Before & After of my dining room Buffett

 

A fun little "before" & "After" of some thrifted furniture! As we've been putting our dining room back together after the kitchen remodel, I've tried to keep it minimal (which for me is HARD! haha). However, I did want to find a long and narrow buffet to add a little more storage to our space for the kids crafts (easy access next to the dining room table!). I had seen an inspiration pic on Pinterest that I liked, and kept my eyes out on FB marketplace. 

One day, as I was looking...I saw this piece! It had great bones and fit the bill for the space! I did have to drive a little further to get it, and it was covered in these huge nasty big spiders (which deterred me for like two seconds, but I had already driven 30 minutes so wasn't turning back haha!) I carted it home and then decided to paint it white, so I picked up my favorite chalk paint from Home Depot and went to town! 

I love using chalk paint because I'm not a perfectionist and I hate prepping things (ie: sanding, etc). So chalk painting allows me to just do a quick dust and then start painting ASAP! (a quick dust and a few minutes to spray and kill all the spider, ewww!) 

I really loved how it turned out. It's a nice addition to the room, and now provides awesome storage for all our kids craft bins! Woo hoo!! 

"Before & After" in Avonlea's new room- repurposed furniture!

My friends and I joke that finding good deals on FB marketplace is one of my spiritual gifts, haha! I often will get insanely inspired by an image on Pinterest, and then go in search of the perfect cheaper alternative to get the same look! Case in point...Avonlea's new bedroom. 

My vision for Avonlea's bedroom has been a light and airy whimsical space. I want it to be simple, but have elements of a dreamy little cottage fairytale. I found two images recently that captured the look I was going for....

Here is the first image I found on Pinterest that I loved. It is a simple little chair that adds a lot of character to the space. {image source here} 

Not wanting to pay a ton of money for a chair, I found this one below on FB marketplace for a good deal. It was a little rough around the edges (ie: the cushion situation) but  I could see it had good bones, with character detail on the bottom wood section of the chair. 

It definitely needed to be recovered, but fortunately for me my mom is an amazing seamstress and could make it happen! I lugged it home, used Rustoleum chalk paint in White Linen to cover the wood, and then headed to Hobby Lobby to pick out fabric! I was absolutely shocked when I found they had a role of decorators fabric (the heavy duty stuff on the rolls) that matched Avonlea's bedspread almost exactly! I found her Anthropologie bedspread on Poshmark (did you know they sold home goods?) for a steal, and was so pumped to find a matching fabric for her chair! Woo hoo! 

I handed the fabric to my mom and she worked her magic! Here is the end result...isn't it amazing? She added some new cushion to it, recovered the fabric and my dad put in a few screws to make it a bit more sturdy! Viola...what do you think? 

I love how it looks in her room! 

The second inspiration picture I found for Avonlea's room was a bit of painted furniture. We are a total book family, and have SO many books. The problem is that they often get throw on the bookshelf and look a bit of a mess all stacked haphazardly. I wanted to find a bookshelf with doors so even if the inside looked wild, we could close the doors and give the impression of organization haha! 

Here is the inspiration pic I had found with a painted cabinet. {source of image here}. 

Here is the before picture of the bookshelf cabinet I found on FB marketplace. It was a very strange tangerine color that had a bit of shabby chic distressing to it. 

I wanted it to be a dusty blush color...so....First, I painted it in a white chalk paint to prime it, and then I used a color from Home Depot called Cheerful Heart, which I LOVE!! It came out exactly as I was envisioning!! Here it is below...

So, there you have it! Two very easy (and economical) projects to add to the whimsy of my sweet girl's room! Do you buy much on FB marketplace? What's been your favorite DIY you've done with a piece of thrifted furniture?? xoxo 

My English Cottage goals…our climbing rose

When we moved into our house 4 years ago, I had grand visions of transforming our humble abode (truly) into a thing of British beauty! Since I've always been a devoted Anglophile (ie: I LOVE all things England!), my vision for the house was a precious country garden and proper little cottage, with climbing roses of course!

 The facade of our house was a an extremely lackluster brown brick (poopy brown as I referred to it), and it.had.to.go. Sooo.....

The first month we lived there my mother in law flew up and we painted the entire front of our house! We borrowed paint sprayers from a friend who used to own a painting company and went to town. We scrubbed and primed and painted our little hearts out, and the end result was so satisfying! (For reference, the color I chose is called China White.)

I will show you are before and after of the front of our house soon, but today I just had to show you how gorgeous our climbing rose is in all it's blooming glory! Last year I put a pink climbing rose on my birthday list, and my brother and sister-in-law surprised me with it a few days before my birthday in March. It was like 2 feet tall and maybe had about 10 roses on it last year.

A little over a year later, this beauty has CLIMBED!! It is now half way across our library and garage, and I can't wait to see it continue to grow. This year it has just bursted at the seams with roses! It's a Cecil Brunner climbing rose, and it has just been spectacular!

When I step outside onto my porch it is filled with the natural perfume of these lovely buds. It has brought so so much JOY to me in this season. Every day the kids and I sit out on the porch with a popsicle and enjoy the roses…Avonlea has started saying "mama, aren't they so so so so beautiful?", it's adorable.

What are the small joys in your world today? xoxo 

DIY Bathroom Remodel

Friends, I have been so so excited to share my bathroom remodel with you! From the minute we moved into this house in 2016, I have wanted to do something to spice this space up. Annndddd, the reality is, with work and kids AND mostly choosing update public spaces that most people see {cause let's face it...no one sees your masterbath!} ...it just fell by the wayside. 

I finally was inspired to actually MAKE IT HAPPEN when two of my favorite DIY bloggers, Cynthia Harper and Angela Rose, teamed up to host a 2 day/$200 challenge. I was IN!! 

First...please view the "before" pictures....they are pretty uninspiring and incredibly ugly....

Can we please talk about this floor for a hot second? It is vinyl, which isn't even the worst part about it. THE PRINT!! THE COLOR!!! Who would EVER pick this flooring? I.can't.even. It's original to the 1950's house, so evidently it was a popular option in the 1950's? Who knows!! But the creepiest part is that whenever I sat on the toilet and looked down, I would inevitably see weird faces in it. And then I COULDN'T UNSEE THEM!!!! This floor slightly traumatized me...bye bye floor! 

Ok...let's be done with the before pics (I'm getting depressed at how ugly it was! haha). Here are the AFTER PICS!!! Soooo much better!

 ...and...a little side by side action..

So...what did we do to change it so drastically and on a budget? Here's the breakdown...

1. Paint the floors to look like tile! 
I have seen SOO many people do this on Pinterest, and I really wanted to try it. I found this stencil here on amazon. There are so many stencils to pick from...lots of great ones on etsy...but I chose mine based on fast shipping (I decided I wanted to do this project like 4 days before I started, haha! So prime shipping was my best friend!). I scrubbed my terrible vinyl floors until they were sparkling clean (but lets be real, that terrible vinyl never sparkled ha) and then used Rustoleum Chalk Paint in white to paint the base coat. I gave it 3 coats. Then I used Rustoleum Chalk Paint in gray to paint my stencil! I used an adhesive to stick my stencil to the floor, then rolled over it with a small foam roller. FYI- Stenciling is not hard...but boy is it time consuming!!! And for this mama, who was rolling during nap time...this job took FOOORRREEEVVVEERRR!!! If you had childcare for the day, you could totally bust it out. But it does take some time to get into a rhythm...at least it did for me!

After the whole floor was stenciled and dry, I used a non toxic sealer. Normal Polyurethanes or polyacrillcs are full of chemicals and smell terrible, so I set out on a mission to find something non toxic, and I did!!! AFM SafeCoat, Polyureseal BP, Matte is a wonderful non-toxic option. It did not smell at all, in contrast to normal polyurethanes that give me the biggest headache! It's definitely more expensive, but SOOO worth it in my opinion!! I did 4 coats just to make sure my floor was sealed, haha!! So happy with how it all came out! And I've lived on it for over 6 months now without as much as a scratch! It's held up sooo well!!

2. Paint the vanity! 
The reality is, you don't need to buy new furniture! Paint covers over a multitude of sins, right? hahaha!! Because I'm neither a perfectionist and I'm slightly lazy and hate sanding...I turned to my go-to Rustoleum chalk paint to get the job done! I wipe down the vanity, and then just went to town and painted it white (2 coats!). This made a huge difference!

3. Hung a new light fixture! 
The old light fixture was just plain ugly and screamed cheap. I found this one on amazon for a great deal, and then spray painted it a matted gold color.

4. Spray painted the hardware gold! 
I used the same gold spray paint to spray the toilet paper holder, and the new towel holder we bought at Home Depot. I love the warmth this matte gold color brings!

5. Built a towel rack! 
We used a piece of wood that's been sitting in our garage and screwed some gold hooks into it! I found the hooks at Hobby Lobby, and the wood is from Home Depot.

6. Made a macrame wall hanging!
As you can see, we have that very awkward wall to the side of our toilet. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to put there, and didn't want to hang any picture frames as it would feel too cluttered. I found some yarn in my craft closet and and part of an old dowel I had used for another project. I YouTubed "how to make a macrame wall hanging" and 30 minutes later I had made this! It's amazing what you can make with YouTube and some odds and ends hahahah!!!

7. New rugs, shower curtain, hand towel, plant, and painting!!! 

Here's the budget breakdown:
$18: Rustoleum Chalk Paint Linen White
$18: Rustoleum Chalk Paint Aged Gray
$39.99: AFM SafeCoat, Polyureseal BP, Matte, 1-Quart
$69: Light Fixture 
$15: Stencil
$20: Handtowel
$18 :Handtowel Holder 
$7: Gold Spray Paint 
$0: Rugs (from World Market, but I had a gift card!)
$0: Shower Curtain (from Target, but I had a gift card!)
$0: Plant + Painting (from Hobby Lobby, but I already had them in other parts of my house!)
$ 205 GRAND TOTAL 

Friends, I hope this inspires you that decorating CAN be on a budget! We don't have spare money for a renovation now, but we did put a little aside each month to make these small changes:) And what a CHANGE it is!! One I look at each day with a little smile on my face! Let me know if you have any questions or if I missed anything!!!

A few fun DIY projects around the house

We moved into our house in late January, and ever since then i've been on a diy kick. It's been so much fun pinning ideas, and then actually seeing them come to fruition (they never do look exactly like the pictures…but that's what makes them unique, right?). And it's been extra special to craft with the people I love. My mom and I made the wreaths, and Kev and I worked on the other projects. I've started learning how to use power tools (oh my!) and have felt a lot more comfortable diving into projects (learn as we go, right?). haha!

Here things i've made for our home: 

- Blanket Ladder

- Eucalyptus Wreath
- Rosemary Wreath
- Exterior Shutters
- Built-In Bookcase

In another post, I hope to share more about the shutters and the bookcase (which was an IKEA hack), but for now you get a sneak peak of these!! I haven't quite styled the bookcase, so for now it's just all my books crammed up on shelves, but one of these days i'll get around to making it look pretty! The shutters were a lot of fun to make, and have added more of a cottage feel to the exterior of our home, which is what i'm going for!! I'm bound and determined to make you think you're in England while at my house…i've got a long way to go, haha! Just gotta get that English garden planted, right?

Have YOU made any fun DIY things at home lately? Put the links in the comments, i'd love to see your projects!! xoxo

White flowered shirt: Make me Chic
Pants: Express Jeans {but I got them at a yard sale and cut holes in them myself, ha!}