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House Project

Connecticut House Bedroom Refresh

Posted on May 1, 2023

Last month Jeremy and I made a quick one week trip up to our house in Connecticut to refresh the bedrooms in our 1st floor unit. This unit is incredibly easy for me to rent out. Maybe it’s the price. Maybe it’s the coziness of the place. I don’t know, but it’s easy. However, it has needed a refresh for a long time. We did the kitchen and living room last Summer. It was such a huge improvement and looked fantastic afterwards. The only problem was that it highlighted the dinginess of the bedrooms. We didn’t have time to do anything with them last Summer, so when an opportunity came up to do it between renters, I decided it was time!

The carpet was almost 20 years old as was the wall color. I guess I can be thankful they held up for as long as they did! I tend to have an insane goal list so these were only part of the project. Here’s what we tackled…

Scraped popcorn off ceilings

Painted walls, ceiling, and trim

Installed and painted new doors

Installed new carpet (hired that out to Sullivan & Son)

Switched dingy yellowed outlets and light switches for clean white ones

Installed new faux wood blinds

Hung art

Hung table/lamp sconces on bed headboard

Refreshed with new duvet covers

Installed new light fixtures (hired that out as well)

These were my vision boards that I made before we got there.

I had to make some pivots and adjustments along the way, one of those being ditching the ceiling fans. This house is over a hundred years old, so the electrical is difficult to work with. We had an electrician come out, and although he was perfectly willing to install those ceiling fans, it would have involved cutting the ceiling to install a brace, then mudding and patching and painting. Basically there was no time for all of that, so I had to go a different route. I also ditched the tapestry in the full bedroom. It looked so dingy on the new wall color. My goal was to get rid of dingy, so I didn’t want to bring it back in! Here’s some before and afters…

And the after of the queen bedroom…

Before of the full bedroom…

And the after of the full bedroom…

Just like the kitchen remodel, we worked right up until we had to leave for the airport, but I absolutely love this kind of work and the design elements coming together!

Supply list…

Wall color ~ Benjamin Moore in Moonshine

Trim color ~ Benjamin Moore in Vanilla Milkshake

Queen bedroom wall sconces ~ Amazon

New duvets ~ Amazon

New lighting ~ Lowe’s

Carpet ~ Pebble Path in Berber

Artwork was sourced from various museum’s open source public domain collections

House Project

Connecticut House Kitchen Remodel

Posted on September 6, 2022

I absolutely love transforming spaces. To take something and make it better, well, it’s one of my favorite things. We bought our Connecticut house in 2004. It was in a scary state. On the verge of foreclosure, the owner abandoned it and left a slew of fun surprises from a fish tank with fish in it (they were frozen in there since we bought it in the winter), vinyls galore, a car that didn’t run, and many other things I won’t take the time to mention. We cleaned that place up and brought life back into its walls. I didn’t design the first floor apartment, but the colors were indicative of the early 2000’s…brown/tan and red. Times have a changed, so it was more than overdue for a little refresh.

Here’s the before featuring that lovely 2000’s style…

We had about 2 weeks to complete this project, so we had to really focus on what we wanted to get done. The living room and kitchen were our top priorities. And if you’ve ever done a remodel project, then you know everything always takes longer than expected. We had a plan that ended up turning into a bigger project than we anticipated (like when you paint walls and then the ugly old outlets stand out), but we worked hard and got it done. I love painting, but I got to add some new skills to my repertoire like tiling and changing out those ugly outlet plugs.

The updated kitchen and living room…

We worked right up until the day we left, so I only got about an hour to sit in the living room and soak up the beauty. I’m so happy with the finished product!

Supply list…

Wall color ~ Benjamin Moore in Moonshine

Cabinet color ~ Benjamin Moore in Essex Green

Trim color ~ Benjamin Moore in Vanilla Milkshake

Backsplash ~ Daltile Restore from Home Depot grouted with Delorean Gray

Light above kitchen sink ~ Amazon

Countertops ~ Butcher block from Lowe’s

Cabinet pulls ~ Amazon

Kitchen faucet ~ Amazon

Cabinets ~ All purchased in natural oak from Lowe’s

Artwork above couch ~ bought on Etsy, 24X36 poster prints printed at Walgreens, Ribba frames from IKEA

outdoor pallet coffee table {diy}

Posted on June 22, 2015

Some of you got wind of my pallet project(s) on Instagram. It’s slow going, but I’ve had the table done for a couple of weeks now, and I think it’s high time I showed you! It’s super simple, y’all, and as you’ve probably gotten used to, I have no photos of the process. I really tried. I even brought my camera out, but I get so carried away that I forget to pause and shoot.

This, however, is the most simplest of things to make. Really, it is. I’ve never made furniture except the occasional IKEA piece. I do believe if I can do it, anyone can.

Supply List

2 pallets – any size, it just depends how big you want your table to be
hammer or crowbar
drill & screws
4 wheels
primer & paint OR varnish to seal the wood
paint brushes

Instructions

1. Using a crowbar or hammer, start by taking all the top pieces of wood planks off of the piece that is going to serve as the top piece to your table. You can leave the two ends. You will also need to take off about every other plank from your second pallet. This step is totally optional, but I didn’t want such huge gaps in between my planks of wood. This is, by far, the hardest, most time consuming step.

2. After you get your wood planks off, arrange them on the top piece, trying to make it as flush as possible. Mine still had a little gap after I added about four planks of wood.

3. After you get the planks arranged, drill them into the pallet. You’ve already made your top piece!

4. On the bottom side of your second piece, screw a wheel into each corner. This is also optional, but I wanted wheels to make it easier to move around and sweep the verandah.

5. After your wheels are screwed in, flip that second piece over and put the first piece on top of it. My pallets were so heavy that there was no need to screw the pieces together. Voilà! Your table is finished!

6. Finish your table by sealing the wood. I chose to prime mine with wood primer and then paint it white, because that’s what I had on hand.

I’m making plans to start making the outdoor couch and chairs, so stay tuned for more amateur furniture making coming up soon!

House Project

the never ending scullery project

Posted on December 19, 2013

Ah, yes, the scullery. The never ending scullery project. Only I’m seeing an end in sight which is so very encouraging. Check out what my scullery looked like the last time I posted a full photo of it…

Check it out as of yesterday…

Do you see that progress?? Yes, it’s still a mess, but I’m envisioning it, and I can see the end in sight. There’s still a list that will feel long if I start rattling it off, BUT there’s progress every day, and that has my heart happy.

We put in a bigger window which has made the room feel so much bigger. I’m deciding how I want shelves for my pantry (that’s what the long wall is for) and we’re also still deciding on the floor. BUT THE PROGRESS! Oh, I’m so happy. We’re getting there!

House Project

scullery renovations week ??

Posted on October 10, 2013

My last scullery renovation post was July 25th. Sad but true. This is how it looked that week.

The progress has been slow, but sometimes that happens with renovations. All the tile is off the floor. The doorframe is out, and we’ve taken out part of the walls that were on either side of the doorframe. (I say “we” but it’s actually hired labor.) We’ve also had to grind out for the electrical. Boy, was that a dusty job! Even with tarps up, my house was covered in a thin blanket of dust. Check out the dust flowing out of the windows!

Grinding in the scullery. It's dusty but it's PROGRESS!

The hubs is making a game plan for the scullery which has my heart all giddy. I’m so ready for it to be finished and functional!

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