Celebrate

How we do birthdays...

Next Up

This living room is difficult to situate because I want to keep the table for game playing, computer work, and extra seating for when we need to expand the dining area with guests. 

The room is also long and narrow so it's a little too cozy with all the furnishings right now. Still, I think I'm going to leave the furniture and work on something over the shades on the windows and maybe do something fun paint-wise with the table. I probably also need to get some things up on the walls and update the lighting.

Update

We've been living with this for a while now but I'm finally getting around to posting an update. It still needs more lighting and I need to tackle my nemesis: accessorizing. I am using the color raspberry as an accent but I can't figure out where to add it. 

Momentum

With the recent purchases, I feel like I am nearing the finish line and it's motivating. Here are the chairs we purchased from Overstock with the chairs I would like to get from World Market if they're still available. We did make the purchase of the beaded chandelier from Zulily. It hasn't come yet and I'm having some remorse because this one from West Elm is on sale for just a bit more and I love it as much, if not just a tiny bit more. 

I'd like to do some DIY art on the wall so I'm looking into some ideas and deciding if I want to keep it light, dark for contrast, or go metallic. Ugh, this is such a good exercise to let me know I am not a designer. I love seeing it more completed but I really don't enjoy the process. Making decisions and purchases stresses me out!

One Year Later

Seriously. A year. And it still isn't even finished. [Shrugging shoulders] There's been other stuff.

We got the sideboard and cabinet from Ikea [Besta], the table from West Elm [Boerum], and the rug from RugsUSA. We're waiting on chairs that have been ordered. I still need to figure out lighting and accessories. Then it will be done. I'm so not the type to continually change things up. So keep a look out for all that happening in January 2015. Here's a look at the most recent changes. You can see where we started here and progress here and here.

Growth Chart

I have had this pinned from Thistlewood Farm for such a long time knowing my kids would love tracking their growth. I finally got around to completing it and it's already doing its job. I like the idea  of using this medium since we'll be able to take it with us wherever we live. 

The main, well...only, difference is that I used wooden numbers [instead of marquee tiles] from Hobby Lobby and painted them black.

Market to Marvelous

I saw a link to this tutorial on how to turn the flowers you buy from the market into beautiful arrangements on The Nester's blog [I think]. You can find the how-to at The House of Earnest site here. It really works!

My husband brought these home one evening "just because." Love that man. Here they are straight out of the package:

Not too bad, but after reading the instructions I was able to come up with this:

And then with the lilies blooming:

Dressing Up the Porch

My friend gave me this great idea to use the storage ottoman/tables we had in our house as planters when the lids had seen better days. I'd been wanting boxwoods but didn't want to spend as much for some of the bigger ones. We ended up going to a great local nursery and getting two reasonably sized and priced plants. I got the Amish barn star at Gordman's on the tip from a friend. 

We also dressed up the front porch with some more planters - I'm especially liking the blackie potato vine and coleus - and now things are looking better. I love small improvements that make a big difference.

A Little Oomph for the Peninsula

I've had this project in mind for a while and talked about it back here. The peninsula was just looking a little too plain jane.

We finally got around to doing something about it and here's what we've got so far:

Better, eh? We got inspiration from blogs, but really winged the installation. We got the beaded board sheet and trim and just did our best putting it all together. I still need to spackle, caulk, and paint but it's a definite improvement and makes me smile when I see it.

Hooking Up ... or ... Updating the Upstairs Bath with Board and Batten Made Easy

This upstairs bath was in need of an upgrade.

You can see the hook system for towels we had going on. Then right before we had house guests, one of the hooks was fortuitously broken.

Fortuitous because it made us get our act together and install this board and batten with new hooks. We pretty much used the tutorial from decorchick exactly even though we read up and got tips from other blogs.

We extended the treatment and hooks the whole length of the wall, even behind the door. That gave us seven hooks and a whole lot of room for towel, swimsuit, robe storage. I really love it.

The one thing to keep in mind if you go this route is that the trim that makes up the horizontal top piece, only allows for a specific size of hook. These were the only ones I could find at Home Depot to fit after looking at Lowe's and Hobby Lobby. I'm sure there are a lot more options online but with guests coming, I wanted something immediately.

Sidelight Window and Front Door Privacy

This was one of those should-have-done-it-a-long-time-ago projects. Our front door has two glass panels that are leaded, stained, beveled, and etched. Even with all that, they don't provide as much privacy as you'd think. You can see a little from far away and a lot up close. So this short DIY went a long way to making the front of our home feel more private. 

I got the detailed instructions from House of Hepworth's blog. I followed her tutorial exactly except maybe a smidge less window cleaner sprayed on everything. Here's the before panel on the left and the after panel on the right:

I also did the big sidelight window to the left and tested how it looks from the outside. From outside, you can see if someone walks right past the door/window but you can only see blurry movement and maybe the person's shirt color. You can see best if a person comes right up to the window, like presses their nose up to the glass. Then you can definitely see who it is, but it's hazy. The best part is that if you get up close from the outside, you can't see inside the house even at night. 

The problem I'm having now is though I like the function, I don't like the look of the sidelight. In this picture, it looks decent.

But this is what it looks like in real life. It's got those creepy streaks and just looks a bit cheap. I'm toying with the idea of leaving it up but covering it with bamboo shades or the fabric I finally use for the valances over the front windows. We'll see. I definitely love it for the door panels so those will be staying.

Whatever we decide, it was no problem to try this out. The whole project only took an hour or two and cost $2.50! 

Entryway

Here's another project I've got on my to-do list: take down the vinyl blinds from the sidelight window and cover it and the door's glass with contact paper. I looked at the Wallpaper for Windows site and also looked for similar products online, but Allison at the House of Hepworth's finally convinced me I could do it with contact paper. So I'm going to give it a shot and see how it looks.

Indoor Green

I got some roses from my husband "just because."

The amaryllis finally bloomed and it's got five flowers open now. It's nice to have a little life and color in our home.

What I'm Working On Now

Ever since the new counters were put in, I keep looking at the kitchen from this view and thinking the cabinet of the peninsula needs some help. It just doesn't look substantial enough for the chunky-looking granite.

I'm thinking bead board and maybe some type of additional molding. 

source

source

source

I also think maybe I could just do frame molding like this:

source

Hemnes Shoe Cabinet Review

We've been using this shoe cupboard/bin for about half a year. It's made me more sane, I tell you. I thought it was very easy to assemble, it attaches well to the wall and it's sturdy. At first the doors would stick a bit but after some use, they've loosened up. It's so slender and barely protrudes from the wall, but it holds around 15-20 pairs of small kids' shoes. I like that it's on legs as well, so I can vacuum underneath. It's been a great purchase.

Stair Molding

We took the same molding idea from the dining room and continued it to the stair wall. I don't have a decent before picture but we are really liking this little change.

Getting the angles cut on that triangle piece was a challenge. The same guy who did our crown molding ended up helping us with it. Even with his expertise, it was definitely not spot on.  It was close enough though and a bit of caulking covers the rest. I love our carpet choice even more with the new paint color on the walls.

Closet to Office to Updated Command Center

The previous owners of our home carved out this little nook from the former [pantry?] in the kitchen to be used as an office area. Here's what it looked like most recently. Messy cords, too much on the desk, and all that great wall space unused. So we decided to change all that and got back $.83 to boot.

First, we cleared it all out.

Then it was time for a taping party while still trying to decide the stripe colors.

We went with light colors again and hemmed and hawed about it but we think now it was the right decision. It coincides with our goal to lighten up our home. 

Here's everything added back in. We brought everything we needed into this area - the calendar from another wall where we write out our whole family's schedule and all the items that had been hanging on the fridge. We also cleared out things that didn't belong. The mess of cords were corralled and all storage was lifted off the desk.

The $.83? We had the paint and supplies already and we had returns at IKEA and then bought new products to go on the walls that came to almost the same amount...with $.83 back in our pockets to show for it. We got the Kvissle magazine rack, two magnetic boards and a Kludd notice board in the middle. I don't remember the name, but we grabbed 6 plastic cups to hold pens, pencils, markers, and desk miscellany. It is all so functional now and makes for a much nicer view from the kitchen.

Dining Room Update

Well, after watching the crown molding being installed, I think we could have done it. It's up though and so are some curtains.

I chose the Henny Rand from IKEA with it's neutral, light pattern. I think that's the overall goal for this house: to lighten it all up. I don't mind having some contrast for interest, but overall, I really wanted to increase the chance for more light in our home. 

Now it's time to look for a rug and lighting. After that, a new table and chairs and even further down the road - a sideboard or two along with some wall art. 

So here's the before and [so far] after with some subtle but nice-for-us changes:

Just in Time for Santa: A New Entryway

 

The favorite feature of these new fireplace doors (besides the fact that they are no longer brass or have a huge rust spot) is that they open cabinet style and the mesh screen does the same. The old ones had bifold doors and the screen ran on a track that would catch or come off. This will be so much nicer. It already is.

I was going to get these from Lowe's but it takes about three weeks to ship. I needed some other items from Amazon so I figured I would check if they carry the ones we we'd been looking at. Not only did they but they were $40 less plus free shipping and it turned out they came in two days!

It's a small change again, but it's amazing to think we were living with that ugliness for so long. We are loving the new look and function. Bring on that jolly man, we can welcome him in style.

Grapevine to Gingham

I found these metal trays at Goodwill, picked them up, put them back, passed them twice, and finally bought them. They just seemed like they would come in handy.

I primed and painted them a periwinkle blue.

Then I used Mod Podge to line them with some gingham fabric. The nice thing is that they are magnetic so there's the option of using them on a wall. Inspiration hasn't hit me yet with what to do with them, but so far I'm still glad I got them.