boys' room before and after

The white paint struck again! :) We loved it so much in our family closet that we went for it upstairs this time!

The boys' room had this basketball floor since we moved in. They loved it, but it had seen better days:

Here's what the room looked like 4+ years ago when we moved in, actually...it was slightly better than this year:

And then- the ahhhhhhfters, a gallon of primer and porch paint later: 

Oh, happy day!! :D It reflected so much more light that it suddenly felt like a huge room!

You can tell what we're doing in our free time this summer, right? Paint, paint, and more paint! :) It's so much fun to see big results for so little money.

If you're wondering how living with white floors is practically- so far, the white floors do show dirt more than the old ones that already looked dirty but the white is way easier to clean them than the previous ones. You can see what to sweep and scrub instead of feeling it with your feet! ;) Also- we don't allow shoes in the house {which I find really helps keep our floors cleaner in every room}, so the white has been great for us so far. :D

Have you ever had a shoes-off rule in your house? :)
We didn't until the last couple of years, but I LOVE it. Having kids and a baby crawling around really changes the way your see your floors! ;)

Do you have the 10 second rule instated at your house? ;) 
My kids will eat pretty much anything off of the floor, unless it has hair on it...hahahah!! :P It's good for the immune system, right? :)

this spray paint is magic in a can.

You probably know spray paint is one of my favorite DIY hacking tools ever, right? :)

Early last year I started seeing shiny gold spray paint popping up all over blogland and apparently, the Rust-oleum $4 version is one of the very best out there. {or second, according to Chris loves Julia and their test! :)} Of course I had to try it for myself... and I only waited a year plus to buy some. Back in the old days {you know, 2012}, I had to hand paint my gold frame instead of spraying it. ;)

I bought this outdoor lantern at Goodwill for $3 years ago, and I thought it might look amazing in a fresh coat of shiny gold. 

I think that little DIY intuition was right!! :) 

I hope gold never goes out of style again {though I seem to remember gold being quite big in the late 80's?}. Remember when Home Interiors was so popular? I can't believe I've already been through repeating fad cycles at 31!! ha! I totally remember the bleached shorts and plastic neon sunglasses and Keds, and what in the world? They're back already. 

I'm not doing those fads this time around because they make me feel like I'm 8 years-old again. But gold? I'll happily repeat that trend. ;) Especially if I have low-commitment spray paint to do the job for me!

p.s. do you think that big bangs will ever come back? I could totally rock that style with my curls. 

just kidding.

maybe.

What trends have you already lived through? Did you do them twice {or more?}?

Gold- yay or nay? :)

laundry room cabinet: before and after {years later}

After a year-and-a-half of it looking like this, I finally got the urge to tackle our laundry room cabinet:

Oh my stars, why did I wait forever? {maybe it was the year of having a baby or something :P} The Zaner napped long enough for me to get a coat of super primer and one coat of semi-gloss paint on, and then I finished it while he played with the older children later in the afternoon. I decided against gray and went with regular white, and I love how it turned out!

So.much.better!! :D Now every few hours I'm standing there I get to enjoy a beautiful cabinet!! ;)

Have you ever started a project only to finish it years later like me? hahahah!! :P

Washing machine: front loader or top loader? Or the 1990's version? which do you prefer?
We went with a nice big top loader when we replaced ours last year, and guess what? They still break. :( I'm not sure if I overloaded it or what to make it leak like it does, but it seems like they just don't make 'em like they used to. I'm thinking about getting two cheap non-fancy ones with the center turbine thing to replace it! I probably won't, but I did consider it. ;)

$25 later: I can't believe this before and after!

I mentioned earlier this week that we had an exciting DIY project going on at our house last weekend, so I wanted to share a little before and after today!! :D {reveals are my favorites!}

This reveal is not staged or clean or even finished, so don't look too closely. :P Maybe someday I will reorganize the shelves and put all the furniture back in for a full before and after with all the details. {the family closet system details are here!}

But for now we're focusing just on the floor! :) This pantry/laundry room of our very old house appears to be the original back porch when it was first built in 1895 {by wealthy furniture store owners!}. In the 1930's, another family remodeled the house to add more porch in the front, and I guess they enclosed the back too at some point. {Thus the sloped floor and the shutters inside}. This room also appears to have been the family kitchen too at some time. I love how much history it all has! :)

I've been itching to paint a floor for a while now, so when Rob said hey, let's paint the back floor, I was more than excited. :D It was looking very sad!! It was definitely my least favorite floor because it always looked dirty no matter how clean it was.

Here's proof: 

We used regular Valspar porch and floor paint. {It took about 8 hours to dry to the touch for each coat so we had to evacuate for most of the weekend to let it dry!}. He used a foam roller to roll it out on the floor.

The difference two coats later was incredible: {!!} White it was!! :D

I might be a little bit giddy. ;)

I may regret going with white floors at some point, but we're still in the honey moon stage right now, and I'm completely in love. 

It's so clean. So white. So new.

Who knew $25 worth of paint could change everything? :)

a big fat DIY fail: if it weren't so awful it might actually be funny...

Last fall my sweet friends at church used these lovely wood slices as table decor for our women's retreat:

pic from my friend Emily :) I thought they did a great job making our retreat beautiful! :)

And I've seen log slabs like them on Pinterest too- they always look fantastic as centerpiece like this one:

fabulous source: Twin Cities Wedding from the Wedding Chicks

You know how much I love simple, gorgeous decor that's nearly free like that! After seeing those inspiring tables I was on the lookout for my own {free} log slab. About a month ago, I scored one of these from a fallen tree at my mom's place, and brought it home for my very own centerpiece:

I was so proud. :) I stacked a bunch of candles on it and called it a day. {It was free and I didn't even have to chop it down myself, so I figure it really was a good day!} 

Fast forward to a month later, last weekend- when our weekend guests were here {which I plan to tell you about soon, when my computer is working again}. I asked Rob to clear the table for the food to go on...

And.this.was under the log: 

My farmhouse table is now growing a centerpiece of its very own.

I'm calling that one a DIY fail.

Just a little. ;)

{I talked to my decor-savvy log-centerpiece making friends and apparently you're supposed to polyurethane them before you use them. I guess you can't just go get any old tree and put a chunk of it on the table. Ahem.}

Have you ever had a massive DIY/Pinterest fail? Please make me feel better, LOL!

our 1895 kitchen before and after reveal

I realized this morning that I've never actually done a full kitchen post, so I decided to share it in it's imperfect/dishes on the counter but clean enough for me state. :) When we moved in four years ago to a foreclosed house we had only an idea of how much work was ahead of us, but it's so fun to see it before and after! It makes it all worth it. :) 

Here's the before:

And here are some after shots! :)

We're still finishing it, but it's my favorite before and after of the whole house, and I thought it would be fun to see again. It's one of those things where you don't realize how much has changed until you look back. :)

Other than appliances, we put less than $1000 into this kitchen to paint the cabinets, replace the countertops, sink, and faucet, add beadboard, shelves and a lower cabinet to the kitchen. Rob did all the labor, even ripping out the old paneling to reveal the upper section of plank walls {that all had to be caulked individually, of course}. :) He's a beast. I sure love that man.

I love how it turned out altogether! :) I didn't intend to do gray upper walls or beadboard at all, but half way through we found we had to cover the old walls with something because of old door cutouts in the wood. We had the paint left over from our dining room, and we wanted to use our extra gallon, so we went with what we had- Chelsea Gray {BM}. After we were done, I realized the colors ended up looking kind of like Emily's kitchen, which I have loved for years {and so does Better Homes and Gardens, LOL!}! It was a lovely accident- I'm so glad we went with the beadboard!

We still might stain or paint the shelving and the new table top, but I'm not sure yet. What do you think? Should we paint the shelves white? I'd love your thoughts!!

1895 master bedroom reveal {on a budget}

This "reveal" has been waiting for the longest time. I have no idea why, really, except all decorating motivation completely abandoned me for about 12 months. ;) 2013 = pregnancy, newborn #5, and the return of full-time homeschooling meant decorating was shelved for quite a while. ;) Well, I think we did actually do one or two things last year, so that's not entirely true. Decorating was on the back burner, anyway. :) But even though it's been done for a little while, I'm still excited about it all!

Did I ever tell you my husband is my hero? The longer I'm married to him, the more I'm convinced he can do pretty much anything. Renovation? Check. Solo two-story house painting? Check. Build furniture? Check. Car repair? Check. Computer anything? You betcha. He's a stud. :)

He tore out our falling sheet rock and spent hours on a ladder pulling out thread after thread from a zillion wall paper nails to reveal these beautiful planks on the ceiling:

He even hung my 9 foot curtains from IKEA and painted our old dining room doors teal for our headboard. :)

And he redid the floors, hung the ceiling fan, and repainted every bit of the room and the trim on this old fireplace. :)

When it comes to remodels, I get out easy. :) I specialize in the decor department- I select paint colors, and buy and redo stuff like the $10 aqua mirror, $7ish fireplace cover, and a wall basket from Goodwill and $3 candleholders from Craigslist.

Some of the decor was homemade too, like the book page flower wreath and the euro shams {from part of a $20 clearanced Amy Butler duvet} and throw pillow made from a Goodwill skirt {the middle black one was from a garage sale though :)}.

I found the ruffled white duvet with shams at Target a few years ago on clearance for $50, and the colorful one at Linen's and Things on clearance for $25, and the white shams at Goodwill for a few dollars a couple of years ago.

I found this side table at Lowe's on clearance several years ago too and painted it yellow to make it look old {hahah!}:

And our old living room rug from Pottery Barn for $129 was probably the biggest splurge of the room, along with a frame and poster from IKEA that totaled about $40. It was the best deal I could find for a frame I really liked in that size. :) And I'm still in love with the rug!

Our dresser was from Craigslist, for $40, the chair was a garage sale find for $10, and the mirror was from GW for $10. I think I bought the flower pic for $14ish at Marshall's. :)

I replaced some of the knobs with Hobby Lobby knobs and Marshall's glass ones:

And the velvet pillow was a World Market find. :)

Our very old bedroom is definitely full of old stuff {character}, but I really like it. The white paint and lovely old ceiling and the transom window really make the whole room feel airy and bright. I love the way it all came together, but more than anything, I'm so thankful for such a blessing of a husband who made an old, falling down room into a wonderful retreat for his bride. :)