10 Minute Makeover... with a Virtual Twist!

I am always encouraged by The Nester at Nesting Place! I love her ideas, her soothing, classy style, and the way she breaks down decorating to simple steps. In fact, her great "how to" posts inspired me to start my own blog (not that I compare myself to her in any way!)! Recently, she did a series called "10 minutes to a room you'll love" which gave great ideas for quickly making over a room like the family room, master bedroom, bathroom, or kitchen. Today, she invited readers to share a link to show off their own makeover, so this is my contribution to the "linky party"!

I decided to make over our entry area. And, because I can never do just one thing at a time... you know, one project overlaps into another... and then several spots are torn apart at once... I actually ended up getting the entry 90% done, made some changes to the family room, and got my office area (actually the formal living room) about 60% done! I will show off the entry today. I am also going to show you something really fun I did to make sure I would like the changes before I actually moved furniture!!!

Entry Makeover

Here is the before... not very soothing or welcoming. In fact, I think it is a pretty chaotic way to greet ourselves and our guests when we come in the front door. And, it was unfinished, never pulled together since we moved in this past September. The area is actually quite large, so it was a big, empty space, other than the disheveled shelves.

I moved out the bookshelves and replaced them with this gorgeous antique trunk. Now, this is a tailor's trunk that is meant to stand upright. I decided to turn it on its side. This photo makes it look kind of small, but it is really a very substantial piece! The plant was a gift from a friend. She brought it over at Christmas because it was taking over their house. It certainly doesn't take over this large space!


The trunk and the plant sit opposite the front door. That is where the bookshelves used to be. See how they were the first thing you would see as you walked in? See how much room there is? I think the trunk and plant are much more restful and welcoming. See the curtain in the background? It is actually a mistreatment, another idea from The Nester! This divides the entrance to my office area from the entry... I will show that off when it is done, in another post!

Here is a view from the "office" area into the entry. Another good friend gave me this great table -- here used as a storage bench. Several years ago, my mother made this wall quilt for me, for the entry of another house. I hung it before the bench came, so now I think I need to bring it down 18" or more. I was worried about the kids touching it, but it is way too high right now!

This was an easy makeover, using stuff I had. I love the results! I think it is peaceful and welcoming.

So where did the bookshelves go?

Virtual Makeover... No heavy lifting required!

I decided I wanted to move the bookshelves into the family room. But if you look closely, they really aren't in the room yet, at least not in this picture. Both bookshelves are actually the same shelf, copied and placed into my family room photo! This is my Virtual Makeover.

Here is the family room before:

I wanted to move the bookshelves, but it was a daunting task... unloading all the books, moving the shelves, reloading. And then what if I didn't like the results? I didn't want to be moving them again! So I decided I would do a Virtual Makeover first, using my StoryBook Creator software! This software is for making scrapbook pages, and other fun projects, but I had an inspiration that I could use it a very unique way!

I measured and I knew the shelves would fit beside my chairs in the family room. But I wanted to see if I would like the bookshelves in the family room. First, I took a photo of the family room. Then, attempting to use the same angle of viewing, I took a picture of the bookshelves.

I opened up StoryBook Creator and brought both photos in. Then, I used the Custom Cutting Tool to cut around and isolate one of the bookshelves. Step 1: Select the photo, then choose a cutting tool from the Tools menu.

Step 2 was to click each corner point in order to outline the shape of the bookshelf. The bookshelf is an easy shape to select since it is all straight lines. It only takes six or so clicks. This tool will also work on curved edges... you just need to enlarge the view and click smaller segments at a time. See the shading over the shelf image?

Step 3 is to use the little pop-up menu for the Custom Cutout tool to first "Invert the shaded area." This leaves the bookshelf alone, and reverses the selection to everything else. Next, I clicked on the "Cut around the shaded area" which deleted the background.

Now all I have is the bookshelf! I copied it so I would have two. Then I brought in the photo of the family room and placed the bookshelves on top. I resized each of them to make them fit into the room. And then I used the cutting tool again to cut away the parts of the bookshelf that covered up the furniture in the family room photo. Here is how it looked with the family room photo taken away...
Here is the final result. I really only played with it on the computer for about 1o minutes. I was really tickled with myself that I could "see" the room without moving furniture! And even better, my husband came home while I was playing. I was able to get his stamp of approval for the change! I moved the bookshelves the next day. Below is the virtual makeover... I will show off the family room, as it is now, another day.

p.s. The tutorial images were also made with StoryBook Creator Plus! Isn't it fun??!