Stripes in the Dining Room

Our living room, dining room and kitchen are all open to each other so  I wanted the colors in each room to flow but still be their own space. I found curtains that matched the living room pillows to bring that color into the dining room then I became stuck. I’d been staring at a white dining room for about 2 months and it was driving me crazy. It looked very plain. Everything was black and white except for the one pop of color in my curtains. I couldn’t figure out how to get more color in there to make the curtains flow with everything else.  I didn’t think I could paint because the room is open to the kitchen and living room so there isn’t really a space to stop the color. Then one day I was staring at the same wall and thought what if I put one band of color around the room. I could stop at the kitchen cabinet and it wouldn’t look bad. I taped it off and then thought…Hmm, I could do one more below it and space it out enough to stop at the island. So I taped off another stripe.

 

Then I painted them in with leftover living room paint (Valspar paint that I had color matched to Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage). I love the color and it didn’t cost me anything extra. It also made the space cohesive and gave the room some pattern. I’m in love with this room now. It finally looks put together and works well with the living room while still having it’s own identity. I know the light fixture doesn’t go but this is military housing so I’m just lucky I was able to paint.

Here’s how the room looked the day we moved it.

 

Here are some more after pictures.

 

This is my Stripe Tutorial…

I took my tape measure and measured down from the ceiling where I wanted the stripe to start, I think it was about 14 3/4”, and made a dot with my pencil. Then I went all around the room measuring down from the ceiling and making a dot at 14 3/4”. Then I took my painters tape and connected the dots. Then I measured down from the painters tape for how wide I wanted the stripe to be, I think it was around 24”, and did the same thing around the room…You get the idea. I took my base color and painted along the tape line before I filled in with the stripe color so when I pulled the tape up the line would be smooth. I’m sure there are better ways to do it but this is what worked for me.

Faux Mudroom

Once again my house is small so I have to do without a lot of the "luxuries" that many of you have. I'm very jealous of all of you that have a mudroom! Alas, I had to make do with what I have and created a "faux mudroom"

The idea started when I bought this buckboard bench at AC Moore. I got a really good deal on it. At the time I bought it they had a 50% off 2 items coupon. The way the coupon worked was that they took 50% off the highest priced item and then 50% off the next highest priced item. They took the discount off the bench and then it was still the highest priced item so their register took the discount off the bench again, so I got a $100 bench for $25!

Then I found this coat rack at an unfinished wood store for $80 and used a 20% off coupon.

One step of this process was to finally get rid of the bead board to nowhere. I have no idea why it just stopped but it has been driving me crazy. I've tried many things to cover it up but nothing seemed to work in that space. So I started by cutting into the railing where I wanted it to stop and prying it off. Then I covered it all up with the venetian plaster that I had originally put on the walls (I don't know why I didn't think about doing this when I had worked on the walls in the first place).

Then I added beadboard and some moulding and gave everything a coat of my leftover black cabinet paint.

I got the bins at Ikea this past weekend. (the camera is crooked not the shelf)

 

I’m looking for locker baskets for these three spots.

We’re eventually getting new countertops and they are going to extend a little longer than they do now so I left a little of the railing up to stop where the new countertop will stop which will be even with the upper cabinet.

Head over to Between Naps On The Porch for some more before/after projects.

A 5 Min. Makeover

My sister has one of those machines that makes the wall decals…I am sooo jealous. It would probably be a really bad thing if I had my own though (walls covered with decals from floor to ceiling.) So for now I’ll just give her my list…

(notice the ugly wallpaper that has yet to be taken care of!)

This is my headboard. I’ve had it for over 10 years and got it free when I saw it sitting in the basement of the house my father-in-law moved into. It’s been painted many times and many colors but I’ve settled on black for awhile now and I think the black is going to stay. It has a raised medallion in the center and since I love monograms and decals I had my sister make me a “B” for the center.

A Work In Progress

I’m wondering if I’m every going to get to a point where this house is finished and I can just sit and relax, hopefully for awhile before it’s time to move onto a different house. This past weekend we made a few small steps.

We changed out a few light fixtures. Let me tell you a couple of things about our lighting situation. Our house is old and has old wiring and until we get loads of money to change out the wiring we’re stuck with what we have. I thought that meant being stuck with the old ugly light fixtures too but I was wrong. Our living room, dining room and bathroom have wall switches so I knew those could be replaced but the rest of the rooms have pull chains and if you’ve ever wandered through the lighting section the only pull chain lights they have are the ugly ones that are already in my house. So here is the solution…I came across lampsplus.com and saw beautiful light kits for ceiling fans. They even had chandeliers for them with pull chains. The only problem was I didn’t want a ceiling fan in every room. I purchased this one and was determined to make it work without the fan because it was perfect for my 3 year olds room.

Before

After

It worked! Hubby just took off the old light but kept the box thing that was attached to the ceiling and screwed in the chandelier instead! I’m thinking about buying this one for my little ones room now.

Before

After

We also added crown moulding to the dining room.

 

Now I’m in the process of Layla-izing some of my kitchen cabinets.

The $160 Bathroom Makeover

One of my goals for a beautiful life is to finish my home's makeover one room at a time. The bathroom is finally done! Here's the before...





Now are you ready for the after??

The shower curtain, which was the color inspiration, and the rugs I already had. The green paint was $12, I only had to buy a quart and still have some left, the white paint I already had. I spent $30 on the shelving and about another $30 on the accessories (including the picture frames). I love it because it looks pretty but also gives me storage that I desperately need, after all this is America's smallest bathroom. The best steal was the towel bar, toilet paper holder, and towel ring, I got them all for a total of $11! I kept the existing vanity but added knobs ($2 each) and a new faucet ($40). I changed out the medicine cabinet for a smaller one ($30), the old one was too big you couldn't open the doors all the way. For the artwork I just took a couple pictures of my kids in towels. Then lastly a new curtain I made with some leftover white fabric for about $3 . There you have it, a complete bathroom makeover for only $160!

For more inspiring ways to live beautifully visit The Inspired Room's Beautiful Life series here.

America's Smallest Bathroom

While I'm in the process of fixing up the bathroom I'll give you the before pictures...

I'm officially giving my bathroom the title America's Smallest Bathroom. I don't know how many other full baths could be smaller. If you stand in the middle of the room and stretch your arms out to the side you can touch the shower wall and the wall on the other side. This is our only bathroom and it doesn't have any plugs! This room actually isn't bad compared to the other rooms in this house but I hope to make it a lot better. We definitely lack storage.

Can you guess where the sink is?

It's tucked behind the shower wall and the window. Not great space planning!

Check back soon for the after pictures.