before and after: striped chair

I have been anxiously waiting to show you this chair. And wouldn't you know when I finally can, my pictures look terrible! I dropped it off at my client's house last night so I can officially share it with the rest of the world. The before shot does not give justice to the bad shape it was in.

Before

After {which doesn't really do justice either}

\I promise to take better shots next time I am at her house. But, dude this is an awesome chair. I wanted to keep it! More pictures to come, at least my instagram picture turned out a little.

I fixed up a few cracks, painted it in high gloss black, and reupholstered it myself. And I'm only a little proud of it ;)

toy closet

We should probably have a playroom. But we don't. I'm not about to turn the office slash guest room into a playroom since it is the only bedroom downstairs. And all the toys in the bedroom have been driving me nuts. So this weekend I overhauled the toys. Remember this closet?

Now it looks like this

There is no way to photograph the overwhelming amount of toys in my hallway. But it is filled to the brim. So I guess this is our new toy room. The kids cannot play inside it but the toys will live and die here. I acknowledge that we have too many toys. And I've given my kids 60 days to play with these or they are gone. Just in time for Christmas....but still. Tell me this isn't too many toys for three kids. Maybe I'm just a hoarder. But it's nice that every last thing has a bin it belongs to. The plan is to use the toy closet with a check in system. One goes in to check one out. I'll let you know how it goes :)

p.s. Am I the only one saving favorite toys for my grandchildren?

shelving after

Well, my little Ikea VITTSJO didn't get the makeover I was expecting. The big plan was to replace the glass with wood {glass in a playroom not too safe} and paint it a fun color. But once we put it together we all really loved the dark color against the light walls. But, we still needed to replace the glass with wood and paint it. What's a girl to do? Oil rubbed bronze spray paint of course! Worked like a charm.

I love it in the space and it really is doing it's job here with storage. Some the kids can reach and some out of the way so it can all be rotated to keep the toys exciting. 

Before

After

 It seriously worked so perfect in the room. The toys were all in random bins tucked under the short walls in the room. Now we took the one tall wall and maxed it out. And for $110! Well, a little more than that after we replaced the glass with wood. Thank you Home Depot for being so patient with me and cutting all that wood for me!

In the end, we all loved it even more than we were expecting we would. And maybe I want one for my bedroom now. Oh Ikea, why are you so far away?

miss l's room

I really liked my girl's room before.

But I like it even more now.

One weekend, I was feeling a bit blue. I want to get something done when I feel blue usually. And having zero dollars I knew the only thing I could really mix up was my daughter's room. You see for a year I was saving this pair of bergere chairs, pillows and a stool for a project. But that project had been put on hold and since changed...a lot. Getting installed in the next few months though.{!} So they came to rescue my mood and I turned them into a sweet little sitting area.

 

Then I moved the bench by the window to create a little window seat of sorts. It's been really fun there because we get amazing sunsets from the back of our house. I also moved the mirror over the headboard. But do not be alarmed, it's a plastic mirror and well secured at that. Nobody will be injured by the cute mirror :)

 I popped her little desk into the corner and moved the bulletins to that wall. All the kids love to sit there and color.

The art stayed the same mostly, except for adding this owl mask that she made that I love.

Not too shabby for a free makeover! And it's another one of those 30 by 30 projects I haven't shown you yet. Check it off the list.

nursery reveal

I'm so excited to have my first e-design sent back to me! I love how it all turned out. Here is the board one more time.

They did an amazing job getting it all ready for the arrival of their first baby girl.

I wish I could take credit for the stripes but the homeowners executed them perfectly before I came into the picture. They totally make the room.

Katie Daisy

I'm so in love with the fruit!

They worked so hard and it turned out so well. I am so happy to have been a part of it!
Happy Baby!!!

quick change

When Kirsten gave a heads up on the Land's End sale last week I jumped fast. I have loved these pillows for a while and at $5.99 {no longer available}and free shipping I knew I had to get them right then and there. A great deal especially considering the original $44.50 price tag.

We definitely need new pillows but I haven't been able to commit to any regularly priced ones yet. I was beyond thrilled that these came a little lighter than the pictures show. They instantly freshened up the whole room.

Before:

After:

Yes the pillows and my styling {didn't even try or notice the ornament or box on the floor :)} need more work. It's amazing what a big impact a small change can have. And just how giddy I get. And all I did was stuff the free with the couch, ugly pillow into the cover until I go to ikea next to pick up down inserts. It's amazing what 12 bucks can do!

And no, I haven't committed to a lack makeover just yet.

pink! pink! well what's wrong with pink?

This labor of love is done for now! When my six year old said she wanted a pink room I resisted for a little while. But then I decided to embrace it. This is what it looked like half way through.

And here it is in all it's girly glory!

The dresser was thrifted a few summers ago. It was in pretty bad shape and it could only be recused with distressing. It's still a great and solid piece of furniture. The message boards were recovered here. The lamp is from Home Goods clearance. The owl bank is from Urban Outfitters. And the hula dancer is a gift from Hawaii.

The bed is from a thrift store. Both pillows are from Home Goods as well as the clearance bedding for $30.The framed doily is from my Great Grandma and I love it in this room. I always love to have something with a story and a little bit of history.

The desk was $4 at a goodwill years ago. The green storage cube is from Target. The houndstooth curtain fabric was $1 a yard at Home Fabrics. That's right one dollar! I bought 13 yards that day. So it will come up again someday! This super cute rug is from Urban Outfitters. {bummer when I bought it 3 or 4 months ago they only had one size. Now they have a larger one. Still a great price for the 5 by 7}

 

The gallery wall was from things we already had and frames from Michaels using my trusty coupons. I got all 6 frames for less than $15. Tomorrow I will link to all the artwork. It's almost all free.

Even the doll bed got a little makeover! Much needed by the way. The doll bed is from Grandma from Target.

Here are the furniture fix ups. There will always be something more to do. New lighting someday for example. But for now I am really happy with how it turned out. And so is she. I love that her face lights up every time she sees something new in there.

before and girly after

 Miss L's room is almost complete. I have been busy with the projects and am all finished except for the curtains. The end is in sight! Pardon my cell phone images. I will have to borrow that camera again for the big reveal. I should really start a camera fund or something, this is just sad!

This headboard has been in my garage waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I got it for $19 second hand. I've gone back and forth about upholstering it and deciding on a paint color.

I finally decided on turquoise and didn't want to spend anything this week so I mixed some paint in my garage to come up with this after.

 This little side table has been with me for 5 years or something crazy. I got it at a goodwill in California for $3. I always envisioned it in my daughter's room. It's finally there now that she doesn't share with boys. Here it is by my future garden.

It's a pretty happy side table now I'd say. She was so excited when she saw it! And kept saying "my blue table is pink!"

 

 This is probably my favorite project and I'm pretty sure my beloved husband deleted my before picture from a few months back. This is an older project but I love it. This bench was $4 I think. I remember trying to talk them down so it could have been less. But after paint and some dollar fabric it's as good as new. And less than $10.

So if you can't tell already this room is bright, happy and very pink! I really resisted the pink. Especially painting the walls pink. But, I'm a softy and actually love that my girl wanted to be part of the process. Every time I show her something new her eyes light up and she thanks me. It's just so fun for me to see her. Hopefully it all comes together and makes her happy for a long time! It seems right on the verge of crazy sometimes!