Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Do the Best with what you have

This tribute is in honor of my mom, who taught me to do the best with what you have. I've used this motto in many areas of my life..and today I used it in my living room. I've really been wanting to make a trip to Homegoods or Hobby Lobby or even Canton to get a few things to spruce up the house, but between time and money this month it just wasn't going to happen. So after looking at the cluttered mess in our living room I decided today was the day to do the best with what I have. Here are some before shots:


I know it's difficult to see but there are 1,000,000 Legos scattered behind these chairs
...it's a death trap I tell you!



I can't begin to tell you how bad my carpet needs to be cleaned
...but that didn't happen today!



By the looks of this you'd think we were hitting the road as a family band!

And here's the afters....no $$$ spent, just rearranged what I had 
in the room to make it more appealing and clutter free...


I divided the room by using the sofa as the room divider. 


On the other side of the room is the piano




I love this table...a gift from my mom when I was home the last time. Nice and distressed!


And...I left an area for Tucker's Legos....with his political promise 
that I will never step on another Lego again....until next time!

I'm thrilled with the way things turned out...I don't feel nearly as desperate to run to the store to buy something. Mom was right....you can make something beautiful by just using what you have. 

Her little motto can be applied to many areas of life....wardrobe, housing, decorating, dieting, recipes, relationships... So, how do you make the most of what you have? Any tips?



4 comments:

F. Deaton said...

LOVE it! I love how you positioned the couch, it really looks good! Now come do mine! :)

Jamie said...

I 2nd Felicia's comments! I should be home this weekend so you are free to come work some magic. :)

The Caldwells said...

I rearrange my living room a few times a year and at first it drove Danny nuts! Then I told him this is how I GET RID OF that "I need to shop" itch that I get ;) I now have his full blessing to rearrange! haha. Our living room is somewhat large for over here and I did the same thing about 4 yrs. ago with my sofa... i have a quilt rack that kinda "finishes" the back of the sofa and my desk at the back wall and a corner for Gracie's stuff since she spends the whole day @ home with me. Regarding the clutter-- friends of ours took all their DVD's and put them in those CD folders that hold like 100 or so... I'm not quite sure I like it because the kids would have even more of a reason to forget to put them in their case... but when they get older that sounds like a great idea to me. We have quite a few DVD's bec. we didn't have TV here our first 4 yrs. But it gave them a few bookshelves worth of space back!

Anonymous said...

You make your mama proud!