$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? :)

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. :)

zane's nursery {the big reveal!!}

Zane's nursery is almost finished! Here's the funny thing- I am trying to let go of my perfectionistic tendencies, and decided to post the nursery pictures now... before every little thing was finished. {scary, right? haha!} :D I always want to perfect every last detail before I take pictures, but that will never happen in this stage of life, and I'm trying to accept that and go with it. :P

So here's what it looks like now! I'm in love with how it turned out- bright and fun, but mostly gender neutral I think! {in case we have more babies ;)}

Rob painted our old wooden crib to match the new nursery. All of our kids have slept in it, so it's extra special to us. :)

Here's the blanket I made this spring. It's a cheery Alexander Henry fabric:

Sshh, don't tell, but I didn't make the crib skirt below- it's an old twin skirt from GW for $1.99! I hated the idea of spending hours sewing {my nemesis} or tons of $$$$ for a bedskirt no one even cares about, including me! ;) The sheet was new from Target for $9.99:

A sweet gift from Haven's mom sits in the crib:

And I made these with old hoops I bought on Craigslist for less than .80 each. :) Those hoops are pricey new!! I couldn't believe how much they were at the store! I bought the letter at Babies R' Us for $7:

My sister-in-law Cayse made this art for Zane- she hand painted the stripes, and cut out the birds in matching paper- so adorable and matches everything! :D

I still have one place that needs another smaller art piece on the left wall by the crib, and when Amy Mattes sent me this personalized baby announcement art as a baby gift to match my nursery, I did a happy dance!! Isn't it perfect for that space? I love it! It even has the meaning of his name on it! So sweet. :D I hope to hang it soon. 

We love our IKEA rug in the middle for $20:

Rob painted this $40 craigslist dresser, the airplane print is from Hobby Lobby, and the bear was from our big ultrasound:

My super-creative friend Lindsay made this chalkboard art for my lovely shower at Abbie's house! Isn't it the sweetest? I'm so blessed to have such creative friends!

And on the left side of the room- we bought the mirror new at Lowe's for $29- it's one of the few new items we bought for the room. :) Circular mirrors are so fun! The ottoman was thrifted, and recovered for the living room back in the day. :D Behind the little door is our second closet sized bathroom and only shower:

And the right side of the room features two huge windows with 118 inch curtains from IKEA {$29 per pair}:

So that's our not-quite-perfect, re-purposed, thrifted, homemade, with sprinkles of new nursery in an 1895 home. ;)

Do you find yourself waiting until everything is "perfect" to call it done too? 

I have to tell you, it feels so good- so freeing- to let "undone and imperfect" be called finished. It's good enough! :D

living room progress- spring update {before and after}

Isn't it so weird how good weather makes you want to shake everything out and sweep underneath the couch? {or wait, maybe it's just pregnancy that does that for me... no weather can make you want to clean, right? ;) }.

Either way, for some strange reason, I was feeling motivated to do some spring cleaning and found myself rearranging the living room Friday afternoon. :)

Even though we finished the living room more than 1.5 years ago, like every room in our house, it's always changing. :) I find something at GW to add in, or move or sell a piece of furniture we don't love or use. I'm a chronic furniture re-arranger.  I've been consistently rearranging my rooms since 1987- my mom can vouch for that one! I think it should totally count as a special gift/talent of some kind. :)

So here's what we started with in the fall/winter of 2011- this was my favorite room redo in the house! Everything but the rug, the 118 inch Ikea curtains, and one lamp was purchased used, thrifted, or repurposed from our old house. :)

The next year, I found this huge rug on clearance at Target, as well as a gray slipcover from Ikea {after the great white slipcover/pink sharpie incident of 2012}, added a couple of new cheap pillow covers, moved some old art I had around, and it totally changed up the room! So for a while, our living room looked like this:

It looks so different to me, but it was really just three major swaps here: pillows, slipcovers, and the rug. We also moved our original gray rug back to the nursery room for the baby, so it's still being used for the moment. :) I usually try to keep close to the same amount of money invested in the room by buying and selling our old stuff as we don't use it, and replacing it with used or cheap things that are the same amount.

This year, I decided to sell the red rug and found a different one at Pottery Barn for the same price as the Target one! :) Then I changed the gray slipcovers out again for the old white ones {bleach did the trick!}. I'm not finished {well, in my head, anyway}, but here's what it looks like now! :) 

Again with the same swaps...slipcover, rug, pillow covers. :) Super easy to swap them out, but they always make a big change! 

I think I want to exchange the placement of the door {it's our old kitchen door!} with the scroll art and maybe paint the scroll art deep blue or coral... and I have some new homemade art to put between the curtains that I haven't quite finished yet. 

I have a few more ideas too- I'm thinking about painting a few things, but I'm really happy with a few little changes! 

I ordered some awesome pillows that go with everything but they were such a good price, I might resell them instead of keeping them. Or maybe I can pay for one by selling the other one... ;)

It's been fun to swap out new things with the old this year for a small cost! It was so exciting to see how a little bit of work changes everything up! :)

I joked Friday that after spring cleaning at my house, one side of the living room looks amazing... then you turn around and see this behind you:

Apparently, I'm a spring cleaning piler. It all eventually got picked up too- so for the moment, my living room is kind of clean! And we'll see if we have any great sharpie incidents with the slipcovers back on again. Let's hope not! ;)

Are you a cleaning-piler or do you put everything away as you pull it out? I'm curious! :D

Should I move the door? What do you think about the symmetry there?

Why can I ever only find one child flip-flop at a time? And speaking of symmetry, why can't they make kid footwear left/right universal like gloves? {it could be the next best invention, I tell you}.