Living Room Refresh (a DIY Kilim / Aztec Rug and an abstract Cow Painting)

In case anyone happened to be wondering....I'm still alive over here!

Wrapped up in the crazy, hectic, out-of-control whirlwind that is life with 3 small boys. 

I can hardly believe that my baby boy is 6 months old this week! How on earth did that happen, and where did the past half year go?? 

I've been dealing with some postpartum anxiety (not fun), and so have been trying to force myself to take it as easy as possible. It's so easy to over-schedule and over fill our days, and I just can't do that....so we've been having a pretty low-key summer filled with short bike rides, local parks, and lots of backyard play time :). Suits this mama just fine! 

The only problem with spending a lot of time at home is that I tend to see so many projects that could be done, and things that I'd like to change.  So...without overdoing it, I decided to do a little "refresh" of our living and dining room. 

Nothing crazy. One little painted rug and a few new cushions. Oh...and 4 new chairs. And a new rustic light pine table top (but that doesn't count, because my awesome husband whipped that one up for me one evening) ;)

I just felt like our home needed a little extra punch. Something out of my usual comfort zone. So...I went a little crazy and painted an IKEA Erslev rug in a crazy black/white/pink aztec/kilim-inspired pattern.  

I got this cute cow painting at Home Sense, and fell in love with her :) My sister in law had spotted her and knew that she was right up my alley!

I couldn't resist a couple of new, very reasonably priced, IKEA cushions as well. I like the contrast they add to the room.

Also loving these new chairs :)

Look at those eyelashes! How can you not love her ? :)

I purposefully made the rug a little bit imperfect.....ok...maybe I just really didn't want to take the time to measure it all out, so I "winged" it ;) 

I love how the table top turned out! We were going to invest in a Restoration Hardware Flatiron table...but then decided that, with 3 little boys colouring/glitter-glueing, etc. all over it, we didn't want to have to worry about it. This table top cost a total of $25. Perfect.  We had planned to distress it/age it, but I fell in love with the light pine Scandinavian look, and we've decided to just put a clear wax sealer on it and leave it as is (the actual colour is not as honey-toned as it appears in the pictures...it's much lighter in real life). The bottom of the table is the base of our old IKEA glass-top table.

To make the rug, I used regular latex paint, but added a fabric medium to it (bought at Michael's crafts). I just taped off a random pattern, and then painted it quite roughly with a regular big brush. No mystery to it. The taping took the longest...approx an hour (after the boys were in bed one evening).

 It's amazing what a few small changes/updates around the house can do for your well-being :) I'm enjoying spending time in our living room again, and it's all thanks to a new rug and a big cow.