One of my LEAST favorite things about refinishing something is SANDING the blasted thing until your elbow is going to fall off. When we moved into our house our bathrooms were atrocious (note: they're still atrocious) but I decided I wanted to AT LEAST paint the cabinet vanities until something else could be done to them (i.e. demolished...
SO MANY people go to tremendous effort and money to makeover their kitchen only to fall short on the final few details. The finishing touches are SO important! You can do everything else right and if you get these wrong you kitchen just falls short. Crown Molding If you go to all the work and effort to paint...
Forgive my pictures. When I was taking pictures I hadn't planned on doing this blog so some of the pictures don't match SUPER well with the topic. This is when I was installing the backsplash myself (thanks YouTube) but it perfectly illustrates the existing solid wood, alder cabinet frames that we painted white - sans the doors. You're...
Ok so you have your ideal kitchen all drawn up and ready to go. Now all you need is a handy husband and $20,000 right? If you have both of those things, good on ya, get to work. If you don't have one or both of those things, do not despair, you can still have a lovely kitchen. ...
White cabinets are all the rage these days. You have oak or alder cabinets so you're going to slap a coat of white paint on them and everything will be dandy, right? Not so fast. There are SO MANY things to consider when it comes to a kitchen makeover or remodel. We've all heard the concept of good,...
First, let me start off by saying that my intention is never to criticize what choices someone has made in their home. When I show examples of what NOT to do it is in the hopes of providing a different idea that might look better in the long run. That said, the MOST IMPORTANT part in any design...
Some of the most difficult colors to pick are neutrals, in my opinion. The reason is that unless you're looking at one of the true primary colors (red, yellow and blue), every color has an undertone. Undertones are often hidden in the base color and can be very difficult to detect. Beige often has undertones that are yellow,...
When you decide to remodel as you go, patience is a necessity. Well, patience and the ability to look into the future. When I picked the flooring for our house I knew it would look SO HIDEOUS with our existing cabinetry and woodwork - but I tried to see the big picture. I also knew when I bought...
There are still a TON of things that need to happen with this room (namely wall decor) but I need to address one mistake that most people make when it comes to their draperies. Often I walk into a house and see that people have hung their curtains just inches above the top of the window. Doing this...
I have a whole bunch of before and after pictures. I always think it's fun to look at the before and after. While they're fun to compare, what you DON'T see is the 4 YEARS in between. That is what the blog is about - all the in between stuff that got us from before to after. Sorry...
One of the first things we did when we moved into our new house was paint. The walls and the ceilings were all the same color. If you have a contractor grade house and didn't spring for the 3 tone paint upgrade - chances are, yours are too. I am pretty passionate about paint. Several of my interior...
In 2012 my family and I decided to move on a whim. We found a wonderful house with wonderful bones but the inside needed a little (okay, a lot) of help. It wasn't that the things in the house were of poor quality it was just that EVERYTHING was outdated. Think 1976 and you're in the right decade....