Thrifty Re-Do

Our family room is currently undergoing a little renovation.  It's something we've been thinking of doing for a while and finally dove in.  Hubby is just about finished with creating a built-in entertainment cabinet in the "niche".  Until now, we've just used a piece of furniture for the entertainment equipment.  This is custom, fills the space nicely and looks so much better.  He's also planning to add crown moulding to the room and mounting the speakers up in the corners.  I'm so happy about that.  I won't have to deal with speakers on the floor anymore when I vacuum and the room should have a much cleaner, nicer look.

I've been working on paint color ideas and finding fabrics for the window treatments.  I've been frequenting a semi-local store that sells decorator fabrics at a huge discount.  It's called "Home Fabrics" and they have several stores.  I go to the one in Rialto and my favorite thing about it is their "$2 Fabric Store" next door.  In that store, the fabrics are $1 to $3 per yard.  I'm so happy that I was able to find what I needed there.  I got about 20 yards of fabric just over $50!  I love that store! 

The paisley fabric with the brown background is for the drapes and will balance nicely with the brown leather sofa across the room.  The plaid is for the adjoining kitchen windows.  It's so bright and cheery and has almost all of the colors that are in the paisley.  The red denim in the middle is for some throw pillows.

This fabric was even made in the USA! How amazing is that?! It's hard to find anything made in the USA anymore.

Of course, I had to make room for a yarn project in the room.  And, we could really use a new,

updated throw to curl up with.  This color was perfect!  It's called "Redwood Heather".

It's acrylic but the color is perfect, the price was right, and I even had a coupon to save even more!  Plus, acrylic is easy to care for, durable, warm and I don't have to worry about moths (I've been seeing them in yarn stores lately.  Ugh!).  I bought plenty to make it large enough to wrap up in and get cozy and warm.  I was planning to crochet a throw. 

They're so fun and fast!  But, after lots of pattern searching I decided on a knitted pattern called, "Surrounded".  It's gorgeous and has a built in i-cord that is created as it's knitted.  When the throw is done the edging is done.  How cool is that?  And, the i-cord edging looks really good.  The pattern comes with directions for a baby blanket and a lap throw.  It also has a formula to create a custom size.  I wish it came with directions for a regular sized throw.  The formula was easy, I checked and re-checked my numbers,  and it all seemed to make sense.  But, when I tried to knit it the numbers didn't work.  I tried several times, making adjustments each time, and it finally seems to be working out.  

 I'm just not sure yet if the i-cord on the sides is working yet or not.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I'm excited to see how the room comes together.  I'm just not sure how soon that will be since life keeps getting so busy and preventing us from working on it as much and as fast as we'd like.  But, I think we've got a great start and I love how we've been able to keep the cost down.