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Budget Living Room Makeover Ideas
4 Ways to Update Your Living Room on a Budget One of my most favorite things about updating my home or any house is that often the simplest or least-expensive things can make the biggest difference in the look and feel of the space. And that rings true in the case of this living and dining room Dad and I updated on a recent episode of Today’s Homeowner, which you can watch online now. Here’s what the living room looked like before: And here’s the dining room: We basically did 4 things that you can do to update just about any room in your house-living room, dining room, bedroom, or…
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Painting Small Spaces White
When I was originally selecting paint colors for my house, I was a novice homeowner and really had no idea what I was doing. (Well, who’s to say I know what I’m doing now! But at least I feel more confident in choosing paint colors.) Back then my dad was remodeling a house and one of the rooms was painted the golden yellow I used in my dining and living rooms as well as the hallway. I didn’t necessarily like it but it was easier to write down the color’s name and have a few gallons mixed up than pick one from the hundreds of swatches in the paint aisle.…
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Chalk Paint Furniture Fail
I’ve been a big fan of chalk paint for several years now. I’ve used it on countless projects including some dining room chairs my mom helped me update. It’s supposed to eliminate the prep work, like sanding, before you get to the actual painting. But I’ll admit I’ve always cheated on this step. I couldn’t help but at least lightly sand my pieces before painting. Knocking a little of the sheen off of stained wood before painting over it just seems to make sense. Well, this time I decided to try it without ANY prep work on this old hand-me-down coffee table from my parents’ house. It used to reside…
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(Play) Kitchen Remodel
When you find a perfectly good play kitchen on the side of the road, you can’t not pick it up! Am I right? My mom spotted it while walking in her neighborhood and called me up. I was there 15 minutes later loading it in my trunk! (With some assistance from its previous owner.) And this isn’t my first time picking up treasures off the side of the road! Check out my bar cart upcycle here. Once I got it home and unloaded, I realized it was actually missing a lot more than I had originally thought. Only 1 of 4 doors was still in place. It seems this little…
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Painting Washer and Dryer
I’ve finally finished the physical work over at my laundry room project. The bad news is you’ll have to wait another week or two to get all of the posts to wrap this puppy up! After I had a little help hanging cabinets on the wall, I got to work painting the washer and dryer. I know it’s a common scenario to have mismatched washer and dryers. In this case, they’re both white, but the dryer looks much older than the washer. Most budgets don’t allow homeowners to update both appliances at once when only one is broken. And when neither of them are broken, you keep on trucking! The…
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Repurposing A Tidy Cats Container
My last post on refinishing a metal laundry cart left off with a tease on the kitty litter container I upcycled into a laundry detergent dispenser. And now I’m here to deliver the deets! But first a quick thank you for following along on this here blog journey! I’m so thankful for each and every eyeball who visits my site and hopefully finds something useful to do in your home! And I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday with friends and/or family! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on here before or not, but I would love to be a crazy cat lady. You know someone who…
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Adding a Stained Top to a Metal Cart
I love being able to modify something to make it more unique, pretty, or functional. Especially when that something was only $8 to begin with! So when I found this cart at our local Goodwill store, I knew it’d be perfect for my laundry room project after a few modifications. I could have put a lot more time and money into, but decided spray painting it and adding a simple stained wood top to match the laundry sorter would be plenty!
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How to Deck Out your Laundry Sorter
Part 2 of How to Build a Beautiful Laundry Sorter Follow my plans to build a 4-hamper laundry sorter, then check out this post for details on how to stain the top, paint the base, and install the drawer hardware to complete the dresser look! Materials (5) 1×4 poplar boards, if staining top (5) 1×4 pine or whitewood, if painting top wood stain or paint (I used Minwax’s Espresso) stain rags* or paint brush drill/driver* 3/16″ drill bit* drawer pulls* small chain* small wood screws* I included the materials for the top of the sorter in the shopping list in my last post, (5) 1×4 poplar boards cut to 74 inches.…
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How To Paint An Entry Rug
So I’ve had this rug complete for over a week now. But there was something funny going on with my website that would not let me upload images. And what good is a how-to tutorial without images? No good at all, I’d say! Thanks to some deep digging from my buddy and webmaster it’s fixed and I’m getting back on track!I teased the finished rug on Instagram (so click over to follow me!). Rain rain go away! I’m tired of the summer thunderstorms that have been rolling through almost everyday this week! So I’m dreaming of a sunnier day when I made this new rug for our back door. #sneakpeek…
