The Girls' Bedroom - Before & After

Here are the "before" shots from our moving day:

 

Notice the snow frozen on the window!  What a day to move, brr!  Anyway,  let's break down what I'm working with:

• 2 built in desks with cabinets - love the built ins, not crazy about the dusty blue laminate desk tops & hardware (but we're renting, so we'll work with it!)
• Light blue walls
• Long, narrow room - but kind of built for two (the bookshelves create this)
• Plaid curtains of maroon, navy, green, and dark yellow.  Those will go. :)

I've decided to work with the color of blue already in the room.  I have a lot of blue & white ticking, some toile & burlap fabric left over from projects years ago.  Using all things I already owned (free!), I created a sort of country girl feeling.  A little bit country, a little bit romantic & feminine... perfect for a girls room in the middle of the wheat fields!

I'll tell you how I did the projects that pulled this room together soon - including those lettered throw pillows & the banners hanging over the curtains.  I managed to do all of this for free(!) with things I had around the house.  You totally can too... stay tuned!

P.S. I may add a little more to complete it.  But this is a staged room - so the rule is sweet, simple & clean decor - not too fussy or full.

Master Bedroom - Before & After

This is really more of a "Before & During".  But since we are staging/renting this house while it stays on the market, there's only so much I can do without permission.  So here's the before shots:

Left side will be Headboard wall, right side is a nice window alcove.

Other side of the room - window alcove continues, right side will be dresser wall.

Working with the existing sage green color on the walls, I pulled out all my green and white accessories & furniture to fill the space.   And here are the after shots:

More pictures to come!  It is still plenty open and could easily fit another dresser or two armchairs and a small table for a cozy sitting area in the window alcove.

Some things I would recommend (starting with minor/short-term fixes and moving to a bigger projects) to improve this room would be:

• Remove the wallpaper border at least (fast & free!)
• Replace with large crown molding, paint it & the ceiling a soft white
• Add some layers of curtains to play up the big window alcove
• A bigger project for the long-term: There's enough room on the left wall (opposite the bed) to add a beautiful built-in (Candice Olson style!) with room for upper shelves, lower cabinets, a TV & maybe even a fireplace.  It would add some architectural detail and warmth.  So the room could look something like these designs from HGTV's Candice Olson:

The room layout & size is similar - walls for bed, window & built ins are the same.

Again, same layout - this one has fireplace & hidden TV behind the french painting!

If we were staying in this house long-term, a beautiful wall of built-ins would definitely be on my dream/project list!  How about you?  Do you have a dreamy Master Bedroom space you've worked on?

Kitchen - Before and After

I debated calling this a "Before and After" post because it really is a "during" post.  At least in my own head its still during!  I have so many affordable ideas and solutions for this kitchen.  But for now I'm still researching and building a mood board for the home owners.  We'll see how much more it changes, but for now let's see how far it has come so far:

Kitchen & Nook - Before

 

 

Not too many changes yet.  We borrowed this great kitchen farm table from some friends and put our black IKEA chairs around it.  It seats 4-6 comfortably like this and extends another 3 FEET(!!!) to seat 10!  As an avid entertainer of large groups, I gotta love that.  But ideally I would love to replace it with a round pedestal table with enough leaves to seat at least 8.  So until then, I will continue searching craigslist and being amazed at this wonderful, temporary (& free!) solution.

Kitchen - Corner sink with a view of the fields outside and some spring touches inside

Next week... the bedroom afters... Stay tuned!

P.S. Happy April Fools' Day!  Have fun, but don't make too much of a fool out of anyone - or you will surely end up the foolish one!

Dining Room - Before and After

Continuing our Before and After series (or "during" in most cases!), we now move to the Dining Room.  It is adjacent to the Living Room and so it has the same wall color and window treatments.  Something I'm hoping to remedy for the home owners.  But take a look at what we have done so far:

Dining Room - before (notice the ice on the right window?!)

Dining Room - after (the Spring sun is streaming in today!)

Dining Room - after from a different view looking into the kitchen

 As you can see, spring is making its way into the Dining Room too, in the form of mossy green cat tail balls.  I love these things!  Coming up tomorrow... the kitchen.  Stay tuned!

Touches of Spring

 The snow has finally melted around here, and is no longer hiding in the nooks & crannies of the rolling hills.  Thank goodness, because I have Spring Fever so bad, I almost couldn't stand it any longer!  And I love me some snow.  But as we near April, enough is enough.

But I have eked out some Springtime touches inside the house.  Take a look at some close ups of a few vignettes around the Living Room:

Living Rm - sitting area with Entry Way in the background

 

Touches of spring in the country - a bulb blooming & some newly shed deer antlers

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My Great-Grandmothers antique side table topped with spring eggs & an orchid

Some moss and glass balls - a nod to growing up in the lush Pacific Northwest

Living Room bookshelves hold a few flowers - these shelves are always a work in progress!

I hope you are beginning to see and enjoy the signs of Spring where you live.  New life every year... always a miracle of design!  Speaking of new life, I'm already making plans for a beautiful Easter celebration and can't wait to share the details with you as we prepare for this wonderful time of year.  Stay tuned!

Living Room - Before and After

Just to refresh our memories, here is a look at the living room before we moved in:

Living Room - Before

And here is a "during" shot (after furnishings, but before any new paint color):

Living Room - After

I'm noticing that the Living Room is so big, it is hard to see much detail in the decor.  So I'm working on a few close up pictures that I'll share soon.  I would still like to neutralize the paint color and hang new window treatments - something that will appeal to a broad number of buyers.  But that will be up to the home owners to decided after I present a plan to them.  Stay tuned for that!

Creating a Bed out of Thin Air

Yes, we have literally made a bed appear out of thin air!  You can too, just keep reading.

Here is our lovely guest room that was in need of a bed.  But, living in a staged house, I didn't want to buy a queen bed just for this space (nor could we afford to!).  So I used what we had to make a usable, fairly comfy, lovely-looking bed!

Here were my ingredients:

1. Headboard - crib pieces

2. Bedding - mixed & matched linen we had

3. Box Spring - literally made from boxes... 16!

4. Mattress - our inflatable camping mattress, an air pump and a lot of (thin) air too!

These apple boxes are two-boxes-in-one, so they are extra sturdy.  Plus they are all the same height for an even sleeping surface.  I also love that all these empty boxes are conveniently located yet hidden for when the house sells and we pack up and move again.

I hid the boxes with our old bed skirt for a finished look.  I also scrounged up our old Ralph Lauren bedding from back when we had a red, white & blue theme.  Mixed with a few other linens we had, it becomes a tan & red theme, which works well with the wall color too.

The headboard looks like the old metal frames that could be divided into twins or combined for a master bed.  The plaid, floral & stripe all work together for a truly casual, updated-country look.  Perfect for a guest room out in the wheat fields!

(Just don't tell anyone our little secret!)