House Tour: Bathroom

In a continuation of the house tour (nursery here, kitchen here) next up is the bathroom. It's done in a brown, green and white color scheme. Towel, shower curtain and rug are all from Walmart's Home Trend's Marmon collection (hey it was cheap and available in my town. I needed a shower curtain stat!). This is the only room we repainted in the house so far. Ironically, it was the only room not brown and the one I wanted that way! We painted it with leftover paint the previous owners left in the basement (there are seriously at least 15 cans of paint down there!) I apologize for the pics, the light is not the greatest in here with only one window.

View from the doorway:Closeup of the art (bought for $1 at Target on clearance):

Picture behind the door (frame with insert from Menards, pics of Maddy):

Shower curtain and rug:

Better view of the shower curtain:

The window (the only one!) towel hanger and shelf above the toilet:


A head-on pic of the shelf (shelf from Hobby Lobby (had it for years) fabric lined baskets are from Joanne's):

Mirror and vanity (was like this when we moved in):

Bottom of vanity:

Sorry it looks pretty yellow in this pic. Finally, the view looking out the door (here you can see the door to the storage closet:


So, that's the bathroom! Hopefully, I can get my living room and bedroom in order to show you soon. (The third bedroom/office is a lost cause for now, as well as the basement). I am planning on showing off the outside of the house as well.

Happy Crafting!

House Tour: Kitchen

I'm attempting to give you a tour of my home as I get rooms put together. Which is going slower than I want, but oh well. I've already posted the nursery. Today I'm showing off my kitchen. It looks okay for now, but in the future, we plan on redoing it. Just a warning, this post is picture and word heavy!My kitchen has red, white and hints of turquoise in it. The walls were actually all painted these colors by the previous owners. It happens to work with our stuff, so we left it for now.

Here's the view coming in from the living room:The table is covered in a vintage table cloth. I recovered the chairs right before we moved.

Closeup of the centerpiece:
Footed cake plate is part of the china we got for our wedding (The Sophie Conran for Portmeirion Collection). Red and turquoise plates are melamine from Walmart. The vase is something I've had forever and is a nice blue green color. Gerber daisy is from my garden.

The cupboard in the corner:

My mom added the paintable wallpaper to the door panels. I use it to store liquor on the top shelf and various seldom used appliances in the rest (like the blender!). On top is an Eiffel tower statue my mom got me a long time ago. The turquoise urn I got a A & W Furniture here in town. I put some red candles with it to complete the vignette.

Here's the wall next to the table:

I got the red rattan shelf at a garage sale. It was already painted that color. The Paris sign is from Hobby Lobby. My mom gave me the stars. The candles actually light up, but the plug ins aren't in the right spot, so I just tucked the cords behind for now. I need to put more blue ball jars like the one on top in here.

This picture shows the view from the windows:

That is our deck. Eventually, we would like to put french doors in here so you don't have to go all the way through the garage to get to the deck and yard.

Here's the view opposite the brown wall (which is mostly just the back of the cupboards):

The words are metal from Hobby Lobby.

Here's the side of the cupboards and the stove:

Please ignore the dishwasher hanging out here. It's a new stainless steel one that we are getting put in this Thursday. I hung the canvas of Big Ben here to make it more interesting and to cover up the outdated cupboards. You can also see the bottles I have hanging in the window pretty good in this picture.

A more direct view of the cupboards and stove:

Eventually, we are going to rip out this upper cupboard and move the stove against the wall to make more room in here. I am thinking one of these days that I'm going to paint the cupboards. I'm not sure what color yet. I don't think I can go white or off white, as the counter top is white. What do you think? I do need to change the hardware out for sure!

Here's the sink:

You might remember the book page frame. I thought it looked nice here.

Here's more counter space and cupboards:

A few appliances (mixer and toaster), knife block and misc. veggies! You can see the dishwasher (old one) is below. I got the cookbook stand at Crafts Direct (love that store!).

Opposite the sink is a wall of cupboards and my fridge (sorry for the blurry pic!):

The fridge is a mess from my nieces and nephew (Maddy is too young for the alphabet magnets!). The Casablanca canvas is from Gordman's.

Here's the corner by the doorway to the living room:

Please ignore the mess in the living room! We made a little wine corner here with the wine fridge and bottle/glass display. When we finish the basement, all bar related stuff will go down there.

Above the doorway:

The shelf used to be that gaudy 70's gold color (yay spray paint!).

An extra:


I plan on incorporating this blue-green hobnail lampshade (garage sale find, 75 cents!) somewhere. I'm just not sure where yet.

So that's my kitchen. If I get any more rooms cleaned this week, I'll be showing them off.

Happy Crafting!

Nursery Revealed!

Today is the day I am revealing the nursery. Be prepared for lots of pictures. If you have any questions about anything, please ask! I wanted to do a color scheme of yellow and gray. There are some hints of pink and green for contrast.

The walls were painted with Kilz in Castle. The stripe around the walls is Valspar, but I'm not sure the exact name of the color as it got painted over on the can. I cut the design out of stencil material with a cricut and stenciled over the yellow with leftover Castle.

Closeup of the wall detail:

Here's the view from the doorway. I recovered the rocker with new fabric, but otherwise left it as is (It still needs trim around the edges of the upholstery fabric, I haven't found anything that matches yet!) The rug is not part of the room scheme. I just threw something I had down to protect the floor until I find one (or make one) that I like.
Closeup of the rocker:

Here's the corner with the crib. The window art I made is hanging in this corner. The quilt I made from various yellow, gray and black fabrics I collected. I made the crib sheet as well. The skirt underneath the crib is a thrift store find. I bought two sets of large curains, valances and a bedspread made of yellow eyelet lace all for $2.50! One of the curtains fit perfectly just draped on the springs under the mattress. Easiest no sew project ever! The one thing I did not make was the bumper. That my Mom purchased for us.

This banner hangs on the wall above the crib. My mom made the pennants from scrapbook paper. Maddy's name is made from vinyl letters cut on the cricut. Mom used it for a decoration at the shower. I just glued each pennant on a yellow grossgrain ribbon and stretched it between two nails in the wall. I thought it added a nice pop of accent colors to the room.

This is the side of the room opposite the crib. My mom refinished the dresser and added bird and branch vinyl cutouts to each drawer. I purchased a changing pad for the top and sewed a cover using some leftover quilt fabric and some super soft fuzzy pink material I had in my stash. Next to the dresser is a cheap bookcase for storage. I'm using another thrift store find (a really big square scarf/shawl) to cover the ugliness for now. On top, sits the lamp I redid.


Above the changing station area, I used these cute drawer knobs I found in Michaels for a $1 each as a way to hang up more artwork. Each knob is slightly different. So far, I only have something on the middle knob. I've had this Creative Memories frame since we got married. I am planning on making a cute layout with some pics of all three of us, but haven't gotten that far yet.

My mom found this super cute owl night light at an auction. The outside was originally brown, but I just spraypainted it black. The moon lights up. How cute is that!

There are still a few more things I want to do in here yet. I have a large shelf I want to paint to put up in the corner above the rocker to put picture frames and knickknacks on. I want to find some kind of large toy chest for when she actually starts to play with toys that I can put in the bottom of the closet. And I think the closet needs another shelf.

Other than that, this has been a great project and I'm so happy with how everything turned out! It's a great room for Maddy to grow up in. Hopefully, I won't have to paint it again for quite awhile! I hope you enjoyed the tour! I will be bringing you some more crafting projects this week. I am planning on giving tours of more rooms in the new house as they get "finished." Next up will probably be the living room.

Happy Crafting!

Recovered Dining Room Chairs

I've managed to get a few project done between having the baby and moving. One of those things is recovering the dining room chairs. We got a great deal on our dining set, which included a china hutch, buffet, table with 2 leaves and 6 chairs. Everything's made out of really nice dark wood. The only problem was the fabric on the chairs. It was white! So, in a step towards getting my red, white and turquoise dining room, I recovered the chairs with a red and white floral pattern.

Here's the before:Oh the stains! Here's the after:Please ignore the boxes and all the mess. We finally moved on Saturday and haven't really had time to unpack yet. I will be taking pics of the new house and posting them as soon as I get some order in this chaos!

I actually got the fabric at Walmart. It's cotton duck and stain resistant. I couldn't believe my good luck! To recover them, I simply unscrewed the four screws holding on the seat. I did this the lazy way and just put the new fabric right over the old stuff. I cut the fabric roughly to shape, pulled it tight and stapled gunned the hell out of it. That's it! Then screw the seat back on and you have brand new looking chairs!

I hope to be able to post pics of the house next week.

Happy Crafting!

Inspiration Board: Bedroom

Time for a new inspiration board for our new house! This time it's the master bedroom. I have had a blue and yellow color scheme in our bedroom for quite some time. However, I'm excited to "spruce up" the decorations by adding in some new things. First, I want to give you an idea of what I already have. I have a collection of cobalt blue bottles similar to these (only antique):*Source

I also have a few yellow pottery pieces. Both collections can be seen in this post. I'll need a rug, as all three bedrooms in the house have hardwood floors. Here's a few I like:*Source

*Source

Here's a great option for bedside table lamps:
*Source

Here's some overall room designs:
*Source

*Source

The more inspiration boards I put together, the more I want to decorate. I can't wait to get started!

Happy Crafting!

Inspiration Board: Kitchen

So for the next week or so, I'm going to be making up inspiration boards for decorating the new house. I finally get to paint and I am super excited!

This first board is for the kitchen. I already have started putting red and white in the kitchen we have now. I've always wanted to do the red and turquoise color scheme somewhere. Then I thought why not do that color scheme in the kitchen? I was thinking of doing it in mostly red and white with turquoise accents here and there. One of the walls in the new kitchen is already painted red.

I just realized that my dishes fit in perfectly with the scheme. (Why did I not think of this before!) Here's what those look like:
*These are from the Sophie Conran for Portmeirion Collection in celedon. I might have to consider glass front cabinets some day!

Here's some inspiration:

A retro looking take on the color scheme:*Source

A great table setting:
I love this rug idea using upholstery webbing and binding:

*Source for both

I do have a deck off the kitchen and this set from Crate and Barrel looks great!*Source

I also love this rug:
*Source

Wouldn't this look pretty on the table?:*Source

I can't wait to get started on decorating my new house! I will be doing more inspiration boards for the new house as time allows. How soon I'll actually decorate those rooms is another story!

Happy Crafting!

More Good News

The good news keeps rolling out today! In the midst of having a baby this last month, D and I were contacted by the sellers of the house we were going to buy before the rug got pulled out from under us by the bank. It turns out they are desperate to sell this house to us. So, long story short, we negotiated with them to purchase the home on a Contract for Deed. (I'm a lawyer, so I know what that means, but here's the best quickie definition I've found for it.) In a nutshell, it means we are getting a house! :) I'm so happy. Because I can't resist, here's two very bad quality pics from the listing:

Front:
Back:I guess this will be another happy chapter to add to Through the Wringer! Although looking back, I guess it's been more like up and down the roller coaster! ;)

I never got too much done to spruce up our rental home due to having the baby. And now, as of May 21st, I will be busy sprucing up our new home. I can't wait. I need to go start picking out paint colors and buying rugs for the bedrooms ( all 3 have hardwood floors!). I'll be sharing stuff as we go. We probably won't tackle any big projects (like finishing the basement or rearranging the kitchen) this first year, but those are things that are on our list to do in the future.

Be prepared to see some inspiration boards worked up very soon!

Happy Crafting!