House Decorating - Finally, a Grown-Up Living Room!

Even though I'm northwards of 30 now, I still feel like I live in a college kid's house. The only decorations we really had were pictures. I don't have that decorator style. But I promised myself that 2011 would be my year. Up first: the living room.

The decorating has to correspond to two very important aspects:
1) Cannot be expensive
2) Cannot be pictures.

Now, I can still have pictures in my room, but I've decided that 80% of my decorating must not be photos ;)

I stopped at Hobby Lobby and they had 50% off of wall decor. I strolled and strolled...for over an hour. I just couldn't decide. So I happened on over to the 90% off area...and found some great steals. First: Three vase-type decorations that were $3.59 each, marked down from $39.99 each. Deal!

Second, I found a glass bowl that was beautiful. I'll show you that when I finish my dining room, because that's where it went. But it was also $3.59 down from $39.99.

I also saw two crosses in this section for $1.49 each, down from $14.99 each. And both had the fleur de lis, and that's when it hit me - I knew how I wanted to decorate!

Last year, my husband and I and a friend went to New Orleans and I fell in love with the city. That has never happened to me before. Yes, I've liked my vacation spots but for some reason, I just love New Orleans. The food, the history, the architecture, the people...it was all so wonderful and I cannot wait to go back. And I thought, why not bring a little bit of that into my home?

So I put the two crosses in my cart, along with a picture frame (minus the glass) that was in the clearance section - $2.99 down from $24.99.

I headed back over to the wall decor and found two long canvases, one that had a set of drums painted on it and one with a guitar. They were in the colors of my living room as well - red, tan and black. Perfect! They would represent for me the jazz and the music that is in New Orleans. It's everywhere down there, and it's beautiful. These were $19.98 down from $39.99.

I also found a big metal Fleur De Lis and grabbed that, too. It was $5.99 down from $10.99.

Grand total: $62.39 for the living room decor. Cost would have been without discounts: $265.91 - so I saved $203.52!! I couldn't use any coupons because everything I bought was on sale, but honestly, I was pretty happy with the savings!

Not bad - I anticipated $100. That was the budget I set per room.

So without further ado, I'm very excited to unveil the new look ;)

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

(The candlesticks were .99 each from Goodwill, the basket was 1.99 from Goodwill - and they are all items I already had)

Thanks for peeking!

Allie