Family room

Our family room has undergone some changes recently. This is what it looked like when we moved in:

And here it is now: 

The only major things we changed about this room (besides adding our furniture and decorating) are we painted it (Wheat Bread by Behr), we got new white faux wood blinds in the three windows, and we painted the trim. 

I just recently purchased these curtain panels from IKEA, for a total of only $20. They're thin and sheer, but perfect for this room. I love the back tabs. 

The dresser is one I've had since childhood that I added new knobs to. It holds table linens and lots of serving pieces. Above it is what I like to refer to as our "mantle". It is a beautiful piece of cedar from Aaron's mom's property that I added some metal brackets to. 

It has an old mirror I've repainted a few times (currently gray), a succulent and pot from IKEA, some gardening books, three votive candleholders with quatrefoil cutouts from the thrift store that I spray painted, and a capiz picture frame I got on clearance at Marshall's.

I love the raw edge on the shelf, you can see it in this picture. 

The vase on the dresser was hard to photograph because it is all white, but I absolutely love the texture. When I found it the other day at my favorite thrift store, it looked like this: 

 It was $12.50, and like I said, I loved the texture so much. It reminded me of the very popular hive vase from West Elm. I sprayed it white, and I'm happy with the find. I've been on the hunt for some accessories for the dresser for a while, and I love how it is a little larger scale than the usual things I find.

Retiling the Backsplash: Demolition and Cement Board

Last weekend, we jumped in headfirst into a big kitchen project... retiling our backsplash! We had always planned on replacing the current backsplash with subway tiles, but at Costco one day we randomly happened upon this gorgeous glass and marble mosaic tile at an amazing price. I've never ever thought I would like any glass/mosaic tiles enough for our own kitchen backsplash, but I am so in love with this tile. We made the decision to go for it after Costco came out with a huge markdown coupon. We got each box of 5 square feet for $21, so it was about $4.20 a square foot. 

The first step was to demo the current backsplash. We knew that the tile would be adhered to drywall, and that we wanted to try to save it, but soon we figured out that was not possible. Oh well, we knew that installing cement board would be economical and would prevent mold, as well as make it easier for someone to take down this tile and redo in the future. 

After we cut off the power and removed the electrical stuff, Aaron used an arsenal of tools to get that tile down. I'm not really sure he used one favorite technique, but he used a grout saw, beat on a chisel with a mallet, and used a crowbar. 

Once we got all of that tile and drywall out, we made a detailed diagram with every measurement we would need. 

Then we went to Home Depot and purchased cement backerboard, the proper screws for that, and a carbide-tipped blade. The YouTube videos make the "score and snap" method look so easy, but we had quite a bit more trouble. On the  way few pieces, we had to score it almost all the way through on both sides. Here's a big tip that saved us a lot of time later on: score it nice and good, and then place a 2x4 on one side of the score line. Have one person stand on the 2x4 and the other lift up from the other side. It snaps cleanly every time, as long as you've scored it well enough! For holes for outlets, carefully drill holes and score until you can punch out the outlet area. 

We then drilled the backerboard into the studs.

The next part will be the installation of the tile itself! In my opinion, this part was actually really fun! 

My vanity corner

I mentioned in this post about our bedroom that I was working on turning this little corner in our bedroom into a vanity area.

It was my best idea ever. There were a few reasons why a vanity came to mind here... 1. The desk didn't have another home, and I seriously got this awesome West Elm desk for like $70 at the Pottery Barn Outlet last year. I'm just not wanting to part with it. 2. Our bathroom does not have drawers, which means that I basically never put on makeup, because it is too much work to get it all out, ha. 3. I have very curly, thick hair that takes forever to blowdry and straighten, so I have absolutely no interest in doing it unless I can sit down.  So, it worked out when we moved around furniture and had some extra space in the room! 

I had already updated this garage sale chair with the same spray paint and a couple dollars worth of this gray and white chevron fabric from Hobby Lobby. 

Then, I found this ugly plastic brass mirror at my favorite thrift store for $26 and gave it a nice coat of white semi-gloss spray paint. 

I put all of my makeup brushes in a drinking glass and that milk glass footed bowl is holding the makeup that I use almost every day. 

I put my perfume on a little cake stand I had, not that I usually wear any. Having a husband with fragrance allergy is so fun.

The great thing about this desk is that it has a separate piece underneath that rolls out really far. So I was able to (with a little purging) fit all of my makeup under there. Now, should you wonder, I worked at ULTA during high school and college. I'm happy to say that outside of my wedding makeup and mascara and eyeliner, I haven't bought makeup products in four years. And the stuff is mostly powder eyeshadows and blushes, so it's not goin' bad, and if it does I don't care.

This is what it looks like with the desk rolled out.

Oh, and the necklace holder. It's just a rustic wood frame that we used as a sign at our wedding. I backed it in foam board and covered it in fabric and then a piece of lace, and use specimen pins to hold up my necklaces. 

My craft room

My craft "room" is the loft area at the top of our stairs. I finally have some elements of the space finished, and I love it.

This is what the room looked like a year ago when we moved in, before I painted it (Martha Stewart's Sharkey Gray)

And now:

The room has a big desk/table that was previously our kitchen table, a high cutting table that I sort of DIYed, and a tall hand-me-down dresser that holds a lot of my craft supplies. The only furniture I actually had to purchase for the room were one cheap Target bookshelf and an IKEA tabletop. I think that was around $55 total. I primed and painted the old kitchen table from black to white. The cutting table is just two of these cheap, $20 Target bookcases with one of these IKEA VIKA AMON tabletops placed on top. I was originally going to get a door for the top, but saw these in IKEA last summer and it was perfect! 

The shelves are so great for holding my fabric and bins of fabric scraps! 

On the other side I keep things like foam, batting, works in process, etc. The backs of these cheap bookcases are cardboard, which wasn't very pretty, so I simply painted them with gray acrylic craft paint I had. 

I affixed a yard stick to the side of the tabletop with hot glue and it is wonderful for measuring out fabrics. 

The table is where I can do sewing, use my Silhouette, and do some paper crafting. I hung these IKEA ledges that I've had for a while. They hold my DIY "create" fabric scrap art, a pincushion, a vase full of threads, and some inspirational quotes.

The curtains are actually this tablecloth from Target that I cut in half, then hemmed each side and hung with ring clips. 

My craft room is bright and airy and makes me feel like creating. I think that's everything it should be! 

Our Summer Garden

Back when Aaron and I had some time off for spring break, we worked on our backyard garden and I posted this photo:

We have two of these gigantic raised beds. The garden was a great selling point for us on this house because Aaron LOVES gardening. Back in March, we planted a combination of seeds and small plants. We planted cilantro, basil, dill, thyme, rosemary, sweet banana peppers, green bell peppers, orange bell peppers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green beans, pickling cucumbers, kale, spinach, lettuce, and corn. We already had onions, asparagus, and green onions growing.

Here’s the garden now:

   

     

Everything has produced very well and we’ve enjoyed eating our delicious home grown produce! We’ve also enjoyed composting. It’s extremely surprising how many items we use and consume are compostable.

New Carpet!

Our new carpet was the most expensive update to our home that we’ve done so far. Fortunately, we are very happy with the outcome! It was a much needed upgrade. The carpet in our home had been there for almost twelve years and was in pretty bad shape. Through talking to our neighbors, we found out that the original owner of the home had a german shepherd dog and a cat. The next owners had a golden retriever and four boys. And finally, there’s us. Aaron has very serious allergies (chronic hives). We’ve found he is especially allergic to pet dander, so it should be no surprise that with the history of the home, the carpet was a major priority for us. And in fact now that I think about it, I don’t think he has had hives since we got the carpet!

In addition to the lingering pet dander and old age of the carpet, it was also very worn, especially in the middle of rooms. There were quite a few large stains as well. When we originally looked at the home, we had our “rose-colored glasses” on, and thought the carpet was fine. (Word to the wise: always look at a home a second time before you make an offer!) If we had realized how bad it really was, we probably could have negotiated something. Ah well, hindsight is always 20/20 and God was gracious to us through the whole process so we really cannot have any regrets.

Getting new carpet was a huge chore! It was kind of a fun one for me though as I love to unpack and find new homes for things. Both of our upstairs bathrooms, the garage, and our downstairs living area were all filled to the brim with items from the upstairs. I enjoyed putting things back together, though, and we also got to do a little furniture rearranging in the case of our bedroom (we had positioned things a certain way to hide stains).

[An example of the mess we lived in for a few days]

[The old carpet in our bedroom]

[The old carpet in the loft]

As far as the actual carpet we chose, we went with Martha Stewart’s Winterthur from Home Depot, in the color Potter’s Clay. We love that the carpet is a mixture of high and low pile, meaning it should wear well over time. We also liked the fact that high-end home builders are putting this exact carpet in brand new homes. Hopefully it will stand the test of time, both aesthetically and functionally! We opted to have Home Depot’s installers do the entire thing as we bought when there was a $35 whole home install special running. We thought the money we paid to have them remove the existing carpet and haul away was worth the extra money. (We’ve had a very difficult time getting rid of/ recycling large items due to where we live, which is another story.)