no new progress means i can blab about old things that we have done, and that makes me excited.
when we bought the house it was move in ready. like ive said before, my step brother owned the house before us and he did his fair share of up-keep and remodeling. im not completely positive of all the updates that he made, but i know that he installed wooden blinds on the living room and bedroom windows, wired in custom lighting all through the house, knocked out a wall between two bedrooms to make a killer master bedroom and giant walk-in closet, put in a home security system, made a third bedroom in the basement and many more things. the man is amazing. once we moved in it was just a matter of taking what we were blessed with and making it ours.
the first room that we started with was the bedroom. i never took any before pictures, and i am kicking myself in the shin for it now. it is a GIANT bedroom. the carpet was forest green, three of the walls cream, one of the walls was maroon and the trim was white and brushed with brown stain for an antiqued look. when choosing the color pallet i went off of a room inspiration swatch from home depot. even though the bedroom barely replicates the photo now, it was the perfect amount of inspiration to get the ball rolling.
as you can see, we dont have any art on the walls. i have an idea of what i want to make to hang above the bed, but that wont happen for awhile.
please excuse the dog fur. a fun little fact about us: our two dogs also sleep in bed with us every night. also, thursday is bedding switch out day. (i havent gotten to it yet.)
for the furniture we invested in the edland series from ikea. i just fell in love with that series. we picked up the five and six drawer dressers and two night stands. i think they are completely adorable. for the bed we picked the malm series in a king size. will liked that one and since i had been making all the decisions on the bedroom furniture, i let him pick the bed and mattress. im such a good wife.
the bed is a platform. it took me awhile to get used to the feeling of sleeping so close to the floor.
i loved the knobs on the edland series dressers and night stands. gives them a vintage feel.
we also picked up this area rug from ikea for $20 bucks. its a little thin, but it covers and protects a big portion of the wood floors.
i am having one hell of a time deciding on an accent color for this room. i know i want it to be either red, rose, or maroon. i just cant commit to a color. whichever i pick i would like to incorporate that in with some curtains, a throw blanket and some vases.
on to the living room...
after the bedroom face lift we felt like experts so it didnt take us long to begin tackling the living room. i did take some crappy phone before and progression pictures of this project.
i told you they were crappy phone pictures. :] the old walls were a tanish/peachy color and just didnt give off the vibe that we were going for.
this is a half done moment. look at cute manchester. awwww!
annnd then we were done. we wanted the room to be warm and cozy so we went with a coconut brown wall color and a chamomile yellow for the ceiling. as you can see, will was pretty burnt out.
and this is what the room looks like today:
since then we have purchased some furniture, and hung stuff on the walls. i guess you can say that i have nested.
the couch isnt new. we bought that two summers ago from mor furniture. it was the display model and we did get a good deal on it and it is extremely comfy, but its pretty poor quality. it has already gotten a few rips in the cushions (my mother sewed them up) and on the back of one of the sections the wood has been broken. and it just looks frumpy. next time we purchase couches i think we are going to get them from
www.lovesac.com. when we were in slc last time we fond out about them. they are pretty awesome.
our tv stand is new. it is another ikea investment. it is from the hemnes series. its great because it has three drawers that hold everything from extra candles to our dvd collection.
our bookstand from ikea is a work in progress. i am having one hell of time organizing this sucker. for now it is a free-for-all when it comes to storage.
overall, i feel like the room is gaining that cozy feeling. especially when its night time and the shades are drawn and the candles are lit. nearly perfect.
floors...
we waited about two or three months between the painting of the living room and the laying of the hardwood floors. we also had a wedding and a honeymoon in the middle to keep us busy. we knew that we wanted hardwood floors, there was no question about that, but we didnt know what kind to get; pergo, laminate, real wood, engineered. it was a hard choice. obviously real wood is like 5x more spendy than laminate, but real wood looks and feels a million times better. after weeks of looking and researching and price checking we decided on engineered flooring that was on sale from great floors. engineered flooring is the best of both worlds. it has about a quarter inch of real wood on the top and then like particle board (or something) for the rest. whatever. i dont know the molecular build up of the crap. anyway $5,000 later, we have hardwood flooring all through the bedroom, walk in closet and living room. muah. perfect.
more crappy phone pics. but here are the boys ripping out the old carpet and pulling up nails. it was a lot of work, so i heard.
and this was the end result.
and there you go. 10 million words later, you have been educated on the history of the work done to our house.
