Frame of Mind

I love a well decorated home. I know so many families with amazing spaces that perfectly represent their personalities. I feel that your home should be a sanctuary. Whether that means owning just a few items, having crazy wallpaper, or having toys strewn across the floor, walls, and ceiling, it's all good. 

Per my last post, decorating on a budget can be very rewarding, but can also be a challenge. Some people are just amazingly gifted at throwing a room together with little or no effort. I applaud them. 

However, I am not one of them. Especially whilst on a tight budget. I have all these grand ideas and imaginative ways to decorate. But alas, I don't think my husband actually wants to live in a cluttered Wes Anderson home or a treehouse from Peter Pan. Also, when I show him beautiful minimal homes with mid century inspired architecture and perfect presentation, he points out they often don't have kids and spent way more than our nonexistant decorating budget. Additionally, we are renting and are not in our forever home. 

STILL! I want to decorate. I want to have an outlet for my creative juices. I just have to channel them into an affordable, not too extreme, husband approved, family friendly decor. This seemed challenging and caused some frustration. However, I just needed to re-frame the problem into more of an opportunity. 

Our home is far from done, but this recent frame project has helped me pull our living room together. Our living room is currently a bland mix of beiges since we couldn't commit to a color theme for a while. We wanted the space to be kid friendly, modern, and a bit eclectic. There is a lot of natural light in this room which helps a ton. We finally decided on lavendar and teal for our colors. 

So about the frame: I found an $8 piece of art at a thrift store last week.

I took out the print. 

Then I cleaned and sanded the frame. 

Then I taped the matting.

I bought $5 spray paint and painted it navy blue. 

Then I used some left over primer we had and painted over the print to get a nice white color. Lastly, me and my artistically talented husband (but mostly him), painted an abstract piece with our colors. 

We are pretty happy with how it turned out. 

We may eventually put a family photo in the frame instead, but for now, I am happy that we were able to make the living room more presentable for under $20. Also, we had a good time listening to spanish guitar and painting together. 

Other items in the picture: 
Elephant art by Korance Goodwin
Shell Island Summer by Calinai Blay - for sale 
Abstract Mtns. by C+K Goodwin (us)
Pine Coffee Table built by me and my Grandpa
Rocking Chair 
Ikea couch - stained slip cover by Violet Goodwin
Hawaiian Pillows - from Oahu Farmer's Market


What projects have you done recently to spruce up your space?
Also, I am debating painting the coffee table navy or black. Opinions?