Quick, Easy & Cheap Family Room Updates

My family room in it's "after" state is shown on post Gutting The Fireplace.
This is some of updating I did to change the things I already owned to have more of a French feel that I wanted to get.

The colors were bounced off my existing area rug.

We purchased this rug ten years ago. It cost a pretty penny, so it ain't goin' anywhere! Sometimes I wish I would have purchased something with more subdued colors, but overall, it's pretty easy to work with.

I slip covered the sofa and loveseat (okay, not so quick)

It took about three hours to make one cushion cover. I added welting, which the original sofa did not have. That takes extra time, of course, but I am happy with the detail. A lot of time when I take "short cuts", I'm sorry I did...

I covered right over the old fabric.

I did not use washable fabric, however! What was I thinking!?

At some point I am going to put one cover in the wash on gentle to see what happens. I have extra fabric in case it gets ruined - phew!

These are some of the salmon reds and blues in the room:

Okay, that little beach chair is most decidedly NOT French, but it's sooo cute!

The following lamp changes are so easy, and I think a lot of times people don't think about changing out their lamp shades, or painting the bases, or adding tassels...

"Before" with a more traditional shade (oops, ignore the tassel).

Just changing out the shade (and adding the tassel!) makes quite a difference!

This lamp's shade disintegrated awhile ago.

I found this shade at Tuesday Morning missing from it's base. The store gave me a clearance price with the terms it could not be returned. I think I did okay!

On my next posts, I will show what I think is a wonderful "trick" for making a table runner. I also would like to show detail of my floral ebay accent chair's slipcover.