Redecorating

This picture shows the paintings that the girls did hanging above the fireplace. Grace's is the one on the left. Lyla's is on the right. Her vase shows the water inside of it. She thinks "outside the box".

Last spring I got the urge to redecorate my downstairs. The dark colors that I have used for the last 12 years were suddenly closing in on me. I desperately needed lighter, brighter, more airy surroundings. Well, we have finally begun to make a few changes. The first thing we did was paint over the red walls in the family room and foyer and the green walls in the kitchen. Eric and I stayed up late on a Friday night to do the prep work. I did the edging. On the next day Eric did the rolling. The girls were home and wanted to paint too. So I had them paint some canvases I've had under my bed for oh, about 4 years. I painted the background and then guided them on what to paint. I wanted to hang them over the fireplace so I didn't really want to give them complete control over what they painted. Looking back, I probably should have just let them do whatever they want. Maybe we'll do that one weekend we need something to do. Anyway, at the time, I wanted them to look similar. They ended up painting a vase with flowers in it. I helped them center the vase and make them the same size. They decided everything regarding the flowers in the vases. They turned out pretty cute. I also had my couch and chair recovered. They were slipcovered to begin with so I just had someone make new covers for them. I found the fabric at Wal-Mart, believe it or not, so it was really cheap, as far as slipcovers go. The picture I have above of the wall with their paintings on it is really dark. I need to take a different picture. I will also take pictures of the other things we've updated at some point. For now, this shows the first step in my mini-makeover.