DECOR

THE LOFT

I’ve always loved our loft space.  In the past it has always filled our temporary needs.  Whether it was an overflow toy room in the earlier years to teen hang out and an overflow guest room now, it’s a space I’m incredibly thankful for, but its always been lacking in terms of satisfying decor for me.  The below is a picture of the original white boring bookshelves.  One day when we were still renting, bored and desperately needing a creative activity, I decided to paint them.  Our landlord had let us undertake small painting projects before.  If we had not purchased our home I was fully aware that I would have been painting over them near our move-out date.

This is the only “pre” photo of the loft I can find.  How funny is it I took the before photo with an espresso shot on the bookshelves.  Hey…espresso gets me through many projects until its late enough to drink wine!  Haha.  What always bothered me about the bookshelves is that the back is a regular textured wall, sadly not finished wood.  Anyway, I was inspired to paint them.   I spent a long time deciding what I should do, but with me in the end painted stripes always win.

I love painted stripes and I will put them anywhere!  I decided to paint the shelves black with a striped background.  The loft style has slowly evolved over the years, but I really love my stripes to this day.  I’m not at all sick of them, I love them!

Then carpet was removed and hardwood floors were added.  This Pier 1 sleeper sofa has been a lifesaver for us, when it comes to friends and guests sleeping over.  Sometimes our guest room is full.

The armoire behind the sofa I use as my linen closet.  My last house didn’t have a linen closet either….am I cursed?

So the loft has been kinda of blah looking the past year and I had no idea what I wanted to do until one day I was shopping at a little boutique in East Texas and I spotted this adorable pillow.  Its so cute, when I found it, I instantly thought this needs to be in our loft.

Then inspired, I purchased this unfinished side table from Amazon.  The previous tray table I was using was too low and not as user friendly.  It arrived quickly and was easy to put together.  Now I just had to figure out what color to paint it.  I tossed the ideas around of turquoise, hot pink, light blue, or orange.

I decided to check out rug options first before committing on a paint color.  I looked at so many rugs online from all different stores and nothing seemed right.  I stumbled on this  rug and had to have it!  It’s the Oriental Vintage Distressed Abstract Rug.  I purchased the 7’10 x 11 size.

Once I had the rug I decided to paint the side table orange!  The rug had tones of orange, also the new pillow and the Elvis poster also had a little orange.   I decided to go the spray paint route and selected Rustic Orange by Rust-Oleum.

I’m a total spray paint junkie….if you’re looking for spray paint tips, be sure and read How To Spray Paint Furniture.

I LOVE how the side table turned out!  I used a different knob than the wood one that was included.  Luckily I have a knob graveyard which is a box full of old knobs I’ve switched out or bought on sale and I pulled this silver one out.

The media stand is the Linen Gray Pine Wood 50″ TV Stand from Pier 1 and I really like it.  We have baskets to hold all the video game junk, and that knight we bought from TJ Max was for Haley’s room originally.  It didn’t work out, she would wake up and freak out seeing a 5 foot figure in her room, so now his home is in the loft.

Now it was time to add some accessories to the side table.  I remember buying this green object from Hobby Lobby on the 90 percent clearance for $1.  I bought it knowing I could patch and paint it, but I put it away in our guest (aka junk) closet and forgot about it until now.

We patched it up and found some pink spray paint in the garage and the Pottery Barn lamp was $5!!  It was on sale for $74, with a free shipping promo and I had a $75 reward.  So I paid $5 in tax.  I love it when stuff like that happens!!

I’m loving the orange and all the vivid colors!

The drawer is great for small items, like remotes.  Unfortunately the bottom shelf will need to hold lots of blinky flashy ugly plastic boxes that my husband says work our internet.  I hate blinky flashy ugly plastic boxes but what can I say…I also love internet.  At least the sofa kinda hides it a bit.

I really love this rug and all these fun new colors introduced into the room.  Still loving my gel stained stair rails too!

To think all this came from finding that quirky pillow, I’m so glad I stopped into the Pink Leopard Boutique in Lufkin, Texas.

Over in the corner of the loft tucked away is my framed Titanic poster.  Oh this poster has a story and history!  When my husband and I started seriously dating we saw Titanic at the movies and I loved it.  Then at a church auction I got into a bidding war with someone and paid $80 for it.  Seeing the poster made me so happy, it reminded me of our date.  It was a big deal paying $80 being so young and broke I felt dumb paying so much, but I loved it.  It was dropped off to be framed where an unknowably an ex boyfriend was working, who lost contact with me and he taped a love letter to the back (nothing became of that).  Well years later married to my husband with babies I didn’t want it anymore so my mom bought it from me because I needed money and decided to hang it in my sisters room.  Then my sister married and didn’t want it so I begged mom for it back when we moved into this house.  I can’t remember how it went down, money and bribes were exchanged just like the mafia and now it’s back home.  I’m happy to have Rose and Jack back and I will never leave them again.

This Elvis poster also has special meaning to us.  We went to Memphis years ago to explore and check out some blues and barbecue.  Not knowing much about Elvis or being fans we decided to stay at the Heartbreak Hotel and check out Graceland.  My husband entered Graceland not really caring much about Elvis and left a hardcore fan.  The Heartbreak Hotel has a 24 hour Elvis channel and Roustabout was the first Elvis movie we ever watched together.

And on the bookshelves are more memories.  An Eiffel Tower photo I took with my iPhone was enlarged on canvas with a little Modge Podge, I have favorite photos from traveling and my kids plus our Playbills.  We love live theatre and I found these frames off Amazon that specifically are sized to hold playbills.  I get happy when I see them displayed!  Hopefully I can see Waitress on Broadway soon and add that one as well.  Waitress is one of my most favorite movies.

I’m still loving these striped shelves!  No regrets!

Cords!  I never realized all our cords hanging out until I started blogging!  I need to buy a cord cover stat!  I’ll check Amazon…

Thanks Mr. Fox for inspiring me to update the loft!  The black and white pillow is by Kate Spade, from Nordstrom.

Love the colors in this rug!

I used a good topcoat on the side table but I still love books to help protect the furniture from objects.

The Magnolia light is from Shades of Light.  It’s fun, I love any form of flowers.  You can check out my Ceiling Jewelry post for more info on it.

All done!  This was a really fun simple update.  Now when I walk up there I get so happy from all the vibrant colors!  It’s a quirky space and we all really love it.  Thanks for reading!

 

Laura

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