Place Mat Pillows

It's been a full week since we've been in the new house!  I'd say about half of the boxes are unpacked, the kid's rooms are about half way done and our room looks like an explosion of everything that hasn't found it's place.  I'm dying to get one room completed!  My first order of business:  Operation Living Room.  Problem:  Our living room is painted yellow.  I'm not talking butter yellow or even lemon yellow.  This is old school marigold mustardy yellow.  The more I stare at those blank yellow walls the more depressed I feel (which should be the opposite of what yellow should make you feel-cheery and happy).  These are the issues I'm having:  

1)  None of my stuff matches this yellow.  Wrong coffee tables, wrong frames, wrong art.
2)  Funky layout of the room.

Here are my solutions:
Repaint the walls!  Nah, that's not a solution.  We only plan on being here about 2 years so I don't want to sink my money into something that I can't take with me!

Solution 1)  Put my stuff on craigslist in hopes of making enough money to buy new stuff (or old things I can jazz up).  Make do with the yellow and work with it, not against.

Solution 2)  Customize special artwork to fit each wacky space.

So for my first order of business-  Pillows for the couch and work around that color scheme.  So, I went to one of my favorite stores, Target.  It was this pillow that caught my eye.

 

Rusty red, forest green and that yellow color.  I can work with this.  I sort of love this pillow too!  The price:  $24.99.  I'm gonna need two of these, the love seat needs a pillow too.  Well I didn't have to think about it twice.  There's no way I'm spending 1/4 of my budget on 2 pillows alone!  I'll have to think of something else.  So here's what I came up with.  It's no Jacobean 100% Feather pillow (which I have to admit, I have gone back and longingly looked at...twice) but I'm happy with my results.  It's easy too, so I couldn't pass up sharing it.  Enjoy!

 Step 1:  Find a cloth place mat with a front and a back

Step 2:  Take a seam ripper and make a hole about the width of your hand (you just need enough room to be able to stuff it).

Step 3:  Kiss your old dilapidated pillows goodbye and reuse the stuffing.

Step 4:  Stuff your new pillow and sew it back up like no body's business.  *I hand stitched mine, the machine would have been a pain*  You can hardly tell the difference.

Step 5:  Sit back and admire your new pillow.  Cost:  $3.99  Congratulations!  You just saved yourself $21.00!  Not to mention no one will ever know that it was a place mat (unless you want to brag about it of course!)

I will update on the completed yellow living room, plus any other make-do/cheap ideas I come up with.