It’s hard to believe we moved into this house 6 months ago! But we’ve already changed a lot. Check out our progress so far!
We moved into this home at the end of October 2020 and updating it one room at a time. Just as we did in our last house, we are totally transforming our house by tackling TONS of DIY home improvement projects, DIY home decor projects, DIY craft projects and DIY furniture projects. You can take the “before” tour part 1 HERE and part 2 HERE to see how beige and brown everything was when we moved in. We’ve added lots of color and personality so far!
Now, some of you may look at this and think we’ve done a TON in 6 months. You may wonder how in the world we find the time to do all of these projects. But just remember this is my full-time job now! So we do tend to complete home projects much more quickly than the normal household!
Others of you may wonder why we spend so much time, money and energy on our home. And it’s definitely NOT because it’s my job. We have renovated and carefully decorated every home we’ve ever lived in going way back to 2003 (10 years before I started my blog).
We pour a lot of effort into our home because our physical environments are SO IMPORTANT! The place where you go to sleep and wake up every day MATTERS to your overall happiness. Environmental psychologists recognize that for most people, their home is part of their self-definition. So if you aren’t happy with your home, that is a significant problem.
When we wake up and go to sleep feeling frustrated with our cluttered and outdated home, those feelings follow us around and impact every other aspect of our lives. But when we open our eyes in the morning and love what we see and have a smooth morning because our homes function well for our families, that happiness and contentment will follow us around. That contentment improves our entire day on a subconscious level we aren’t even aware of. When we are excited to go home at the end of a stressful day of work because we feel happy and welcome the moment we open the door, we are able to rest and recharge before the next day begins.
I get asked all the time how I come up with my room designs. I was asked so often that I finally created Designer in a Binder which walks you through the exact design system I use every time. It’s an affordable alternative to an interior designer. It’s helped over 7,900 people so far to create rooms they absolutely love. Click HERE to learn more.
Okay, now that I’ve stepped back down from my soap box about why your home matters so much, let’s take a look at what we’ve done so far!
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The Kitchen
We recently gave our kitchen a very budget-friendly makeover! Our kitchen started out every shade of brown and beige imaginable. Here’s a reminder of what the kitchen looked like when we bought the house.
And you can see how it looks now below! Such a difference!!!!!
PAINT COLORS: Wall Color: Pure White by Sherwin-Williams | Trim Color: Divine White by Sherwin-Williams | Cabinets: Seaside by Fusion Mineral Paint
DIY HOME DECOR PROJECTS: How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets the Easy Way (this was in my friend Thea’s kitchen, but we used the same method!) | Our Budget-Friendly Kitchen Makeover REVEAL!
The Coffee Nook
The “Coffee Nook” is right off of our kitchen. It’s technically an eat-in-kitchen area, but since we have a huge island and actually enjoy eating in our dining room or on the screened-in-porch when the weather is nice), we didn’t want ANOTHER space to eat. So we recreated the seating area from our old kitchen and had room to add a little coffee station. You’d be surprised how much this space gets used. We love it! You can see below what it looked like when we moved in.
And this is how it looks now 🙂 A bit more colorful and definitely more useful for our family!
PAINT COLORS: Wall Color: Pure White by Sherwin-Williams | Trim Color: Divine White by Sherwin-Williams
DIY HOME DECOR PROJECTS: DIY Pom Pom Wreath | How to Paint a Dresser
I’ve included sources for items that are still available and have done my best to find similar items for those things that we purchased second-hand (like the dresser the coffee station is on). Just click any of the images below for full product details.
The Entryway/Foyer
It may sound weird, but the entryway/foyer is one of my favorite spots in our home. I knew I wanted it to really set the tone for the rest of our home so that when people walk in they (hopefully) know that our home is filled with color and is a comfortable place to hang out. I wanted it to say “we’re fun and easy going–nothing fancy is going on here!” And I think it does the job!
I didn’t take great before photos of this area, but you can get an idea of what it looked like when we moved in below. This photo was taken while standing in our dining room while facing the foyer.
And this is how it looks now–much more colorful and “us.”
PAINT COLORS: Wall Color: Pure White by Sherwin-Williams | Trim Color: Divine White by Sherwin-Williams
The Family/Great Room
I never know whether to call this the family room or the great room ??♀️ Though I’m not sure how to label it, I am sure that it’s one of best spots in our house. It’s open to the kitchen and the 10 foot ceilings really make an impact in this room. Here’s a peek at what this room looked like when we bought the house.
In terms of the design, it’s very, very similar to the family room in our old house. What can I say? I like what I like, so I didn’t change much! We did use the bookshelves from our old dining room in here, so that’s a difference from the old house ?
PAINT COLORS: Wall Color: Pure White by Sherwin-Williams | Trim Color: Divine White by Sherwin-Williams
DIY HOME DECOR PROJECTS: Easy DIY Picture Rail a.k.a. Art Ledge
The Dining Room
But there are lots of super traditional features of this house (like the coffered ceiling) that are beautiful, but just aren’t our personal style ??♀️ The traditional features of the home ALMOST scared us off from buying it. This is what the dining room looked like until pretty recently!
I’m glad we didn’t pass on this house because there’s ALWAYS something you can do to transform those features you don’t love into something that you DO love. We painted the walls a dark blue and wallpapered our coffered ceiling to make it feel more funky and modern and now we absolutely love it ??
PAINT COLORS: Wall Color: Gale Force by Sherwin-Williams | Trim Color: Divine White by Sherwin-Williams
Related posts: Dining Room Reveal | Plans for the Dining Room
The rest of the sources can be found below. Just click on any of the product images for full details!
The Bonus Room
This is the first time we’ve had a “bonus” room and it was a challenge for me to decorate it and to come up with space plan that made sense. But I love a good challenge! This is how the room looked when we moved in.
And this is how the bonus room looks now. It’s the perfect family space for all of us and serves so many functions. Our 10-year-old girls hang out up here (and it’s usually a total mess with toys and books strewn all over the place at least a couple of times a week) and it’s also our favorite spot to watch family movies in the colder months.
PAINT COLORS: Wall Color: Pure White by Sherwin-Williams | Trim Color: Divine White by Sherwin-Williams
DIY HOME DECOR PROJECTS: DIY triptych wall canvases | DIY wall mural
The rest of the sources can be found below. Just click on any of the product images for full details!
The Main Bedroom
Our bedroom was absolutely my least favorite room in the house, which was a bummer because I LOVED our bedroom in our old house. I was not a fan of the tray ceiling and because the screened-in-porch is right off it, this doesn’t get a ton of natural light. And like pretty much everything else in our house when we moved in, it was beige and brown. This is what it looked like when we bought the house.
We had the walls and ceiling painted before we moved in. And we also had the carpet replaced with hardwoods. We really reused everything from our old bedroom because we loved everything so much! Oh, and we replaced the ceiling fan with the chandelier from our old dining room, and I love it in here! Don’t worry, we use this tower fan now and I feel like it keeps us way cooler than a ceiling fan ever did! And we freshened up the bedding.
I feel VERY lucky to say that this room is now one of my favorite rooms in our house, which I genuinely did NOT expect given how much I disliked it when we first viewed the house. Just goes to show how much you can transform a space! This is what it looks like now.
PAINT COLORS: Wall Color: Pure White by Sherwin-Williams | Trim Color: Divine White by Sherwin-Williams | Dresser, chest of drawers and bedside table color: Lady Singing the Blues by Amy Howard at Home One-Step Paint
DIY HOME DECOR PROJECTS: DIY Bolster Pillow tutorial | DIY Bedside Table Makeover | DIY Art Frames | How to Paint Wood Furniture
I’ve included sources for items that are still available and have done my best to find similar items for those things that we purchased second-hand (like the nightstands by our bed). Just click any of the images below for full product details.
Attley’s Room
Attley’s room is nice and large and has tons of natural light in it, since it has windows on 2 walls. We haven’t totally finished her room yet, but it’s already come a long way from where it started.
Attley is my kiddo that loves all the colors (just like her mama), so we added a colorful mural. And you know what I realized?! I think the reason I absolutely ADORE Attley’s room so much isn’t just because of all the color and whimsy. IT’S BECAUSE EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF FURNITURE IN IT IS EITHER AN OLD FAMILY PIECE OR IT WAS THRIFTED OR RESCUED! Yep!
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The yellow bedside table was a repurposed sewing chest of my grandmother’s that we added legs to. The Jenny Lind bed was a Facebook Marketplace score that just required some love and paint. The blue bedside table was built by my grandfather. And if you swipe right ??????, that gorgeous dresser you see was rescued by me from a PARKING LOT ? Again, it just needed some paint and love.
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Every piece of furniture in her room has a story. And that makes me love it so much more! People seem skeptical when I tell them that my thrifted/roadside finds are my favorite pieces of furniture, but it’s absolutely true.
Here’s what the room looks like now!
PAINT COLORS: Wall Color: Pure White by Sherwin-Williams | Trim Color: Divine White by Sherwin-Williams | Paint color of the dresser: Orchid by Amy Howard at Home One-Step Paint | Paint color of bed: Coral Crush by General Finishes | Paint Color of Yellow Bedside Table: Prairie Sunset by Fusion Mineral Paint
WALL MURAL: Garden Party by Bari J for Murals Your Way
DIY HOME DECOR PROJECTS: DIY Painted Dresser | Sewing Chest Turned Nightstand | How to Paint Second-Hand Jenny Lind Bed
As I mentioned, all of the furniture in Attley’s room is second-hand, but I’ve included similar items below when possible! Click on any of the images for full product details.
The Screened-in Porch
You may remember when we moved into our house at the end of October 2020 hearing me say that what really made us fall in love with it is the incredible screened-in porch. It took my breath away when we first saw it! It was absolutely beautiful even totally empty. Take a look for yourself.
We did have some nice Fall weather to enjoy out there after we moved in, and we even used it more than we expected over the Winter. But now we are entering our first FULL warm weather season in this house, so I finally took the time to really decorate and finish this space. AND I’M TOTALLY SMITTEN with how it turned out!
DIY PROJECTS: DIY Colorblock Macrame Plant Hangers | DIY Outdoor Chandelier | Screened-in Porch Reveal
Our main seating area furniture is from Article:
For the rest of what you see in the space, click on any of the photos below for full product details! I’ve also included a seating set that’s really similar to ours from Article, but more budget-friendly!
Phew! I’m realizing just how much work we have done in 6 months. We’ve been keeping track of all of our memories and projects in our House to Home Journal! Have you heard of it? It’s a baby book for your home! Keep track of everything from holidays and life events to renovations and decorating projects. After all, those are the things that transform a house into a home. Click HERE to learn more.
Fear not, we still have plenty to do so you won’t be bored any time soon, lol! Thanks so much for reading and for supporting me along this journey!
If you are wondering how I come up with designs for the spaces in our home, the answer is Designer in a Binder®. It is the simple system I have used for years and years to design spaces in my own home. A couple of years ago, I finally put it all down on paper so that others can use it as well! In it I walk you through all the important stuff like choosing items that are the correct scale, space planning, mixing patterns, choosing colors and more! I give easy-to-understand guidance on all of this in Designer in a Binder®! You can order your binder now. We have over 7,900 happy customers so far! Click HERE to learn more.
