Easy peasy coffee table styling

Coffee tables are great design elements. They're functional and versatile. If you want to change your decor, re-style your coffee table. If you want to decorate for a holiday, re-style your coffee table. It's like a blank slate, really.

This is my improved coffee table. We've had it for years---came from my husband's family. It didn't always look so good.

Below is how it looked just some days ago. It was large, heavy, and the black did nothing to brighten a room at all. But the glass was nice, and I did like that it was made of metal (I don't have a lot of metal in my house).

You sad old thing.

It would look better with a metallic finish. I chose bronze.

I spent a grand total of 389 pesos for that new look. Am I pleased with myself? You bet.

Quarterette tip: that pot for the plant was bought at a department store as a food receptacle when I was newly married. It turned out to be too heavy. It works nicely as a pot, and much cheaper too.

Home is for watching FIBA qualifying matches.

Have I mentioned that I wanted to decorate with the purpose of making my house more homey to family and friends? If I didn't, well now there it is.

Here's a photo from the recent FIBA qualifying match between the Philippines and France. Although we lost to the stronger team, I'm happy enough to see our guests enjoying TV time at our house.

Cool finds at home.

Now that I'm starting to decorate, I thought I would take inventory of all the stuff I have at home that I could use. Turns out I have quite a few interesting things, many of them hiding in closets or underneath clutter. Many of these things I got from my mother's house---my favorite place to "shop"---so thank you, Mums!

A typewriter that my daughter can keep her hands off

A replica of our Volkswagen Beetle. (Almost. Ours is a 1968.)

A iron fairy from my dear friend Trina

A vintage gas lamp in pristine condition

A clay bowl by Ugu Bigyan that is color of the sea

A graceful glass carafe from back when they were in fashion

This mug shot of a couple

Another carafe bought at a flea market in Germany

I have nothing against buying decor only for the stake of styling, but nothing beats stuff with history. I can tell you a little something about all of these things I posted. They're just stuff, but they all mean something to me. I really hope I can keep styling with things that have a story, but I'm not going to say never to buying just because I'm decorating. Maybe the story will come after.

Do you have some unexpected finds at home that you have used to decorate? I'd love to see them!

Introducing our daybed (aka bird designs are love)

The papaya is taking over the side entrance

Rainy days used to be good for only one thing (sleeping), but now another thing is on my personal list: vegetation! Our vegetable garden is loving the weather. Fresh organic produce is on the way!

Tada! Calabaza!

A house with plants is a wonderful thing. They breathe life into a home, much like children, except they are quiet and complacent. You know how some people are dog people or cat people? I think I'm a plant person.

I read somewhere that when styling, start with the fabric. The moment I saw this fabric (at Fabric Warehouse) with the birds and the flowers, it just called to me. I've always liked birds, how colorful and graceful they are. They're one of my favorite styling elements.

So I used this fabric to anchor my lanai style. Our daybed used to be all white, clean and easy. But I eventually grew tired of it.

Let me not distract you with our faces.

Try to imagine it without the baby fat.

Here's a tip: if you grow tired of your space and you want to refresh it, the first thing you should do is look at the layout of your furniture. If that doesn't scratch the itch, change your fabric! Sometimes that is all you need to fill the house with excitement.

It's alive!

Also, I highly recommend daybeds. It's a couch and a bed. It's relaxing in two different ways.

If I may be so bland.

So now here's the part where I make other homemakers like me feel good about themselves. Or feel bad about themselves, depending on the situation. I have managed to keep my hallways at least clean, albeit a little cluttered. How a room manages to be cluttered and bare at the same time I have no idea.

I'll go out on a limb here and say my house doesn't look too bad. It's just bare, and brown. Turns out it's not so easy filling up your space with things that you like. I mean, I can fill it up with random stuff that don't mean jack to us, but what's the fun in that? Isn't authentic the catchphrase du jour, together with artisanal and curated?

This open area functions as our living room/dining room. Not to state the obvious, but even indoors there's too much brown!

This is where I reach an impasse. See, I really like the weight and composition of wood, but I've had it up to my neck with brown. How can I win this fight? But you know, I've learned how to forge ahead despite decorating dilemmas. If there's a Home Depot and fabric store nearby, there's a way.

That TV shelf I had only recently installed. It used to be a large, wide, empty wall with only a television mounted on it. Everything else was empty, blinding space. Very Arctic.

This is how we use our comfy couch, which should explain the rumpled cushions. Say hi to the babies who drive me cray!

In the middle of the street...

Our house, of course! Welcome, welcome!

I've lived here with my family since 2009. We've been doing all right, in the sense that everything is in working order (more or less). Lately though I've been thinking that it's high time I started decorating. I'm talking about adding more life, more depth, more character to our living conditions. You mean to tell me there are more colors in the world apart from brown, green, and white? Get outta town!

The same theme permeates inside the gates. (Umm, theme?) I have to admit, I do not hate this. The Zennist in me likes how our front yard resembles a park. I'm only a tad upset because most parks have more personality than this snoreyard---I mean dooryard.

Aside from the thirst for---I don't know---anything that doesn't remind me of agriculture, another major reason I'm going through this whole process of decorating (aside from loving it) is because I want to put together a house that my family would look forward to coming home to. We all like the house now, but there's always room for more love.

Because that's it, right? One clever way to keep your kids off the streets is to give them a home that they actually want to live in. They have to be comfortable and happy in their own space. And if I can get my friends to be happy in our house too, that will be a bonus.

The Sturdy Dining Table (Part 1)

When we bought this table in Tagaytay back when we were newly married, I had envisioned it outside, like a picnic table of sorts. I thought the set was rad with its recycled wood and heavy legs. I didn't know about wood then as I know now, so now I'm more inclined to notice the defects. But let me say in my defends that defects notwithstanding, this is an upstanding dining set that I have no doubt will last years in my family.

A table like this cannot be broken! But it can use refinishing. At this angle, it looks like we're better off eating on the floor.

Now to buy a ream of sandpaper and clean this pretty up this baby!

The Filing Chest

I love reclaimed wood, but let me warn you, beware of wood that has been painted over. I'll tell you why.

We needed a filing cabinet at home, but I wasn't ready to let in a hulking metal container in the house. So I got this nice and plain wooden chest.

I thought I'd clean it up, find it a nice spot in the house, and that would be my secret filing cabinet. But this piece of furniture hid a few secrets.

I stripped the wood and found that it had stains. The water stains I can stand. It's the ink that really annoyed me. Plus.

A chunk of wood had been chipped of and the gap was filled with what looked like cement. Classy.

The part where the hinges were placed were also rotten.

Point of the story: be careful when purchasing painted furniture. But even if the wood is not pristine, there's no reason for you to discard it.

Save your furniture, save the world.