Dining room After

Our very first completed room!  I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to go with the dining room so it was easy to put together.  And on the positive side, I'm pretty sure anything I do will be a step up.  Remember this...

Oh yeah, it was bad.

An in progress shot.

Drum roll please....................................................

Ta da!

The table is on loan from my mom.  She found it a few years ago at a yard sale and let us borrow it. I reupholstered the seats to match our decor.  Thanks Mom!  I still need a few accessories and final touches but that will come eventually.

Tulips are my favorite.  :)

One more for good measure.  A side by side comparison, I would say all that time steaming and scraping wall paper was well worth it.   Bye bye blue!

 

 

New drapes

My mom came to help me make curtains and we actually got two sets done!  We started in the dining room.  I told you I got my fabric from the remnant section so I only had about 3 yards.  It was no where near enought fabric to do two panels and I couldn't find more.  

 

To make the fabric I loved work,  I cut it in half (hot dog style - a little kindergarten throw back for ya)  and used a coordinating shantung fabric to make them wider.  I lined the pattern part of the panel with a fabric drop cloth to save on cost.  I left the solid fabric unlined so it would be slightly sheer. 

 

Curtains are done, the rest of the room not so much...

I'll show you the full transformation tomorrow!

I also finished drapes for the living room.  The fabric actually looks kinda like burlap in person, but is much softer.  This was my first experience with pleat tape.  It was suprisingly easy.  Just follow the directions that they come with, essentially sew on the tape without sewing across the strings.  Pull the strings and voila!  Trellis smocked drapes that look like they took forever.

 

Now you know I'm super cheap thrifty.  I actually found all of the trim, curtain rod, and pleat tape on ccrrraaazzzy clearance.  So everything cost at the most a grand total of 30 smackers.  Not to shabby.

 



New floor!

Paint colors were finally picked and up on the walls, next was new flooring.  My dad found ours online for a great deal so we took a chance and ordered it.  And of course, we decided to do the work ourselves.  In my family, hiring it out is an absolute last resort.  As in you better have a body cast if you are not working.  We made it a family affair and everyone came to help us lay the floor, even my grandmother(!).

My cousin helpin' us out

 So up came the old (ugly) laminate,  the stuff was maybe as thick as a piece of cardboard.  The new floor actually went together pretty easily for the most part.

Me hard at work

However about 1/4 of the way through the living room we realized it was no longer square.  Ruh-roh.  We took it up and laid it again only to have the same thing happen!  So finally we had to resort to one person laying the floor and three of us standing on the run while it was being laid so it wouldn't move.  At about the halfway point it was heavy enough that it didn't really shift so we could resume work full steam ahead.

 

We got the main living area done in a weekend!

Color Me happy

The major renovation is almost complete!  We had to get everything painted before our new flooring and baseboard could be put down.  Erin and I have very different design styles so we tried to meet somewhere in the middle.  I love bright fun colors and she is much more safe and wants everything beige.  We chose our colors based on some fabric I found at my most favoritest fabric store ever PHI.  I found all of it in the remnant section and on super sale, so I think I paid maybe $3 a yard. Score!

 

 

I used it as the jumping off point and designed most of our house using those colors.

Our living room is Sherwin Williams Rainwashed
 

 

It's hard to tell from my pictures but the color is actually a little more saturated.  It's color, but still neutral so it's not overwhelming.  The perfect compromise for us.

 

A little sneak peak of the renovation progress

You can get a better idea of the color here.  It's a bluish green and changes depending on the lighting and what you put with it.

 

via

 

This kid has one seriously cool nursery

via

from Pinterest - seriously do those links ever work!?

via - looove those drapes!

Walls came tumbling down

We moved in over a holiday and it was more than a little overwhelming.   We moved in and 2 days later our contractor was pulling down the ceiling and tearing out walls.   I went to work for weeks covered in sheet rock dust.  I would definitely recommend doing major renovations BEFORE you move in if at all possible.  All the headache was worth it though, the house is more open now and seems so much bigger.   Before it was like most older homes and had small, separated rooms with little bitty doors going in to each space.  The rooms were so small and cave like, not to mention the floor plan was just plain weird. The flow made no sense whatsoever.   Now, the main living space is all completely open and bonus the fireplace can actually serve it's purpose. 

mid reno

looking back toward the front door

I can't wait to share the final outcome!

Before...

Remember how I said the interior was just plain ugly? Feast your eyes on this...

This is the view when you walk in the front door

Want a closer look at that wallpaper?  Yikes

The entire house was painted this dingy beige, with a plethora of wallpaper and border interspersed throughout :(

Oh the bookshelves...

I think I started tearing them out the day we signed

Looking back toward the front door

There is also this strange fire place room. 

It's connected to the kitchen and the dining room and living room are on the right.   I'm not really sure what you would put in here.  It separates the fireplace from the living area + makes it completely non-functional. What up with that?  You would melt if you had a fire going in this tiny room, especially seeing as I live in Mississippi.

Don't even get me started on the kitchen.

I think that's more that enough ugliness for one day, especially without any pretty pictures to break it up!

Welcome home!

Our house!

House hunting is fun, for a coupe months, I think our search took somewhere around two years.  We gave up quite a few times before we finally found THE ONE.  However it was not love at first sight, the exterior needs a little face lift and the interior...woof.  The neighborhood was perfect though.  It's very quiet, wooded, and close to both of our jobs.  Plus the price was right and allowed us to do some major renovations, so we signed on the dotted line.  Erin and I are officially home owners. 

Yippee!

In the beginning...

Well almost the beginning.  I'm a bit of a procrastinator so it has taken me about a year to finally start typing and get this blog started.  My sister and I bought our first house not too long ago. This is my place to chronicle our renovation, interior design, diys, recipes, and a million other random things that cross my mind.  Welcome and I hope you'll stick around!