A Little Carpet Magic and a Lotta Cabinet Love

Remember my beautiful hand painted carpet?

Well, now you see it...

And now you don't. 

OK, you kinda don't. 

Please say you don't..

Even if you do,  let's just pretend you don't. OK?

In my recent yakabout, I mentioned the terrible, horrible, very bad, no good modern art  I had created on the living room carpet.  It was a dried on, chalk painted disaster, in case you have forgotten.  (And yes and thank you to those who commented with cleaning solutions. I did try them. Nothing made a dent. I think it's the plaster in the paint. Thanks a lot, Annie Sloan...)

Well...

We were just about to bite the bullet and purchase  new carpet for the whole room when a friend in the carpet biz suggested that we track down a good carpet man and at least try to patch it first.

"I said a good carpet man", he said. 

"And don't even think about trying this one yourself. "

Because, well, you know...

So that's exactly what we did.  We moved the corner cabinet that started the whole thing and used a piece of carpet from under it. (That sucker isn't going anywhere. It's the only place in the entire house suited to it.)

Then, the carpet maven pulled back the carpet and patched it from the underside  

...because apparently that's how it's done.  Who knew?

In the end, we were pleased with the result.. It cost a whopping $50.00 and bought us some time. New carpet was going to be over a thousand.

As for the corner cabinet that started the whole thing?

  I'm pleased with the result there, too.

I'm planning to leave the top doors open because I like it like that. 

The top has some of my Italian Countryside 

and my mother-in-law's Wedgewood. 

They play well together, don't you think?

The bottom is just full of the new Cameo Platinum that I've started to collect. 

I love how the bottom doors are different from the top ones.  

And see the tassels? 

Yeah, well, I kinda like them too.

For now.

As I said earlier, this cabinet was made by my husband's grandfather. 

He never did get around to putting knobs on the doors. 

No one who has used it since has wanted to add them.

My mother-in-law put those tassels there, 

and I'm leaving them right where they are.

For now. 

Pretty good start on the living room project, though, don't you think?

Now that the floor is settled, it's time to decide on the walls...