Las Iguanas House Snaps

Slowly but surely Las Iguanas is looking more and more like ours. It's brighter, fun, and colorful. Very islandy. We now have hot water and A/C which is huge! I can't wait to share pictures of the newly remodeled bathroom and eventually kitchen. But for now a few snaps of the house from the last trip. Every time we add a new piece of art, a few more pillows, a rug, dishes... I am becoming an expert in taking the maximum amount imaginable in a checked bag and two carry ons lol

Thanks to my obsession with the Funky Beehive and now Sol Creation my closet is looking pretty also. Makes getting dressed so much fun every day, and I obviously am leaning towards a certain color scheme on the island. Where else can you get away with wearing white year round?

We need curtains and more art but it feels more and more like home every time we go. I love our funky new octopus dinnerware from Anthropology.

We are trying to do all local art. Just take our time and find fun pieces that we like. There are so many talented people on the island finding the art won't be a problem, more narrowing down to a few select pieces.



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!

Fun Bright Before and After's of Las Iguanas

We are making slow but steady progress on our little beach shack. It's nothing fancy but honestly I am in LOVEEEEEE with it. Especially now that it is brighter thanks to paint and windows. I love seeing it progress and become more "ours". Figured I would show a few before and afters. We still have curtains to hang in some rooms, art to add to the walls, and rugs but we are getting there.

 

Living room Before:

 

Living room After: (New paint, windows, slipcovers for the sofa (which I painstakenly sewed the day before we left until after midnight lol), added a chair from a different room (also gave it a facelift with new material), new coffee table,  new art from one of our favorite local artists (only seen in one picture) and a fun new dresser. Still need a few more pillows, curtains, and maybe a rug.

 

Dinning Room Before:

 

 Dinning Room After: Again new paint and windows, a new table from Woodstock a fun local woodworking shop, a fun bright colored rug, and new linens from Guatemala. Need curtains, art, and two chairs.

My Bedroom Before:

 

My Bedroom After: New paint, windows, curtains, and linens. Still needs art, and possibly a new rug.

 

 

 My Parents Bedroom Before:

Parents Bedroom After: New paint, windows, linens, and a fun headboard also from Woodstock. We also put the footstool deals form the living room in here. Still needs art, a ceiling fan, and a rug.

Hallway Before:

Hallway After (taken the opposite direction though sorry). New paint and light. Needs a fun colorful runner and art.

Bathroom Rennovation Plans for the Beach Shack

Our little casa has one bathroom and right now it is UGLY and not really functioning all that well. It's usable but not ideal. No hot water heater so it has an electric "suicide shower", the toilet has to be turned off after each use or runs, the vanity is kinda broken...

I added a fun shower curtain and rug last trip hoping it would liven things up but obviously this bathroom needs a full renovation.

I ordered these gorgeous cement tiles several weeks ago so counting down until they arrive on the island. They are handmade in the Dominican Republic and I think they will look ahhhhmazing.

Essentially they will go behind the sink, toliet, and then all of the shower. I fell in love with the tiles when I saw another home on the island that HiSugarPlum blogged about. We will then paint the walls white and we are having this beauty of a concrete vanity made.

 

I stole the idea from Heather Bullard (that is her bathroom and her pics)  who has a gorgeous house. I also bought this fun capiz shell chandelier.

I have a fun DIY idea for the mirror, need to make or buy a towel rack, and I want to use vintage wire baskets in place of the ugly shelving deal you see in the pictures. So excited for this first major transformation of the beach shack.

Las Iguanas Before Rennovations

I spent about six hours cleaning our new Beach shack like a crazy person before my parents arrived. It is amazing what a lot of elbow grease and Clorox can do to spruce a place up. The few fun new bright clean accessories I brought along helped as well.

Fresh flowers and fun new furniture help as well. I made several trips to the local plant store and smuggled a piece of Ikea furniture over in my luggage

 

I also ditched some very dirty dingy rugs and heavy curtains.

Towards the end of the week we got our new Woodstock coffee table. It adds a fun pop of color plus was made locally which I like.

We have a LONG ways to go but it already looks brighter and felt cleaner than our last visit. Can't wait to show after photos and entice many of you to rent our little island gem for a week.

Next on the list is new windows, new paint, a whole new bathroom, new covers for the couch/chairs, new pillows, curtains, and some unfun improvements such as roof fixing and a parking area.