{Master Bathroom} before and after

Last clean room to show for a while...the master bathroom. 

We actually have TWO bathrooms - one with 2 sinks and a closet (I guess it is a dressing area) and one with the shower, tub and toilet.  I am not a fan of this set up - but we didn't have the budget to change it.  So we painted and made plans to knock down the center wall someday and make one large bathroom.  We did replace the peel and stick laminate with the same 18 inch tile we used in other parts of the house. 

Before -

After -

Here is the other room-

I bought the shower curtain at Target and bought an extra for the window cornice.  My mom made it out of foam board and stuffing.  Genius mother, inexpensive window treatments!

Speaking of my wonderful mother, she made this for me with our wedding vows

I love these collages that I made of the girls - they always make me smile when I'm taking a bath before work.  It's the little things!

I took this to show what we had to do with the crown molding...the original room had a wallpaper border that I could NOT remove.  I tried and tried but you could still see an edge. So eventually I just used wall spackle on top of the edge, sanded it down and then added a small piece of molding to the current crown.  Painted all of it to look like one piece.  Covered up what was left of the border - problem solved!

All for now!

{Master Bedroom} before and after

More rooms to share!

The previous owners worked swing shift so they covered up the bedroom windows with black tarps.  Add brown paint and dark red curtains and you have a perfect dark paradise for daytime sleeping.  But not so much for the rest of the world!

When we took those tarps off we couldn't believe how HUGE the room felt!  Our last house had a big bedroom so we have lots of furniture and a king sized bed...and this was something that some house plans didn't accommodate.  So we were excited for another big master bedroom.

Time for paint!  We tried to let the girls help when we could.  We painted the walls Benjamin Moore's Galapagos Turquoise.

Like idiots we didn't pull the carpet up before painting...so it got ruined.  But we did pull up the carpet from the other rooms in the house and it was in such good shape that I sold it on Facebook!

 Here is the bedroom today:

That leather chair is not normally there - I was just testing it out to see how I liked it.  I actually have a smaller wingback chair that my mom is going to cover for me.  It came from Jason's dad's office.

Duvet is from Pottery Barn

Curtains are from JC Penney

Jason gave me that silver frame as a gift when we first started dating.  Inside it is a picture of us on our first date in 2004.  To the left is the night we got engaged.

I took this picture to show you the two bathrooms on each side of the TV cabinet.  The door going out of the bedroom leads to the breakfast room or downstairs to the basement.

Don't you love the corner covers on the bed!?

My mom had this quilt made for us after we got engaged - that is a picture of when Jason proposed at the Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. 

 

And here is the print of our spot - he gave me this as a wedding gift

I took this at night so you could see the way the walls change color during the day.  Looks almost navy at night.

Lamps are from...you guessed it - LOWES!

I'll post the bathrooms next!

{Mudroom & Guest Bath} before and after

As I said in the post about the den, half the house was done in wood trim, wood paneling with dark peel and stick laminate "tile."  It looked completely different from what we wanted so it all got an update!

The mudroom is a place that gets used and abused.  I knew I wanted to make it brighter but I also knew it needed to be easily cleaned.  I found a new paint by Benjamin Moore called "Advance" and thought it would do the trick.  It paints over wood like an oil based paint but cleans up with soap and water.  And it wipes down easily because it has a gloss feel.  I used plain white off the shelf (although you can tint it to any color.) This is what I used on all the trim in the house.

It should be noted that my mother painted EVERY inch of this house.  Ceilings, trim, walls, etc. Over 3000 square feet.  God bless her.

Here is the mudroom when we bought the house-

We painted the cabinets with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (just like we did our kitchen cabinets that I blogged about)  and painted all the rest with the white.

Jason made the cork boards for me - and I painted them with the same chalk paint. The rug came from Urban Outfitters and the shoe cubby came from Amazon

No fancy washer and dryer here - but these were FREE from my Aunt and Uncle and have served us well for about 10 years! 

The red door leads to the garage. If you are building a house, a mudroom should be non-negotiable!

Next to the mudroom is the guest bathroom.  It is a full bath with a hand held shower - something that comes in handy when it is time to give the golden retrievers a bath!  It looked very similar with all the wood, in fact I don't even have a before photo.  Just imagine the darkest bathroom you've ever seen. This is the only room in the house that doesn't have a window and it was covered in dark brown wall paper.

Everything in here came from TJ Maxx - rugs, shower curtain, hand towels.

This closet has an opening for the laundry chute upstairs.

The shower had a sliding glass door and I DESPISE those so I took it off and added a curtain rod. 

The sink and mirror were updated and came from previous owners

I don't know the paint color of these rooms, but they are the same.  The tile is neutral and came from a discount store in Clarksville.  I think we paid 40 cents a sq/ft for it - super cheap!  We have it in every bathroom in the house.

{The Den} before and after

One week off due to one foot of snow means lots of rooms getting cleaned at my house.  And since several (as in 3) have asked to see more pics, here ya go!

When we bought the house, we felt like it had two wings.  His wing and her wing.  Can you guess who's side of the house this was?

 Nothing screams MAN like dark leather and dead animals on wood paneling.  The trim in this part of the house was all natural wood, but the trim in the rest of the house was painted white.  It was a split personality house.

The TV is in the spot where the original owners had a wood burning stove.  The second owners took that out.  We really debated painting the brick.  Well, white washing it.  I was very seriously considering it because it was just so very dark. 

We also considered painting the paneling.  But I was afraid of what type of job that would be and that it would end up not giving good coverage.  So down came the paneling!  Thanks to my daddy who took most of it down for us as a surprise (while we were at Labor Day Camp with friends.)  We are spoiled!

Jason has this grand idea that he will put it up in his man cave/basement. We will see about that...

We hired some drywall installers because we didn't have the time to do it ourselves.  Not that we could, neither of us have ever worked with drywall.  Nor do I ever want to after being around all of that dust.

Then it was time for paint and new wood floor!

Makeshift movies - the girls spent many nights watching here while we worked on the house

The floor we chose is a distressed engineered wood.  It is dark but has a matte finish.  We really love it.  We covered most of the downstairs with it and I wanted something that would be ok with kids and pets. We have lived here for a year now and I still love it.  I do have a Roomba that I run every day and I do notice dust bunnies sometimes but overall it looks good without much upkeep!  When I have company coming I use a microfiber mop with Bona cleaner. But I honestly don't do that often.

I took these pictures today so that is why I have Valentine's Day decorations up. 

Those cream vases are very special - I bought them in Chicago and they were in our wedding.  When Jason's Granny passed away my Granny gave us money to buy something special for the house that would remind us of her.  I took the vases to Trees N Trends and they did the arrangements for me.

Look how cute we were as kids!

I like Valentine's because I can put out some flowers we used in our wedding, even though the don't match a thing!

We painted the shelving white, along with all the windows and trim in the room

We try to collect coffee table books when we travel. Jason proposed in St. Louis, so we bought the snow globe as a souvenir.

Most of these things have special meaning - but I love the gold owls, they were in my parent's house for years (sorry Mom, I think I stole them!)

The rug and light fixture came from Lowes

Wall color is Benjamin Moore "James River Grey"

I took this picture at night so you could see the double curtains, which also came from Lowes.  I promise it wasn't some sort of Lowes decorating challenge...I just happened to find all of these things at different times from there!

We spend lots of time in our den.  If you asked Jason he would want a bigger TV and if you asked me I would want new couches, but those things will come.  We have room for all of us to sit together and that is what is most important!  I do love how it came together with the brick left unpainted.  And someday when I get tired of it like this I can always change it up.

PS- It is NEVER this clean...so don't assume we live like this!

{The Entry} before and after

I have been waiting to post this for over a year.  Why?  Well I wanted the space to be FINISHED.  Done.  Ready to show.  Well, that's never gonna happen.  Not with 2 kids and 3 dogs and 3 cats and a new (old) horse.  So I'll just go ahead and show you what we did and you can pretend it's ready!

When we bought the house here is what it looked like when you walked in.  I wish I had a better "before" shot but it is all I can find. 

We knew we wanted a two story entry way with pretty stairs in our DREAM home...but this was not it.  It was a 1 story entry with rickety honey oak stairs that honestly felt like they would give way at any moment.  Not what you want with 2 small children.  So we called out some contractors and asked what we could do.  Since we had to fix the stairs anyway, could we just go ahead and open it up to make it a two story entryway?  The upstairs had a "landing" of sorts with no usable space, so we were fine to lose that. I wish I had a picture of it but imagine a carpeted spot that leads to no where.

When you first walk in the door and look up, Lilli's huge closet is right above you.  If we wanted a TRUE two story entry, we would lose that.  So working with the contractor we compromised...we left her closet but opened up behind it.

First we had to rip up the REAL hardwoods.  Hurt.my.heart.  This was the only place in the entire house that had real wood...and they were covered up with laminate.  But we couldn't make it work with the rest of the wood we wanted to put in the house.  So out it went...

Nothing says kid-friendly like this!

We had to hire a carpenter to come in and take the stairs apart and re-do all of the railings.  It was not an easy job but he was very skilled and worth every penny.  If you are local and need his name, message me.

Notice he left about every third stair there so we can get up and down.  THAT was fun...not.

The landing was to the right of this - we just didn't need it or want it.

No more landing now!

Scarlett's room is on the top left, their bathroom is on right

We kept that hall closet and added a light.

 Time for drywall and stairs...

Fresh coat of paint (Benjamin Moore Cabot Trail, my favorite neutral) and picture molding...

My mom, in all her genius staining ability that I do not have, stripped and stained the banisters.  Together we painted the spindles and toe kicks (because that involved spray paint and I can manage that!).  We were able to use some of what we had but we did have to buy some new spindles to fill in.  My mom matched the stain to our new hardwoods on the steps.  I could have never done it but she is the master.  No lie.

Around this time we moved in so I don't have any more "in progress" pics - just some finished stairs!

The ceiling light is original and we plan to replace it...it needs to be a bit bigger for the space.

Room on left is Lilli's room, on the right is Scarlett's.  I don't have anything on this table because Scarlett will destroy it. 

You can see here where Lilli's closet is.  We didn't want to lose that valuable space!

Without the landing - I need to decorate this wall...

Painted the front door black.

I bought these frames in a pack at Michaels - these are 5x5 Instagram prints. Super easy way to fill up wall space!

I made this using these keys that I found out in the shop when we moved in.  I have no idea what they unlock...

There are two sets of French doors that lead to the dining room and formal living room - but neither of those rooms are furnished (or shared on the blog!)

Well friends, there ya go.  It only took me about 4 hours to post this...which is why I post so rarely these days!