Projects
Is the Inside of Your Front Door Painted?
DIY
Is the Inside of Your Front Door Painted?
Last week, on a whim, I painted the inside of our front door a shiny black. I actually used the same gloss paint I got for the bench, but in this lighting it definitely reads black--which I love. I can't believe the difference! It made our old beat up door look new and expensive. I was kind […]
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July 7, 2014
Projects
Beginner's Guide to Upholstering a Bed
DIY
Beginner's Guide to Upholstering a Bed
This is a beginner's guide, by a beginner. I've maybe upholstered two other things (benches!) in my life and this was still a 2 on the hardness scale. And bonus, the outcome looks expensive! Last week, when I revealed our plans for the quick revamp in the guest bedroom, I mentioned we picked up a […]
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June 30, 2014
Projects
Choosing a Gray for the Guest Room
DIY
Choosing a Gray for the Guest Room
We got the guest room painted and the photos aren't very good. Womp Womp. It's been pretty rainy and gloomy compounded by the fact this room is on our lower level. I hate to call it a "basement" because it's so nice and finished and not musty or cold--everything I think of when I say […]
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June 27, 2014
Projects
DIY Industrial Step Stool
DIY
DIY Industrial Step Stool
Greta is at that magic age, where she is actually capable of helping out in the kitchen--washing the grapes and picking them off the stems, making her own peanut butter banana, helping Chris by dumping ingredients into the bowl, and her current favorite (that takes place in the kitchen sink) is helping with Faye's bath. […]
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June 19, 2014
Projects
Dyeing Grout [A Floor Update!]
DIY
Dyeing Grout [A Floor Update!]
Months ago, I think it was the day after the grout guys left and we were feeling a little let down by the results, I ordered grout dye. The grout is the only thing about our floors that we don't love. Which is hard to swallow, because it is the only part we didn't do. […]
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June 17, 2014
Projects
Plant Newbies
Projects
Plant Newbies
If I could (I know I could) go back to school, I would get a degree or take a class--something! anything!--in landscape design. And/or computer science. And accounting. Ha! But really, I wish I knew more about landscape design and plants in general. It's been a struggle and a fear for us since purchasing our last […]
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June 16, 2014
Projects
Hardware + The Kitchen Mini-Revamp is Done!
DIY
Hardware + The Kitchen Mini-Revamp is Done!
Wednesday night, we stayed up late and put all of our new hardware on the newly painted cabinets. A lot of our old knobs were bent or broken so we gave them to my parents since they don't have hardware on their cabinets now and have about half as many cabinets as we have so […]
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June 6, 2014
Projects
Our Painted Kitchen Cabinets!
DIY
Our Painted Kitchen Cabinets!
We hung all of our recently painted cabinet doors this past weekend and are here to share lots of photos. We must have adjusted quickly to the new look, because when I was searching through my files to find a before photo to share with you, I was stunned at the wood-riddled kitchen we were […]
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June 2, 2014
Projects
Keep on Truckin'
DIY
Keep on Truckin'
We are all over the house right now. Our base cabinets are still sprawled throughout the basement waiting for hardware. I decided to rearrange the whole great room to make room for more seating this weekend and, of course, we threw in one more exterior project for good measure--luckily it only took a few minutes. […]
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May 29, 2014
Projects
Would You Rather: 4th Bathroom OR Walk-in Pantry
DIY
Would You Rather: 4th Bathroom OR Walk-in Pantry
Off of our kitchen, there's a laundry room and half bath with a sink and a toilet. Our home is currently a five bedroom and 4 bathroom (2 full baths and 2 half baths) and as of now, we have a standing pantry we recently scooted into the kitchen. There's half the contents of our […]
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May 23, 2014
Projects
Microwave Down!
DIY
Microwave Down!
This weekend, we started painting our cabinets in the kitchen. The goal was to get all the uppers painted, but we only got as far as priming them because we decided to add another spur-of-the-moment project while we're working in here. Our over-the-range microwave has been driving us crazy since we moved in. It is so low. […]
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May 19, 2014
Projects
Our Kitchen Cabinet Paint Colors
DIY
Our Kitchen Cabinet Paint Colors
Part of my Ace Hardware Blogger duties this month included checking out their new paint studio--which is very boutique like with the slide out drawers of paint chips. Classy!--and trying out their new line of Valspar Optimus line they started carrying. Choosing what to paint wasn't difficult, our kitchen cabinets have been on my list […]
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May 15, 2014
Projects
Easy "Chalkboard" Basket Labels
DIY
Easy "Chalkboard" Basket Labels
A couple of you asked about the chalkboard labels on the extra storage baskets when we showed you Faye's nursery last week. I added the labels to help me identify what's in them (naturally) but also to bring a cohesiveness to the mismatched baskets. Also, the truth is, they aren't chalkboards at all and they […]
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May 13, 2014
Projects
The Idaho House: 7 Months In
DIY
The Idaho House: 7 Months In
We bought this home in Idaho 7.5 months ago and I still have yet to get our "Idaho House" tour tab filled. So this weekend, I finally buckled down and snapped some in-progress photos of where we are to fill up that tab this week. Every once in awhile I like posting these photos here […]
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May 5, 2014
Projects
DIY Faux Soapstone Countertop
DIY
DIY Faux Soapstone Countertop
We're diving head first into updating our current kitchen!! After we recently finished the floors, our cabinets are looking more orange than ever and we left a disposable table cloth on our island in place of a countertop. Eeeks. Although we are planning a full kitchen remodel next year (??), painting our cabinets is an […]
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April 29, 2014
Projects
Installing Baseboards in the Nursery
DIY
Installing Baseboards in the Nursery
Are we behind on the nursery? Ha! With Greta, we had her nursery ready with 2 months to spare. We're down to a week over here and we still haven't put the crib back together since moving our furniture back up last week. We're buckling down this week to get it done hopefully before she arrives. First on […]
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April 7, 2014
Projects
Reconfiguring the Kitchen
DIY
Reconfiguring the Kitchen
Prior to tackling the floors, our kitchen extended into the dining area. It was always a little puzzling to us why the pantry was in the dining "room" when there was a blank wall in the kitchen. The only answer we could come up with was that 20+ years ago the builder accidentally made the […]
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April 2, 2014
Projects
Removing Grout Haze the Easy Way
DIY
Removing Grout Haze the Easy Way
Although we showed you the "finished" floors in yesterday's post, there is one part of the process that we haven't covered--grout! In my post about Tips for Achieving Realistic Faux Wood Tile, I mentioned that "opting for a grout color a shade darker than our tile will keep things looking more natural." Our grout lines were the […]
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April 1, 2014
Projects
Faux Wood Tile: The After Photos!
DIY
Faux Wood Tile: The After Photos!
We're so excited to share with you our finished floors today! Replacing almost all of the flooring on our main floor (we opted out of doing our master bath since we'll be tackling a full renovation in there next year) was daunting beforehand, a lot of work during, but now we're on the other side […]
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March 31, 2014
Projects
Tools For Making Tiling More Bearable
Toolbox
Tools For Making Tiling More Bearable
Chris and I just keep looking at each other in disbelief. The floors are done and it is unbelievable!! It has been an incredibly long 6 weeks. While we are so happy we were able to save the thousands of dollars on installation doing it ourselves (we were originally quoted 17K, but since we decided […]
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March 28, 2014
