window treatments: before and after

When we moved in a few years ago, the girls' room had these old oak-yellow blinds:

In an effort to avoid the expense of new blinds, I added those super-cheap pink curtains from IKEA for less than $20. But, after more than a year of the pink and dirty yellow-brown, I was on the lookout for something to brighten up the room and make it more gender neutral.

Then out of the blue the other day, Abbie said I might like these 96-inch curtains she bought used that didn't work for her. You know I was all over that game- I was thrilled to buy these West Elm striped curtains from her for $20! :) You know you've got a good friend when she knows your style and gives you first dibs on her awesome finds!

We ended up replacing the old broken blinds with new 2-inch white vinyl ones, and...

here's the after:

So much better, don't you think? :)

Man, I love stripes.

Especially when they're super-thrifty West Elm ones from a friend. :)

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? :)

$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? :)

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. :)

colorful gallery wall {on a budget}

It might have taken me forever to finally get to {3 years +}, but I'm so happy with how our hallway gallery wall turned out! I hate spending money on art and frames, so it took me a while to find or make enough wall items at a good price. :)

I've been very bad about printing out pictures since digital cameras came along, so some of our pictures are fairly old. I figured it's kind of fun to see what we all used to look like- plus, they were already in the frames. ;) We walk through here constantly {this wall is right by the stairs in the center of our home}, so I really enjoy seeing all of the old pictures, and I can see all of the names of God from our living room!

Here are all the details:

1. IKEA $1.99 frames- my bridal portrait and a $1 IKEA floral print that was made to go in it! :D I love it when they make it easy and cheap for you!

{Here's another art set they have now for $1 each- isn't it pretty! For $3 each you'd have 5 adorable teacher gifts!}

2. Homemade digital art in a coral painted Walmart frame. I designed our names in an 8x10 print in the living room colors and I love how it turned out! It was just $4 + a little paint + a little time!

3. Butterfly prints from HomeGoods. I bought these canvases for $12.99 each almost 3 years ago- they were in our original living room reveal, but since I've changed things around in there a bit, they got moved to the gallery wall.

If I change things around in another room, I usually try to use the leftover items somewhere else in the house instead of selling them. This is when it comes in handy to pick things in colors you love, as well as have paint colors that flow and coordinate throughout your house so you don't have to spend money to get a new look! :D I have lots of grays, greens, yellows, and blues in my house which make me happy!

4. This was another DIY- just old dictionary pages on a used Goodwill super-cheap canvas. I just glued these right on top of an old ugly canvas that was less than $2. :)

5. Our little Isabella Rose, 5 months old in a $5 Walmart frame.

6. This hook was birthday present from my husband from Anthropologie a couple of years ago- still, one of the priciest things at $14- back when it was harder to find initial items. :)

7. Homemade gilded DIY art on another Goodwill canvas just like this one! {less than $6 total!}

8. The different names of God on a huge canvas from Hobby Lobby that was on clearance for $19. I love this piece! :D It makes me happy. This was the most expensive, and the only new thing I bought for this wall. :)

9. This 8x10 free Scripture art I made in another $4 painted coral frame. I had this left over from a test print.

The other two frames I didn't mention are ones we've had for 10 years now. The color picture on the left is Rob and I on our honeymoon {at 19 and 22!}, and the antique one is a pic of us on our first big trip 10 years ago to Maryland.

And we just painted the hallway color earlier this year- it's called Quietude by Sherwin Williams. I like the green/blue/gray it gives off in an area with little natural light.

I'm happy with how it all turned out! It took me a while to put it all together, but the hardest part by far was hanging it up! ;)

What do you think? Do you like to mix art and pictures too? 
I have an all black and white picture one here, and I love it too! It would be hard to choose!

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