Before & After: Home Office Makeover

It's DONE! 

The office re-do is FINALLY done... or at least for now. It's been a few months since I've done any office update, but I am SO excited to show you the progress I have made! 

If you remember, the last time we were here I was asking which curtains to choose for the room. Well, the popular vote won! For those who may not remember...

THE HOME OFFICE BEFORE

OK. Now for the drumroll, please! 

THE HOME OFFICE AFTER

Peacock Allusion Cabinet from Pier1

The cow head and the small wooden cabinet were both found from a Facebook garage site!

This is one of my favorites rooms in the house right now (probably because it's DONE)!

Here are a few house details: 

• Mirrored Frames - TJ Maxx/Home Goods 
• Peacock Allusion Cabinet (TV cabinet) - Pier1 
• White Desk - Target 
• White Chair - Office Max 
• White Curtains - Home Goodes 
•  Rug - Target

The paint is by Sherwin Williams in color Georgian Bay and lightened it 25%.  

There are a few things I still want to do, get new lamps, change out the fabric on the papasan chair, and get a few more trinkets, but overall, I am very happy of how this room turned out. 

On to finish the next room! 

SHARE:

15 comments

Creating a DIY Container Garden

A backyard can be a beautiful place, unfortunately, mine has not been. A few weeks ago I wrote about what sort of jungle it became and with a little money and someone else's time, it was nicely cleaned up. 

Here is the before... just a MESS. 

And here is the AFTER. 

It looks SO much better, but it still needs a prettier touch. This 'flower bed' was probably something beautiful at one point, but not anymore. There were weeds, random rocks, and if you look closely a white puppy roaming around.

Here's what I planned to do: 

- Move the rocks around to make an outline of the flower bed 

- Bought some mulch to make it look defined and cleaner 

- Decided it was time to create a container garden. 

On to the DIY container garden...

Since this whole home ownership is still new, I didn't want to put a lot of time and money into starting a garden this year. Creating a DIY container garden seemed much more doable. A guy at work who owns cows (remember, I live in Arkansas) had some buckets that he didn't need anymore that I knew would work for my space. 

Free buckets, check.

We drilled some hole in the bottom of them for drainage. 

Free buckets that I turned into containers for growing things, check.

Because these buckets weren't the prettiest things in the world, I cleaned them up and used gold spray paint to turn them into golden, beautiful container pots. 

Spray paint = less than $10

Now, with a cleaned up area, and free container pots, this spot was looking like it was finally coming together!

Each pot was filled with soil and compost, and a tomato plant was planted in each one. I even found a rock that looked like the state of Arkansas, so I spray painted it gold too. 

Incredible what you can do with a little elbow grease and gold spray paint! 

Here's a before and after for comparison! 

SHARE:

14 comments

The Dark Side of Adulthood & Home Ownership

It's been a TERRIBLE week. 

How so? I got a virus that took my DOWN. 

Sunday morning we woke up, and Rich thought he had food poisoning. I did my best to take care of him, but I didn't understand why his entire body hurt and why he had the chills for just food poisoning. Also, we had eaten *almost* the same thing the night before so I just assumed my stomach was made of steel. Or just so use to eating so many M&M's and Dr. Pepper that clearly it could handle anything.

By Sunday night he was able to eat a few french fries and by Monday morning he was able to get up and go to work, sluggish, but he was able to go. 

I woke up Monday morning and just felt a bit ... off. Not terrible, not great, but not good enough to go to work. This is when I began to question, was it food poisoning he had? By Monday afternoon I felt fine. 

Then it happened. Tuesday morning I learned that it wasn't food poisoning. He had a virus and he had given it to me. 

Tuesday was not the best day. You can imagine what a virus does to your body. However, this might be a very low point but not the worst part of the week. Or why there is a dark side to home ownership. 

Wednesday was better, but still not the best because, well, I still wasn't hungry and the worst part is that after ALL OF THAT ON TUESDAY ...

I. DID. NOT. LOSE. ONE. POUND. 

Do you know how infuriating that is? The only positive part about Tuesday was that maybe I could drop a few lbs to get that summer body started. Nope. 

Fine. On Wednesday I rested and tried to eat some cold chicken strips and Gatorade. Again, not the worst part of the week. 

Thursday morning I woke up and feeling OK, but I knew I had to get it together because I had an important task to do at work at 8 a.m. Throughout the day I actually start to feel better. I even ate half of a sandwich!  

Still haven't lost ONE pound though. 

Thursday afternoon I left work around 4 p.m. to come home. This home that if you've paid any attention to has been exciting, dramatic, and emotional since the beginning. 

Why did I come home at 4 p.m.? Well, I had a meeting with a yard guy to get a quote on what it would cost to clean up the jungle that has suddenly appeared outside. This jungle was not around last year when we looked at the house, or when we bought the house or any photos of the house. This jungle of the backyard has just appeared. 

We walk around and discuss the things that need to be removed, or cleaned up. Then he asks me, "What number did you have in mind?" 

Honestly, I was thinking $500-$700? All I had asked for was cleanup. No mulch. No new plants. No flowers. Just a pure cleanup and removal. 

He typed on his phone a bit to add a few numbers. 

Quote: $1,200. 

*GULP* 

Suddenly, the virus didn't seem like such a bad moment than thinking about spending $1,200 ON WEEDS. 

So, clearly, I told him I needed to talk to the man of the house because I didn't know what to say. 

So there we have it. A virus and a quote for $1,200 to pull up some weeds. 

How was your week? 

SHARE:

13 comments

Home Office Makeover Update

It's been a rough week ... not that work is rough, or life is rough, but geez, I am missing my daily nap after two weeks from being out on holiday break. 

Now that I am getting back into the swing of things at work, it's time to finish the home office. You would think on my time off AT HOME I'd work on finish putting together the home office but ... no. On my time off I actually didn't do anything productive at the new house. 

OK - time for the fun decorating stuff! 

For reference, here was the office BEFORE I started to do anything... As in, here is the office when we moved into the house.

The previous owners had used this split-pea color green room as their baby room. 

Woof. 

I couldn't take this color because it wasn't 1) pretty or 2) dramatic. 

So... insert the paint debate that I mentioned about here. After A LOT of staring at walls and researching paint colors, I went with Sherwin Williams Georgian Bay and lightened it 25%.  

The result... 

A BEAUTIFUL blue! I also painted the built-in shelves a much brighter and cleaner white. The previous color looked very yellow against the blue before I had painted it. 

Now, this might look productive, but I haven't pulled in any of the other furniture, decided how I want to position the desk or hung anything on the walls. 

Because I am stuck with another decision. 

Curtains.

Currently, I am in the great-white-curtain-debate. 

I did a very scientific survey on Snapchat where most people have said the off-white curtains with the texture as opposed to the very bright white curtains with shine. I haven't really made up my mind yet, but what do you think? 

Off white? ... Shiny white? 

Help me decide so I can get this room finished!

SHARE:

14 comments

A House Tour & Update

When is the moment that a house becomes a home? When you sign away your life or when you put all of your things on the shelves? Either way, this house is starting to feel like home. Not in the way living in an apartment did - more like this is a place I will knowingly be living in for a long period of time. No more six-month leases because I'm afraid to commit. 

Oh, I have committed...

We're getting there in terms of being unpacked - there are plenty of boxes in the garage that haven't been touched but who can worry about those boxes today when there are more fun things to figure out.

Like paint. 

Before I had even bought the house I had decided on paint colors... that's a stupid decision to make by the way because then you move into the house and you realize that the paint colors are WAY TOO DARK because you were never in the house at night and there IS TERRIBLE LIGHTING EVERYWHERE. 

Of course, if you're anything like me you slap some paint on each wall and then just leave it there for two weeks because you are now paralyzed in decision-making fear regarding paint colors. 

These were my original two choices. 

Yes, they are similar, no I am not going with either one because the room needs a much lighter color. 

'Tis my life. 

Some rooms are coming along nicely - the master bedroom is one of them. Everything here was from the apartment except for the rug and the pillow. You can't see the rug here but it's really pretty. 

It looks more like this. 

The screened-in porch is probably one of my favorite places in this house. It's peaceful, big, lots of seating, and THERE ARE NO BUGS. 

The dining area is going to need some work. I plan on painting the fireplace, adding a mantel, finding a rug, re-doing the cushions on the table, and working on getting some additional lighting for this space. 

It's why the lamp is in the corner. 

But the shelves. The shelves are 'getting' there because it's actually hard to decorate shelves when you realized 1) you don't have enough shelf decorating things 2) the things you do have you don't like. 

That's a small preview of progress. Over the weekend I visited my local Sherwin Williams where I think the guy working was so exhausted with my questions he just gave me one of those large color paint things. 

Terrible decision by you Mr. Sherwin Williams paint man because now I will only have more questions regarding undertones and priming. 

More house to come - though I might just do one update post a week so I can get back to blogging about cooking and shopping. We'll see. 

xx, M

SHARE:

21 comments

Update: News About the House!

OK, OK... You're never going to believe it... remember the house that we lost because of the inspection? WELL, NOW WE ARE BACK UNDER CONTRACT! 

I got a message from my realtor last week saying the sellers were ready to do what they needed to do to sell the house. They've cleaned the chimney, fixed the rotted wood and put on a brand new roof! So, we made a deal and are back under contract with the closing date being in October. 

What happens next? Getting the loan approved. I went to the bank of Friday to sign the mortgage papers, then I had a huge emotional breakdown because of all of the papers I had to sign, then my boyfriend took me to eat Mexican food because it's the best stress food, then I calmed down again because cheese dip can solve all problems.

It wasn't until today that I got excited for the first time again since making an offer on the house the first time. I know we still have to get the house appraised and loan approved, but the idea of moving into a house that is MINE is exciting. There's also a lot of stress about packing, moving, needing to paint, decorating, being able to afford to buy new things for the house, etc. All of that will work out like it should. 

For weeks I prayed that God would bless me with the right house I was supposed to buy and I really think this is it. It was kind of a fluke that I went to go see it when I walked in it felt like home, and it has all the space and room that we need. It even has a fireplace which I didn't even know I would want until I saw this house with one. 

This also means I get my office back that I blogged about the first time we were under contract! 

Going from a baby room to a chic office look! 

Does anyone have any house advice? Any DIY blogs that you follow? Let me know! 

SHARE:

15 comments

April Roundup: Links I Love

One of the best parts about blogging is getting to know other bloggers. Some are personal friends and others I just enjoy following along on things that they are sharing. Since I consider this a 'lifestyle' blog (aka; I can't commit to one topic consistently) I wanted to share a roundup of a few blog posts that I really enjoyed in April. 

AJ and Her Floral Pants 

AJ, a fashion blogger and real-life friend, had a floral pant crisis that caused a closet mini breakdown. We've all been there - you buy pants, your weight fluctuates and the pants don't fit so you throw them on the floor then proceed to swear off carbs. 

Read her post for some, "AH! That's happened to me," moments.

Ciao! Planning A Trip to Italy 

Ugh. So this is a blog post that makes me jealous! Danielle and her husband are planning a MONTH long trip to Italy in August. It's really too much - but I can't wait to read more about what they are going to plan and what they do when they are there. 

Join me in living vicariously through Danielle. Read about her plans here.

Banana Pudding Crepe Cake 

 

Have you seen anything more beautiful in the form of bananas than this crepe cake? Bananas aren't even one of my favorite foods but this looks delicious. Whitney's post about this 12 Layer Banana Pudding Crepe Cake will keep you busy because all of her food posts are just so gorgeous. 

Check out her posts here and send me a piece of cake when you make it. K. Thanks. Bye. 


A Gold & White Office Makeover 

 

Jessica just gave her office space a dramatic makeover. Trust me when I say that when you see the before and after photos you will be amazed. I LOVE gold and white and everything about this new office is speaking to me. 

Check out her office makeover here. 


Those are links that I loved in April. Did I miss any good posts from other bloggers? Share with me in the comments so I can catch up!

SHARE:

11 comments

My Dramatic Bedroom Makeover

Before we begin, I feel like I need to say that commitment to life-long things has been hard for me. Also, I have completely obsessive tendencies where I need things to be just right and perfect. 

No, this is not a therapy session between my blog and me. It's to help you understand why I had been living in the same non-designed space for the past 5 years. When I graduated college and moved to Atlanta I had all of my college furniture and I was OK with that for the time. When I moved back to Arkansas a few years later I started to upgrade my couch, tv stands, dining table, and small things. The one room that I hadn't touched at all was my bedroom. Besides the king-size bed my mom bought me for Christmas one year, that's the only thing I had really done. 

Needless to say ... this is what my bedroom has looked like lately: 

So. A blog is meant to be what you want it to be and well... my in always honest of what's going on in my life. This was my bedroom. No headboard, two mix-matched nightstands, and two lamps from college. 

A tv stand that most people use for their garage storage. It had a cool look to it when I was 19. Now that I'm 29 I think it's time to mature a bit. 

After living in this space for 5 years I've realized it's time to make an investment in myself. (That's the excuse I always say when I know I'm about to spend some money...) Invest in yourself! 

My budget was $1,000. 

(I had been saving around for about two years and wasn't sure what to do with the money, but knew it was going to be spent on a bedroom set or a Louis Vuitton bag. Maybe later fancy bag.)  

My new bedroom sanctuary! It's such a beautiful space (maybe artless) but I'm so happy! 

Headboard - $150 from Wayfair 

End tables - $300 from 123stores.com 

Lamps - $140 from Target 

This is the new dresser that has made watching TV much more ascetically pleasing. 

Dresser - $400 from Cost Plus Furniture in Little Rock. 

Headboard - $150 

End tables - $300 

Lamps - $140

Dresser - $400

GRAND TOTAL: $990 

I did everything under budget with $10 to spare. 

To add the cherry to the top, I even made myself a little personal jewelry vanity area! 

I feel like I am living in a completely different space that makes me so happy and grateful. I worked hard to save the money (when I could have spent it on a lot of frivolous things), and worked hard to find things that fit within budget. 

This was a fun project over the past few weeks that had a lot of hiccups but that's what makes it fun. 

Let me know, and I can do more of an detailed post about what I bought. There's still more to be done at some point, but today, I am content. 

SHARE:

3 comments