cold and my husband D was not too busy, so he agreed to spray the wicker chairs and coffee table for me in the garage.
While he was busy repainting the dark wicker, I decided the pillows needed MAJOR work. I could have gone to our local fabric shop but I knew that buying material was going to cost a small fortune. Instead, I went to our downtown dollar store.
It’s not a chain, dollar store, so it has unique items in it. The store is called “Scattered Goods,” and there is something there for everyone. Do you have one of these in your town? It’s the kind of store that is piled from the floor to the ceiling with STUFF and you could spend the whole day roaming the aisles and not see it all. While there, I found two large Jacquard dining room table clothes (one black and one red) and a half dozen red plaid dish clothes. I also picked up some red and black felt squares. I found a package of gold bells as well, since D and I had just watched, “Its a Wonderful Life.” When I hear bells ringing, I believe angels are getting their wings.
I wanted to hear bells ringing all through the holidays!
The table clothes were $13.99 each but they were huge so I knew I could make quite a few pillows from them. The plaid drying dish clothes were an amazing deal at only $1.29 each and the cotton is quite heavy. They would make perfect pillow covers. The felt was only $.39 cents a sheet and the bells were a bit over a dollar. I took my loot home and gathered all my old worn out pillows and started taking off their pillow covers.
One evening after the kids were tucked into bed, I pulled out my sewing machine, set it up in front of the T.V., put on my favourite Christmas movie and started sewing new pillow covers.
The really BIG and cool thing I did this year was using my computer and photo copier to create quotes and images for my pillows. Have you heard of taping a thin, white piece of cotton onto a piece of computer paper and then printing off the Christmas saying you loved best….and the image too? I was really worried my photo copier was going to get all bungled up with the material on the paper but it DIDN’T!!!
Before all sides of my pillows were sewed together, I sewed the felt pieces with the quotes and images onto the front side of the pillow and then sewed up the sides. The result was absolutely spectacular and the cost was ridiculously inexpensive. The wicker chair pillows cost $3.00 dollars each to make. I would have easily paid $20.00 to $25.00 dollars at Winners or Homesense for pillows like this. Note: the white material was something I had on hand; just pieces from old sheets that I was saving to use for zero waste bags but they worked perfectly for the pillow quotes and images.
Take a look at how they turned out……
and then I did the leather chair cushion…
And as if that weren’t enough, I decided to cut up the red felt and turn them into poinsettia leaves, using the gold bells for the centre of the flower. I sewed these onto the black pillows I had made from the Jacquard table cloth material. At first I was really concerned over the shape of the poinsettia petals so I made some patterns using computer paper. Some big petals, some medium ones and some small ones were used to make a layered look. I cut the felt out and sewed the petals together finishing the poinsettia with bells sewed into the centre.
The result was really amazing and the best part is that I can take off the petals and turn the pillow into a year round decorative pillow. (Some day I would like to get a new sofa and love seat, maybe in off white, cream or light grey, so these pillows will look amazing on that colour) but for now this helped to update and make our room cozy for the holidays.
I’m grateful for a creative heart!
Above, the new cushions, the newly spray painted chairs and table, a few glittery lights, a nature inspired candle holder and we have an updated gathering room
And as if that was not enough to make this room a bit brighter and updated, I talked my husband D into getting some fireplace friendly spray paint to FINALLY get rid of the brass look to our two gas fireplaces…what do you think?
And the last thing I had D paint was our family room wall….it was a pewter grey but too blue in my opinion. We had the Home Depot paint people add some dark grey tint to the rest of the paint can, which is now a custom colour and we have been calling it, “tranquil seas.” I like it better and although it looks quite blue in these pictures, since we get a lot of natural light from our southern exposed windows, it actually looks dark grey during the day. Hey, it’s not the white of my dreams but it’s more practical with our family. What I love about paint is that it can change the mood of the room so easily.
(when I was doing all this sewing, I was drinking my eggnog latte’s…Cheers!)
Oh that was fun! I’m really proud too that I kept things simple. I stayed true to my intention to focus on a less consumer driven decor and while it’s not interior decorator perfect, it will welcome our family home. I hope everyone will gather to watch some movies and play some games on the newly painted wicker coffee table.
By the way, if you aren’t a big sewer or don’t have a sewing machine, when you use dish clothes they are already finished on all the sides so you just need to sew one side and that can be done by hand. There are lots of YouTube videos on sewing simple pillow covers. I used zippers, seam ripped them out from old pillows, to save money and reuse items, but you can also just sew all four sides as well.
I was really inspired by a Youtube channel and thought you may like to see it too, that is if you like that shabby chic farmhouse style. The Youtube channel is called, “The White Cottage Company.” The owner of the channel, Mary, is so creative and thrifty. She also reminds me that decorating is not rocket science and each of us has the ability to create. If you want to be inspired check out her channel.
Did Mary make you want to get a can of white spray paint? Ha! Slowly, slowly, I think I will be moving in that area but white with kids scares me. I’d love to hear what you think of decorating with all white…okay, maybe a bit of greenery and red this time of year, but white for the most part. Does it make you feel peaceful too?
Well, it’s time to say goodbye but I hope to get a few more posts done before Christmas to share with you. Our Christmas tree story for sure and also a story I want to dedicate to my son, Mitchell, who in in Australia this Christmas and won’t be home. If you have time, come back for a visit.
Until we connect again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope