Before and After: Dining Room Chairs

This is the old dining room chair, complete with pumpkin pie or was it sweet potato pie stain from Thanksgiving. Either way, it was time for a change. 

And here is the after. I love this fabric. Thank you to my friends at Chrysalis. It looks great in my dining room and looks fantastic with my curtains.  I love mixing and matching patterns. The watery blues and greens hide dirt and like I said, look good in my house. Now, to actually finish all the other chairs:)

Before and After: chair

So excited! My chair has returned. 

This was the before:

And here is the after! The fabric is a papaya and cream small hounds tooth. She is sitting in a holding area until I move things around but I had forgotten how comfy she is. I might need to move her in front of the tv for Nashville on Wednesday. Yeah, I like that show. 

Ok, happy Shrove Tuesday. 

Before and After: A Face recently "lifted"

Hello. I talked about this DIY the other day but I didn't put up Before and After photos. Oh, the horror! Everyone loves a good before and after photo whether its a bedroom makeover, Stacey and Clinton redoing the frumpy Mom or a face recently "lifted." So, here are my before and afters of my home ( without paint and with.)

Before:

orange brick( the day girlie #1 came home)

door had been painted but this was just the beginning!

 After:

view from the bridge across the street at dusk

doing sparklers with Girlie #1

the day Girlie #2 came home

pond across the street

The ultimate DIY

Daddy and Girlie doing sparklers 

I love the outside of my house. When we moved here, we always talked about painting the outside. After a few estimates, we realized it was more money than what we wanted to spend. So in time, I decided to do it myself. Talk about the ultimate DIY! While my daughter napped, I would paint. I did it in sections. I would pressure wash a section, prime it and then paint it with Benjamin Moore's Warm Stone. The shutters are a paint I mixed up myself ( one was too dark, one was too light and voila-my new color! a nautical blue) The door is Behr Golden Cricket.

A few days after Girlie #2 arrived

We live across the street from a pond and a field. We joke that the field is a part of yard and the best part, the city comes to mow it:) The view from the field to our house is awesome. I love it. And I love viewing out our windows at supper at the field and do a little bit of people watching. Its quite enjoyable.
Happy Friday!

walking bridge over pond with field in front and my house

Before and After: A Master Bedroom Redesigned

Close up of the bed

Laying it all out before it was shipped

Viola! Really its Voila, but I have an aunt Viola and it seems more fun to say it that way. 

I am so glad this came together and looks so amazing. My sister and I have been working, working, working on her bedroom. I think I sewed 9 pillows, 2 curtain panels, oh no, make that 4 curtain panels, all in a week! Whew. Ok, that was for the whole house but everything looks so great!

When we started this bedroom, we had found this wonderful fabric but it was not in stock and way more money than what we wanted to spend.It was a hard one to get over. I talked about all of that on this day. But we were able to rebound and do okay, and actually, I think we knocked this one out of the park.

So, let me give you the run down. The standard shams were made from a marvy fabric I have been admiring for some time. I learned the new pillow technique to flange the edges. The flange was a yummy polka dot fabric made by Kravet. The back ( you can't see it, sadly) was a brown small geometric print I picked up from Joanns. The blue and cream chevron did a great job of tying the edge of the curtains together with everything. The curtains my mom made several years ago and we repurposed them in this bedroom. The border was actually a red plaid and my sister had the brilliant idea of covering it up. Duh! I had already used this Annie Selkie print and had some leftover. That was great! The coral coverlet she already had. I think everything turned out so beauitful! It looks like her. And I like her so it worked out well.

Before and After: Little Girls Room

My sister and I tackled a project last week. During my stay at their house, we decorated her 3 year old daughters room. We decorated it from the ground up. Our challenge was the wall color. We had to keep the navy accent wall but honestly, it made for a fun test of our abilities. Here is the before:

And the after!

The room came together so well! We used the rug from the boys room (Dash and Albert striped), and the quilt was made by my mom for my niece when she was born. The bed we spray painted.  I say we, ie my sister. The boxspring we covered in a green gingham sheet we already owned. The euro sham was made from a previous Pottery Barn shower curtain and the standard sham in the pink plaid we already had. The frame above the bead houses an old handkerchief I had framed for my sister one birthday.   

This yellow table I bought years ago and even when it didn't work anywhere, I wasn't ready to get rid of it. But we finally found a home for it! The curtains I had already sewn for my bedroom but only decided to put 2 up instead of 4. I wish you could see the edge of them better. I found this darling pale blue grosgrain ribbon made to look like ric rac. Clever. And I have to admit, I used that liquid stitching stuff. Awesome.

this photo was taken before the room was finished but gives you an idea of what it looks like when you enter the room

We are so pleased with our work! And my niece loves it. We rose to the challenge and passed! 

To see more from this home, click here. This is the potential master bedroom. 

Life or Death...with Fabric

Pillow Shams

Edge of Pillow Shams

Bed Spread

Edge of Curtain( curtain is white and red swiss dot)

Chair on fabric is chair on bedskirt
( image via House of Turquoise)

My sister and I have been working on her new house. We have worked HARD. Yes, I know its not life or death with fabric but at times, it was close. My mom and I "shopped" our fabric to see what we could use. It was fun! I looked at our fabric store here in town ( Shout out to Chrysalis!) and one in Bham. My sister and I found some yummy fabric to use on her bed however it was on order. So the jury is still out on whether or not it will work. But here is what we have so far...