My Parlor

{Image via Tumblr)

Our house has a front room.

We have debated over what we should do with the room.

Mostly, it's been used as a playroom for books and toys

for our kids...most people in the neighborhood use their front

room as an office.  I'm not feeling that, yet.

Remember when people had parlors?

I need a place to drink coffee, read {be on the computer}, 

and have some calm....my life needs calm.

Here is the before:

And my parlor now....

To me, it has more of a "Zen" feel.

I wanted some Asian flair, 

but I also wanted to it to feel "beachy" like the Hamptons!

Here's some more of the details:

I found this fabric at Hancock Fabrics {I switched it up a bit and those

Hancock ladies are a tad nicer than JoAnn}.

I wanted the look of wallpaper, but less permanent and more

cost-effective {cheaper}.  Branmuffin mounted it to the wall with

some molding.  You like?  I love....

These frames, I found them in my house, and nearly everything

else there....shop your house, that's the latest thing I learned!

The prints are downloaded from an online site, I sent them

to Kinkos and for $.59 a piece, you can't go wrong on price.

 The shelf was painted white {of course} 

and it holds my kids books...it's not usually this neat!

I clean up for pictures.

 More online prints...the center one is a botanical and

the other two are a print I am obsessed with that comes in a 

fabric and a wallpaper.  Frames I found in our basement

and made them "new" again.

More prints....the top one has a touch of whimsy,

my life has kids in it, so I thought I would include that.

I still need a small lamp for the corner shelf and

blinds for the window.

{This room was done on the cheap.  We painted it the walls in Comfort Gray.

Otherwise nothing is "brand new"..we redid almost everything.  For example,

the lamp in the corner...we had, but spray painted chrome and

I bought a new lampshade at IKEA. 

  Just want you to know...get creative,

think outside the box, this doesn't have to cost a lot.}

I am gonna try and bring parlors back with this room.

Wanna come for coffee or tea?

Toodles...