My favorite projects

Hello and happy Friday! It’s the unofficial start of summer for us – I’ve never been so ready!

I can’t believe it’s the end of May already – time is passing by so fast. Fall will be here before we know it. (If you saw my FB or Instagram this week you know Hobby Lobby already thinks it’s here.) ;)

It’s been a few months since I rounded up some of my favorite recent posts so I’m combining March, April and May into this one!

I got a ton done in the master bedroom earlier this year – it’s coming along so well! The first big project was beefing up the baseboards without taking off the old ones:

I LOVE THEM. It makes a huge difference in the room!

I continued the chunk with new DIY craftsman door trim as well:

Sigh.

Because there wasn’t enough new wood on the walls, I covered the wall behind the bed with a wall treatment in a dark gray:

I’m SO pleased at the progress! I kind of pooped out on it a month or so back so I need to get going on the rest of the plan now.

It’s been a couple years since we finished our basement – I’m so thrilled we were finally able to do it. I went through the process and how we had it done on a budget in this post:

I have a big plan for that TV wall – I may work on that this weekend. :)

I shared a few of my favorite online resources for free art in this post:

And made some fun new art for the kiddo’s bathroom with scrap wood and wavy FrogTape Shape Tape:

So preppy, I love it!

I made a very simple pet food tray with more wood from the garage pile and showed you how here:

It’s such a little thing but it works SO well. No more water or food messes on the floor!

Our mud room got some pattern and texture with the DIY (no sew!) cushion I made for the bench:

This is another space I stalled out on, but I hope to get more done in there soon. It’s so functional though – that bench is awesome!!

I got a HUGE project done in our master closet -- you have to see the before pics to see how far it came:

I took down all the shelving, filled hundreds of holes, installed the cabinets and then painted them and the walls. It was a ton of work but I did it for way cheaper than what a custom closet system would cost! And I love the dusty purple color, so pretty.

Our living room got a couple updates too – this space is one that has always bugged me and I’m determined to change it up this year. I did a DIY project I’ve wanted to try forever – replacing the window sill so I could install the thick trim:

Can you find the smushed cat? :)

And moving this small bookcase to this corner opened up the room a ton!:

I’m starting to really love this space. Slow but sure. :)

I shared my spray paint “taste test” – and there was a clear winner:

The results even surprised me!

I shared my experience with HomeGoods furniture in this post:

I don’t have many large pieces from there but I counted quite a few HG chairs in our house. ;)

I’ve been back outside for the past few weeks and it’s been glorious! I created a “front porch” where there wasn’t one:

We sit there at least once a day – again, a little thing that I’m so glad I did!

And last weekend I moved some things around on the deck and patio and it feels like a brand new space!:

Finally, I showed you the results of my biggest personal project over the past few months!:

I’ve got more work to do but I’m thrilled with how far I’ve come!

Those are just a few of my biggest projects from the past few months! May has been busy for us so I’m looking forward to things calming down now that school’s out. So happy to see summer!!

Did you miss any of these projects? I think the gray wall in the master is my favorite. :) Hope you have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday for the June before and after link up!

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Recent favorites

Happy Friday! I’ve skipped the month in review for a few months but wanted to get back to it today with some of my favorite projects from January and February. Gotta admit, it makes me feel very productive when I look back!

I was totally focused on getting our mud room somewhat usable at the beginning of the year and I shared the progress throughout a few posts:

Here’s how I used upper cabinets to build a built in bench, then info about the butcher block top and more details and finally the finishing touches. The room is far from complete but the bench is done and I love it!

This winter was intense. That is an understatement. A friend just told me yesterday that they’re saying the summer’s going to be super hot and dry. I cannot handle the extremes people. The tips I shared to keep our home warmer in the winter will also work to keep it cooler in the summer, so these are always worthwhile:

We have cats and I used to think that meant I couldn’t have plants. Not so! I share a few of my favorite plants that are safe to have around animals here:

I am now the crazy cat lady and the crazy plant lady.

We have a few more areas in our basement to finish up and the kitchenette is one of them. It’s always been a dream of mine to have one so this little area has been fun for me:

I shared how I finished off and installed the countertops and then added some bling with the stenciled wall. A few of you asked how I got the stencil to match the rest of the wall as I moved across. I would overlap the stencil over the parts that were already done and make sure that was as exact as possible and tape it up. Then I would fill in the areas that weren’t painted. Doing it that way kept it from going wonky on the wall as I moved across.

Ever wondered how high to hang art or how long your chandelier should hang? You know, the really important life questions? I shared some of those tips here:

By the way, yes, my boy and I painted that canvas – you can see how we did it here.

Sometimes I use spray paint and it holds up forever. Sometimes it doesn’t. :) I shared how our door handles have held up in this post:

There were lots of different experiences in the comments, check it out before you attempt your own.

Someday I will have all of the doors in our house painted black. I just think it looks sharp. But because it takes me forever it will probably be another year or two before I’m done:

Some tricks and the color I’m using on my doors here.

Did you know you can change the direction your dryer door opens? It’s truly the little things that make life easier:

It took a little bit longer with our newer dryer but it’s so worth it. (And yes, I’m still trying to open it from the other side.)

I finally put all of our paint colors into one post and shared it here:

Six years ago if you had told me my house would have so much blue I would have laughed at you. But now I love it.

I have a new favorite app and talked about it here:

I was mistaken – I don’t think it’s available for Android users just yet. Boo.

And one of my latest projects that doesn’t look like much here but is coming together beautifully – the master closet redo:

It’s working out SO well so far, I’m so excited about it! I can’t wait to show you!

Oh and I added the Pinterest pin to my photos! I’ve always use the pin in button in my bookmark bar to pin from blogs but many of you have asked for it – it does make things easier. I may change it to something smaller soon but I’m just lucky I made this happen so I’m all YAY ME. :)

Have a wonderful weekend everybody and stay safe!

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It was a good one

Hey. Remember me? My name is Sarah and I write a blog. You may have heard of it.

I didn’t mean to take so much time away but it was nice! I am now ITCHING to get going on something other than holiday decor, let me tell you. I have a list a mile long (I’ll share soon) that I want to tackle. I’m ready to get my hands dirty again (with something other than Christmas glitter)!

I’m also excited about organizing again. Since I purged most of the house earlier this year I feel more in control of our STUFF than I ever have. Now I just want to keep it going in 2014 by making the most of each space.

But today I’m looking back at 2013 at my biggest projects, according to your responses. I have to start with one I’m most proud of -- mostly because I love it, but also because I’m so dang happy to have it DONE:

The downstairs powder room was a work in progress for about three years. Or more. I lost track a couple years back. I’m SO happy with it now, it was truly worth the wait.

I’m slowly but surely (I’m the tortoise of DIY if you couldn't tell) working on redoing our master bedroom. I sold our old bed and so far haven’t even come close to using the money I made from that to redo the space. There were a few popular posts from that room this year, including the new DIY king-sized headboard for less than $100:

And then the 80’s nightstand redo that didn’t cost me anything:

And finally those brass thrift store lamps that were made over into glossy navy blue goodness:

I have big plans for this room coming soon – I still haven’t even finished painting it yet. :)

After a lot of trial and error over the past (nearly) ten years in this house, I’ve finally figured out what works in our yard. In other words – I’ve stopped killing things. Our backyard is coming together as a beautiful oasis for us, and I gave you a tour here:

I was busy in the kitchen this year – some of it I splurged on, like our new sofa table:

And some I did myself, like this IKEA table turned farmhouse table:

The whole nook got a new look with the table and the new light:

It works SO much better in this space compared to our old round table and we can easily fit six around it to eat (even without pulling it out).

I was craving color earlier this year and tried out one of my very favorite chalk paint colors in our foyer:

I painted one of my favorite Craigslist dressers with it and it’s such a deep, gorgeous color. LOVE it!

Speaking of that beautiful blue -- another bathroom in our house that sat undone forever was completed this year too. I showed you how I installed the floating wood shelves in our basement bathroom:

And then later on in my no-spend August I finished up the room and used that chalk paint color again. You can see the finished space here:

I made a few simple changes in the family room this year that made a BIG difference. The first was to change out the old dark mirror that was over the fireplace:

To this lighter, brighter one:

This mirror is one of the top five things I get asked about – I got it at HomeGoods and still haven’t seen another one like it since! It made a HUGE difference in there. Seriously…big. (You can see more about the fall mantel here.)

I saved up and finally found a rug I loved for this space too. It truly transformed the room:

And finally – if you’re like me the last thing you want to see right now is more Christmas stuff, but my holiday home tour was a big one and I appreciated all your sweet comments there so much:  

As always, the posts that got the most feedback were those that just talk about life, and usually those are my favorites. :) You can read more about our mouse problem and how I dealt with that here (I wish I had read something like this before we had the problem), my new favorite place to visit here, a BIG change in our lives (and the love of my life) here, giving up my soda addiction here and a rousing discussion on the prices at Goodwill here.

It was a very good year. Probably one of the best. I am so, SO grateful to do what I do. I have you to thank for that. Thank you for coming back to see what I’m up to, I truly appreciate you and I value the connections I have with so many of you. I’ll be back next week with some DIY and my plans for the new year! Have a great weekend!

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Christmases past and month in review

Hello everybody! Sorry for the late post today – we had a two hour delay and things are…well, a couple hours behind. :) We’re supposed to get a ton more snow today and I’m ready – we are stocked up on good food and ready to cuddle in for the night.

Today I’m recapping the month of November and sharing a few of my favorite things (did you watch The Sound of Music last night? Thoughts?) from the past few Christmases. :)

First up, my DIY and decor projects from last month! I shared the hard project that should have been easy:

I love the end result – but let this be your reminder to NEVER utter the words, “This will be easy.” Gets me every time.

I picked a fun color for the mud room door and got all the new door trim up here:

I’m narrowing down the color for the beadboard and hope to do that this weekend. The floors are done too, can’t wait to show you!

Next up I shared the new rug I found for the family room: 

I still can’t believe the difference it made! LOVE IT.

I showed you how to make my super easy, buttery biscuits on a rare food post:

I decrapified our entire house over the course of a few months and then finished up the garage last month. It took FOREVER, but I’m so happy with it now:

It functions SO much better for us now. You can also see the easy DIY work bench I made last month here.

I shared a simple update I make around our house (a lot) in this post:

Put a wheel on it! :)

I worked on my first Christmas project of the year and what started out as a project-gone-wrong ended up quite pretty:

And finally, I reattempted my attempt at chevron, this time with a twist:

SO much better know, yes? I think so. :)

I’m still working on our Christmas decor around the house and will share much of it next week for a big Christmas home tour! For now I figured I’d share a few of my favorites from Christmases past.

I finished putting my DIY card holder back up last night (it has one lonely card on it so far) and shared it on my Facebook page. It’s one of my faves because it’s so easy and cheap and holds a bunch of cards!:

Last year I made a couple knock offs, including these cute nutcrackers:

And these knock off ornaments filled with “snow”:

You can find both in this post.

And two of my favorite Christmas projects ever – the first one is the paper-wrapped candle holders:

I think they are just so dang pretty. :)

And my cutie Santa hat craft – I think these are still my absolute faves of all the time I’ve been blogging:

Have you done any fun holiday-themed projects yet? Any you are planning any? I’d love to hear about them!

Are you getting all this snow today? I hear it’s even heading down to Texas. Hope you all stay safe and have a great weekend!

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