Countdown to Spring

Spring is just around the corner, right? I mean, despite the foot of snow on the ground we are less than a month away from the first day of spring which is March 20.

The longer I’m back on the North Coast, the more spring becomes my favorite season. That’s because it’s the season farthest away from winter!

After six months of being hermetically sealed in our house, there is just nothing like open window season and catching the scent of freshly-cut grass as it wafts in and perfumes the house.

Since moving into our Cottage In the Woods, we have done an updating project at the house each spring. Last year was the kitchen and this year it will be, in part, the living room fireplace.

We will be getting rid of our 10-foot brick fireplace surround. It’s just a monstrosity. (Here it is during one of my projects!) This is one of the rooms that has stayed exactly as it was when we bought it. Aren’t the builder white walls so . . . in need of warming up?!

We are tearing out all that brick and in it’s place we are putting in some very simple built-ins. That means more to decorate {happy dance!}

We have also ordered a sectional for this room which will arrive in April. My husband wants to be able to watch TV with his legs up and since I refuse to have recliners, we got a sectional with a chaise.

Since most of our money will be going for the built-ins, sectional and my husband’s new flat screen TV, I’m on a very tight decorating budget, as in, I pretty much have to re-purpose existing things in the house to dress the living room.

I’m planning on using the lamps from our master bedroom in the living room. I am also reusing our sofa console table but I can’t use our existing coffee table because it’s rectangular and won’t fit with the sectional.

So I’m also scouting thrift stores for a small round table to use as a cocktail table. I love this one from Maine Cottage but umm, as beautiful as it is and as much as I would love this table, $1,590 IS NOT in the budget! I’d like to find something similar and then paint it a color like this “sprout” which is one of 40 custom colors Maine Cottage offers.

I know spring will soon be here, so I’m keeping busy counting down and getting ready for a fun redesign of our living room. Let’s see, just how many days until spring . . . ?