Mudroom Maintenance

When we moved in I was eager to get all the kitchen stuff put away. We all have the misc. items that are used for entertaining but not used every day.  You hate to take up valuable space in the kitchen for those less frequently used items. 

I am lucky enough to have a nice big cabinet in our mudroom to use for that kind of storage.
Until now I had not really had time to wipe it all down and tear out the old shelf liner and do a major reorganization.  After enlisting the hubby to give me the okay on what kitchen items I could donate I had paired the items down to a manageable number.  I designated some bins for tablecloths, party supplies, candles and votive holders and Christmas dishes and serving pieces.

Now for the icing on the cake... or so I thought.  I ripped out the old liner and decided to replace it with some self adhesive shelf liner.  I figured this was a better option because I had heavy serving trays and I did not want the liner shifting.  Well it may have been helpful to read the directions about cutting the paper into small sections to make it easier.  I thought I wanted less seams so I decided to try to do large sections at once.  After lots of frustration and lots of bumps and buckles in my liner I decided I would have to resign myself to the imperfection and just go with it.  Lesson learned for next time!

The Before:

New very sticky liner!

Kitchen shelves

Sorry about that last post!  Would you believe me if I said my puppy did it?  He actually did jump on the keyboard and hit publish.  How do they know just what button to push??? Anyway...

After reading some other blogs I got inspired to paint gray behind my open kitchen cabinets.
I hate to say I can't remember which blog  but I think it was "Honey we're home".  She has some great ideas!

I really wanted to paint a darker gray but because of our poor kitchen lighting I decided to go a few shades lighter.  I also have some blue dishes with a brown edge and felt that they would be too dark against the gray.  As I looked at the shelves my husband said " oh no I know what this means!"
I have to say he did see the wheels turning.  Yes I wanted to replace all my dishes with bright white ones and white accents on the shelves like the blog had shown.  But reality did set in and I decided to watch the budget and work with what I had.

My compromise was going to Ikea and getting some cute fake plants in great white pots to put on the top shelf.  That gives me just enough happy and pop of white to wait to replace the dishes.  So now I have a bit of a rustic cottage look combined with some white accents.

I do love the way it turned out!  It is a subtle difference but gives it a fresh new look.

Guest Room ready

We finally have plenty of room for guests and it has been great having the extra space.
One of our guest rooms is a little smaller but I think we have made it cozy and I got to re purpose some items from other rooms (like the failed duvet from the master bedroom).


                                                          Guest Room Before:

                                                   
                                                    Guest Room After:

Master Bedroom done

I think I am finally happy with our master bedroom.  My husband gets frustrated with me and says I always want to change things but I think men just don't understand us women.  We have all experienced the feeling when you have decorated or organized a room and you just know it is not quite right.  It is missing something or it just needs a few tweaks and changes in order for you to be satisfied.

The master bedroom was one of those rooms; lets just start with the fact that after I got a new bed frame and mattress (which I do love the look of) then my queen duvet no longer fit the now much higher bed.  Every time I made the bed the comforter was way short on one side and it drove me crazy.  I decided to live with it awhile instead of rushing out to buy a new comforter but lets just say it constantly bugged me so I gave in and started the hunt.  I wanted something very simple and as many of you who have seen my house know I love blue.  I guess after years of helping people get organized and seeing a variety of spaces (some of them more cluttered than others) I gravitated to blue because as a color it calms me and has a clean look.  I went to multiple stores and yes ended up at Target with surprise, surprise a solid blue comforter with a tone on tone pattern.  I do love it and I can switch out throw pillows if I ever want to change the look.

Second challenge was artwork.  I had a rather plain sunburst hanging above the bed that I had spray painted bronze to give it a new look.  In theory it should have worked but it just didn't add anything.
My husband of course had hung it already and put a nice hole in the wall but a little patching and paint and it will be as good as new.  I ended up finding a set of 3 mirrors at Target and decided to hang them over the bed instead.  Let me just say I do have quite a few mirrors already in the bedroom but I love to decorate with mirrors because of the way they reflect light and brighten up a room. 

I can't say that I won't occasionally tweak a few things but today I am pretty happy with the end result!

Its the little things...

I finished the guest bathroom quite awhile ago but the bench I found at Marshalls was just okay.
The fabric on it was a brown pattern that was less than exciting.  I finally found some Chevron fabric the perfect shade to match my wall color and decided I had to recover the bench.

For those of you who have not recovered anything with fabric before it is pretty easy and makes quite a big difference.  I love to buy inexpensive cork boards and find a fun fabric to cover them in.
All you need is a handy staple gun and usually a second set of hands to help you pull the fabric tight while you are stapling.  This is a great cheap way to dress up a kids room or office.

I will have to show you my office boards later.  But anyway back to the bench...

                                                        Before:

                                                                   After:

Some long overdue updates!-The Powder Room

I am obviously way behind after some busy holiday months helping clients.  We have finished up some projects and have some updated photos to share.  I have been trying to put the finishing touches on a few things and tweak some areas I was not happy with.  Lots of rooms are done-its such a great feeling!

The powder room:
I finally found a small black square mirror which was harder than it sounds.
My husband gave me some dog prints I wanted from Ballard Designs for Christmas ( after a few hints.)
I love the way they look! I was trying to stick with a black and white theme because of the black and white floor and I think it all came together nicely.
I am still on the hunt for a skinny vase for the corner but it is 99% done.

Since the house was built in 1940 we wanted the powder room to reflect that-we fell

in love with this black and white tile flooring.

Here is a little reminder of what we started with: