Blind to the world

A few weeks ago in this post I mentioned I had swapped out the old aluminum blinds in the living room for some luscious thick faux wood blinds. Here they are, hung up in all their glory, so stately and refined :) haha

Now, it may be hard to tell the difference, but here is a close up before-and-after shot of the two different blinds when they're closed  - see how small and uninteresting the old ones on top were? I took these shots from about the same distance away, so there's no depth perception tricks going on here - just some plain old dated mini blinds turned beatifully bold faux wood.

They're 2 inches of faux wood blind awesomeness!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, I got them at Goodwill for a STEAL!

(sorry for the blurry phone pic)

That's right - only 14 smackers to transform our living room picture window :)

The brand is Levolor and I just looked up their brand online and found that a 38x60" (which is smaller than the one I got at Goodwill) faux wood, 2" blind costs over $100 - and I paid $14?!  JACKPOT!!!! 

Here are a few more pics of these babies :)

Oh, and that storage console in the photos above? That used to live on the opposite windowless wall in our living room and it was our TV console before we mounted the tv on the wall above our fireplace. I removed the doors, bought three galvanized steel bins (and stuck on little round pads on the bottom four corners of each to prevent scuff marks when pulling them in and out) and I already had the three baskets that happened to fit perfectly in the top three compartments.  

I had a bunch of little chalkboards left over from our wedding (which we used as table number markers) and glued magnets on the back of them so they'd hang just like you see them here on each of the bins.

Then in chalk I wrote what each bin's contents are:

Music - for all of our CDs

Movies - for all of our DVDs

and Miscellanious - for all other odds and ends and catch alls

that get thrown into it for a quick pick-up of the room.

The baskets hold other odds and ends like extra plug-in air freshner refills, tissues (we have to hide those because our adorable but weird dog will eat an entire box if left in plain veiw) some video games, etc.

I'm sure once some kiddies come along, the contents of these bins will change and will most likely become home to toys, games, and other baby clutter that can be tossed in and out of sight at a moment's notice.

So that's the updated corner of the living room. New blinds and a new/re-purposed console. 

And the large sailboat is an heirloom from my hubby's grandparents - it will normally only reside there during the summer, but it was just given to us and I'm desparatlely calling out for warmer spring and summer weather - like we had last friday! - and so here it will sit as a beacon of hope that warmer days are ahead me mateys! :)

So how bout you all? Swap out any old stuff for new stuff on the cheap lately? Any re-purposing/ organizational solutions going on in your casa? Anyone else dying inside like I am for springtime? :)

Good Wednesday to you all, and THINK SPRING!

~Amy