DIY
How We Made Our Hidden Door in the Bonus Room
When Jules gets an idea in her head, it's not a matter of "if" so much as "when". So when she brought up the idea of making the extra door in our family room, that leads into the playroom, hidden, I knew I had to figure a way to make it happen. Though this was […]
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November 30, 2021
DIY
Installing Our Pocket Door & Transom Window
Before removing or altering any walls in your home, please be sure to consult with a licensed structural engineer and, if required, obtain the proper permit from your city. When we made the decision to add a transom window above the door between our family room and the girls' bedrooms, we kept our fingers crossed […]
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November 8, 2021
DIY
Progress in the Bonus Room
It's been 2 weeks since I shared all the lighting I chose for the bonus room, and we have made so much progress in that space since then. We started with installing the paneling, but rerouted when we decided to install a transom above the door. A follower suggested we put in a pocket door […]
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October 26, 2021
DIY
Painting the floors and Setting Up the Guest House!
I didn't think the very first thing I would be painting in our new home would be the guest house and I really didn't think it would the floor! But that's just what I did on move-in day. We had all of the Brazilian cherry flooring replaced in our main home, but we left the […]
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August 2, 2021
Art
New DIY Art for the Living Room!!
Sources I loved the framed trees on the mantle in the living room, but for the sake of simplifying in preparation to sell, I thought one large canvas would be better to really show off the scale of the fireplace. Large art can be expensive so I decided to tackle this one myself. I'd thought […]
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April 1, 2021
DIY
The ProperTee Office and Warehouse Reveal!
In our 2020 roundup, I slipped in the fact that we moved our apparel line, ProperTee, "in house" and renovated a warehouse and the office space attached to it to set up shop. Although it was casually said, it was actually a HUGE deal and we're super proud of it. And honestly, it deserves its […]
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January 22, 2021
DIY
Hiring Contractors vs DIY: Breaking down the Pros and Cons
These past 19 months since moving into this house have been big. Bigger than we anticipated when we moved here - perhaps bigger than we would have knowingly taken on, so it's probably good we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. Ha! But as the projects came up and we decided to just […]
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January 18, 2021
DIY
A Ceiling treatment and box trim in Our Daughter's Bedroom!
Finish carpentry, though slow and enigmatic, is the definition of "craft." It really makes a room special, and we knew from the very beginning of our life in this home that we wanted every room to have some kind of special trim, moulding, paneling etc. that makes it feel like more than just a space […]
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December 14, 2020
DIY
How we layered stain to take a wood countertop from dark cherry to a white oak look!
We still have a few finishing touches to put on the girls' office (see all the plans here!), but over the last week we tackled a really fun DIY that transformed the dark cherry stained wood countertop that was there into a white oak looking one that matches our floor a little better. And today, we wanted to […]
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October 7, 2020
DIY
How To: Laying Peel and Stick Tile over the Bathroom Floor!
We have been doing a quick phase 1 renovation of the girls' bathroom (read more about the plans here!) over the last week and it's coming along so well! We painted the countertops last week using the same countertop paint (and color--Putty!) as we used in our kitchen in our first house nearly a decade […]
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September 28, 2020
DIY
How We Built the Dining Room Fauxdenza (and Why It's Not Quite Done)
Back in March, we built a fauxdenza in the dining room and it has been a wonderful, budget-friendly way to get a lot of storage for not a lot of money. It's called a "fauxdenza" because although it looks like a credenza (or sideboard), it's actually made with upper kitchen cabinets! It's an easy DIY […]
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July 14, 2020
DIY
Installing Pocket Doors in the Closet
Our closet has been a really fun project, and something that added tangible value to our home, both in square footage and utility. But ever since the room was created, we haven't had functioning doors. Until this week! Pocket doors are actually really simple to hang, once the frame is in place. The frame is the […]
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July 2, 2020
Art
Painting Over Canvas Art: An Easy Abstract DIY
I recently bought a canvas print at Target based solely on the frame. I loved the ornate, traditional gold — and at $16, it was a steal (even if it was just for the frame alone). I wasn’t wild about the folksy-looking portrait within but was inspired at the thought of painting over it. Before […]
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June 17, 2020
DIY
Adding Custom Fronts to the IKEA PAX Closet System Drawers
A couple weeks ago we shared how our closet looked after painting everything. In case you need a reminder: Yes, those are IKEA PAX closets. We built bases for them to raise them up the height of our baseboards; filled the extra holes and added facing; added base, crown, and a ceiling treatment; and painted everything […]
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June 8, 2020
DIY
Master Closet Update: It's All Painted!
Last week we finished putting up all the trim and getting things filled and sanded, and this week has been all about paint. As a reminder... Kind of hard to look at, haha. Clutter, paint samples on the wall, wood floors mixed with wood shelves and wood baseboard and white baseboard and wood filler and […]
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May 28, 2020
DIY
How to Plank a Ceiling & Install Crown
We've talked about wanting to give our ceilings a bit more attention in this home than we have in previous homes, and yesterday we did just that! Though things have really slowed down these past few months (for everyone), we're making such great progress and are getting so close! Here's how our closet started out […]
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May 20, 2020
Decor
Two Fun, easy & Inexpensive Ways to Add Interest To A Bedroom
I am definitely someone that prefers to improve and layer and add-to a room over time, never really proclaiming a room "done." This weekend we circled back to Greta's room to add two inexpensive elements that made such a fun difference and it only took about 20 minutes total! Before: Now: The two things we […]
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May 18, 2020
Design
Before & After: A Mid-Century Bedroom Makeover with Lowe's!
This post is sponsored by Lowe's Home Improvement. *Whew* What a makeover! What a room! What wonderful people! What a great team! But, I'm getting ahead of myself :) In January, we put the call out: Win a bedroom makeover with CLJ and The Makerista! I have been a fan of Gwen's for years, and […]
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March 5, 2020
DIY
How to Run TV Cables Through a Wall (so they're hidden)
There are all kinds of options for hiding the wires of your television, each with their strengths and weaknesses. But when you know your television will be on a specific wall for the long term, why not actually hide them inside the wall? Adding cable access brush plates to your wall is easy to do and […]
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February 26, 2020
DIY
How To: DIY Canvas Floater Frame
Our oldest daughter, Greta (10 this month!) has a real passion for horses. She's taking riding lessons and learning so much that I have a feeling our pasture in the backyard won't be empty for too long. So when it came time to choose art for her room, horses were a natural choice. I went […]
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February 5, 2020
