thoughts?: decorating

Showing posts with label decorating. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Ten on Ten - December 2013

Well, I had big plans to take photos today.....or to post photos from the Christmas party last night.....or to at least post a tour of my Christmas decor.

But, since I'm on day 7 of a new job (really day 6 since we had an "ice day" last Friday), we have had some crazy icy weather the past few days and the annual Christmas party was at my house last night (first party in the house).......I'm completely wiped out, so you are just going to have to wait for a more extensive post later.....

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Abilene house photos

So, I guess it is about time to share some photos of my new house. There are still plenty of decorating projects to be done, but here are some shots that give you a glimpse....

kitchen (from the laundry room)

master bedroom

guest bedroom

office/secondary guest room

living room

living room/dining room

living room

laundry room

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Kitchen Backsplash Project

When I bought my house, one of the things that sold me on it was the kitchen. Beautiful black granite countertops, high end stainless appliances and great cabinet space. However, the backsplash was always just .... meh. Not awful, but not great. And the one thing that made it even worse, the prior owners grouted in the switchplates when they installed the backsplash. Not the right way to do it, but not enough reason to rip out the tile.....UNTIL one of the switchplates fell off and I had no way to put it back up.

before.....basic 4x4 tile.

before

the infamous grouted switchplate

and the one that fell off....which started the whole project

I finally decided it was time to remedy the situation and contacted my friend David who has done quite a bit of other work for me in the past. He was pretty busy, but willing to squeeze me in on weekends and evenings if I was willing to be his helper. So, I took him up on the opportunity to learn a bit about tiling and to save myself a little money.

Spent hours and hours online looking at photos of kitchens and finally settled on mini subway tile. (did you know Home Depot will check out a tile board and let you bring it home to see the tile at home?)

So, one Saturday a few weeks ago, David came over bright and early and we got down to the business of demolition.

Ended up having to take it down to the studs.....the tile just didn't want to let go of the existing sheetrock. While the studs were open, I took the opportunity to write scripture in the walls as I also did when we remodeled the master bathroom.

After a full day of demolition, we ended with fresh sheetrock and plans to tile later in the week.

Over the next two weeks, one night at a time, we tiled one wall, then the other, then grouted. Here are a few shots of our progress.....

first tiles going up!

sink wall completed - waiting on grout

stove wall completed - waiting on grout

stove wall grouted!

sink wall grouted!

And finally, new outlets, switches and switchplates installed and everything put back on the counters!

the finished product!

So happy to have it all done! Living in chaos for 3+ weeks was about to drive me nuts. But it was definitely worth it.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Laundry room mini-makeover

I've been struggling with a messy laundry room for a while. While I am very thankful to have a laundry room, it is a strange shaped and very awkward room. The main issue was, as my mom pointed out when she was here before Christmas, my shelves were way too small.

Here is the before....yikes!

The during......that box was way harder to open that it should have been!

stuff spread up and down the hallway.....

.....and the after! Much larger shelves fill the space better and make more room to spread things out and store like with like. And even room if some things from elsewhere in the house need to find a new home in here.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Christmas Decor Tour

I take photos of my Christmas decor every year.....mostly to make it easier to decorate the next year! Of course, some things move around and others are retired to make room for new pretties, but for the most part, once I figure out a good scheme, I stick with it.

I've recently fallen down the rabbit hole that is Pinterest and there are TONS of fun decor ideas. I took one inspiration shot and incorporated it into my decor this year. And since I know I get ideas from other folks (and some blogs I read are having decor linky parties), here are some shots of my 2011 decorations.