Advice

Since the the holiday decorations are finally gone (remember, my house was decorated for 3 months straight - Halloween->Fall Harvest->Christmas), I'm really itching to "style" a few lonely spaces in the main living area.

1.  I managed to get the hall table decorated, on a serious budget, with a little help from Instagram friends.  I used a $10 decanter from HomeGoods, $3 "rustic" branches from Lady Tess, a West Elm vase that was tucked away in an unused bathroom, and a live boxwood ball from Abide Awhile (impossible to kill, you just spray it 2x/yr.

Before

After

2.  I've always been bothered by the empty space behind this table and chaise lounge chair.  I was thinking maybe a simple mirror? Or, I can find something with a lot of height and color to put on the table to fill in the space.   I can't do artwork because there's a huge photograph on the fireplace that I don't want to compete with.  The mirror image of this space is the huge wall-mounted TV and play area underneath (yes, we're those people).  Thoughts?

3.  Finally, there's a bare spot on our staircase that makes me batty.  Our walls are white, so the fingerprints on the staircase make me see red.  I think a huge mirror on the bare wall would detract from  them.

I like this one from Restoration Hardware.  It's on sale!  

The scuff marks on the white treads make me teary-eyed.

I love these tiled staircases from Pinterest.  I would go with a very neutral, tonal color scheme.

So help a girl out and tell me what you think?

p.s. My advice to you is that you make the recipe coming to the blog tomorrow!