The tale of the piano and the 9 foot couch.

The Behemoth that changed our house and my life.

The only thing lovely about the mantel was my sister's painting.

The 9 foot couch that became the only place to sit once the behemoth piano came in.

These are some before pics of our living room.  First, you will see the behemoth piano that changed my life, then you will see the 82 foot couch, and our how our fireplace used to look. The only redeeming quality of our fireplace was that it burned wood and the gorgeous painting by my sister hung on the mantel. With the room this way the mantel did her painting no justice. The painting is much happier now in the foyer, where it is the first thing you see when you walk into our home. Pics of that later.

Who knew a piano could change everything.

  

It all started with my husband's talent. Not only is he an amazing surgeon, a whiz at all things smart, he is also a virtuoso on the piano.  Now, let me start by saying we have lived in our home for going on five years. We have literally done a major project once, if not twice, a year. I'm talking water heaters, hardwood floors, new swimming pool, and on and on. We had reached a point where we were ready for our next "project".  As I've said my husband is a pianist. He had a smaller piano that was in his office (also an addition to the house), but it has always been his dream to have a grand piano. So, it was natural that we were ready to take the next step in our marriage- a baby grand piano.

This lovely, large, behemoth of a sound machine literally took up an entire area of our living room. So much so that we had to move couches and chairs out, and we were left adjusting our sectional so that it was one loooong couch. I think I measured it at 9.3333 feet! To give you an idea of our living room, it is very long but not very wide. Even given the fact that our living room is long, it was not long enough for the baby grand and grand furniture. I felt like I was losing my mind. That was until I discovered . Yeah, that little site. You heard of it?

Pinterest changed everything. I knew we needed something new in our home. I knew we needed a little update AND we needed to downsize on the furniture while adding seating. It seemed as though all was lost. Whoever heard of getting more, smaller furniture? Didn't make sense to the hubby either. But, I knew there had to be a way! My sister Val kept telling me about this pinterest site. Finally one day I checked it out. I sat in our bedroom, because I was literally avoiding the living room, and looked at this little site. Um- yeah.

My whole life changed.

Not only were there oodles and oodles of pictures of all sorts (I'm like a 5 year old when it comes to reading. I need pictures), it also had these virtual pinboard thingies that you could "pin" your ideas to! I kept logging off and logging on to see if it was real. A sort of pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming scenario. I was elated.

The pinboard I became most obsessed with was my "French Country Living Room" board. Black and white the theme, neutral furniture, damask the prints, red the accent color. That's all it took and this is what we went from to where we are now. Thank you, Pinterest. You literally saved the baby grand and my sanity. Now, instead of crouching to the other room while the hubby plays piano, in an attempt to get away from the awkward living room, I now curl up on my new, normal sized couch and listen to him play. The music never sounded so sweet.

The behemoth that changed everything.  Thankfully.

How I know my husband loves me.

So. If you know me at all you know i don't sit still well. And, you know that if i see something i like i usually try to make it myself. my obsession with DIY'ing it has led me so far as to make my own ottoman coffee table. My mother half way joked today while I moaned about my too-big media cabinet. "I know exactly what I'm looking for, but I can't seem to find it." My mom chuckled and said "Well, now that you're into making furniture you could probably make your own media cabinet." I laughed. Yet, quickly my chuckle turned to "Betchya' I could." I plan on posting pics soon of the projects I've been working on around the house. Thanks to Pinterest.com I am in the process of redoing our bedroom, living room, and dining room. Some of my projects include the coffee table previously mentioned, hanging our family pictures decorated with stencil stickers, instilling a French Country theme throughout the house, and using fabric paint to create custom pillows in our bedroom. There are projects all over the place. Rolled up rugs in the foyer, side tables in front of the refrigerator, sample cushions from the furniture store laid out in the living room, and on and on. I assure my husband that it will all be over soon. He just smiles at me, kisses me on the cheek, and says "I know, honey. I'm sure it will be beautiful." This is how I know he really loves me :).