February 2015 Before and After!

Hey hey!! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! We were so busy I didn’t have much project time but I did make some progress on a big one I hope to share with you tomorrow. And I’m starting on the kitchen island this week – I can’t wait!!

It’s time for the February before and after link up – and as always I’m sharing a few of my favorite projects from last month. Seriously, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again -- blogs are the best thing ever! So many talented people and so much inspiration out there.

April shared her post-holiday home and it is just so pretty:

So soothing and I love the neutral colors this time of year. You need to go check it out!

Jennifer turned an awkward storage closet into a multi-purpose room:

It’s a mud room, a storage room, a pantry – and it looks so good! Beadboard makes just about any space feel fresh and clean.

I LOVED this project Heather shared – she used a bunch of “leftovers” to redo her bathroom:

I love that she used extra paint and rummaged around the house to decorate a room she wasn’t happy with. It turned out so well!

Ronda hit it out of the park again – you won’t believe how this dresser started:

Those aren’t mirrors by the way – you have to visit her site to see what she used. Brilliant!

Angela shared her incredibly easy baby gate project that is WAY cuter than the ones we used to have:

And actually this one is probably less expensive than one from the store too!

I love love love the “runner” Suzanne painted on her steps:

It looks so crisp and no carpet to clean! ;)

And to round this one up I had to share one of Sarah’s cute spaces:

I love her style and her review comparing her home then and now really showcases her talent!

OK, it’s time to see what you’ve been up to lately! If you’d like to be considered for next month’s round up, add this button to your post or just a link to TDC:

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Here you go! Please your own personal projects only!

An InLinkz Link-up

January before and after link up!

Hello there from icy Indiana! I was thinking school days would get back to normal this week, but not quite yet. :) How is your weather?

I totally and completely spaced it on the before and after party last Monday. Duh. Didn’t even realize it till days later so we’re just going ahead with it today, OK? There were SO many great projects linked up last month, yet again I had a hard time picking just a few to share with you today.

I absolutely LOVE Heather’s laundry room makeover:

The changes were simple and inexpensive and they make a huge difference! Those chunky wood shelves are my favorite. I’ve been planning to build shelves between our cabinets in the laundry room as well and now I’m leaning toward stained instead of painted.

This bedroom makeover by Pam is absolutely stunning:

Just gorgeous, right? And the bed is in front of the windows – don’t be afraid to try that out if you have an awkward space!

It’s January and we’ve got organizing on the mind so I had to share Ronda’s DIY closet storage:

It’s so simple – I need to add some additional shoe storage in our closet as well and this is great inspiration. I like how you can make it custom to your shoes too.

I loved Denise’s solution to the box of fluorescent lights that used to hang in her kitchen:

It looks so good! So much easier than tearing down the remaining ceiling or filling in that spot. Love it!

Haeley shared their new man cave space and I love that dark gray:

It’s a tiny room but they made the space work really well. And what more does one need in a man cave but a comfy chair and a TV? That’s all I’d need! And wine. (But they have that too.)

I loved Jennifer’s post because I love seeing how products like this work. She painted her appliances with a special paint to make them look stainless:

I have to say I’m really impressed!! We thought mixing black and stainless would be “cool” when we built years ago – now I just find it “annoying.” This stuff looks pretty amazing and I may have to try it out on our trash compactor.

OK, Julie’s bathroom is gorgeous as it is, but her DIY roman shade took it to a whole new level:

I LOVE this because a roman shade like this would cost so much money to have someone else do it! It looks fantastic!

Wow, told you – great projects!! Can’t see to see your recent projects to kick off 2015!

If you’d like to be considered for next month’s roundup, please add a link to TDC in your post or add this code:

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Now let’s see what you’ve been up to recently:

An InLinkz Link-up

Biggest changes in 2014!

Hello there my friends! I hope your holiday was wonderful!! Ours was fantastic and we’re totally enjoying the entire break so far. I read one book cover to cover in one day, we’ve seen Night at the Museum 3 (loved it) and hope to see Into the Woods tonight. I’ve done equal parts sitting on my butt and cleaning/decrapifying/organizing as well. :)

Since we are nearly the end of 2014 I like to look back at the biggest projects I completed throughout the year. If you haven’t noticed before and after pictures are pretty much my favorite thing ever, so I’m including pics of how they looked at the start of the year as well as the final result (which is often not the end result cause everything takes me forever).

First up, the mud room. Ohhhh yes. The mud room! When we had the basement finished a few years ago we moved our laundry down there and it’s seriously one of the best things we’ve ever done. We lived with it as it was for quite a while and then at the beginning of this year I got started. This is how it looked to start:

What’s funny is I was so tired of the bright yellow I had in there for years I felt like the blank white looked a ton better:

I love that you can see where I painted around the washer and dryer way back when. At least I used tape to get a straight line!

So anyway, I got busy installing the rest of the beadboard and painting it, building a bench (out of kitchen cabinets), DIYing a cushion out of a rug and then adding the sconces:

Um…we LOVE it. Love love love. Seriously, I’m so happy to have an actual landing zone when we walk in now.

I still have a lot I want to do in here – I’ve been wanting to build the upper storage for a year now and just haven’t gotten to it. The ceiling needs to be patched and painted (due to some water issues) and I will add crown molding too:

I changed out the overhead light in the space recently and still need to show you that too (it created some new holes in the ceiling as well).

Funny thing, seeing our big cat in these photos – this bench is his absolute favorite spot in the house. The furnace is in here so I think it’s probably the toastiest room:

On a side note – if you’ve ever wanted to spray paint your door knobs be sure to check out my experience with it in this room here.

We didn’t do much in the basement this year (although I still have some fun plans in mind) but I did make some progress on the little kitchenette down there. This is how we started at the beginning of the year:

I installed the (super cheap!) countertops and painted the cabinets. Then I added a little bling to that wall with a stencil I found at Hobby Lobby:

We’ve since installed the sink down there and I’ve had the shelves to hang for probably six months. Hoping to get those up over break.

I also shared the details of how we had our basement finished for (what I think) a great price:

Basically we used small business contractors, spread it out over time and I did the finish work myself. But I share all of the costs and break down in that post.

Our master bedroom got some updates as well. I’ve been working on this room for over a year now and may finish it next year…we’ll see. ;)

I couldn’t decide if I wanted our room to be bright and light or dark and comfy…so I went halfway. I started painting the room the lighter color I picked out:

And then decided I was craving some drama. So I added it in the form of some trim and a dark gray color called Peppercorn:

I also beefed up the baseboards (without taking off the old ones!), added craftsman trim around the doors, and changed out the light (from the old dining room). It is becoming a truly beautiful space and we love it!!

(To see how I made the tufted headboard for less than $100, go here.)

I worked my tail off on one of the biggest transformations in our house this year that no one sees but us – our master closet. It’s big and we weren’t using it well. This before photo was the closet on a really, really good day:

I mean…really. This was nothing compared to the usual mess.

I purged big time, installed more kitchen cabinets (yes, I have a problem. Yes, they work and they are cheap!) and then painted everything in purple tones – my one girly room the house! :)

It kind of changed our lives:

You can see more of the final reveal here. A functional, clean closet it highly underrated. I still have more plans for the space but so far it’s working SO MUCH better than what we had before.

And finally, the spaces I got some help on. We had dreamed and planned to potentially add on to the back of our home – our family room and kitchen were open to each other but very tight and awkward due to the layout of the fireplace and windows.

We had saved up a chunk of change do a renovation but we realized pretty quickly it wasn’t going to happen. Getting contractors to respond was impossibly hard (only a few even responded) and the costs we were getting from those who did respond were astronomical.

Along the way a reader put an idea in my head and we went with it. Here’s an old photo of the wall that we took down:

Believe it or not this after photo is only taken a couple feet behind where the one above was taken:

We knocked down the wall between my office and the family room and reconfigured the fireplace. We gained 100 square feet in doing so:

The biggest part of the room is the new fireplace placement and built ins. They looked like this to start:

That white chunk of wall is where the old corner fireplace was. So happy that is gone!!

After I trimmed it out and painted, added some new doors to the cabinets (so we could hide the electronics in there), tiled the surround and then planked the wall above, it turned out like this:

That’s the Christmas version. ;)

Here’s another view of the room before (a more recent one):

And now from the same general area: The changes made a bigger impact to the kitchen than we anticipated too, so we went ahead with our second phase sooner than planned. Here’s the view into the family room before:        

And here it is now (as a kitchen!) with the new doors:

Those doors? Easily top five best things we’ve done in the almost 11 years here. They are amazing and completely changed how we function in these rooms. Absolutely love:

You can see the entire renovation process (over five months) here.

It’s been a GREAT year! I am so happy with the changes we’ve made and so thankful we were able to make them!

Onto 2015…I’ll share my plans for that next! Did you do anything fun to your house this year? We did a lot but it’s kind of my job. ;) And it’s my passion – I love it!! 

December Before and After

Hey there! Can you believe this is the last one of the year? Crazytown. I’m hosting this month’s before and after party today instead of earlier this week because of the Christmas decor I was itching to show you. ;)

As always I love to look through the fabulous projects that were linked up (check out last month’s here) and highlight a few. And as always you did not disappoint!

I’m sharing Tamara’s room because it’s super cute and because she shares how to make your own plantation shutters!:

WHAT. Yes, she made them. I’m totally impressed, it looks so good!

You know I have to share a kitchen makeover each month and Erin’s is beautiful:

I’m telling you – it does not take a lot of money to make a huge change to a space. Just time and patience. Which sometimes are harder to come by than money. ;)

I’m dying to start our kitchen!

I believe a coat of white can update just about anything and Tyler’s fireplace and built ins are a great example of that:

That mirror is fantastic too!

I love white kitchens and white built ins but I was just saying last night (to myself) how much I love deep rich colors too. I crave contrast – like Colleen’s dining room:

She used a deep navy blue and with the white…perfection! I love how wood tones look up against darker colors too – grays and blues especially. Beautiful!

Of course I can’t leave out a good DIY – Angela shared how to get that popcorn texture off your ceilings:

AND she shares how they finished it off after they were done. Again, not an expensive job, but it takes some patience.

Tori used a pricey bone inlay dresser as her inspiration and did the look on her own for a fraction of the price:

I think that is stunning! She shares the how to here.

And finally…this is brilliant. Brilliant I tell you! And one of those I put away in the “duh, why didn’t I think of that” category. Tasha shares how she made her own art for cheap and got that canvas texture on it as well:

I’ve been putting off a similar project because I was trying to figure out how to get the canvas look when I was done. AWESOME.

Love them all! If you’d like to be considered for a highlight next month, please include a link to TDC or this button in your post:

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Now it’s time to share what you’ve been up to!

An InLinkz Link-up

The new back door

Happy Thursday friends, one of my favorite days of the week! I’m SO happy to share this final addition to our renovation with you today! It’s not done, so bear with me because there’s a lot left to do. But I’m excited about how it’s looking and that we’re done with this reno!

So if you’re new here – this past summer we took a wall down between my office and our family room to give us more space. You can see the completed space here. :) What we didn’t realize till we knocked down the wall was how much this was going to completely transform our kitchen as well.

So part of the plan was to tweak the bay window area a bit, where our back door used to be:

It’s now all windows and ready for me to build the window seat. Yum.

We decided to move the back door over to where the double windows in the room are:

It just made more sense overall – that window just felt like the logical spot for the door when everything shifted.

Here’s an idea of how where that window was in the old space:

(OH my goodness, look how little my baby was there!!)

The sectional sat up against it, which I didn’t mind too much but try to avoid if I can.

So here’s the thing – we ordered the windows for the bay area and the new door at the same time from Lowe’s. The windows were coming in in a couple weeks. The door was going to take 28 days. I never expected either one of them to come in on time, just because I’m no spring chicken. ;)

Well the windows came in on time but they never called to tell us, so on the fourth week I stopped by to check on the status of things. They told me the door was scheduled to be delivered that week, exactly on time. Whoot! I was so excited, so we picked up the windows and went ahead and had those installed.

Before they replaced our back door with the third window I called Lowe’s again – and they told me that the door would be in that day. So I had the guys go ahead, knowing it would only be a day or two before the new door went in.

We never got a call so I called again later and they told me again in was in…but it wasn’t. ;) It was delayed a little over a week, which was annoying but fine, not a biggie, #firstworldproblems. But a week turned into two, three…four. :) Finally this week it came in.

It took the guys just over half a day to get it in and when I walked into the room I LOVED it!:

It was worth the wait. :) It is exactly how I envisioned it – it makes total sense in that spot. Only one side of the door opens – the other is stationary. I just felt like this way would be more secure. I had dreams of having two doors opened up to the deck and having the warm breeze waft in…and then I woke up and realized we have four animals that we’d never see again. Ha!

You can see in that pic how much work I have left to do – they are framing out the door today in my Craftsman style trim and then I’ll paint. I also have to finish that wall to the right with the base and board and batten that goes throughout the rest of the room.

That speaker isn’t being used anymore so I need to patch that drywall as well. I think it’s going to look so beautiful when it’s all done! I can’t wait!

Our main floor windows are super tall, 72 inches. Because of that we had a big space to fill – instead of having them fill in the area above the door with drywall I had it made with a transom. It adds a nice detail:

Here’s how this area looked a few weeks ago:

And here it is now:

Sorry about light – I had to take the pics in morning (bright) light before the guys got here to work.

Although I think my favorite before and after is this one from a couple years ago:

It still is crazy to me how far our family room used to sit in what is now kitchen space for us:

Goodness, I’m so excited to finish this up and make it look pretty and I’m so excited that after today there will be no one working in our house for a very long time. Well, other than me. ;)

I have big plans for the outside as well:

The siding will go back up today when it warms up a bit. I want to build some kind of decorative cover over the door since the door opens out instead of in. I knew it would take up valuable floor space to have it open in. We didn’t have any coverage over the old door and it was fine but I think it would be nice. I don’t want to block the sun though, that’s the only thing.

I see this spot with big beautiful planters on either side next summer too. Can’t wait! We are also having a new porch light installed to the left of the doors. So overall we’ve added two additional lights to the back of the house and more light is always nice.

Of COURSE I plan on painting the doors black on the inside. ;) All of our interior doors (at least on the main floor) are and I know it will look stunning. The only problem is the panes on the transom are inside the window – but I think I have a solution for that. Stay tuned. :)

I can’t wait to get this finished up and start on the rest of the kitchen next year! Whoo!! Oh, and by the way, the windows were ordered were Pella and they came in right on time. This door is Jeld-Wen and I’m not thrilled so far. Not only because of the delay (it was an issue on their end, not Lowe’s). It’s a good solid door but they really cut corners on things like the trim. You can kind of tell in the pic above that the exterior trim is a mess – it’s all getting redone. Thankfully Lowe’s covered the cost of all the new trim.

At least we didn’t have a big hole in the house! Living without a back door for a month wasn’t a big deal. Have you ever had a reno mishap that you didn’t plan for? I knew this whole thing went way too well. ;)