Office / Craft Room Reveal

Well, I didn't make any money on our office / craft room makeover like I did with our Guest Room Makeover, but we didn't spend too much money making updating it. If you missed that makeover, you can find it HERE .

We painted our office back in May. I waited  to show you the reveal because I hadn't found any drapery panels that I liked. I ordered some from Target when I found the Guest Room curtains, but, I didn't really like them.

I was at HomeGoods a couple of weeks ago and found a couple that were perfect and Mr. DIY installed a new curtain rod for me. I also found a new bulletin board at HomeGoods on the same trip that I found the curtains. 

But, lets start at the Before:

From Blah to Beautiful: Master Bedroom Re-Reveal

Our Master Bedroom is finished...
It's amazing how a few colorful accessories will make the room so much better when you're decorating a space.
It's also surprising to me that I did all of this in a week! 
When I'm looking for something, it usually takes me forever to find something I like, but I lucked out!

On Monday...

Planning For Resale

We are planning for to put our house up for sale soon and have a few makeovers to do around our house. We've been planning on downsizing for several years and we think it might as well be this year sometime. 

The first room is we need to work on is our master bath. Our house being nearly 15 years, old could use a few updates. We will paint and redo the shower surround with tile and have a frameless glass door installed.We haven't quite nailed down exactly what colors and materials yet, but I sure do love the little glass and stone rectangular mosaic tiles we found at Lowe's.

Here's what the bathroom looks like now, with a few years of wear and tear on it. That brass framed shower has got to go as it has seen better days. Besides new tile in the shower, we plan on replacing the faucets, showerhead and vanity light. The Master Bathroom will be our biggest expense. 

Our Master Bedroom needs new paint too. The dark brown paint is showing wear, scuff marks, chips, etc., and it's time for a fresh color. 

Quite a few diy Design Fanatic Facebook followers loved this color in my mock up. I think we will paint the Master Bedroom a light neutral greige and leave the color for the adjoining bathroom. 

Last week I  showed you how we replaced the broken blinds with these Roman Shades and inexpensive Vivan curtains from Ikea. Nothing else needs to be done in here since we just updated the paint a few years ago. 

We've also gave the laundry room a little update, as well. We've painted the room with Rainwashed by Sherwin Williams but still plan on painting the cabinets with Annie Sloan chalk paint. 

I thought it would be good to update our Guest Room since it's the first bedroom a buyer will see once upstairs. The paint still looks good, but we plan to lighten things up by changing out the furniture and add some Vivan curtains instead of the black ones. I figured that if we sell the existing furniture, which we found at an estate sale and Craigslist and use some existing furniture we have in other parts of the house, this makeover will bring in $400  when we sell the furniture! 
Sounds pretty good to me! (if you deduct what we paid for the furniture, curtains and supplies, the net amount might be closer to $0, but at least the sale of the items will cover the cost of the reno)

The last space we would like to paint is the basement Family Room and Bathroom. Basements can always benefit from lighter and brighter paint, even if it is a walk out basement with lots of windows. We may or may not get to this room.

Along with all the painting and redecorating, Mr. DIY is caulking all the windows. making repairs and replacing a few window sashes. The list is LONG! Of course, we won't be doing all of these projects ourselves and will be hiring others to help us out.

While we're doing all of this, we will be working on the kitchen reno at the Mountain Cottage, which we are starting this weekend. I'm pretty sure this reno is going to take many months, especially with all that needs to be done at our home.

I guess that's our project list for the year, until, of course, we find another house that needs some work! 

Pam

A Good Source For Pillow Covers

Shhhhhhhh, don't tell anybody...

...even though I can diy my own pillow covers 
aka sew, 

I don't always do it. 
Especially when I find a source that has really pretty pillow covers that I love for $13.99.  I could probably make pillow covers for about $6-$10, depending on the fabric, but for me, the extra cost is worth my time and trouble because even though 

I KNOW how to sew,

 I don't LIKE to sew. 

I always end up sewing something the wrong way and end up ripping at least one seam out. 

Anybody feel the same way?

I found the pillow covers online over at Very Jane (jane.com~ sorry no link)  and ordered them for our youngest daughter's room. But, silly me, she wants to change her colors to indigo, not this pretty shade of blue. I realized they were the wrong color for her room when they arrived, but thought they'd look good on our grey sofa. 

Problem is, I only ordered two and our daughter isn't really happy with all of the "mismatched" pillows in our Family Room. 

So, I ordered 2 more and now she's happy that we have "matched" pillows. 

Couldn't resist picking up this little heart shaped ivy topiary at Trader Joe's yesterday. 

It looks perfect next to the sofa  with my new pillow covers. 

The ikat fabric on one of the pillows has a great texture to it. 

Regarding Very Jane, even though this isn't a sponsored post and I'm not an affiliate, I still wanted to spread the word. They offer daily deals for really good prices. 

If you miss the deal, you're out of luck. 

They do offer pillow covers quite often though, but they may or may not be the same style. 

In the past, I've purchased 20 x 20 down pillow inserts from Ikea for $6.99. Unfortunately, they are only available on the West Coast. Wish I had purchased a dozen more for that price!

Would love to know if you have an inexpensive source for down pillow inserts! Otherwise, my big suitcase is going to be packed full of them when we visit SoCal in July. 

Pam

joining: 

Savvy Southern Style

How I Found My Style

Awhile back Pamela over at From My Porch To Yours featured me awhile back on How I Found My Style and I thought I'd share it with all of you, as well. 

My style seems to be changing now and I'm still finding my style. My home is in a state of transition with our oldest having moved out a few years ago and our youngest will be graduating from college in two years or so. 
 Soon we will be empty nesters in a three story house. 

We're in the process of changing things up a bit, so our home will look totally different in a couple of years...

We might even be starting over in a new house with a blank slate....and then....oh the possibilities! 

My Foyer represents my style at the moment...a little vintage, a little classic and not too cluttered.  

Sometimes I'll change up the chairs with new acquisitions. 

The seasons of life have influenced my style:

Before children...

..that was back in the late 80's and early 90's, (yep, I'm that old) back when everything was traditional and very formal, we purchased a few nice pieces for our bedroom, dining room and living room.  Everything I picked out was 18th Century Chippendale.

Maybe one of these days I might paint the china cabinet I picked up on Craigslist a few years ago. It's the matching cabinet to the Thomasville dining set I bought way back in the 90's. I can't remember how much I paid (a couple hundred dollars), but it was a lot less than if I had purchased it new.  We bought the table and chairs for 50% off retail from a company in North Carolina from an ad in Southern Living. 
lol. 
That was BEFORE the internet. How did we live before the world wide web???

Our first sofa before kids was a high end champagne color damask sofa in our formal living room. 

I just heard all of you with young children groan.

You just know what happened to those cushions when we had our first child...

I managed to find a slipcover and we kept it for many years after that.

A few years ago I finally broke down and bought an inexpensive sofa to get us through the teenage years. Maybe someday we'll get a nice sofa again.

Our Family Room is pretty eclectic with our original 18th century Chippendale reproduction coffee table being the only traditional piece in the room. 

Our bedroom is still pretty formal with the classic wood dresser and armoire, but has a vintage teak chest that's a family heirloom, a couple of Craigslist and new finds, as well as Ikea curtains thrown in the mix.  

While our children were young and even into their early teens, my style became a little more practical..

I'm not sure my style changed at all during that time as my attention  turned to one of my loves....digging in the dirt.

I LOVE gardening and spent a lot of time outside with my husband creating a park like yard. We  started with a large, almost acre lot filled with overgrown, vine infested woods and 22 shrubs from the builder.

Here are a few photos of our transformed garden:

My husband installed a cobblestone patio just inside the woods off the path to the creek. This photo was taken several years ago.

Here's the view of the garden from our deck. This picture was taken last March just as the leaves were starting to emerge. We had just put down fresh mulch. 

Oh how I love Spring in the garden.
Mulch makes yard work a little easier,  I wrote about it HERE.

Looking at these photos of the garden make me "Spring sick". All of this COLD weather makes me long for Spring.

Back  inside...

My Breakfast Room was one of my least favorite rooms before we made a few changes. A couple of years ago, we lightened up the paint to a more neutral color,  found a great little round table on Craigslist for $100 and hung some long $24 per window, white Ikea curtains. 

Now the Breakfast Room is my favorite space to decorate for holidays and set up for parties.

Basic Breakfast Room:

Dressed for Spring:(only 53 more days!)

and my favorite: decorated for Christmas!

Our oldest daughter's room was painted a few months ago to a more neutral color. We retrofitted the armoire for her, which was of course, a Craigslist find. You can see the inside of the armoire HERE. 

We love to DIY and one of my favorite diy projects of all time is the Bookcase Makeover we did for our youngest daughter's room.

I found some really ugly stained pine bookcases on ~ you guessed it...Craigslist and had my husband build up the top and bottom. After making the design changes, we painted the outside a bright white. Our daughter chose the interior color. 

I love it when projects turn out so well. 

 I guess my style is eclectic; traditional lines with some vintage and classic modern additions. 

Whatever style it is, the most important thing to us is that it's comfortable. 

A place where family can sit down and relax and put their feet up. 

So, what's your style now or what is your dream style~ as in when your kids get a little order? 

Pam

What To Do With An Extra Bedroom

Our oldest daughter moved to Southern California more than a year ago. 
We already have a guest room and a bonus room...and a basement, so we really don't need an extra room for anything.

Don't hate me.

Here's what our daughter's room looked like when she lived here, although the floor was covered with all of her clothes.

Just keepin' it real.

Here's what her room looked like when she left. It stayed like this for awhile, then I moved the dresser downstairs to the foyer. 

I keep tablecloths, napkins and placemats in the dresser. 

 I found a new coverlet at HomeGoods and bought a bedskirt online and the extra bedroom looked very plain for a long time.

The dark purple curtains are great for making the room really dark when you want to sleep in, but I wanted to make the room a little brighter without having to paint. Maybe we'll tackle that  project sometime in the future.

I bought some white curtains and hooks from Ikea an put the sheer white up.

I changed out the lamp with one that was in our youngest daughter's room.

Our youngest didn't use her down comforter, so it ended up in this room, as well.

Here's the room after the curtains, comforter and lamp. My daughter's friends always sleep in here when they stay over.

Hope you had a nice weekend.

I think I'm finally getting a little energy back. At least I had a little last night.

 It's a good thing because things are really piling up around here.

If you had an extra room in your house, what would you do with it? Would love to know.

Pam

Joining:
Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday

Between Naps On The Porch for Metamorphosis Monday

Decorating A Master Bedroom On A Budget

I don't know about you, but I don't have enough money lying around to decorate an entire Master Bedroom all at once. Furniture, bedding, linens, pillows, window treatments and lamps can really add up.  It has taken a lot of time to get our bedroom to where it  is today.  It's good to have an idea of how you want your room to function and how you want it to look before you start purchasing items. 

It has taken us many years to get to where we are, but the search for needed items is fun, especially when you find a great item at an awesome price!

Here's how our Master Bedroom looked a few years ago. I couldn't find a photo of it before I made the curtains, the (Craiglist find) chair and the mirrored nightstands (TJ Maxx).

Our bedroom now looks like this, but it's taken time and a few change ups to get this way.

The blue pillows in the before photo were taken off  and I found some "Mad Hatter" lamps at HomeGoods.

Here, a little rug was added because I  didn't want the carpet to wear out and the beige matelasse cover was replaced with a white one. The gold pillows and the heavy comforter were removed, as well.

A little more change with the bedskirt changed to a white one, a new, larger rug and a small ottoman was added. I think I found the cotton bedskirt online.

Finally, we get to where it is today with new Lenda curtains from Ikea. Did you notice that the curtain rods were raised?

Even after all this time blogging, Mr. Fanatic questioned the height of the rod being so high above the window. Really?

The only reason the curtains were so low before was because I  shorted myself on fabric when I purchased it. I made the curtains as long as I could with the amount of fabric I had.

 LOL. Love the paper shredder next to the nightstand.

As you can see, I still need to hem the curtains. They come overlocked and  you hem them to the length you need. For all of you who don't sew, they also give include hem tape in the package. I'm not even going to take the curtains down when I sew them. Will just bring my sewing machine downstairs and put it on a little table and sew away. 

 Speaking of changing needs...The little ottoman is great, however, I plan to take it apart and make it so things can  be stored it. Mr. Fanatic has a little habit of making a nest in that corner with all his cords and magazines,(even though there's a basket beside the chair). I might as well make a washable slipcover for the chair while I'm at it.

Here's the breakdown of where I found everything in my Master Bedroom. I hope I don't offend anyone listing the  price. The only expensive things in the room are the dresser and armoire, which were purchased at 40% off. These were bought before we had kids and had a lot more disposable income!

Mirrored nightstands: TJ Maxx (apx $139 each)

Floor Lamp: HomeGoods ($59)

Chair: Craigslist($100)

Ottoman: Pier 1($30)

Sea Grass Rug: HomeGoods ($29)

Mad Hatter Lamps: Marshall's ($29 each)

Bedskirt: Online ($39?)

Artwork over the bed: Steinmart 

Large mirror over dresser: Bombay ($?)

Lenda Curtain Panels: Ikea ($19.99 for 2 panels) I used 3 panels(2 sets)

Armoire & Dresser: Drexel Heritage (purchased many years ago, 40% off)

Matelasse cover, rectangular pillow, sheets: HomeGoods

Inner Down Pillows: Ikea (6.99 each)

Square pillow covers: Etsy ($15 each)

Misc. accessories: TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods

Antique chest: wedding present from my uncle to my parents

Little bookcase to the left of the chair: Mr. Fanatic made it

Paint is Warm Earth (satin finish) by Behr

It all adds up, doesn't it?

How do you decorate on a budget?

Pam