Living Room before and after

I have been waiting to do this comparison until I am COMPLETELY done with my living room but figured...close enough. 

I still need to do something with my window seat and also add a little more to that bare wall. The window pane just can't do its job all alone on that big wall. So I know I have shown my living room before but I never showed you the "before" picture....

 

So here is the before, big difference right? It is still pretty but it's also pretty boring. So what I did was paint that ugly railing white, installed board n batten walls,  bought new couches from Ikea, bought a trunk for $1,

refinished a dresser for the tv stand and switched out the flower picture for an old window pane.....wow I really have been busy.

TA DA! My Cottage living room! and just an fyi, this did not happen overnight. Last summer I decided I wanted a cottage feel living room and thanks to blogland I realized I could have one. So each weekend I would take on a new project. One of the things I love about this room is that you just can't go to Target to get the decor. It takes time to find unique pieces ....I love the character of this room.

So here is a different view, you can see the difference the railing makes

I also have a lot more storage, the trunk is full of things and also the couches have space underneath so I can fit shoes and blankets and my dogs toys. (love ikea)

Here is a side by side, crazy right?

Oh, another thing. I did not repaint my walls, its just the lighting. The color is called rutabega by Sherwin Williams.  So do you have a room in your home you absolutely hate? Well then what are you waiting for...get to work!   What I started to do is pick one room and little by little just work on upgrading that room. Don't work on another room until that first room is exactly how you want it.

 Here is a pix of my bedroom before and after too if you're interested.

Thanks for looking!  

And the inspiration does not stop here, check out these other blogs for ideas too!

BEWARE of INSPIRATION OVERLOAD

closet organization

Finally a functional closet.

This is something I should have done 10 years ago (when we moved in)

I know it doesn't look too fancy but it is now functional!

You can see how the pix on the left had no shelves...just a rod running across the entire closet. The "after" picture is taken at the same location...big difference right?

I was able to install a bunch of shelves and 3 different sections to hang clothes.

This is what i bought from lowes, it was only $69...not too bad. My closet is only 5 feet that is why the cost is so low.

So here is another before picture...see how the rod is bent from all my clothes? So if I wanted to make a change I had to rip out the rod with the big shelf on top...

I use a razor blade to cut the paint away from the shelf that I'm tearing down. I do this so all the paint does not come off the wall as well....And if you are into home improvements you've got to have a wonder bar (pry bar)

So while I was demolishing my closet I turned around and my dog was looking at me like "what in the world are you doing?"   I think he was scared, lol.

It was very easy and customizable and I did it all by myself! 

No husband was interrupted during the making of this closet.  

You can move the shelves up or down and put the hanging rod where ever you'd like. 

The only thing that might be tricky is when you are not hammering into studs. Fortunately I knew where the studs were from the nails from the previous shelf that was up...that helped tremendously.

So, i was half way done and here is a picture of my bedroom due to the closet overhaul...

how overwhelming is this? there was a point when I thought I would never get through it.

but I had a cheer team...

I looked at these two and it made me smile!

Now I have to talk about an article I found on HGTV

It talks about grouping your clothes together, it helps remind you that a few key items of clothing will give you several outfits. I'm going to give it a try because every morning when I have to go to work I stand in my closet for about 10-20 minutes trying to find something to wear

so the bottom row has my gray and black slacks and all my shirts that go with gray and black. The top shelf has my khaki slacks and other pants that go with browns and all shirts that I would wear with those particular slacks.  So i'm going to give this a try.  I can already see that my closet is improving. I managed to fit my jeans in there, my out of season shoes on the very top shelf and my socks and undergarments in the cute polka dot bins. And to the left (behind the wall) is another wall that has my dresses.

I also put my "in season" shoes in a rubbermaid bin on the floor. I figured this is actually something I can keep up with. I just push it back up against the wall after I'm done selecting my shoes.

now, as far as this blank wall goes, I'm going to put up some bins from ikea....the closet is so small these would fit perfectly...

recycling bins from ikea   the depth is just 7"  check it out.

so i'm going to end with this note (not sure why the pix is so bad?)

my post is so long, I will show you an update when i get the bins from ikea installed.

But in a nutshell, if you are thinking about it get it....The rubbermaid closet kit. It is very easy to installed and has given me so much more room in my closet.

Linking Here:http://www.itsoverflowing.com/ 

My $1 Storage trunk

Can you believe I only paid $1 for this storage chest/trunk? It was a great yard sale deal!

Of course when I found it it looked like this...

It was a dad and his son who was running the sale.  The son who was about 15 was the first one I saw and I asked him how much the chest was. He shrugged his shoulders and said $1 !! 

I gave him a buck and took off! haha.

The lock was stuck on it but we have a tool for that so it was not a problem at all.

And then I just used white paint (no primer) and applied it with a paint brush

Oh, and I love how it came with this insert...

oh and another comment, I have  come across a lot of storage chests and they want anywhere from $40-$80 and when you open it up it's disgusting and or has a bunch of stains but this one did not.

Next was adding the numbers!

I bought these stencils at hobby lobby..

I never painted with stencils so I had to practice...i chose the inside of the chest...

Not too bad, not too hard either. I just used a sponge brush to paint the numbers on.

And here it is!!  I love it! I sanded down the numbers so they weren't so bold..

Actually, i think I need to sand down the numbers a little more. Another thing is that I have been searching everywhere for casters (wheels) and cannot find any that i love.

But I couldn't wait, I had to bring the chest up with or without wheels!

Thanks so much for looking!

I will be linking up here:

railing project....

boy was this hard work!!  And sOOOo time consuming. I always read about how hard kitchen cabinets are but railings? No one warned me about these. At least with kitchen cabiniets you don't have to deal with a bunch of grooves.

So this is the before picture, not a pretty picture..in the next few months I will be transforming my ugly traditional living room into a cottage inspired room. In order to do that I had to do something with these railings...so what to do? Paint them white! That has been my answer for everything lately.

I think the most time cosuming part was priming. My daughter helped me sand them down but if you notice the little grooves in each railing..not a good thing, I started priming last weekend at 9:30 pm and did not get done until 2:30 am!  5 hours of priming!! I never saw that one coming.

This is the primer I use for everything..i might be repeating myself from the last post but I love how the fumes are low and it dries fast.

So then I start the painting and look what happend....DRIP MARKS! UGGRR I hate that.

The key is to do thin layers of paint...tonz of layers. And to use a roller brush each time. the first few coats I used a paint brush because i thought I needed to get a good heavy layer going but then that lead to an  uneven paint job.

Some of the railing look like I put clay on them?? it was getting pretty frustrating but I kept painting, sanding, painting, sanding.

I think I did 4-5 coats, I can't remember but it was a looong process and I really wanted to move on with my life, it had been a week that I was working on these so I told myself on the last coat that "this is it"  It has to look good and if its not perfect then that is okay.

And so here are the results...It's a big difference don't you think? it really freshens up the room. Now I just need to get those eye sores of couches out of my house. ...actually, I take that back, I don't want to hurt there feelings, these couches have been good to me however I don't think it would work if I painted them white so it's time for them to move on.

And here  is another view, those railings just look neglected before.

And then right here it looks like I brang them back to life!

So I wish I had some pro advice but I don't. The only thing I would have done diffferent is painted all the railings with a rolling brush the entire time instead of trying to get thick coats with the paint brush. It is better to  apply several light coats then a couple think coats....Oh yeah, i remember...the first few coats I would do the front of the railings then go on the other side and finish the back...well by the time I would get to the back there was drip marks that had already dried so what i started to do is just paint the front of 3-4 railings then walk around and do the back of those 3-4 railings..maybe that is a given but it wasn't for me.

Oh, and i used Valspar white paint..i didn't have them mix in a special color.

Now I gotta get rid of that blank frame....Actually, Im just going to paint it white!

Thanks for looking! hope I have inspired you to tackle your dingy old railings.

I'm linking up here, you will be amazed at all the inspiring projects!