Showing posts with label room makeover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label room makeover. Show all posts

12/23/15

Living room makeover and other miracles!

November was the most amazing month. So many blessings and miracles. I'll start with the living room makeover. I've been getting my courage up for over a year because it was a LOT of painting. I'm talking Living room, dining, kitchen, down the stairs, and hallway. AND 13 DOORS. Even the ceiling was painted! Dax and I painted the ceiling Halloween day. It had to be done, because everything was green. And a total transformation ensued. The catalyst for starting this project was when I sold the big wall art I made back in 2012. A lady was on the search for a big modern piece to hang in her new restaurant/coffee shop she's opening in town and saw my ad just after I listed it. I feel like it was meant to be for both her and me. Once I had a giant blank wall that needed changing, the ball was rolling and there was no stopping it.

Here is before:


3 weeks and 3 days later, just before our Thanksgiving guests arrived, we were just putting the room together and touching up the last of the 13 doors and the trim down the stairs. There are still things to do; a few pictures to hang, a few places to touch up with paint, and a light fixture to build. BUT- I'm so happy with how it all turned out! It looks so different!
AFTER:


There will be more and better pics after the Holidays are over because I don't plan to keep things perfectly tidy while I have memories to make. We hosted Thanksgiving for Dax's family. The Saturday after, my son Mack was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was such a beautiful day. Two of my sisters and their families came plus my dear Mom and Dad. I guess I was due for a Mom visit; everytime I hugged my Mom, I cried.


Life has had its unexpected turns for our family but I can't explain how happy I've been. It makes no sense logically, but I've felt so peaceful and had such joy. I truly understand how the Nephites felt during all their battles and wars when it says in Alma 50:23 "But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi". I've never seen or felt so many blessings in my life. My heart is overflowing with gratitude. I'm not saying stuff is easy, but I know the our Heavenly Father and our Savior have carried us through our trials. It's been amazing and humbling. The answers to my prayers have been innumerable. The feeling of joy and peace in my heart is indescribable.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Every year Christmas means more to me and this year is no exception. My faith in the Savior has grown! He can heal our hearts and help us be more than we are on our own. I love the testimony of President Ezra Taft Benson, "I know that the Lord lives. I know that He loves us. I know that apart from Him no one can succeed, but as a partner with Him no one can fail. I know that God can make a lot more out of our lives that we can."

I know that is true!

Tomorrow my Christmas Baby turns 14! It's been so fun to have her home for Christmas break. My house is bustling and fun and full. I love it! I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

6/15/15

4 space updates: befores and afters! (and a curtain rod made from a tree branch!)

Here are some space updates/redos that I've done in the past few months!

Most recently, I did a mini-makeover on my front porch.  I like sitting on the porch with my husband in the evening, so I wanted it more cozy.
Here's the BEFORE:
blah and boring

Here's the AFTER:
 Everything was re-purposed or thrifted except for the tall grassy plant (Ikea) and the rug (Target).
I made a little cushion for the bench, added a padded footstool, and a little brass stand for Dax to set his drink on.
Come visit and sit on the porch with me!
Someone with a pulse lives here! And now it shows.

Next are my friend Jo's girls' rooms. She hated this bedroom the most and I don't blame her. There was a conglomeration of decor and furniture that puts me on the verge of a panic attack.

BEFORE:
We decided to put Jo's daughter Paige in this room. Paige is a smart, fun, and sassy 11-year-old girl that lives in the country and raises sheep and pigs in the summer. The vibe we chose was Farm Girl Glam.
We used furniture they already had, plus a couple thrifted treasures, and gave it fresh paint. I think it looks completely different!
AFTER:

This is the same view, just before and after...
before
after

So different!
Jo and I dug through her crawl space and found this beautiful quilt her grandma made just stashed in a tote not being used. The antique desk was also her grandma's. We needed a chair for the desk so I called my neighbor who has a chair collecting problem (like me) and asked her if she had an extra metal chair lying around. She gave me this cute yellow one out of her back yard!
The curtains are one of my favorite things in here. I hopped my back fence and grabbed a tree limb out of my neighbor's burn pile and used it for the curtain rod. I used 2 random curtain brackets I had to hold up the branch, and the lace curtains are made from a buttload of lace fabric that I bought at a yard sale. The entire curtain set up was TWO dollars!


I scored some furry cow print fabric and this little side table at the same yard sale where I got the lace. The table was $5 and the cow fabric was a buck.
I made the pillows with the cow print fabric and the pink one I made out of a sweater that was in my donate box.
Jo splurged on the chandelier floor lamp. I found it at my local consignment store and called Jo over to look at it. It was marked at over $100 but we talked the owner lady down to $80. It became Paige's early birthday present. It adds such a fun glam vibe to the room!
I should have turned it on before I took pics!
The room was completely transformed very inexpensively. I love using what you have and making it work. Fun to see it all come together. Paige loves her new room and it shows by how clean she keeps it.

Next door, Paige's little sister Maelee wanted a new room, too!
Here is the before picture:
Jo picked out a pale pinky coral for the walls and we went from there. The room turned out great!

 Jo already had the brass head and footboard (which she took from Paige's room and painted), comforter and all the picture frames. The only things purchased for the room were paint, curtains, and a throw pillow. She got the nightstands and chair at yard sales. The swirly decor above the bed was donated by a friend.

 Maelee loves her pretty, new room!

Jo was on a roll and redid her son's room, too! That girl is a worker! She didn't get a single before pic, but trust me, it was not as cool as it is now.
The inspiration piece for the room was this rad 70s velvet ship painting we found at Deseret Industries for $3. 
 Jo's son Porter LOVES it and he loves his fresh clean room. It's perfect for an awesome jr high boy!
 I love this antique dresser from Porter's great grandma. The metal bed frame is from his other great grandma. The paint Jo used is a muted gray-blue. It looks awesome with the gold in the ship painting and the warm wood of the dresser.
 The thing I love about all these bedroom makeovers is that Jo didn't buy any new bedding, furniture, or decor. We shopped her house and the rest was thrifted.
Her kids all had things that were special to them and we incorporated them in their new rooms. If a teen boy wants to display his animal fur and bottle collection, he should! These aren't show rooms; they are rooms that kids really live in and the style reflects them and their family. Buying nice bedding for a kid is a waste of money. Use the cheapest bedding you can stand because it will get ruined our outdated quickly. We didn't add a lot to the rooms; we mostly took things out that didn't serve a purpose and arranged everything else to best fit the space.

What do you think? Which is your fave makeover?

My next project will be finishing my basement family room and bath, back patio and building a shed! It's gonna be major! CAN'T WAIT.

2/9/15

extreme makeover: bedroom edition

My friend Jo was sick of her dark master bedroom and asked me for some direction. The first thing I told her to do was de-junk. She has a huge walk-in closet, but it was so crammed with stuff that clothes and shoes were trickling out into the bedroom and making unwanted piles of clutter.
Jo's organized closet
After Jolona de-junked, we worked on furniture placement. She had too much furniture on the wall opposite her bed. She also had a treadmill in front of her window.
 She sold the treadmill and we moved things around.

Her bench took its spot at the foot of the bed. Notice the paintings sadly tacked to the wall above Jo's bed. She bought those in the Dominican Republic 3 years ago while visiting her parents on their mission. She had fallen out of love with them and was just sick of the conglomeration of stuff she had going in there. 

 Bottom line: Her room had become a catch-all with no clear theme. The happy vibes of her paintings were lost amongst the other random decor, dark paint, and clutter.

Our mission was clear: we needed to
  • paint!
  • update curtains
  • frame those awesome paintings!
  • reupholster the bench
  • add complementing decor

 We worked/played our guts out for 7 days and transformed the entire room!
I love the new look. It's got island vibes with Latin influence.

We found this cool orange ship painting at Savers and decorated with some of Jo's husband's mission souvenirs from Brazil. If you have a whip in your master bedroom, it totally takes it up a notch!
These woven baskets hung over the archway sing Spanish love songs to me! I found all of them for around a dollar each at DI.
a nod to Latin decor
If you peek through the arched doorway, you can see into Jo's new bathroom.

Before the makeover, Jolona's favorite thing about her bathroom was her laundry shoot cabinet.
My favorite thing was her soaker tub.

So she worked on the wall adjacent to her cabinet...
bathroom accent wall
And I worked on "installing" a wood beam over her tub...
painted faux wood beam

BEFORE: 
 AFTER: 

BEFORE:
 AFTER:
 I think a big fancy tub needs candles! I found these AWESOME solid brass candlesticks at DI for $10.

a few more shots...
 before:
 after:





The whole project took about 7 days (crazy!). We painted and decorated the whole thing for $200. That is so inexpensive when you think about at all the things we used in the makeover:
  • 4 gallons of paint
  • curtains, curtain rod, curtain clips
  • 4 throw pillows
  • upholstery fabric
  • art and decor
  • plants
  • wood glaze
  • pillow cases
  • wood for framing artwork
  • bedspread
Jolona is thrilled with her new master and I am so happy with how it all came together.

One more before and after:

What do you think?