Showing posts with label Before Story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Before Story. Show all posts

1 ‘Bout Time: The DIY Stars Align

>> Thursday, November 8, 2012

Reasons why it’s finally time to get started on the great kitchen-laundry room merger of 2012…

1. Removing the wall separating the two rooms has been on my to-do list since spring.

2. My live-in boyfriend is the wonderful type of freak of nature that loves to do laundry and anything I can do to encourage that behavior (including knocking down walls) must be done.

3. Aforementioned boyfriend’s brother is a plumber who has already begun cutting holes in my kitchen wall. Let the reno begin.


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1 Before Story: A (soon to be) fashionable file cabby

>> Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Metal file cabinets are the most elegant, sophisticated, timeless furniture pieces in all the universe…said no one ever, including myself as I dove head first into decorating The Property Group’s new office space. (Missed the before pictures of this little gem? Click here to play catch-up.)

The thought of bringing in one of those metal monsters was not high on my opening-a-new-office to-do list and figuring out where to put one without being such an enormous eye sore was an even bigger piece of the puzzle…until a gift from the rehabbing gods fell into my lap in the form of this guy…

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This wooden file cabby is perfectly paintable, the exact size we are needing and with precious paneling detail on the sides, I’m picturing much more of a cozy furniture piece than a cold, metal file-eating contraption. This file cabinet is on the fast track to rehab and I can’t wait to share the after photos!

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0 Baby Talk

>> Monday, August 13, 2012

With as many coats of paint slapped on these walls and fixer-upper projects that I’ve tackled around my own construction site, one DIY I’ve yet to participate in is nursery prep. Now that my name will proudly boast an “Aunt” in front of it in just a handful of months, I’m pumped about getting down to baby decorating business with my preggo sister.

Jessica has been busy picking fabrics for weeks, and yesterday she finally gave me permission to come over and help her brainstorm/tear to shreds the what-was-once-a-guest-room-but-shall-soon-be-nothing-less-than-baby-wonderland. We measured, we schemed DIY projects, we referenced Pinterest, we plotted how to knock off precious but entirely too expensive curtains…

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Not much to see in this before pic, but one thing is for sure. Baby already has a killer Container Store closet. #jealousauntie

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1 Feeling The Love & The Newest Victim

>> Thursday, August 2, 2012

Thanks a trillion to all of the fabulous bloggers who have linked up to this blog-o-mine! Hop on over and give a little love to my talented fellow word nerds below…

A Matched Pair

A Touch of Arkansas
AJW Design Co
Apartment Therapy
Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board
Arkansas Women Bloggers
At Home in Arkansas
Bellatina Creations
Blog Catalog
Boots McBlog
Brixton Nole
Bubbles and Money
Building Moxie
Cara Beth Photography
Casa Sugar
Charlotte John Real Estate Co.
Chino House
Custard By Design
Dabe to Dream
Decorating by Michelle
Details Weddings & Events
East Goes West
eHow
Everything Tile & Stone
Five Little Rules
For the Love of Painting
From the Front Porch
Frugal with a Flourish
Home Decor News
Home Sweet Home
I design, you DIY…e-decorating
Instead of the Dishes
Jessica’s Journey
Jolly Goode Gal
Keeping Up with the Joneses
Kentucky Sweet Tarte
Life Lessons
Live the Life You Love
Livin’ the Young Life
Lovely Tonight
Meet Penny
Michelle Lee Interiors
Modern Maizy
Momcaster
My Life as a Mrs
Oh The Place I Want To Go
Our Everyday Dinners
Our Family
Our Happy Family
Our Little Acre
Planning Makes Perfection
Providence Ltd Interior Design
Quaint Oaks
Rachael Jones’ Blog
Rambles with Reese
Remodel This House
Re-Nest
Renovation Rants
Show Home Staging & Design
Simple Tips for Life
Splendid Twenties
Sweet Tea Magnolia
Take Life with a Grain of Chocolate
Tearing Up Houses
That’s What She Said
The Buies
The Cape on the Corner
The Dooses
The Deacons
The Divine Mrs. EM
The Ederington Family
The Flipping Couple
The Good Life
The Hopper House
The Jones Family
The Lowe Down
The Married Life Diaries
The McNulty Family
The Muddy Truth
The Phillips Pham
The Road to Delightful
The Rich Hard Life & Sons
The Secret of the Spoiled Labradors
The Sun Comes Out Tomorrow
Two Dogs & a House
Two Poms and a House
UAMesSing It Up
We All Need A Lil’ Creation
Well Nested Home
Zesty Nest


In other news, I have a new victim. We’re still getting to know each other but one thing is for sure. She won’t look like this for long.

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0 Before Story: Friends make great guinea pigs

>> Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Now that I’ve been an official guest blogger for the fabulous At Home in Arkansas magazine for over a year—that’s a lot of DIYin’ folks!—I vote it’s time we mix it up a bit for my July post.

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Day after day you see me piddling around my own construction site on Live The Home Life and month after month you see me rehabbing furniture for At Home’s blog, but for my next post in the works, I plan on taking a more hands off approach.

After each DIY/rehab/how-to project I post, I tend to get dozens of love-it!-but-I-could-never-do-what-you-just-did emails, Facebook comments and tweets. Last week’s DIY floor mirror was no exception.


So to prove just how simple it really is to recreate that stinkin’ mirror, I’m bringing in my good pal and super beginner DIYer, Meredith to show us how it’s done.

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Craving a mirror of her own for her first home, I knew just how to wrangle her into my little experiment. Mere admits that she’s no handy gal but is excited to take on this DIY…with a little guidance from yours truly and a glass or two of wine.

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0 Knocking Out a Knock Off

>> Wednesday, June 20, 2012

I’ve been itching for another DIY project and ever since I spotted Shanty 2 Chic’s super simple full length mirror DIY, I can’t stop dreaming of the day I too can have a perfectly perfect full length mirror knock off that I’m entirely too cheap to pay $200+ retail for. Not to mention, it’s also becoming increasing more difficult to coordinate outfits without the proper mirrors to assist, as evidenced by a recent attempt to send a friend a picture of her bridesmaid dress with shoe combos. Ankles could have (and probably should have) broken.

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Naturally, this mirror DIY was the perfect fit.

Step 1: Find cheap-o mirror to spruce the hell out of.

After a solid 10 minutes spent in the mirror aisle of Walmart trying to match mirrors to their corresponding price tags, I settled on this lovely little beveled beauty. With a little makeup and the right accessories she is going to rock the Rehabilitation Station.

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Check back soon as I get busy giving this mirror the sass it deserves. If you want to follow along, grab a mirror and let’s do this!


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3 Before Story: Mail Call

>> Friday, May 25, 2012

With the palette successfully checked off the Rehabilitation Station to-do list (click here if you missed the before & after from earlier this week), you know I just had to bring in another friend to fill its place. Out with the old and in with more old.

Meet the newest guinea pig ripe for rehabbing!…

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A couple of years ago, I rehabbed the mailbox that is still hanging on my own front porch today…

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…and this DIY was one of my most favorite projects—I also like to think it makes my mailman’s day to frequent such a lovely stop—so I’m pumped to take on another letter loving flip.

Have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend, y’all! I’ll see you back here Monday…hopefully with more of a suntan than a sunburn.


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4 Rehabilitation Station: Next!

>> Friday, May 18, 2012

This DIYer could not be more excited about the two newest guinea pigs to join the Rehabilitation Station

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My thoughts on the old mannequin stand/victim #1 are that it would make a killer floor lamp with a little tweaking…

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And with all of the fab ideas flowing out of Pinterest with what to do with wooden pallets, finding the perfect rehab plan for this guy will be a child’s play.

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Have a great weekend, y’all! June Bug and I are hopping in a boat and heading downstream with the most handsome tour guide in all the land.

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Here’s hoping that little fur ball can swim.



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4 The Ugly Truth

>> Wednesday, April 18, 2012

This post is about to get real, y’all. Really real. Normally I’m 100% candid with you on the progress of my house. The good. The bad. The ugly cluttered mess that tends to take over your life when you turn your house into a giant construction site…but there is one room in my house that I hardly ever give you a glimpse of out of pure embarrassment and fear that you’ll leave me for good: my laundry room.

With the actual kitchen portion of my great Kitchen/Laundry Room Remodel of 2012 coming to a close, I have no choice but to share the laundry room before pictures with you. I’m praying it’s been at least an hour since you’ve had lunch. Let’s do this.



Currently in order to enter my laundry room, you have to go out my kitchen door, into the carport and then into a separate door to my laundry room. If you think you’d be able to sneak into the laundry room in a bathrobe, wet hair and face mask without the neighbors catching you, from personal experience I can tell you that your assumption would be incorrect. Hence the need for a doorway connecting the kitchen to the laundry room from the inside of the house. Which is just what I have planned and you’ve seen me describe a hundred times on this very blog…from the viewpoint of the kitchen.

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Now let’s take a look at the viewpoint from the laundry room. Here we go. The laundry room in its current state.

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What’s that? Not too bad, you say? Let’s dig a little deeper. Aside from the obvious clutter and desperate need for a few gallons of paint, there is just one miserable saggy little shelf serving as the only storage space…

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A filthy floor covered in dirt and leaves. Trust me when I say that dropping clean underwear while unloading the dryer is not the highlight of my day.


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A flathead screwdriver circa 1932 serving as the security system…

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A tangle of water hoses & electrical cords topped off with a sweet DIY foam insulation hack job…

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And a family of spiders that don’t know how to throw away leftovers.

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Now what was that you were saying?



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2 Before Story: Lighting Up

>> Tuesday, March 27, 2012

My theory about never being able to find what you want when you want it took center stage in yesterday’s post…and is still going strong. With the itch to go in search of bedside tables to rehab, I came home empty handed after my first thrift store stop. Well, not completely empty handed. While not a single table caught my eye, other items were calling my name from every corner of the store, and who was I to deny them the chance at a new life? I had absolutely no choice but to take home a still-in-the-box-brand-spankin-new $7.00 light fixture for my front porch and a not-so-brand-spankin-new $5.00 lamp to revive…



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…but still no tables. So far: Fate-1, Cara-0.


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0 The Before Story: The Kitchen

>> Monday, January 2, 2012

Happy New Year, y’all! Around these parts a new year brings a new project. It’s time to tackle this bad boy…

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So what’s the plan? I’m still working on that part, but I do know the overall goal is to combine my kitchen and laundry room and rid this space of all traces of the 1960s. Here’s all I’ve had time to extract from my scattered DIY train of thought and throw down onto paper. I figure I’ll have plenty of time to think while I pack up dishes…

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One thing is for sure. The next couple of months will be filled with saw dust and takeout and I could not be more excited.

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