I’ve always wanted to do a fun wallpaper accent wall, but most of the walls in my house are textured. Whomp. We when we built the new house, our powder room came with a pedestal sink and boring construction grade fixtures and it was in dire need of an upgrade. I saw my opportunity and took it – the hardest part was convincing my husband!
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Wood grain. Live edge. Bark accents. Sleek metallic legs. Mid-century farmhouse feel. Perfection.
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Let’s kick this thing off with one of my favorite DIY tutorials, our Pallet Wall. Leep was very unsure about this project in the beginning when I told him we were going to cut up some nasty old pallets and nail them to our wall. But knowing my eye for design and track record of not having an unsuccessful house project yet – he allowed me to be the Foreman and lead! Continue reading
While this post is a moot point now, it was super fun and easy so I had to share. It’s a good one to keep in your back pocket when Easter rolls around again.
Last year at Easter, Gunnar was too small to understand or participate. This year was a different ball game. We dyed eggs, did multiple eggs hunts and celebrated with family.
We dyed our Easter eggs with Cool Whip, yes you read that right. The sweet, sticky dessert topping! We all loved every delicious moment of it. Continue reading
This past weekend during their ‘Stock the Bar’ housewarming party, surrounded by everyone they love, Leep’s brother Jeremy popped the question and was answered with an excited – Yes! 
Congrats Uncle Worm & Auntie Ash!
We were the only two in on the when & where details so we decided to surprise them with his & her engagement gifts right after the proposal to start the celebrating early. Most people will gift a bottle of wine, a Congratulations card or some other generic gift. Why not mix it up and give something a little more personal and meaningful. Here’s what we put in our gifts…
When we bought our house I loved that it had a double decker “party” porch.
When we moved in it had green turf carpet, the screens were covered in plastic and the wood paneling was starting to warp. We immediately ripped up the green carpet and removed the plastic from the screens in our initial house demo. This got us through a few years. This year, the wood paneling started to fall off, get moldy and just fall apart. Not to mention our demon dog [Darth] tried to chew his way through the house. It was time for a face lift.
If you have a porch and it’s starting to look a little dingy or dated, follow these easy steps to give it a brand new look that’s easier on the budget than an entire new porch! Continue reading
Chalk art makes my heart happy.
This week has been crazy, and it’s only Wednesday. Sure a glass of wine [or 3] at night can help to de-stress after a long day, but sometimes I like to start the day off relaxed by letting my creative juices flow. A little chalk dust and a few cups of coffee later and I was ready to start my day.
I’ve posted previously how to make your own chalkboard wall, but I figured I’d do a quick tutorial on how I actually create my chalkboard art for the average person. [let’s be real – no one has time or sanity for that elaborate fancy shit] I’ve seen people print out their designs and cover the back of the paper lightly with chalk dust then trace over it, I prefer to do mine all by hand. I find it therapeutic to see what you picture in your head come to life.
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We’re doing something a little different this post – a guest post!
My sister and her fiance are moving so that he can attend dental school. [excuse me while I go cry] She’s been busy buying and crafting away to fill their new apartment. We come from a family of crafty ladies.
She recently made this amazing hand-painted, antler silhouette, wall pallet art to hang above their bed. Check out how she did it below!
Take it away, Kaitlyn!
When decorating, you typically have an idea in your head of what you want the space to look like. It’s frustrating when you can’t find the perfect piece of art or furniture to make that vision a reality. In this case, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make it myself! Here’s how you can too – and you can customize it with any silhouette of your choosing – you could do your initials, last name, child’s silhouette – the options are endless!
The piece I was pulling inspiration from was about $300 at Pier One, this one cost us about $75 total.
Being a bride is one of the most exciting yet overwhelming times of your life. You have a million things to decide, a million other to keep track of and a never ending to do list – all while maintaining everyday life! If you’re lucky like I was, you have a super supportive family and amazing coordinator [shout out to Jill at Sunkissed Events] to help you through it.
Shortly after I got engaged, my sister made and gifted me a Bride Binder. It was full of checklists, worksheets, information, etc. I’m not sure if she knew at the time but it ended up being one of the best tools I had while on my bride-to-be journey. It gave me a place to organize all my brochures, contracts, notes, torn out magazine pages, etc. [better than tagging everything “wedding” in my email] Now that she’s engaged, I’ve made some updates to it and gifted it back to her to carry along her bride-to-be journey.
Find a 3 inch+ fun binder, something she’d be happy to carry around and keep her excited for her upcoming wedding! You could even find a fun decal like my sister did to affix to the front. The word bride, her wedding date, new last name – get creative!
Inside mine I added a few items I found helpful and I knew she would too. A fun zipper pouch to hold all the things, a 3 hole punch – those contracts don’t come pre-punched, fun pens, post-it tags to mark all those finds in bridal magazines and a small notebook to keep in her purse to jot down any questions, ideas or notes as she thinks of them.
When my sister gave it to me she had it all divided out into sections to keep everything super organized. Pick up some binder dividers and pre-fill them out for her. Ours included the following sections:
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Lastly, include some worksheets and checklists to help her stay on top of things and organized. I’ve created blank versions here for downloading. *Note: The files are large and may take a while to download and fully open. Let them fully open and load before trying to print.*
I also kept in some of my contracts, brochures, collected save-the-dates, etc. for her to look back on or compare to.
What are some things you found helpful on your bride-to-be journey?
Our house was built in the 80’s and I don’t think our hall bathroom had been updated since then either. Every time I walked past it and saw the faux marbled sink, orangy wood vanity, pink rose linoleum with pink walls to match, I would shudder. When we first bought our house we updated almost every room except this bathroom. Money was tight from all the other updates so instead of a full overhaul, it was time to give it a face lift.
Here are some before pictures so you can relive the 80’s style in all its glory.
The first step was to take everything out! Since the vanity was in good condition I knew we could re-purpose it. We carefully removed the sink top and then the vanity. Next was the mirror, light and toilet. The wall cabinet was attached to the wall really well so we left it to just paint around. The tub/shower was in good condition and since this was just a facelift – it was saved from my sledgehammer. We then primed the vanity, wall cabinet and baseboards and painted the walls a lovely shade of tan. [we weren’t thinking of needing to see when we originally removed the light -ha!]
Now to tackle those hideous dated floors. We decided on a large tan/grey and white glossy porcelain tile. We first installed the tile cement board and nailed down all the creaks. Then it was placing and cutting the tiles and adhering them to the floor. After many years of watching and helping my mom remodel her house and do tile – I had a general idea of how to. Just apply a generous amount of tile adhesive to the floor and mark ridges using the trowel. Do the same to the back of your tile and stick them together! Using spacers to allow room for grout and a level and more adhesive to keep things even. Once all your tile is in and set a day or two – apply your grout using a float and then a large sponge and water to wipe away the excess. Boom – beautiful tile.
We then painted the vanity and cabinet a light Robin’s Egg Blue and reinstalled the vanity. We topped it with a pure white sink and new brushed silver faucet and hardware. We installed a new light fixture, white toilet, towel rod and other accessories. Our mirror isn’t pictured because it took us a while to find the right one… but I finally found a white framed mirror at TJMaxx.
Here is our updated 2010’s hall bathroom. We were able to complete the entire revamp for less than $500 and in about 4 days!
