Laundry room Before & After

Well, I thought I wasn't going to be able to get to finish hemming my curtains until this weekend, but I got some more hemmed this evening. The room is looking so fresh and airy.  The perfect laundry room :)
It looks a little empty right now because I just now got it finished and it doesn't have that lived in look yet, but it will in no time!

Here was the laundry room when I first bought the house.  I didn't like this room because it felt like a porch or something. It just didn't flow with the rest of the house.  It was built on later and it showed. They had even left the window in between this room and the kitchen that I thoroughly enjoyed knocking out.   My first thought on this room was, I must paint those bricks and make this look like a room and not a porch.

BEFORE

AFTER

There is still more work to do in here, but at least it's presentable at this point.  I got some burlap and have that draped over the curtain rod under the cabinet.  I have to cut it and sew it into a curtain.  I have to paint all the crown molding and trim white.  I'm going to get some drying racks for the wall above the washer and dryer.  I will also probably put a picture right over the little sewing area on the wall there.  What would you put there?

Here is what I used for the makeover:

• Sherwin Williams Antique White on the bricks
• Olympic Crumb Cookie for the wood above it that was painted gray before.
• Olympic Light Sage for the cabinets
• Olympic Bright White in gloss for the counter tops and one coat of polyurethane on that.
• Ikea Vivan curtains $9.99 a pair.
• Burlap fabric from fabric.com
• Throw rug from Target
• Bamboo shades from Lowes

I really enjoyed doing this room, but there were a few frustrations along the way.  I accidentaly hemmed one of the curtains too  long.  It's the  one behind the washer that you can't see the end of it. I still need to go back and hem that one again.  I had a hard time finding the right shade of sage green for my cabinets, I went through a lot of swatches and sample cans.  I had a hard time getting these curtains because they were always sold out at Ikea. (Thank you Bec Bec for getting them and mailing them to me! You're a doll!)

Overall, I'm happy with the outcome.

Now I need to work on getting the office area on the other side of the room made over.

I'm getting a couple of the windows knocked out and putting french doors in.  There is no door leading to the back yard, so it just makes sense.  I'll post pics of the office area once that starts coming along.  I'm excited to start working on wallpapering my bathroom next!  Oh and I should be getting my butcher block counter tops put in my kitchen soon, too.

Spring Colors Everywhere

Today was one of the most beautiful days we have had this year, so I had to get out and get some shots of some of the beautiful colors in bloom. These are from around my parents farm.

Happy Spring!

Bathroom walls

I got a lot done on my laundry room over the weekend, but I didn't finish it all. Painted the gray wood, got 2 curtain rods up, hemmed a couple of curtains.  I hemmed one too long so I have to go back and rehem it! I've never hemmed before so I did't know what I was doing lol.  What I have done so far looks good though.

I won't be able to work on it much this week so I don't know when it will get finished right now.

In the meantime, I'm thinking about my bathroom walls.  I was thinking about painting them a taupe or deep beige color,but I got a bunch of paint samples and it doesn't look good. Then I was thinking of a pale blue, but I am not sure.  I also like the idea of wallpaper.
I went down and rented a wallpaper book from Sherman Williams and found this one wallpaper that I like.  It goes well with the beige tile.

Here is a photo of my bathroom, I took the pic before I moved in.

What do you think? Paint? What color?

or

Wallpaper? 

Here are some bathrooms I think look nice with wallpaper.

New kitchen rug

I finally got a rug for under my kitchen table today.  

I know a lot of people don't  like rugs under the table where they eat because of all the crumbs and such, but I have tile floors in my kitchen and they're like ice in the winter, so I got this rug to warm it up a bit.

I ordered it off of the PB site, so hopefully it will be here in a week or so.  It was on sale of course :)

Pottery Barn 6' round Jute rug

Nate Berkus Style

As some of you know, I love Nate Berkus.  I won a Nate throw pillow from Ebay that arrived yesterday. It's white with a little design on the corner, I thought it looked like a fish.

Here are some of the rooms he's designed.

Here is Nate's Home.

And this is Nate  :-D

Aaaaah

Laundry room in progress

The laundry room still isn't done, but I did finish painting the cabinets green.  Thought I would show you how they turned out.  I've still got to paint that gray strip of wood at the top of the room white.  I bought some burlap to make the curtains with, right now I have a $5. canvas from Lowes thrown over a curtain rod to hide the mess in the cabinets. I also need to organize all under there.

After I paint the gray wood, I can get curtain rods and hang my curtains!  Then the laundry side of the room will pretty much be done.

Here's the room with the green cabinets.  They were white before.

Here's a closeup of how it looked before.

I popped that laminate off the top and there was wood under it. I painted the wood white and then put polyurethane over  it.  I painted the cabinets Olympic Light Sage and replaced the knobs with white ones. Painted the brick Sherman Williams Antique White.

I am going to set me up a little sewing area here and hang that walnut frame on the wall, but will probably get a different picture for it.

I still have more work to do on it, so I'll post as I go.

Dresser redo is Finished

I went and got the handles last night and put them on this morning. They didn't fit exactly, so I had to drill the holes closer together. They look great though! Much better than the handles that were on it before which I forgot to take a  picture of.  I also distressed it a  little  more when I brought it into the  house, I didn't mean for it to bang up against the walls and stuff as I brought it in. Oops!  You can see a chunck I took out of it hitting it on my porch there on the right side corner.

I probably won't leave this decor on it, but just wanted to throw something on top of it for the time being.

It looks great in the room.  I don't like the color of my nightstand though, I may refinish it like I did my coffee table. White bottom and a dark walnut top.

Here is the dresser before if  you remember.  I didn't think to take a picture of it before I started painting it. So this is the only before picture I have of it.

A little paint goes such a long way!

This dresser was free. I only paid for new handles which were around $2.50 each.  I used leftover primer and paint from some I already had here.  So I guess the dresser cost a little over $15.00.  I enjoyed doing it, so the labor was fun!

What do you think? Should I redo my nightstand and matching dresser like I did my coffee table?

Dresser refinished

The tall green dresser is almost finished!  I bought a sample pull handle to see if I was going to like it and if it was the right size. So I only have this one on the drawer. I like it a lot, so I'm going to get the other 5 handles to match the next time I'm out.

Here is a little peak at what I have done.  I'll post more pics of it in my bedroom once it's 100% finished.  I just primed right over the green, then 2 coats of paint.  Sanded the edges for a distressed look and changed the handles.  Looks like a completely different piece of furniture.

More pics coming soon.

Spring Mantle

Is this spring weather great or what?

It inspired me to decorate my mantle! I never usually decorate for seasons except Christmas, but having my own little place and my first fireplace, made me want to give my hand a try at a spring theme for my mantle.

Ta Da!

I had so much fun decorating it.  Remember those Christmas butterfly ornaments I got at Pottery Barn? I'm using them for spring and put them on the wreath. They don't look Christmassy right? 

It was so easy to decorate, I just used mostly things from around  the house.

• I grabbed a couple of apothecary jars I had around the house and filled them with candy.
• Got the candy at the dollar store, they are malt balls.  MMMMmmmmmm
• The eggs in the glass dish in the middle, from the dollar store. They are those cheap plastic eggs that open and you put things in them.
• Glass dish from a yard sale last week.  25 Cents.
• Birdies I already had. I grabbed the 2 white ceramic ones from the guest room and took the other 2 out of the window.
• Candles from Ikea
• Dried Hydrangeas from my mother.

Isn't this a cute little birdie?  

I got them from a little store in Galax Virginia on Main Street. She was having a clearance on the Christmas stuff, so I grabbed them. They are suppose to be Christmas decor, too, but they work for spring I think.

Happy Spring!

P.S. I didn't get as  much done on my office, but I did get the cabinets painted and my dresser painted.  I am waiting to get new handles for it now and to finish getting the curtains up. I will post pics throughout the week of my progress.

Laundry room inspiration

I'm going to try to get some things done in my laundry room/office this weekend.

Here's my To Do list.

1. I'm going to paint my built in cabinets green I think.  
2. Paint the counter tops white and seal it. (buy some sealer)
3. Buy curtain rods.
4. Put curtain rods up.
5. Wash curtains.  
6. Hem curtains.
7. Hang curtains!
8. Get white knobs from my friend.
9. Build a built in shelf around the washer and dryer.
10. Paint the top of the room white (Where the gray boards are)
11. Paint all trim white
12. Knock out window and replace with french doors.
13. Put bamboo shades on french doors.

Well that's enough for now, I didn't realize the list would be so long.  I am going to try to accomplish 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 this weekend.

I took the cabinet doors off of my built in cabinets and am going to replace it with a curtain like in this laundry area.

I like how the cabinets are green.

I would  love to get something like this to put on the wall over my washer and dryer to hang my clothes on.

This one is really nice!

Last but not least, a white laundry room.

Sweet!

It's nice having a huge laundry room with cabinet top space to fold the clothes and store everything in.  I've never had a huge laundry room like this before.  The other half of my room I use as my office. I spend the most amount of time in this room since I work from home.  I won't even show you how unorganized my office area is, but I am going to be working on getting it all organized, too!

When they advertised this house, they advertised this room as the laundry slash office room.  It really is a multi-functional room, there is also a built in desk where I'm going to put my sewing machine and start sewing some things myself.  I need to go find the instruction manual first! Ha!

One day far in the future after I retire and am no longer using this room as an office, I would love to convert it to a dining room.  I would rip out the built ins and put a built in around the washer & dryer to hide them.  I could also turn it into a sun room because it has a ton of windows, there is hardly any wall space for the windows taking up all the room.

Do you have a multi-functional room? What do you use it as?

drapes, dresser, flowers

Look what I found in the mail yesterday!  Five pair of curtains from Ikea... woohoo!  My awesome best friend down in Florida found these at her Ikea for me and mailed them to me.

I'm putting 4 of them in my office/laundry room and the other pair in my guest room. I already have one pair hanging in the guest room and needed the matching set for the other window.  Now I need to go buy curtain rods for the office and hem 3 of the curtains.

Here is what they look like up, they are called Vivan and are $9.99 each.

I started priming a dresser for  my bedroom yesterday.  This use to be my dresser back in the 90's, I had it painted hunter green. Remember the hunter green trend? lol  It seems like my friend that sent me the curtains originally gave me this, when I received it, it was black, it has so many coats of paint on it! I can see where it was once painted pale yellow, too.  Anyway, I am painting it white.

I'm still working on my ladder back chairs.  As soon as I get the roping removed off of the other chair and sanded and stained, I am taking it to someone I found to restring the seats for me.

And last but not least, look what else I found yesterday!!!  

Life!! Color!! Flowers!!

In my back yard, well, around the perimeter of  my yard, not sure if they are my neighbors or mine, but they are so pretty.  There are a ton of them planted along the perimeter of my property and over in my neighbors yard.  It's going to be beautiful after they all bloom.

Spring is in 2 days.
March 20th
:)

Farm House Inspiration

I bought the magazine Flea Market Style and there is the most amazing farmhouse in it!  I can not stop looking at these pictures.  Thought I would share them with you.

So adorable. I love love old houses.

New Old coffee table redo

The coffee table is 95% done.  I still want to put some sort of final coat on it to seal it. It's just stained wood on top at the moment.

Here is the coffee table in my living room.

And if you remember, here is what the coffee table looked like to begin with before I did anything to it.

BEFORE

Here is the coffee table after much sanding, stripping, painting, staining, hammering, etc.

AFTER

Here is the detail.

I tried to distress the table some. I hammered and nailed spots onto the top and I took sandpaper and scissors and scraped some of the white paint off the bottom.

Here is how I refinished the coffee table. I did not follow any guidelines or research how to refinish this, but  I will do things a little different next time.

• Put varnish remover on the top part, scrape off all varnish
• Sand the top down to the wood where there is  no stain or anything
• hammered and roughed up the top some to distress it
• Applied dark walnut colored stain to top
• Lightly sanded the bottom part
• Used a primer
• Removed the wood that was attached to the legs
• Painted 2 coats of Olympic Delicate White

Next time I will put some poly on the sanded wood before I stain so it will not absorb so dark into the wood and will go on more even.  I will put the varnish remover on much thicker so I won't have to keep going back and stripping it so many times.  Will be prepared with the correct type of sandpaper grit next time, too.

I think the coffee table now fits perfect into the look of my living room.