Table Of Content
But the biggest change by far is the eight foot opening that we added to connect the dining room and kitchen (more on that project here and here). Moving these bookshelves upstairs also allows us to use them for even more office storage than we had before, which is great! Combined with the console that we added to the TV part of the room (more on that here – it houses all of our games and photo albums and sentimental stuff) this big box of a room now has a lot of great storage for us, which you know is my love language. Your home shouldn’t just look pretty, it should make your life easier.
Ways We Upgraded Our Bedroom
Feels so sad to have Christmas without him, and our tree is covered with Burger ornaments too. If you’re one of those people who likes to “walk” through a space to get your bearings, you can also get a feel for the whole kitchen in this video. I LOVE how you can catch a glimpse out at the kitchen porch, and the ending makes me laugh. Then we added a large iron outdoor lantern, built a pergola (cargola?), and bought in some potted plants for more interest and architecture.
Update #1: Bringing These Bookshelves Up From The Kitchen
We essentially were lacking a nice channel in the ceiling to get efficient functional central air to every room of our house like we thought we could. We had used these two large bookcases in the kitchen as a makeshift pantry before we added one (they’re Fjalkinge bookshelves from Ikea, and you add the drawers a la cart). You can see our glorious kitchen pantry update here and learn how we earned much more storage, deeper drawers, a place for the microwave off the counter, and a cabinet over the fridge. We lightened things up and added a welcoming cheerful vibe by painting the floor (in subtle tan and cream stripes) and creating a functional seating area (we even added a little dog corner for Burger). Our first house evolved over four and a half years of blood, sweat, tears, and sledgehammering.
Adding Ikea Floating Shelves In Our Bedroom
As for how we like our sofa after owning it for over 3 years, the verdict is that we love it. I haven’t even had to shave any pills or anything with my furniture shaver. It’s holding up extremely well, especially considering that we have two kids who watch TV upside down on it – and had a little pillow crushing dog who took great pleasure in making temporary pillow dents as his part-time job. We found it at Pottery Barn Kids a while back I think. And thanks to three recent changes this room has stepped it up even more in the storage/efficiency category. So let’s get into those three updates, more photos, and a video walk-through (which also gives you a peek at our firepit area as well as our brand new kitchen deck!).
The Best Design Podcasts to Stream - Apartment Therapy
The Best Design Podcasts to Stream.
Posted: Wed, 02 Sep 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Here’s the hall bath that’s back near the other three bedrooms. We loved that it was so similar to the original full bath in our first house (and the tile was luckily in much better shape). We immediately hung an extra long shower curtain to add height and lighten things up in this beige-on-beige room, but then we stalled for about 15 months.
Here’s a similar view now of this side, all cleaned up, and no longer slowly growing any fuzzy stuff along the top edge where that wood wall treatment meets the ceiling. All of the too-damp drywall needed replacing, but thankfully that wood wall just needed some scrubbing (and no moisture had collected behind it and molded – which was a small miracle!). We essentially used the other half of the room for an office/art/workspace for us and the kids, which has worked out really well. Following their examples, I once hung bamboo blinds above a window (so not blocking the window at all when fully open) to make the window look nicer and bigger. And after listening to each episode you can find photos, info, and links for each one on our Podcast Show Notes page. Over by the TV there’s a little dough bowl of shiny pink and silver ornaments for some added sparkle (here’s a similar whitewashed dough bowl).
How We Got Our Stained Grout White Again
Slowly we added some organization thanks to renting a bag-like dumpster to get rid of lots of junk, painting and framing out the pegboards, hanging some sawdust-proof art, and organizing the insane collection of paint that we amassed. There’s a separate entry basement under the living room which started out pretty messy. It’s so much more open without dark cabinetry everywhere. The eight foot opening to the new dining room wasn’t there yet (but from the very first day that we saw the house, we knew we wanted to add it). Here’s a view I realized you probably don’t see often since I was sort of limbo-ing back over the stair balcony to get this shot.
Like a Phoenix: PW Talks with Mary Kay Andrews - Publishers Weekly
Like a Phoenix: PW Talks with Mary Kay Andrews.
Posted: Mon, 20 May 2013 07:00:00 GMT [source]
That woven basket under the chair on the right of the kids’ desk is this room’s trash bin. As you can imagine it gets filled with about 318 paper cuttings and snack bags and band-aids each week. In plant news, they all love it up here since this room is full of light. Highly recommend one of these neon pothos to hang off any and all bookcases in your home.
Painting A Closet Door Pink & Raindrops On The Wall
Then we painted the walls, hung art, framed out the mirror, DIYed a window shade, and added some accessories (more details on those projects here). Our total budget for this room’s upgrade was just $168. Last year we got a mini real tree for upstairs in the family room as well as putting up our skinny faker (that’s what I affectionately call this tree right here) in the bedroom. But this year we had a more central spot for our main tree… right in the nook our new pantry created in the kitchen, which can be enjoyed a ton of the time. So I think it eliminated our urge to add a secondary little tree upstairs (you can see all the photos of how we decorated the house last year in this post).
For example, I loved the story about the spontaneous gratitude song! Given that the pandemic is dragging on, hearing about how you navigate home and family life, smaller scale decor or cooking projects, stuff you are digging and game segments, would be awesome! Here’s the bathroom after we did a bunch of little upgrades (from painting the trim and the walls to replacing the light, toilet, some border tile, and frosting the window). And here’s our bedroom after we got a new bed, switched out the light fixture, hung some free DIY art, got a new rug, made a headboard, repainted it for a moodier vibe and upholstered old side tables to make benches for the foot of the bed.
I love this so much I’m advocating that we leave it up year-round. It’s so glowy and beautiful at night, and we get to enjoy it from our front door and window when we’re eating dinner or hanging out in the sitting room in the evening. We decided that building our own 300 square foot paver patio would make much better use of the space. All of the hard work paid off and we loved our little patio for casual weekends and even for Clara’s annual party (you can read about the process of laying the patio here). We later added a privacy fence, built a rock box for Clara, planted some hydrangeas, and got some red adirondack chairs.
We replaced it with a curvy cobblestone patio that’s a lot easier on the eyes (and the feet). Adding some soft landscaping around the edge, bringing in some outdoor furnishings, and making a fire pit completed the overhaul. And in case that moved too fast for ya, here’s a still shot of our dining room as seen in the book (along with all of the details about how we got there).
Here’s the guest room after we upgraded the light fixture, painted the walls and trim, made a window treatment, hung some art, painted the mirror darker, and added some fun accessories (you can find more details on all of that here). One of our favorite neutral wall colors of all time is Edgecomb Gray, which you see in at least four different rooms in our home, so here is a post we wrote all about why we love it so much. You can also find more top greige paint colors loved by experts. And here’s the back hallway after we added board and batten, painted the walls a soft gray color, switched out the light fixture & doorbell, and hung some inexpensive calendar art.
We hung some breezy white curtains in each corner and ripped up that old rug to reveal the concrete flooring underneath- which we painted a rich chocolate color to work with the mocha flooring throughout the rest of the house. Then for fun we added a playful stencil and painted the ceiling blue like the sky. And here it is after we painted the walls a nice sandy tone, went glossy white with the trim (and even added crown molding) to create a space that could easily sleep two people. Making our own art and upholstering the headboard ourselves saved us some serious dough. Oh and outside John had fun wrapping this tree with lights (these are similar warm white exterior lights).
And that, my friends, is how you end up with three different heating and cooling systems in a 1400 square foot, six room house. This is the living room after we painted the walls, painted the trim, painted the beams, built a console table for behind the sectional (see it all accessorized here), hung some subtle patterned curtains, and brought in a new rug, ottoman, and desk chair. We also got a larger media cabinet and built a leaning chalkboard along with adding some overhead lighting. And here’s the office after we added a built-in double desk that spans from wall to wall (it only set us back $125 thanks to some $6 thrift store cabinets).
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