Xo Lindsay: Design & DIY

Whoever said that interior design is easy is seriously mistaken.

We are verrrryyy slowly getting our house in order. We nixed using any of our old furniture in our new house, sold it all on Craigslist, and we're now trying to get new everything. It's expensive, and I'm trying to shop smart and not be so indecisive. I typically make impulse purchases, and a year later, I often wonder what I was thinking. We bought neutral basics and plan on 'zhuzhing' it up with great accessories.

The hardest part about decorating?? FABRICS! RUGS! They're both SO expensive, and I don't want to regret these purchases. I have no curtains, no pillows, 2 rugs, and I'm so sick of staring at our blank slate living & dining rooms. I want curtains that I will love year round, meaning transitional from season to season. Pillows are easily changeable... curtains & rugs, not so much. Any suggestions?

Okay, enough babbling about what I don't have yet. Here's what we do have!

A fabulous dining table with great chairs!

Chairs can get very expensive {$250+ a piece}. We found basic chairs at World Market and somehow managed to get them for $75 each!

Their slipcovers for these chairs were a beige linen, and I really wanted white. We found these white slipcovers from Crate & Barrel. I love slipcovers because they're washable!

Here's how the chairs look with our gorgeous table.

{Ella says 'Hello'}

Do you see what I mean by blank slate?? No rug, no curtains, nothing in our built-ins, no real table-scape... We have, however, switched out those blinds from plastic to the faux wooden blinds.

Last evening, our ottoman showed up! Thank you West Elm.

Today, I plan on decorating the ottoman with books, florals, some sort of tray, etc.

I put my ~~artistic~~ ~~skills~~ 12-year-old painting & drawing abilities to the test this week. I want to do a wall gallery over the sofa. I love a mix of black & white frames. Everywhere I looked, the gallery frames were so expensive. I ended up at A.C. Moore, bought $3 and $4 black & wooden frames, painted the wooden frames white & added white borders inside all of them. I filled some frames with pictures & others with a little DIY art work.