Fresh Flowers

I picked these lilacs at my parents house. I’ve been loving the smell all day! I hope the neighbors won’t mind me stealing some lilacs off their bush too!

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.

Instant Project

I love when things are easy! I found a bag of old wooden spools at a consignment store for $10 and these two were perfect for candle holders. No need to do anything!

Check out Thift Store Thursday over at Homebody Holly for more ideas.

 And Thifty Thursday at Bloggeritaville.

Back To Business

I guess I’ve taken a long enough break from home projects and should get back to it…

I’m in the process of making new curtains for my dining room so I ran to Wal-Mart today to get some cheap fabric to line them. Well, it ended up being cheaper than I thought. As the woman was cutting it she told me that all the by the yard fabrics and trims were 50% off because all Wal-Marts are closing their fabric departments. By the middle of June they hope to be closed so go through your project lists and stock up now!

I picked up this burlap to make a cheaper version of those grain sack memo boards. It’s $1.23 a yard now.

I also got the webbing that I think I’m going to put on the memo board  or make one of those french memory boards with it. It was only $.32 a yard. I think I’m going to pick up some more. I think it would also look neat as trim on some of those drop cloth drapes.

Kitchen Cabinets

I added cabinets to my stove wall awhile ago, I bought them from a salvage store so they didn’t have much size choice. It was bugging me that they were a different height than the cabinets on my sink wall. Then along comes Layla from The Lettered Cottage and her cabinet moulding tutorial and my problem was solved.

Just don’t look too closely at the ceiling I haven’t touched it up yet. Ignore the stupid pull chain for the light too.

Here’s a reminder of what the other cabinets look like. I’ve uncluttered them a little though.

Soon I’ll keep the dishes out of the sink long enough to take pictures of the whole kitchen.

Crafty Wednesday

Sickness has attacked our house again. This time we all got it. I’m much better now and managed to finish my kitchen cabinet transformation. I’ll post that tomorrow. For today it’s a quick art project…

All you need is a piece of paper, a frame, a stamp, ink and some markers.

I just used a dollar stamp from Michael’s and stamped him on a piece of white paper. I used my Copic markers (LOVE THEM!) to color him in. Added a little decorative border and cut the paper to the frame size.

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.

Storage Solutions

While I was looking for office ideas I came across these neat storage ideas…

Into The Closet

Our 3rd bedroom was a computer room/guest room before my youngest was born. We moved the computer into the dining room and it’s been taking up much needed space and looking ugly ever since. I had been thinking about turning the closet in the dining room into an office but for one reason or another it never happened. Today I saw this photo on The Shabby Nest and knew I had to move the computer into the closet and soon!

Some other inspiration photos…

This one isn’t in a closet but it looks neat!

Outdoor Furniture

My internet has been down the last few days. Luckily I have my Blackberry so I wasn’t completely cut off from the world but I’m glad it’s working again.

This post idea came from a conversation with my 3-year-old.

Madison: “Mama do we have a patio set?”

Me: ‘No, we don’t”

Madison: “We need to get one”

Me: “Hmm, yes, we do”

I think I’ve been watching too much HGTV around her.

I searched the web for some inspiration photos. The budget is an issue so I’ll have to come up with some creative solutions.

I love the look of “regular” furniture for outdoors and the mis-matchiness. I want to do this raised patio and have the perfect spot for it.

Now that I have my inspiration…Stay tuned for the big reveal (it may be awhile).

Replugged

This isn’t going to be some awe inspiring post but I’m going to share my Friday with you…

It was a great day! It was warm and sunny…The only bad thing was that I forgot to take pictures.

I turned off my TV, my computer and used my Blackberry for phone calls only.

The morning was the toughest. Usually when I wake up I turn on the news and catch up on any shows I fell asleep for the night before while my 3 year old is still sleeping. I got started on the housework right away instead and got a lot more accomplished which was really nice.

After breakfast we made cheerios necklaces then set off to Kohl’s so my girl’s could spend their gift cards. We met my mom and sister for lunch at Panera Bread (yummy! Got some bagels for the weekend too) and walked around the mall. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside, driving the John Deere power wheel tractor, playing on the swing set and drawing with chalk on the driveway. Then my mother-in-law came over to babysit so hubby and I could go to the opening night/awards reception for the art show. I won 3rd place BTW. Hubby did turn on the TV after we got home from the reception but i still stayed away from the computer.

With no other distractions in life you have more time to enjoy the little things. I’m going to make a point to do this more often.

Go see how everyone else did at A Soft Place To Land.

P.S. If you haven’t tried Panera Bread’s Cinnamon Crunch bagels they are seriously yummy…and addicting!

I’m Unplugged

Eye Candy

Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my chin…I just finished looking at the new Restoration Hardware catalog…

These are some of my favorites…

 

Ah, now to win the lottery!