Updates to our home

If you thought we were completely done you are sadly mistaken. This house, while fairly new, is very outdated. Pretty much every room could use some work. Over time a certain area will bug me so much that I get to the point where I HAVE to change it. Then I do and the next room bothers me and so on this cycle goes. Right now there are 2 areas that bug me. The dining room and the laundry room.

The dining room received a mini makeover when we first moved in, I painted the walls and we changed out the chandelier.

Now, I am just a little bit over the furniture in here. I think the table is so small for the room and its kind of a crappy table so we never use it anyway so I started shopping around but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for in the price range I needed. Enter Pinterest. I found this table and immediately fell in love. I'm not going to write a tutorial since there's so many online but this is the one we followed and just adjusted to fit our specs.We don't have much time to work on it since Zack is only here 2 days a week but all we have left is to build the bench. Its a lot of effort but its going to look so much better when we're completely done. Here's where we're at right now...

Moving on to the laundry room. Technically this is our powder room AND laundry room, [I know, worst design ever] and it has always bothered me.

The wire shelf, the ugly light, the dingy walls. Its definitely time for a makeover. Here's my inspiration.....

And here's the plan.

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Not sure how soon we'll finish but we've already started so sometime the near future I might start to enjoy doing laundry.... or maybe just hate it a little less.

xoxo,
Jackie

My moms house: dining room and bedroom

We finished my moms dining room and bedroom the other day and it came out totally gorgeous! We still have some small tweaks to make as well as finish both bathrooms and the kitchen but it turned out so great I wanted to share it right away.

Like I said in the previous post, when she first moved into this apartment [6 years ago] she had a rustico theme, but then she changed it to a more cottage/rustic style before settling on a much girly-er  and more fitting style: shabby chic. I love a good before and after picture so lets go back to what the dining room looked like 2 years ago when we originally refinished the living room....

from there, she got a new table, added shelving [way too high] and art....

and how it looks now...

how the bedroom looked before ....

and now that we added a shelf, moved some things around and added art...

stay tuned, there's plenty more to see!

xoxo,
Jackie

Refresh of my moms house

About 2 years ago my mom and I completely redecorated her apartment together. She went from a rustico/western style to shabby chic so it was quite a change. Now, shes getting a little tired of things being the same and wanted to change it up a bit and layer in some more wood tones. So, today I went over there and we tore everything off the walls, moved things around and did an overall refresh of the living space. Here's what we ended with 2 years ago...

and the living room as it looks right now.

We are working on the dining area next so stay tuned!

xoxo,
Jackie

Its Fall Y'all

I told ya I was going to decorate early. I didn't go crazy this year, just made some minor changes and its feels so much better than last year, it feels more like me. I changed out the pillows, added a few pumpkins, neutral fall floral and the banner from last year. Small changes with big impact.

xoxo,
Jackie

Easy Patio Table Makeover

When we moved into this house there were a few items the previous tenant left behind. Most items were junk that he just didn't feel like disposing of but he did leave behind one thing that was awesome: a patio table.

Now, mind you, it was in rough shape. The glass had been broken out, it was wobbly and really dirty, but still, these sets go for hundreds of dollars so we were happy to have it for free even if it meant we had another project to tackle, and honestly this one was so easy, anyone could do it. The first thing we did was purchase 5.5" x 6' pieces of fencing from Lowes. Why fencing? Because its already made for being outside so there's no added sealant needed. Then, we laid the pieces down and flipped the table over and laid it on top of the boards. From there, we measured the width of all the boards and cut two pieces to fit snugly inside the lip of the table, like so.

We screwed each board into this bracket from the top, then added two pieces on either end and screwed those in for added stability. [sorry no pic of this but it would look like this]

After that, we tightened all the bolts, sanded the top, [first with 80 grit then 120 to smooth it all out] then I stained it with Winwax English Chestnut and that was it.

Its definitely one of the fastest and easiest project we have done in this house and yet its been one of the most useful already! Just goes to show it doesn't have to be a big fancy makeover to make a huge impact.

xoxo,
Jackie

Kitchen changes

We are planning to have an end of summer BBQ this weekend for my co-workers but there were 3 things we needed to address before then: the lighting, paint and door knobs. Now, so far we have changed 2 of the lights in here, painted the doors and painted SOME of the walls, but one major eye sore was the fluorescent light fixture that had a huge hole in the lens and several burnt bulbs.

 Originally we planned to just get a new lens and bulbs but once I saw this photo, I knew I wanted track lighting.

pin from original source here 

We went to Lowes with the plan to buy one already put together but once we got there, we realized all the styles we liked were way out of budget and we could "build" our own for much cheaper. So, we picked up a track, the power source, and 3 spotlights, total came to around $50. Zack ended up installing it that night and I am totally in love!

The other major issue in here was the fact that I had half painted the kitchen and then left it.. for 9 months. I knew it had to be addressed sooner rather than later so I thought this would be as good a time as any. We used our leftover paint, Valspar Frappe and finished up the kitchen.

The last item on the to-do list was the knobs. Oh the knobs. The ugly, brass knobs. We just picked up the most affordable brushed nickle ones at Walmart and installed them. I was so glad to be rid of them, but now I have all the ones upstairs I need to do. Ugh, the work never ends does it?

you can purchase the same ones here 

xoxo,
Jackie

Living Room Reveal

I promised that Id give a proper tour of the living room once we found the perfect rug and I finally have so now I can make good on my promise! I actually didn't end up choosing any of the rugs I was considering at all! I happened to be walking through Ross one day and saw this rug for just $59.99 for a 6x9 so I snagged it up and it really works much better than any of the other choices would have.

Before I show the afters lets go back to the beginning when we first moved in....

and once we painted and added our furniture  ....

And now the afters....

A million times better right? I am so in love with it! Of course we don't really hang out in here much since we have the nice, fancy TV in the man cave but its so nice to come home and walk through this space everyday!

We also made a small change in the master, I know, I said I was done but I cant help myself!

Once we added the Vittsjo bookcase in the man cave I sorta fell in love so I knew I wanted one in the corner of the master. I have not been super happy with the hanging baskets as the handles started to wear really bad so we grabbed another bookcase and its way more practical AND beautiful!

Well, just a couple more weeks till I'm changing the whole house to fall so stay tuned!

xoxo,
Jackie