Monday, April 22, 2013

Before & After shots: Our Humble Abode

Things are kind of in a "work in progress" in some aspects, but I thought I'd post some before and after shots of our new home. That way I can appreciate the progress we've made in a month! I'm proud to say that everything was unpacked in less than two, MAYBE three days.
I'm one of "those" people. Proud of it too.

Thankfully, because of FANTASTIC unbelievable friends and family we have, everything was sanded, painted, and mostly cleaned before we moved in!
(We closed on a Thursday afternoon and moved in Saturday afternoon.)
They were total BOSSES when it came to conquering all of the "before" tasks!
 (Shout out to Jess, Jerod, Chad, Tina, The Barts, my Dad, Rachel, Tracey, Adam, our connection group, Kyler, Kenton, Jenn, etc!)

Disclaimer: If you see anything on a shelf, table, coffee table, or wall...it's because it's been decorated and positioned by the great Kate, a friend of mine! Without her, we would have a very discombobulated decorated home.





As you will see, there were quite a few rooms that needed some paint, okay a LOT of paint slapped on their walls. Sometimes you just stop and think, "What were these people THINKING?"...my goodness. But, it got done and we're loving it!

{Side note: Because I find joy out of other blogs that show and tell me how much they spent/saved on things for their home (paint, deco, curtains, trinkets, DIY supplies and projects, etc.) I'll share some of that too! I LOVE ME A GOOD DEAL that I have to spend little to no money on. I never, I repeat NEVER, but anything full price. Besides things that are necessary, like paper towels. But I shop at Aldi, so I feel like everything is on sale there. Haha!}


* Living Room
We knew we wanted an accent wall, and with some advice we choose to do the wall that ran into the kitchen as well. The kitchen was just white, so it spiced up the kitchen with a little color.
This was the only color paint I knew I wanted, and got the idea from my good friend Kerrie in her house!
BEFORE: 

 


 AFTER:

Clock from Kirkland's with a coupon of course!


(view of accent wall)

Cube shelf- Ikea, canvas- DIY, globe with coupon & lamp on clearance from Gordman's, "Home"- HobLob half off
I've always wanted a GLOBE. :)






I made the canvas, and all decorations were from Gordmans or Kirklands on clearance. Large mirror from HomeGoods (the bset store on earth next to TJ Maxx, it's sister store)
made the wine bottle, red accents from HobLob half off with gift card

favorite wedding gift (kinda blurry): Christiansen est. November 5, 2011

old frame from my aunt, and half price cross from HobLob



my little hand-carved side table from AFRICA. It's my top FAVORITE pieces in our house.

It needs some conditioner, but on the other side is a carved giraffe design. In the little carved contraption is a set of hand made coasters.


{Pittsburgh Paint- Stoney Fields at Menards) We waited and waited and WAITED for the paint we wanted to go on sale, and when it did- my old coworkers in the Menard's paint department knew how excited I was. (along with any other customer in a 5 aisle radius"}  ;)

-- Curtains: Long story short, we were supposed to get all of the "window treatments" in the house.....well the previous owners surprised us on our final walk through the night before we closed, and I had to make an emergency run to Target to snatch up some curtains!
Fun story.....Soooo they WERE $34.99 a panel. Can't complain. Then they were marked down for $19.99 which was still a good deal, then I stalked Target for a few days and found them for $14.99. However, you can't get a "price adjustment" on clearanced items, I had to rebuy them and return the higher clearanced ones. Silly right? Hey, gotta do what ya gotta do. 

Then they dropped to $8.98...so I just had to repeat the above action to make sure I got them THEEEE cheapest. I'm crazy. I know. But it's such a great feeling. Six panels that should have been $210.00 before tax, were $54.00 and then 5% off with our Target debit card. Bing. Bam. Boom. Turned our lemons of a situation of missing curtains, to lemonade!


* Kitchen
What once was white, is now brown and white. For now. Love that it has a splash of color now! Not to mention all of our towels we registered for (prior to owning a house) were red and brown! Hurray! Double bonus!
 BEFORE:



 

AFTER:


I PROMISE you this wall is NOT green. I have no idea why it looks like this. Boo.


{Color: Pittsburgh Paint- Stoney Fields}

* Master Bedroom
I love gray and I love red. The red wall was already here, and I know if it hadn't been there to start with, my husband would have NEVER let me paint a wall red. Ever.
So, that's one thing I can thank the previous owners for. ;) 
For the rest- we painted the tan walls over with gray. It's my favorite. I love gray and I love red.

BEFORE:





AFTER: 





{Color:

* Nightmare Small Spare Room #1 aka "The Purple Room":
I think the strike-through title to this room says it all when matched with the "before" picture. Kudos to them for taking the time to paint of the nightmare diamonds. But I can't take an Easter Basket for a spare bedroom color scheme.
We (Beau hates purple) I chose a shade that had gray hues to it...I originally was thinking a DEEP plum. However, the room is small and I was told every room should have a relationship with each other....says some way smarter decorating people, than I am.

BEFORE: 



AFTER: 
 

I hated painting this room (so did Jess, Jenn, Beau, and Jerod). The paint covered TERRIBLY, I'm convinced in addition to the terrible diamonds, it was also because the "base" for the paint that was needed to mix the color was one that had more "color" than paint in it (can you tell I used to work in the paint dept at Mendards?).
 Boo. But it works. Whatever.

It's not decorated yet, nothing on the walls. Just haven't had time, nor has there been anyone in it besides Beau when he irons and two little boys for an over nighter. :) 

{Color: Ashley Lauren- Dusted Plum}



* Dining Room
I couldn't wait to get rid of the spearmint green flat/gloss STRIPES (not as noticeable in the picture)! GROSS! It was the last to be painted, and the worst color of them all, and the one everyone sees immediately upon entering the house. Of course. WELL, after sanding and painting by Tracey the beast of painting.....it's now an "ombre" of gray tones. Remember? I love gray!!!!


BEFORE: 
(I promise you, this green in the picture, DOES NOT, I repeat, DOES NOT do the ACTUAL BRIGHT green SPEARMINT color
Seriously people
Pull out your pack of gum and you could hold it up to our used-to-be walls and you'd straight lose it in the wall.


AFTER: 
 


The 4 Rules of Communication my aunt Julie and uncle Jarrod taught us, then had this canvas made for a wedding gift. Great reminder in a central place of the house in the dining room hallway. (it's gray, both the canvas and wall aside from the way it appears)

{Color: Top-  (same as master bedroom) Bottom- }


* Guest bathroom upstairs
A $5.00 treasure found at Menards in the "mistinted and returned" shelves. A deep brown color called "Magic". It was just that- magic. It covered great, and was my second $35.00 top of the line gallon of paint from Menards. (one of those "paint and primer in one" gallons.) I knew that I wanted that blueish-greenish color incorporated as well. I found the shower curtain on clearance at TJ Maxx for $7.00 and the rugs 2 for $12.99- and they match perfectly!!!! (When we knew we were getting the house for sure, we I went out to get shower curtains! I found two at Target that were $20.00 and $25.00...then ran into this one at TJ Maxx for $7.00 and got Dave Ramsey smart and returned the other Target ($$) ones...it's just a shower curtain. ha!) So I love this bathroom even more now. ;)

BEFORE: 



AFTER: 
 



* Large Spare Bedroom aka Bridget's Room: 
(My sister-in-law is moving in with us this Summer/Fall and we're assuming she'd like the 2nd largest room with TWO closets. So here it sits empty. Someday it will have a "before and after" reveal!


* Basement: 
So we currently have mix-matched furniture because the matching couch we got a steller Craigslist deal on, didn't fit down the stairs. Major bummer.

We tried everything except for cutting the couch in two. ;)

-- Pictures to come later- if and when we have furniture to go down there and it's a little more "set up".

You should watch this. You'll get a giggle. We chose not to take this route in order to get the couch downstairs.



That's all for now! We're super blessed to call this our home, and PLEASE, you're welcome to stop by any time...mi casa su casa. Or something like that. ;)



2 comments:

Megan said...

Nearly two months without posting? This is unacceptable! Lol :P

Unknown said...

You have a beautiful house, Kendra. And it's good to hear that you redecorated it as it become more stunning. Your curtains make the every corner of the house look cozy and intimate. It definitely matched the color scheme of your home.

#Roxie@WindowTreatmentsPhiladelphia.com