in the laundry room

{I'm doing a weekly "tour" of a room in our house in celebration of one year living here.

You can find previously showcased rooms here.}

Well, my plan was to go in a flow, through the house, so you would get a real idea of the layout as we went through the rooms. We started in the back corner of the house with the family room, came through the kitchen and right on into the dining room. Adjacent to the dining room is the front living room, but I kind of got stalled out there. I'm in the middle of recovering our ottoman and it's taking longer than I had hoped for. So we're interrupting our trip around the house and jumping back to the kitchen area where I just finished up a little re-do of the laundry
closet
room, located in between the kitchen and the garage.

In the laundry room we...
painted walls (leftover paint, Lowe's Valspar Cottage Linen)
painted cabinets (leftover paint, Lowe's Valspar Deep Turquoise)
changed out hardware (Walmart clearance, $4)
recovered linoleum (peel & stick vinyl "wood" tiles from Big Lots, $24)
added new rug (Target clearance $7.33)
added retractable clothesline ($8 online)
added homemade decor (address canvas, home definition printed and framed, and clothspin bag made out of a clearance apron found at Homegoods for $5 and a cheap tie hanger)(oh, and added a recycle symbol in vinyl to the recycle bin!)
and spray painted door hardware in Oil Rubbed Bronze (had on hand, free)

total spent: less than $50

Before:













































It was pretty much always a mess like this. I always kept the door closed because the floor and the whole room in general was so dingy and sad looking, I didn't want anyone seeing it anyway. And as long as the door always got shut, I didn't care what mess we had piled in there.

I'm happy to say since we've been finished in here (really only been a week) it's been kept nice and clean!! It's nice to have a little
closet
room that I actually like to look at now!

Now:
--first off, here's a shot of the doors in our kitchen for comparison sake. which one do you like better?






























And on into the laundry room...




















































































retractable clothesline w/ clothespin bag below it :)











































canvas hung with hinges so we can cover, but easily access, the breaker box


and one more time,
before/after:

















--By the way, the other little random room on the main floor is the half bathroom, which was actually the very first room we completely finished up and I shared way back last fall. You can see that here if you missed it.

in the dining room

{I'm doing a weekly "tour" of a room in the house in celebration of one year living here!

You can find looks at our family room here, and the kitchen here.}

In the dining room we have...
painted (same paint as in part of kitchen, had to buy second gallon, Lowe's Valspar Cottage Linen $30)
replaced chandelier (Lighting Direct= $34)(yes, $34!!!) and added a simple medallion ($15?).
new window treatments (existing wood blinds, existing rods spray painted black, curtains from Target: $30 for pair)
added new cabinet (Craigslist $30, painted with Lowe's Valspar English Bulldog from past projects, new knobs $2.50 x 4, new feet constructed by Ryan appr. $6 x 4)
removed wimpy beadboard and replaced with board and batten
all decor (including area rug) was owned previously: table runner and plate collection from Dayspring (no longer sold) I bought long before we moved but saved to put in the new house and mixed with (the white plates) other goodwill/Homegoods
scores here and there.

total: $160

Stepping back and looking at it, I feel like maybe our dining room is a little boring. Don't get me wrong, I really really like it... I think it's big and bright and cheery. It's just that other than slapping some paint on the walls, there's not much here saying it's us who live here. I'm thinking about how to change that since I do actually spend a lot of time in here, as it is my "craft room" as well. I like the simplicity of the room, but I feel like it's just missing something.

I had wanted to take off the beadboard with the too short chair rail and replace it with nice, big, chunky faux board & batten, like this transformation here. (and that's why you may notice my candle sconces are hung too high... I was planning ahead for the taller board & batten. Which Ryan has pish-poshed for the past year.)
I did refinish a little "sewing cabinet" that with it's plantation shutter type doors mimics the big china cabinet in the room. I still want Ryan to help me add some "feet" to it as then it will look more like the furniture goes together and they will be exactly the same height as the bulk of the big cabinet (minus the hutch) balancing out the room a little more.

Pictures:

Before:


listing pic
(can you believe how dark this room is? whole house, I'm telling you...
whole. house.)












and empty (this is looking into the dining room from the front living room)









check out this chandelier that was in here... it was huge and dark (the dark shades over the lightbulbs did not help) and it was a no-go from the start.



Also, again with the is-this-supposed-to-be-yellow? dingy paint color and the dark heavy drapes.


And our dining room now:
please excuse the slightly different tones in color... I took these some of these on different days (sunny vs. dark & rainy)































































































before and after of my sewing cabinet...
(this houses my sewing machine, fabric, etc.)


















and the light...


















and of course I have to highlight my most favorite piece of furniture ever,
my china craft cabinet and all it's glory...































































So there you have it.
What do you think? Taller board & batten in the dining room, Yay or Nay??

in the kitchen

{I'm doing a weekly "tour" of a room in the house in celebration of one year living here!

You can find last week's look at the family room here.}

In the kitchen we have...
replaced hardware ($1/handle on ebay= $30)
replaced faucet (Lowes= $218) and garbage disposal (Lowes=$?)
framed out windows (used 1 1/4" molding, about $4 each, four pieces total= $16)
replaced blinds (Lowe's= $30 x 3= $90)
painted walls (two walls Lowe's Valspar Green Apple $30gallon, two walls Lowe's Valspar Cottage Linen $30gallon)
painted all the trim (paint leftover in garage= free)
[still need to] paint doors (free)
tiled the backsplash (3 boxes of special order subway tile @ Home Depot= $150)(we have leftovers)(we also already had all other supplies from previous tile job)
replaced light over eating area (Menards= $110)
covered side cabinet w/ sheet metal -we wanted a magnetic space since the fridge is stainless steel- painted w/chalkboard paint (sheet from local metal place= $40, paint on hand)
other decor:
barstools (Ikea, off of Craigslist=$25 for both)
new extra large canisters (Target= $50)(but I used birthday money for that, so I'm not counting it in the total)
new phone holder/cabinet thingie (Home Goods= $12)
all other furniture and/or decor was previously owned or made from stuff on hand (free!)

total: just over $700
This is definitely the most money spent on any room. It's a big kitchen and it was so blah, and kitchen stuff= $. But at least we didn't have big stuff to do like counters or cabinets (although someday...) or appliances.
Still want to add under cabinet (and maybe above cabinets) lights and I would love to remove the microwave from above the stovetop with and put in a nice hood and replace one of the wall ovens with a microwave there. But for now, it'll do!

Before:

(listing picture and when we moved in)




























Thiss kitchen is kind of dark since there are no real exterior windows due to the sunroom/florida/our pool table room added on the back of the house. The walls were the same dreary dull yellowish as the rest of the house and while the cabinets (maple), counters (corian) and appliances (stainless) were nice and beautiful, with the dreary wall color, no backsplash, oddly out of place cheap fixtures and details and the kitchen was just dim and blah.


And Now:






























































here's a shot of the big window before we put our fake trim "casing" on it. also notice how the lighting in there made everything so yellow! (nighttime pic too, so it's even worse, but still!)






and after



















before, with no backsplash...








during














and after

















the original faucet and the much more appropriately proportionate one we switched it out for