Posts Tagged ‘before and After’

• Spicing up the pantry

  Date: 2010.08.08 | Category: Organizing | Response: 33

  I picked a cabinet for all my spices and cooking stuff…

  

  It sat like this for exactly 5 days before I couldn’t even take it anymore! (And I hadn’t even baked anything yet!)

  

  YIKES!

  What a disaster! I am OCD when it comes to being organized, so obviously this train wreck was not going to work for me.

  I headed over to the Home Depot and bought this awesome organizer.

  

  I cringed and looked away as they rang it up (almost $40!) but I know it is so worth the investment.

  

  You can see the mess in the cabinet where I previously had all my spices. Obviously I didn’t pick a big enough cabinet. I decided to hang the shelf organizer on the inside of my pantry door.

  

  It took me about 10 minutes to hang it. These are so super easy to install. I just screwed it right onto the door.

  Now I can let out a sigh of relief!

  

  An organized spice rack! Niiiiice.

  

  I still have to organize the actual pantry, but at least my spices and cooking stuff are taken care of.

  Being organized isn’t hard. You just have to have the right supplies. For under $40 I went from this disaster:

  

  To this neat and tidy pantry:

  

  I can’t wait to do all sorts of fun home decor crafts, but for now I’m just trying to get the bones of the house taken care of. I hope you like organizing tips because I have a feeling I’ve got a few more posts in the future.

  

  Do you have any great tips for organizing? Share them with me!

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• The Stairs

  Date: 2010.07.25 | Category: Decorating, Renovating | Response: 24

  I tend to get focused on one thing and then obsess about it non-stop. It’s all I can think about all day and night until I finally tackle whatever it is I’m obsessing about.

  Right now, it’s THE STAIRS.

  

  I know I won’t get around to this HUGE project any time soon, but it’s fun to dream! Here’s my big dream that one day I’ll get around to doing…

  Here are the stairs at my new house:

  
  (They are nice and have absolutely nothing wrong with them. I just like other stairs better.)

  And here is what I want to do to my stairs…

  

  Absah-freaking-lootly beautiful.

  

  I found these stairs at a model home in the area that I fell head-over-heels in love with. The decor and upgrades are just amazing and I plan to copy as much of this house as humanly possible.

  (I already took my trusty Sherwin Williams paint chip thing-a-ma-bobby with me and color-matched all the paint colors in the house so I can paint my house the same way.)

  Now honestly, this little project won’t cost much. I just need to change out the railings….

  …It’s the other stuff I want to do that’s going to add up quickly.

  Upstairs off the game room there are 2 half-walls that I want to tear down and add the iron railing to…

  Here’s a current picture of the staircase looking from the ground floor up the staircase:

  

  And here’s a picture of the game room and the two sections of half-wall I want to tear out…

  

  My goal is to have it look like this:

  

  I love this!

  From this:
  

  

  To this:
  

  

  When you are upstairs I want to be able to see the front door through the rails.

  

  It just makes it feel so much more open. Plus, I’ve got two monkeys for children and I’m kind of afraid they are going to try to climb that half wall to see over it. If I’ve got a railing there then they can see through the railing instead of needing to look over it.

  Here’s a current view of the foyer looking up:

  

  

  I want it to look like this:

  

  I need to price it out still, but for now there are things far more important in our budget than replacing railings and half-walls (like, oh, lets say… a fridge, washer, and dryer!)

  Also, I’d LOVE to go from this:
  

  To THIS:
  Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick ripped her carpet off her stairs and stained them. Gorgeous.)

  As if my STAIRS list isn’t ambitious enough, I’d absolutely LURVE to rip out the little side wall at the bottom that the railing attaches to…

  

  And then have it stair-step with the stairs like this:

  

  And a nice thick scroll railing wouldn’t be too bad either.

  

  But I’m afraid we are probably talking mucho $$$$ to do that (though I’m no expert I’m assuming we’d have to rip out those stairs and insert new planks that are longer).

  And while I’m on a fantasy roll here, let’s just remove that little miniature wall on the bottom completely and go from this

  

  To completely flush with the ground level like so…

  

  Yes, obviously I have some serious issues. We still haven’t closed on this new house (we close this Friday HOPEFULLY!) and I’m already day-dreaming about a very expensive renovation.

  But honestly, I really do love this house just as it is, and if I never get to redo these stairs and half-walls, I’ll still love this house regardless.

  But in a perfect world, I’d change the railing to iron, tear out two half-walls and change them to iron, rip out the carpet on the stairs and stain it, make the railing on the stairs stair-step instead of a little angled wall, and make the bottom railing flush with the ground.

  I’m adding this to my list, and maybe with next years tax return I’ll redo the staircase. Or we’ll add the hand-scraped hardwood floor to the downstairs that I’ve been oogling over…

  Sssshhhhh, don’t tell my hubby. I see dreams and daydreaming, he sees dollar signs flying through the air. $$$$$$$$$$

  
  

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• mini green flower pot

  Date: 2010.07.07 | Category: Decorating | Response: 20

  When you see something like this:

  

  Don’t pass it up!

  I got this cute little worn out flower pot at G-Will for ninety-nine cents.

  One coat of Apple Green spray paint and a dollar store flower later…

  

  So easy. Instant cuteness. And it only took me like 3 minutes to paint it.

  

  I didn’t even prime it first. I just washed it and then spray painted it.

  

  For those of you who don’t live in California, don’t be jealous that it says “Trader Joe’s” on the bottom.

  

  For Mother’s Day my children brought me home this purple flower from the 99 Cent Store.

  

  I love these colors together.

  

  The best thing about this is that I didn’t even hassle with planting my flower in the new pot.

  

  I just stuck it in there. It fits perfectly. So, two bucks later, I’ve got a cute little potted flower. And now I can reuse my planter over and over again.

  *~*~*~*

  We are CLOSING ON OUR HOUSE at the end of July! Thank you for being patient with me while I’ve been slacking on my blog. It’s been hard to find time to blog while I crash at friends houses.

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• A cooler cooler

  Date: 2010.05.24 | Category: Crafting | Response: 91

  Eleven years ago my hubbs and I were given a cooler for a wedding gift. It is definitely in the “top 5 best wedding gifts” category. It has gone camping, on road trips, to football tailgating parties, kids’ soccer games, and the lake. It has even traveled with us around the entire USA while we made road trips from Texas to new homes in New Jersey and California.

  Unfortunately our cooler is now old and faded. A shell of what it once was. It is so sun damaged and scuffed up, but it is such a great cooler that I couldn’t bare to part with it and buy a new one. No use throwing away a perfectly useful item.

  
  Poor thing has seen better days.

  So what is a crafty girl to do? I can’t be seen with such an awful looking cooler. I do have a reputation to uphold here.

  After almost a week of drama with this cute little thing, here she is now. Brand new and better than ever.

  

  Adorable.

  Here’s how she came to be…

  I started with this. Pretty faded and gross.

  
  

  Definitely in need of a good makeover. I can’t be seen on the soccer field with this atrocity.

  

  First thing I did was taped the entire inside of the cooler with paper and tape. I didn’t want any paint getting on the inside. Then I took spray paint primer for plastic and primed the entire cooler really well.

  

  Once the primer was dry I took white spray paint for plastic and gave the top several coats. I wanted the top really bright white.

  

  When that was dry I covered and taped the top really tightly. It’s now time to paint the body of the cooler.

  And this is where my trouble begins…

  I had visions of a tangerine and white cooler. You know I love orange. And I could just see this beautiful orange cooler at all the soccer games. In my mind, it was beautiful.

  I could totally picture it full of bags of oranges like the ones Michael Scott stole from the baseball game.

  

  In reality, it looked like something you’d see at a construction site.

  

  
  Not exactly what I’d had in mind…

  Back to the drawing board.

  This go-round I decided on Rust-oleum’s Spa Blue spray paint.

  

  
  I can live with this.

  Stencil time! I was originally going to make a stencil and just spray paint over it.

  

  I used Freezer Paper and cut out a stencil. However, after some thought I realized that with all the texture on the cooler the paint would most likely bleed under the stencil and get ruined.

  

  I still used the stencil, but instead of attaching it and painting, I just attached it and traced my image with a pencil.

  

  And now for the really fun tedious part. Hand painting.

  

  Yup, I’m a lefty. My big claim-to-fame.

  

  After one coat, it looked pretty pathetic.

  But after FOUR very tedious time consuming testing-every-last-drop-of-patience-I-have coats, it is done.

  

  And I love it.

  

  But it’s missing *something*.

  As if hand-painting four coats of “Hepworth” wasn’t torture enough, I decided it needed some racer stripes.

  

  I taped off my stripes, painted one coat, and peeled the tape off. It bled pretty bad, so I had to hand-paint the remaining three coats and do some touching up.

  

  

  About five seconds after I started the stripes I made the decision that they would look great on the front only. They were a major PITA to paint!

  

  

  

  I think the only thing missing now are the tube socks.

  

  Before & After

  

  Fall soccer season, Bring It!

  I’m entering this paint project into The CSI Project competition.

  
  

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• New life for an old shelf

  Date: 2010.05.17 | Category: Crafting, Decorating | Response: 47

  So… I got a new shelf.

  

  So cute, right?! I know!!

  I got it at a certain over-priced thrift store that I’m refusing to name anymore because I think they are way too overpriced considering all their stuff is DONATED to begin with. So I’m not giving them any more props on my site until they stop charging premium prices for crap people didn’t want anymore and gave to them…

  So I got this shelf for $14.99 at previously un-named thrift store.

  However, it originally came from The Great Indoors for $39.99, so I suppose I got a decent deal.

  

  I’m sure I would have paid like $5 if I’d found it at a garage sale, but whatever. I like it and I needed a FLAT SURFACE in this place. (See rant about my red stand.)

  Okay, so obviously I’m me so I’ve done something crafty to this shelf (if the white behind the price tag didn’t give it away already).

  Here’s the shelf the day I bought it:

  

  It’s already pretty cute just the way it is. I love the scroll design on the back! I’ve got a few issues with this shelf though.

  A) all my decor that I’m going to set on top of the shelf will cover up the beautiful scroll work

  B) I don’t want pegs because then I’m going to feel the need to find something to hang from them and also the thought of my kids hanging stuff on the pegs thus knocking the shelf off the wall causing all my breakable decor to fall to it’s death isn’t a thought I’d like to follow through with.

  A modification is in order! Yay! You know what’s more fun than shopping at thrift stores? Taking my junk, modifying it with spray paint and other random supplies, and making my junk awesome!

  First thing I did was pull all the pegs out.

  

  Don’t panic! I KNOW what I’m doing. Maybe. I hope. This project has the potential to go south very quickly.

  Next I took some wood filler and filled all the holes left from where the pegs use to live.

  

  After the wood filler dried I sanded it really well and made it nice and smooth.

  

  So the next thing I want to do is hang my shelf upside down on the wall. Yes, I really did just say upside down. What use is that great scroll work if I can’t show it off? I need it at the bottom of the shelf, not the top.

  To do this the first thing I have to do is remove the brackets on the back and put them on the opposite side of the back of the shelf. I took a mini screwdriver and removed the little brackets, saving the tiny screws and brackets because I’m going to re-use them.

  

  I then flipped the shelf over and decided where I want the new brackets to go. I used a ruler to make sure they were perfectly straight on either side. I’d hate to put them at different heights and have my shelf hang wonky. Yup, wonky. Don’t hate! I’m a Texan. I’m allowed to say words like wonky.

  

  Remember this picture I just showed you?

  

  See how the wood is carved out? When you hang your shelf on the wall the screw sits in this open space behind the bracket. If you don’t carve out this space these brackets wont work. And if you use other brackets your shelf wont sit flush to the wall. So I’ve got to figure out a way to carve out a space where my brackets are going.

  I’m sure there are tools designed for this, but I don’t have any so I had to improvise. I decided to use the largest drill bit I’ve got on hand and just drill several holes next to each other until I’ve got a hollowed out space the right size.

  Fun tip! Figure out how deep you need your drill to go (you don’t want your drill going all the way through the shelf and showing from the front. That would be tragic!) and put a piece of painters tape around the drill bit. That way when you drill, you can stop drilling when the tape reaches the wood. Now you won’t drill too deep!

  

  Once my holes were drilled and I attached the brackets, I took the shelf outside and spray painted it FLAT BLACK and then a top coat of OIL RUBBED BRONZE (ORB).

  Now I’m ready to hang it!

  

  I committed a serious builders faux pas – I used long plain nails to hang my shelf. Normally you should use anchors and screws but I’m moving soon and I didn’t feel like semi-permanently attaching the shelf to the wall. Laziness. Pure laziness. And also I really don’t want a large hole in the wall when I rip the bracket out when I move because then I’d have to putty it up.

  

  She’s rearing and ready to go!

  This is my favorite part! Now everyone can always see it and it won’t be covered up by my stuff.

  

  Here’s how I decorated it the day I took the pictures, but since then I’ve already changed it up a bit. Don’t worry, I’ll show you more pictures of it updated in due time.

  

  Do you recognize the little white vase with the orchid in it? Or maybe my IKEA plant? What about the decor balls? I’ll show you those jute jars in a future post. The large glass vase I bought at the Thrift Store that I’m not talking about.

  

  Do you recognize the plant container hanging on the other wall?

  

  This is the entry way to my apartment. Next to the yellow vase on the right is our front door. On the left is a 1/2 bath. When I say the entire apartment is granite – The entire apartment is granite. Granite is great and pretty, but seriously? There is a limit. Counters, floors, fire place surround, back splash… Do you realize now why every.single.post. I make has granite in it? This apartment is granite overkill!

  Aside from where I hung my H Plate, this hallway is the 2nd worst lit spot in the entire place. Even the sky lights don’t help. Hopefully you can appreciate the shelf in spite of this lighting!

  One more time, just for fun!

  Before:
  

  After:
  

  Thanks for taking the time to read my blog! I seriously love all of you!! Your support means so much to me. I’m grateful there are so many amazing people out there who actually like my junk.

  

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• Fire? FIRE!!!!

  Date: 2010.05.11 | Category: Crafting, Decorating | Response: 38

  I had this great idea to make a stand for a glass dome I recently purchased. I started the stand using dollar store stuff, but mid project I found something better for my glass dome.

  Now my new dollar store stand has found an even better home!

  Call 9-1-1 ’cause there’s a fire in the house!

  

  Here’s how you can spend $2 and create one of your own really fun decor stands.

  First, start with a candle in a jar. I didn’t care about the candle, I just wanted the little jar! I got a pairing knife and dug the wax out. Once it was all out I washed it really well.

  

  Nice. And. Clean.

  

  Honestly, you probably could have left the wax in the candle and no one would ever know…

  So then I flipped the candle holder upside down and Gorilla Glued it to the bottom side of a terracotta plant dish.

  

  So easy!

  Now, what really makes or breaks this project is the C-O-L-O-R!

  This has the potential to be a totally lamespice stand so I chose a fire engine RED. Hoping to avoid all lamespiceness. Srsly.

  

  It’s bringing sexy back.

  Is it just me or does it kinda remind you of a fire hydrant? The texture of the candle holder and the red together… KEEP MY DOG AWAY!

  

  Delish!

  So where should I put it?! Honestly, I have NO FLAT SURFACES in this apartment. None. Except my one sad little side table (which isn’t even mine! It’s rented). Side table it is! That was an easy choice. What were my options again? Counter or side table. Right.

  

  Okay, so I bought this tray thing at a thrift store like two months ago. It’s like Oh.my.gosh! so stained!

  

  I sprayed it down with ORB (shock of the century, I know) and I put it on the side table with a few little things on top. Oh, and did you notice I gave my little bunnies a coat of heirloom white? So much better than bright white…

  

  I’m not really sure what a fire hydrant, bunnies, a globe, and a dice have in common, but I ONLY HAVE ONE FLAT SURFACE!

  Did I mention that I’m moving in 6 weeks? Back home? To my HOUSE?! With LOTS of flat surfaces and shelves?!!

  

  Don’t worry, I promise I wont be a tacky decorator once I move. Promise. I’ll keep the bunnies and globe and fire hydrant in separate rooms.

  

  Time to put out the fire.

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