Guest Blogger: Helen from A Brit of Happiness

Hello Everybody, my name is Helen, and I am visiting today from A Brit of Happiness. I am thrilled that I have the opportunity to guest blog here on House Of Turquoise!

My blog is just a baby! It is just taking it's first steps, but I am loving every minute of it ;-)

We are a home diy, craft project, inspiration of sorts blog. Yep, I think that pretty much covers us!

Well, like Erin, my favorite color is also turquoise! So far, every room that we have painted downstairs is a different shade of turquoise!

I am working at transitioning our house into a Beach Coastal Home and today I would love to share with you the Beach Coastal Family Room Makeover I recently completed!

I should say the inspiration for my Family Room Makeover began with one thing. THE COLOR!! That color came from reading a post that Erin did here on the color Rainwashed by Sherwin Williams. I knew instantly that this was the color I wanted for our Family Room. It seemed to have a mix of grays, blues, and greens in it. Which I felt was so soothing!

I have been working on this room for a few weeks now!

Keep in mind, I need to finish the curtains with some chartreuse horizontal stripes, and I still haven't had a chance to paint my wall art for above the doggy bed, but that will get done soon enough, I hope ;-)


Well, I won't keep you waiting.

Here is the BEFORE...

Everything was sprayed beige, even the ceilings, when we moved in. We opted to not have windows on either side of the fire place so that we could have a large built in from wall to wall. The window frames were knocked out to allow for really nice finished off framed out windows!

Here is the AFTER...

I love this shot because it shows the rooms true color, but I hadn't finished the curtains and blinds off in this shot.



Here is the room completed. We added the blinds, which I ordered on overstock. You can find them here.

Then we put up the curtains and curtain rods, but not in that order ;-) We bought both the curtains and rods from Target.

I am going to add some chartreuse colored horizontal stripes to the curtains when I can actually find some fabric that matches the pillows. It has been much more difficult finding fabric than I expected, but I will keep looking.

I still haven't gotten a chance to make my art piece for the wall area above the dog bed, but hopefully I can get it done in the next few days and give you a tutorial on it later this week.

Ok, so from this picture, you might think, ahh the lights in the cabinet add a nice touch.

So did I until we put them up and after a little while,

the hubs said "Why did you turn off the lights?"

My reply, "I didn't."

His reply, "Ha Ha Ha, so that's what they meant by 30 minute lights!"


Yep, 30 MINUTE LIGHTS! So if I want a little ambiance, I have to get up every 30 minutes and turn these "suckers" on with none other than my long trusty level, since I am not tall enough to reach. The only bonus is the exercise I get from getting up and down ;-). So much for trying to go cheaper and get some battery operated touch lights.

In my future plans, I hope to have some nice recessed lighting in the ceiling that will shine down on each side of the bookcases!

Ok, this maybe my favorite find for the room, it's hard for me to decide. It was $12.99 at HomeGoods. Now I would like to say that I got it because as soon as I saw the #24 on it, I thought "Oh wow, my house growing up was #24," but not so. More like I just loved the color and look of it and my mum was the one who pointed out the significance of the number and said, "I bet that's why you got it." Sure Mum, sure!

I really like this lamp for a few reasons, one, it's silver. I think silver, or gold for that matter, is the secret to finishing off any room. If you look at almost all of Candice Olson's rooms on HGTV, she adds silver through out her rooms to add a bit of glamour and sparkle and finish things off nicely!

Another reason I really like this lamp is because of the swirl design on the base. Kind of a "rolling waves" effect. If you go simple with other areas of your design, i.e. couches, woodwork, and pattern, then you need some layers of interest in the room and I think this lamp does the trick!

The "glass bubble ball," (again this is a very important technical term) was purchased at Ross for $6.99. I love a good bargain!

I think it is a fun touch. Bubbly water and coral, anyone for scuba diving?

I was able to pick up a bag of "finger star fish" at Marshalls for around $12.00. So I have been using them throughout my house. I have them in my morning room glass jars and I used them to make Starfish Art. The candle and candle holder were both purchased at Target.

I also purchased this big beautiful shell at HomeGoods! I could live in that place, HomeGoods, not the shell!

Remember Nora. The lovely whale I purchased when I started decorating this room. Well, she was very lonely until I found her "true love" Pip. Nora came already named, but Pip was all alone on the shelf at Homegoods with no name, so we adopted him, named him, and brought him home. (P.S. Don't tell Pip, but when I was in S. Carolina at a different HomeGoods, I found Justin, a hammer head shark. Pip might get jealous of Justin and I wouldn't want a love triangle, so Justin is going in another room. Crisis diverted!!



Strong and handsome Pip.

The minute I saw the driftwood balls spheres (it just sounds better) at Crate and Barrel, I knew they were coming home with me. I got one small and one medium sized sphere. What shelf wouldn't look good with a little bull dog bling? He is the guard dog around here, since our real bulldog is too much of a "softy" to harm anyone!

Here is the momma driftwood sphere. What do the owls have to do with the ocean, you may wonder, well I have no clue ;-) I have had these guys for awhile and can't seem to part with them. They may find a new home somewhere else in the house, but for now they will live at the ocean.

I was so excited to find these storage baskets at Target. I really like how the color and texture of them adds warmth to the room.

See just when you were worried that these book shelves weren't gonna' house any books, I shocked ya! I am working at becoming an elementary teacher, so I have to show how important it is to read, right? Even those these books are mostly pictures, Shhh!

I found all of the Coral for the bookshelves at Marshall's Dept Store. They currently have a really nice selection of beach themed items.

I bought the chartreuse green pillow at World Market and the gray blue flowery pillow from Target.

This is the fan we went with for the Family Room. It is "humungo." I purchased it at Lowes.

I like the way each blade is different. I think it has a really cool driftwood look to it!

My vintage ladder accents the wall as a "multi tasker." He can hold blankets and cover large ugly wall vents, what more could you ask for!

Hello new projects that I love! You can check here for the "how to" on my pallet doggy bed and here for the vintage ladder redo.

The ladder was purchased from a lovely shop called Everything Vintage, Co. Both blankets were purchased at Marshall's.

I would love to hear back about any thoughts you have about the Family Room Makeover. Have a fantastic week and don't forget to come over and check out the Morning Room Makeover, painted in Quietude by Sherwin Williams and our Beach Coastal Bathroom Makeover: Part I, painted in Tidewater by Sherwin Williams. Both are really pretty turquoise colors!

Thanks again Erin, for allowing me to share my Makeover with your readers!