Breakfast room before and after

{I had no idea this post was headed this direction!  Very wordy... be prepared} 

With the holidays looming I have this sudden urge to get the house in order (maybe I should blame it on Pinterest :).  My house has been a big, giant dorm room of sorts since we moved in over 4 years ago.  If you've seen pictures of my house now you probably question this, but let me assure you - it was bare walls and furniture a year ago. 

I didn't have any confidence in myself.  I didn't think I had any style - well, I wasn't sure of my style.  Would other people like it?  Would they approve?  What would they say?  The questions were binding.  They prevented me from moving forward.  I've never been a catalog page girl - don't get me wrong, I L-O-V-E Pottery Barn, West Elm, Restoration Hardware, Anthropologie, Crate and Barrel... the list could go on, but as much as I love their stuff (NOT the prices) I always wanted to be different (but was still worried about what others would think).  Not to mention I have two little boys.  Two adorable boys (only a year and a half apart) who LOVE their toys...  I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and undermotivated.

A little less than a year ago I started refinishing furniture.  Enter Lizzy.  We were mere acquaintances a year ago, but that has changed.  When I put my first piece of furniture up for sale, she snapped it up.  She has since bought about 7 pieces of furniture from me.  She was IS my biggest cheerleader, the one there saying 'you can TOTALLY do this!'  When I started decorating inside my house it was only on top of one dresser that I had painted.  Then slowly it overflowed onto my mantle {see the mantle here} well, today It (the decorating) finally made it to my breakfast room (the kitchen, living, breakfast room are all open to one another).

Lizzy is a huge part of the reason that I took the leap to finally decorate everything.  She believed in me, she reminded me that it's ok to not be perfect, and that it didn't matter what ANYONE else thinks as long as I love it.  She helped me find me (and God) again amidst a sea of chaos.  We all need a friend like Lizzy.  Someone who will stand in your corner and shout your name to the Heavens.  Someone who just says 'do it, it will be perfect.'  And with that, here is the reason I started this post in the first place.

Here's the before:

I took that giant photograph up there (the tulip) about 5 years ago.  I love it.  It's beautiful.  But it does NOTHING for the space.  It adds zero personality. So, I started with the beautiful window my mom brought me back from New Mexico, then the big vintage frame with the blue around the edge, and I filled in the space from there.  I didn't buy anything for the redo - it's all stuff I already had. 

The ornament is a mercury glass ornament I made using this technique.  I tried hard to perfect the technique so I could write a tutorial, but it just. wouldn't. work.   The scrolly thing under the framed ornament is from a lamp I picked up off the side of the road.  The lamp was useless - totally falling apart, but I salvaged this piece off it and thought it would be cool somewhere, someday.  I guess today was the day.

It's been pretty rainy here today, so I will get better photos once it's not as dark outside.

I think I'm going to do some holiday subway art to go in there somewhere, but for now it's done.

Do you have a Lizzy in your life?  Someone who roots for you when even you don't feel like rooting for you?