Justin's House Before and After

I figured it would be fun to show some before and after shot's of Justin's house before all the furniture and that is moved in. I will show bathroom and kitchen as well as both those rooms also got a renovation. It truly amazes me what hard work, paint, stain, and a vision can do to transform a space.

I will say the before pictures actually look better than the true room did in person. The floors were pretty banged up, dirty, and gross. The woodwork was a mix of blue, pink, or wallpaper....The walls were dirty and crazy colors. I was in charge of stripping all the woodwork, sanding, painting and staining woodwork, painting ceilings (least favorite job of all), and painting walls. I am obviously a messy painter.... The boys did the hard stuff like tearing down walls, redoing the bathroom, new lights. The floors were hired out. 

The bedroom had horrible wallpaper, like several layers of wallpaper and then paint on top of it. 

 Here it is after wallpaper before we painted and all that.

After with no wallpaper, fresh coat of paint on the windows, refreshed woodwork, new light, and refinished floors.

Realized we forgot to strip paint off the closet door - ooops. Although a good picture to show just how bad the paint/woodwork situation was prior to us starting.

Dinning room before. It was closed off from the kitchen, several shades of pink, to include floral wallpaper on the woodwork.

After. The boys opened up a wall so now the kitchen and dinning room flow together and seem bigger. New light fixture, new window paint, remainder of woodwork was stripped and re stained, refinished floors.

Living room before. A whole lot of blue paint, yucky old light, bad floors.

 After. Fresh new paint, new window paint, rest of woodwork stripped and re stained, new light, and refisnihed floors.

This is a bonus room of sorts right off the living room. I think he is going to use it as a gym as we have a cool old sliding door that can open and close. it must have been an office before as had lots and lots of outlets and more blue paint.

After. No more blue, new paint everywhere, re stained woodwork, new light, and refinished floors.

Hallway before wasn't awful but the floors were in bad shape and all the woodwork was a beige color.

Refinished floors that look amazing, fresh paint (it is more white just bad lighting I think in this picture) and the railing/banister has been stripped and re stained. Clean and fresh.

Obviously there will always be things that can be improved. The ceilings are still textured, a few rooms still need finished, and I keep questioning if we should have stripped the paint of all the windows and stained that woodwork as well. Overall though it looks amazing I think. It's so cute now and truly looks so much nicer than the day he purchased it. Once he moves in art, furniture, rugs it will be even better.

Would love feedback!

Little White Church Version Two

Some of you may remember I talked this last fall about really really wanting to save a precious little white country church from demolition. Click here if you want to read more. You know that crazy childhood dream to get married in a country church and all.... Well sadly I did not win that battle as someone had already staked claim before I and scrapped the poor place. Heart braking really to see the shell of it in Niobrara. Now this church is free for the taking if one moves it. I will be the first to admit it is far from a dream church.

 

Vinyl siding, wood paneling, no cool stain glass or unique features. But it is a smallish church and could easily be moved (listen to me - probably nothing easy about it) to our land and become that perfect little white chapel in the country.

A spot for couples who want a unique country wedding or for me if that day ever miraculously happens. Do I even attempt this? Am I better off just starting from scratch and replicating an old but new chapel some day?

A Super Lovely Beach House

Blogs never disappoint when it comes to visualizing what a space could look like. I was torn on the look I wanted for our new home in Vieques. I knew I wanted simple and neutral with pops of color. This home sold me on the idea of white walls and light furniture. I found this dreamy beach retreat on SF Girl by the Bay. Hello gorgeous!!!

 

We used to have bed/couches just like these at our cabin in Niobrara. For sure some fun childhood memories. I want a real comfy couch in our living room but think these might be ideal for our jungle room as allow for extra guests when needed.

We are doing the wood open shelves liek this in our kitchen and I ordered a somewhat similar set of lights (in copper though) to hang.

 All the neutral colors, wood, metal, and tile are perfect. I custom ordered a dinning table much like the one above and am on the search for the perfect metal chairs that will ship to Puerto Rico.

 

I also really love the idea of black and white tin art. These palm trees look so cool this way and what an easy thing to do with photos I can easily take on the island.

 

This place without a doubt makes me want to go unwind and just enjoy the beauty of the area. Our home will have more pops of bright colors, as I feel an island home is the perfect chance for that. But I want to steal several design elements from this gem.

*All Pictures are from SF Girl By Bay.

Shed Crushing

 

The country shed at my parents is still very much a work in progress. I'm not afraid to admit I did NOTHING on it for several months.

However, now that I found out the fireplace actually works great (my dad hates real fires and initially claimed it was broken....) I am motivated to finish the sprucing so I can enjoy some cozy weekend nights snuggled up.

I did manage to sneak away from lives duties last weekend for a few hours of relaxation and to add a few new touches.

Next up is hanging curtains, a bit more furniture, finishing the baseboards, and some art or wood in the bedroom.


My new girl crush Sarah Schneider not only has the camper of my dreams she also has a very very perfect shed, of course stocked full of anthroplogy goodies.

 

Because of her I did buy that cute turquoise bar cart from Ikea.

What do you all think? Do wood to match the wall of the shed upstairs in the bedroom area as well? It looks cozy in Sarah's place (first name basis is totally normal right, I'm not a stalker or anything....).

I do wish my almost perfect shed had a bathroom - game changer that would be! Probably not all that difficult to add as there is electricty and water right nearby.

All the photos of Sarah's amazing place are from her website Love, Sarah Schneider. Follow her on instagram for all kinds of cuteness.

Camper Heaven

I've always dreamed of an Airstream. Right now instead I have an 80's driveable beauty. But hey it's still a camper, it runs, and it was a bargain. I am itching to fix it up but nothing really motivated me. That is until I stumped upon Sarah Schneider's amazing amazing blog and her collaboration with my fav - Anthropology. Can I please just steal this camper?

I mean the entire thing is to die for. Talk about perfection.

Love the use of tile, wallpaper, and mirros to add to the glam factors.

I even love the bathroom.

Some of this is so easy to do in my own little camper - especially now that we have an Ikea nearby and I know I could do this on the cheaper side. It may require hours at the sewing machine but it's winter now so I am fully A OK with this task.

We don't have the extra bedroom but the rest is somewhat similiar. I really really need to transform my camper into this perfect little slice of camper heaven. Don't you agree??

All pictures are from Sarah's blog Love. Sarah Schneider click here to see even more. While you are there you really should check out her full blog as her house and kiddos are sooooo cute and swoom worthy.