Living and Dining Room Progress {Philly Reno House Reno}

We're quickly wrapping up the house progress tour over here! You can catch up on what has happened so far in the kitchen, master bedroom, guest bedroom & office and bathroom if you missed any of the previous renovation progress posts, but today we're focusing in on the living and dining room.

Since our first floor is completely open concept, it make sense to group the living and dining room progress photos together. Let's start with the living room!

We tried out a couple of different furniture arrangements in here and settled on this one. You come right into the living room from the front door making it a high traffic area. It's also long and narrow, so it is important to maximize both seating and traffic flow in there. Putting the couch against the wall with the chair at the end of the coffee table seems to work best with the furniture we have now.

Right now, you can see below that we have that large antique jelly cupboard by the front door and it acts as a sort of entry table, but it's probably not going to stay there. I'd like to define more of an entryway space with coat storage on the opposite wall by the staircase. By doing that, it would free up a little bit of space to add another chair to the living area (something that's on my wish list).

If you turn around from that photo above, you'll find yourself in the dining room. This room has been in a bit of a holding pattern while we decide what kind of table we want. Our current one looks so tiny in here now! (Hello giant dining room!) 

Clearly we need a new chandelier here too. ;)

Looking into the kitchen for a sec, you can see we've made a bit more progress in here too: we have pendants over the peninsula and stools! I wasn't sure we wanted/needed the stools in here, but now I'm so glad we have them. It's awesome to be able to sit at the bar while someone is cooking.

Here's the view from the kitchen back toward the front door to help orient you a bit. (Also, can you tell I took these photos during Christmas? I spy a tree!)

Since I took these photos a few weeks ago, we've already made some more progress that I'm SUPER excited about. My awesome father-in-law came up and gave nearly all of the trim in the living and dining room a fresh coat of bright white paint (Behr Ultra Bright White), painted the living room radiator white, and put up a new light fixture in the living room. Last week I found a china cabinet for our dining room for a steal at a local second-hand furniture store that I can't wait to style up, and I bought two roman shades from West Elm that are on their way for the front windows. Can't wait to show you soon!

So what's on the to-do/wish list for downstairs now?

• Find a new dining room table and chairs
• Find a new light fixture for the dining room
• Figure out what to store in the china cabinet and how to organize it
• Define the entryway
• Finish painting trim and touch up other areas
• Paint the dining room radiator white
• Install the roman shades in the front windows
• Find a second chair for the living room

Making a list like that feels so daunting, but I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself to define a timeline. It'll happen when it happens and I'm so proud of what we've accomplished so far! :)

Source List:

• Couch: Pottery Barn Comfort
• Chair: Crate & Barrel (no longer available)
• Rug: Pottery Barn Braided Jute (no longer available)
• Coffee Table: Holly & Martin Lydock
• Bar Stools: Target Hampden
• Kitchen Pendants: Capital Lighting (Graphite with Aged Brass)
• Jelly Cupboard: family piece
• Dining Table: family piece
• Dining Chairs: family piece

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In-Stock Design Boards Launch {Living Rooms}

Happy Monday, friends!

Today's an exciting day for Mix & Match Design Company. I've been hard at work behind the scenes for awhile putting together a new e-design product: In-Stock Design Boards! For the next several Mondays, I'll be launching the boards for different rooms, starting with living rooms today.

So what are In-Stock Design Boards, you might ask?

These design boards give you a custom look at an affordable price ($75). They come in several different styles and will provide all the basic pieces for a room. If you want direction on how to make a room into a place you love, but crave simplicity, purchasing an in-stock design board may be a great alternative to the full room design board package.

Once you purchase, you will receive a copy of the design board with a visual representation of the items and a source list so you can easily purchase the items and install them yourself on your own time frame. The approximate cost for the items on the board is listed at the top of the board. No custom sourcing is available for these boards.

You can also use a board and the source list as a jumping off point and add your own touches to the room!

I currently have three living room in-stock design boards available for purchase:

• Sophisticated Neutrals
• Mid-Century Boho
• Farmhouse Industrial

Check out Sophisticated Neutrals below!

Want to see the others? Head to the website!

To purchase a board, go to this page and select the "In-Stock Design Board" option from the drop down menu. Follow the checkout process, and you will receive an email from us within 24 hours asking which board you would like to purchase and we will send you the source list.


Fine print: This source list is for personal use only and should not be distributed or shared. Some sites add additional state sales tax and shipping - this is not included in the quoted prices. Prices and sales/discounts are meant to be representative at the time the document was sent and are subject to change. Subject to availability.

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Living Room Fireplace Wall Makeover {Take Two}

Remember how back in the fall I gave this lovely brown tile wall a makeover with (temporary) headboard wallpaper? Well, it turned out that that idea was great in theory, but it turned out to be an epic fail. No matter what I tried, the adhesive just never held well and the wallpaper started falling down in strips. Not ideal.

So back to the drawing board I went. One of my original ideas was contact paper, but I never jumped on it until I discovered the beautiful options Design Your Wall had on their website. I posted about my finds on Facebook and soon after got an email from Dennia, the representative for d-c-fix (who is the contact paper supplier for Design Your Wall), asking if we might be able to work together. My answer? Why yes! I believe we can :).

A big thanks to d-c-fix for helping me solve this problem wall once and for all!

I chose the Whitewood Matte contact paper, which has a very subtle wood grain look to it. This is not your run of the mill contact paper, y'all, it's super high quality. It's made in Germany, so you know they've engineered this product beautifully!

Dennia was kind enough to send me a simple installation kit along with the instructions for how to apply it.

I loved having the smoother tool and razor handy. No need to provide my own special tools. (If you're looking for the installation kit on the Design Your Wall website, you won't find it yet - it's hopefully coming soon!) Those two things, plus a metal-edge ruler were all I needed to install the product.

First, I wiped down the tile with Windex to ensure there was no dust or grime that would mess with the adhesive, then I went to town installing it vertically, one sheet at a time, all the way across the wall. I followed the instructions on the packaging and found it to be very easy to do - using the smoother tool made it so I really didn't have issues with bubbles. I did have to reposition pieces a couple of times to make them straight, but that was an easy fix. I left some overhang on the top and bottom so I could trim it precisely at the edges so it would look flush. On Dennia's advice, I also overlapped the pieces a little bit at the seams so there wouldn't be any gaps where the pieces joined together.

When it came to trimming off the excess, I found that the easiest way to keep the razor going in a straight line was to press a metal-edge ruler against the wall and run the razor blade in-between.

Then after that installation, I was left with a beautiful white wall with a subtle wood grain texture. I think it's fabulous!

I also took down our big, black box of a TV and replaced it with a vintage map of Martha's Vineyard. I'm actually thinking about leaving it there and figuring out another place for the TV since we hardly ever watch it. It's just kind of an eyesore with all these cords hanging down the side...I'd much rather look at pretty art instead.

The contact paper brightens up the room so much and frames that fireplace nicely. I know it's really difficult to see the pretty wood grain texture in photos, but trust me, it's there. :) I choose to leave the tile alone around the fireplace since it's wood-burning and I don't know how that adhesive would react to heat.

I'm thrilled with the quality and look of this contact paper from d-c-fix and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is in the market - renters especially! It's such a great non-permanent solution that can really transform a room. I've got about half a roll of contact paper left and now I'm thinking about other places I can use it in our home. Time to do some brainstorming!



*I was generously provided with a roll of contact paper from d-c-fix for this project. It was a pleasure collaborating with them, but as always, my good opinion of them is all my own! See the footer of this blog for my full disclosure.

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DIY Abstract Art for the Living Room

Our living room has been in serious need of some art on the walls. I wanted something BIG to take up some space on that ginormous blank wall, and since I've been wanting to try to DIY some abstract art for oh, like ever, I decided to take this project on myself. (Remember the inspiration I posted about?) I snagged a 24"x36" canvas from Michael's (with a coupon of course!), some cheap-o acrylic paints and a pack of plastic palette knives* (similar) and went to town. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

It took a little while to get the hang of it and I'll admit, I had a first effort that was a major fail. I didn't even take photos of it, it was so sad-looking. But you know what? I just painted right over it and got a final result that I love. I have to thank Julia from Cuckoo 4 Design for her super simple abstract art tutorial...it really helped get me going on this second effort.

I don't have a tutorial for you for this because you know what, I had no idea what I was doing until it was all over! So instead, I'll just show you photos of my new painting hanging in my living room :).

It brought some much needed color and a focal point for this space. What's funny is in some of these pictures, the canvas still looks kind of small on that giant wall, but when you're actually in the room, the size feels perfect.

I love the colors I ended up with on the canvas...blues, pinks, greens, white and GOLD! For some reason, it's really hard to photograph metallic paint, but those darker brown areas are gold, promise! ;)

It ties in nicely with the current pillows I have on our couch (which will inevitably change, given my constant itch to redecorate). In case you're wondering, the light blue/white pillows are ones I made from West Elm embroidered dot napkins and the watercolor ones are West Elm Kate Spade Saturday Habanero shams I modified so they'd be throw pillow size.

On a side note, can you spot that little plant on the side table by the chair? It's a jade plant I snagged from CVS of all places for $4 and I just love it!

Isn't it cute?

Here's to hoping I can keep it alive!

A closing thought about the art...I don't consider myself to be an artist, and I'm so happy that I decided to try out this abstract art thing anyway. If you're considering trying to do some yourself, DO IT! If it's terrible (like my first one was), just keep messing with it until you like it. If I can do this, so can you!


*denotes an affiliate link

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Simple Fall Mantle (Vintage Bottles + Pumpkins + Flowers!)

A couple of weeks ago, I shared my progress with covering the enormous wall of tile in our living room with beadboard, and mentioned that I styled up our mantle for fall. Well I'm back today to share some details about the simple things I did to pull it together.

I pulled out my collection of vintage bottles since I knew the blue would pop beautifully against the new white backdrop. I inherited every one of these from my grandmother on my mom's side. She had a huge collection, and the girls in the family divided them up when she passed away (yep, she had a ton based on the fact that I have all of these!). They used to sit in her kitchen and I'll always have fond memories of looking at all of them there as a kid when I'd visit :). I'm glad I have them as a reminder of her!

These bottles are timeless and have so many uses. I can imagine a bunch of them clustered together as a centerpiece on a table, a few arranged as a vignette on a table...or up on a mantle like this. Last spring, I gathered several together on a tray and used them as miniature vases for tulips. They were just so pretty!

I used that idea as inspiration for my fall mantle. I used a few of the bottles as vases for flowers (which came from Trader Joe's), and used others to vary the height of the mini pumpkins I wanted to incorporate.

Height variation makes an arrangement like this much more interesting. I love the semi-random heights of the pumpkins and the flowers. Each bottle has a unique look to it with either pumpkins or flowers (or nothing at all), but it has a balanced look overall.

And heck, if a big ole black TV has to sit front and center on your mantle, you might as well make everything around it look pretty, right?

Up close, you can see how unique each bottle is - aren't they fun? I especially love that fish one all the way on the right in the photo above.

So that's my fall mantle: I shopped the house, bought a few pumpkins and flowers, and kept it simple and fun!

What have you done to decorate for fall around your house?

Renter's Dilemma Update: Tile Wall Progress

Alternate title: "Operation Cover the Brown Tile Wall." 

Thanks again for all your comments and suggestions on how to lighten up the big ole wall o' tile we've got at the back of our living room. In case you missed the first post on this dilemma from last week, head over here for some background info. I made a decision on what to do with it and had a chance to make some progress over the past couple of days. So let's take a look, shall we?

As a reminder, here's what that wall o' tile looked like originally:

And here's where we are today:

Beadboard won out, my friends, and I am so happy with how it's looking!

It's not quite finished, but I wanted to give y'all an update and little knowhow on how I added this beadboard right over the existing tile without damaging it. I don't have a full step by step tutorial today because I'm still waiting on a couple of supplies to finish it properly, but here are a few pieces of info...

To keep things simple and DIY-able without breaking out some major power tools, I grabbed a $20 roll of allen + roth beadboard wallpaper from Lowe's rather than sheets of wood beadboard. I had never worked with this stuff before, but it worked great for this application! It's easy to cut with a box cutter or scissors, and I was able to install it all by myself while my husband was studying. Although I will say, it would be a little easier with two people working on it.

I started by cutting one strip to go over the mantle and then worked my way out from there. I made sure it was level vertically since our walls are definitely not straight after standing for nearly 150+ years!

The photo above is deceiving since I actually placed my first piece on the far left side of the mantle... (it's the one that looks taut in the photo below) and worked my way out from there to the left and right sides. I cut the pieces long so I would have room to adjust them, and then I trimmed the excess with my box cutter. That allowed the wallpaper to fit nice and snugly.

Eventually I got them all up there and wow, what a difference it made for the look of that side of our living room!

So much brighter. I don't even mind the tile surrounding the fireplace anymore. I was considering continuing the beadboard down there too, but I'm leaning against that now I think (opinions?).

Now, you might be asking how I attached the beadboard to the tile in a damage-free way. The answer? Right now, it's hanging up there with painter's tape! Yep, regular blue Scotch painter's tape. It's temporary though because I've got something else coming to replace it that I think is going to work even better. It'll hopefully smooth out any little wrinkles and keep it looking crisp. It's a product that's being delivered to my house as we speak, so once I know it works, I'll fill you in on all the details.

I'm really pleased with how it's turning out, and I can't wait to finish it up and then style up that mantle for fall! I've also got a couple of ideas on how to deal with the yucky vertical blinds situation, so stay tuned for an update on that soon.

Renter's Design Dilemma #2: Vertical Blinds

First off, a big, fat THANK YOU to those of you who threw in your two cents about design dilemma #1 on Monday. This is why I love the blogging community - y'all always have such great ideas! At this point I'm leaning toward using beadboard on that wall, but we shall see.

 To bring you up to speed if you missed Monday's post, here's what that back wall looks like:

This brings me to design dilemma #2. On the brown tile wall next to the fireplace we have an awesome, big sliding glass door that leads to the back patio. It lets in tons of light and it's really nice having easy access to our outdoor space off the living room. There's one tiny problem with that sliding glass door though: there are these (kinda nasty) old vertical blinds across the whole that I would love to hide, mask, disguise, take down...

Very 1970s-ish, eh?

They're made of some sort of beige synthetic "cloth" material and they are dust. magnets. Not awesome. Also, get a good look at that header - it's pretty yucky (how does that happen, by the way? No one ever touches it or anything!).

From what I can tell, they're pretty well installed and wouldn't be easy to take down, so sadly, I'm not sure that's going to be the solution. My best bet might just be to disguise them. On Monday, a couple of you got a head start on how to deal with these and mentioned putting up floor-to-ceiling curtains to bring in some color and softness to that part of the room, which sounds awesome. I'm a big fan of the idea. I'd have to put a curtain rod on the ceiling or something to install them since I can't drill into the tile. That might work though.

I also might make some kind of cornice/pelmet box to hide that stained header.

I love this curtain/pelmet box combo.

{Design Manifest}

Or maybe something with more pattern?

{With Heart}

Or I might keep it simple and throw a piece of molding up there right on top of the existing header. :)

(P.S. can I just say there are a lot of ugly sliding glass door window treatments out there. Google it. Enjoy!)

Here's one more good lookin' pelmet/curtain combo:

{Project Nursery}

Can you tell I'm liking the simple white curtain with trim idea?

What do you think? What would you do to hide/disguise those vertical blinds? Thanks for letting me brainstorm here with y'all today. I know you've got some good ideas for me!


I'm headed out of town for work for the rest of the week, so I'm skipping this Friday's Lovely Links post. I'll be back on my normal schedule next week!

Renter's Design Dilemma #1: Brown Tile Fireplace Wall

Happy Monday, y'all! This week I'm sharing two design dilemmas that I'm dying to solve in this house and I'm hoping you might be able to provide some ideas! I'll start with one today and finish up with the other on Wednesday. They both have to do with the back wall of our living room.

Our little Philadelphia row house has a wonderful open floor plan on the first floor. On the back wall, there's a charming wood-burning fireplace, but what's not charming is the brown tile that covers the entire wall. When the owner renovated this house, he made a few design choices along the way that wouldn't necessarily have been my first choices and that brown tile is one of them. I realize that some may love this "feature wall," but it's not my cup of tea unfortunately. It makes the back end of the first floor feel dark and cave-like. Plus, there's so much brown in this house already: brown wood floors, brown stairs, brown mantle, brown kitchen cabinets...you get the point.

I'm itching to lighten things up a bit on this floor, so this brings me to design dilemma #1: how to cover up that brown tile. As y'all know, we're renting this home, so there will be no demo-ing here, and whatever we end up doing obviously needs to be a removable and damage-free solution.

Here's a wide shot of the living area with the wall o' tile:

See how brown everything reads in here? Those buttery yellow walls don't help either (we are allowed to paint, so I'm hoping to do that eventually too!).

There are the two ideas I'm seriously considering for this dilemma: white beadboard or removable wallpaper.

Idea # 1: Beadboard.

The Nester covered up her renter's kitchen backsplash with beadboard and it looked fantastic. Check it:

You know how she attached it? Hot glue. It popped right off of tile without damaging it. Since the surface I'm trying to cover is tile as well, this idea seems really appealing. Beadboard fits my design aesthetic well too and I think it would look nice around the fireplace.

Idea #2: Removable Wallpaper.

{Swag Paper}

Removable wallpaper, also known as "renter's wallpaper" or "peel and stick wallpaper," is something that's been around for several years now and there are some awesome patterns out there. I found several companies (Chasing Paper, Swag Paper, even Target) that have contemporary, modern designs that are appealing to me, but I'm not totally convinced that I want to go with a bold pattern on that wall. Dormco carries blank, paintable wallpaper, which sounds pretty awesome, but also might not be the right solution for a fireplace surround. Spoonflower allows you to create your own, custom removable wallpaper - also a nice option.

So what do y'all think?

Do you have other ideas for this design dilemma?

I'll be back with design dilemma #2 on Wednesday. Here's a photo of what I'm dealing with for this dilemma: nasty vertical blinds!

It's a nice combo with the tile wall, don't you think? I don't have any brilliant ideas for that one yet, so get ready to put your thinking caps on for that one!