Happy Friday! It’s almost the weekend, folks! This is equal parts good and bad for me. This is technically my last one before I report back to my day job of teaching. I am never ready to go back after summer break. I could seriously get used to the housewife life. 🙂
I’ve had a good summer, though, and have accomplished several tasks I had on my to-do list. One of them was to give my kitchen a refresh. With my creativity flowing after doing a rug switcheroo at my parents’ house, I started “shopping” my home and reorganizing. Then I got a notion to change the hardware on the cabinets and drawers. That google search lead to many unnecessary dollars potentially being spent, so I decided to really get creative in how I could change the existing knobs.
Category: Home
My Favorite Christmas Gift
Well, okay, I’m not sure that it’s my favorite gift, because I got a pretty piece of jewelry, some awesome slippers, a few great books, and the clock. It’s ranked up close to the top for sure, and I just wanted to share with you how I styled it.
Continue reading “My Favorite Christmas Gift”Buffalo Check Kitchen Curtains
One night while scrolling through Facebook, I noticed an ad for Walmart that stopped me in my scroll. It made my eyes go wide, and without even realizing it, I’d clicked the link, added to my cart, and purchased. Hook, line, and sinker, y’all. Continue reading “Buffalo Check Kitchen Curtains”
Halloween with the Normans
It’s officially holiday season. I consider it to have started on October 1st. That’s when the party invitations start to roll in, decorations start appearing in front yards, large amounts of candy start being consumed, and life starts to get a bit crazier. I decided to add in a bit more crazy and go all out when it came to decorating this holiday season. Naturally, I’m starting with Halloween, and boy have I had fun doing it. Want a look around my apartment? Continue reading “Halloween with the Normans”
Bathroom Makeover Before…Again
Oops, I did it again! Or, I will. 
I liked my guest bathroom makeover so much that I’ve started a similar one in our master bathroom. But I can’t show you an after without showing you a before. I’m sparing no mess or clutter. I want to share what we’re living with right now. It definitely needs some sprucing up and could use a bit more storage and better organization. That’s the main goal as I move forward with this project. Continue reading “Bathroom Makeover Before…Again”
DIY Abstract Painting
Remember that time I painted that canvas navy blue? 
Well, I just kept thinking it was too much blue in one corner. So, I painted it again…
Except I had two square canvases and decided to paint them as opposites. (This turned out to be an all out disaster, and I ended up with two paintings that looked like a 2 year old did it. Instead, I did two similar paintings.) Continue reading “DIY Abstract Painting”
Mirror Makeover
When you move into an apartment owned by your in-laws, you get a few added perks like old furniture pieces that they have stored in the building or that have been left behind by old tenants.
Case in point- this full length mirror.
Bathroom Makeover Reveal
She’s finally finished!
What started out as a weekend project ended up hitting the back-burner and taking quite a long time. But, y’all, it’s complete. And it’s pretty good!
It turned out exactly as I’d hoped, and I’m happy to show it to you now.
If you remember, we rent our apartment from my in-laws, and they have been so gracious to let me give the bathroom a little makeover. This project was very simple and only required painting the walls and vanity and hanging shelves and pictures.
Before we get to the reveal let’s remember how it looked when we moved in. Continue reading “Bathroom Makeover Reveal”
Bookshelf Changeup
BOOKSHELF CHANGEUPÂ
We recently had some pretty fantastic snow days here in Alabama, and I actually was able to do some productive things while we were out of school. It doesn’t matter that the productivity didn’t actually happen until Saturday when the snow was mostly melted. Hey, I thoroughly enjoyed my SNOW days by staying warm under the covers rewatching Big Little Lies. They’re winning all these awards, and I felt like an eight episode show wasn’t too much to binge in a few days.
But Saturday came and I was feeling the creative bug, so I took my gallery wall apart. 
And then promptly put it right back together because I don’t have anything else I’d like to put in its place. I have a lot of things in my cart at Minted but I don’t have a lot of money in my bank account to pay for all those pretty prints. Story of my life. 
So then I walked to my bedroom, looked around and realized the drapes in my cart at Ballard don’t really go along with my bank account either. Sooooo…I decided to rearrange the books on the bookshelf. I knew I wanted a more streamlined look somehow. I didn’t want the messy look of all the randomly placed books. I’ve been craving simplicity in my decor, and the mismatched spines on the bookshelf didn’t fit that for me.
Here’s what it looked like before. 
 This was about a year ago in March. At the top are all of my cookbooks and a few children’s storybooks I’ve collected. You can see there’s no real rhyme or reason to the way I shelved the books. It’s not necessary for there to be a rhyme or reason to shelving books, but like I said, the creative bug had bitten me, so I went for it.
Here’s what it looks like now.
I decided to shelve the books by the color of their spines. In keeping with the need for simplicity I started with white and black and just kept going. I know I didn’t follow Roy G. Biv, but it works for me.
The cookbooks on top got switched to stacks instead of the unlevel, upright position they were in. There’s a lot more yellow in those cookbooks than I would like, but since I don’t have Erica Berry’s kitchen from Something’s Gotta Give (that post here) and nowhere to put my cookbooks in my kitchen, this will do. I like it much better already.
I also decided to hang a picture over the bookshelf. Paul went to school with a guy that works at one of Arnold Palmer’s golf courses, Bay Hill. For a wedding gift, he got Mr. Palmer to sign a photo for us. But it wasn’t just a photo, it was a large print that he personalized for us. It was so special to Paul, and we had it framed so that we can enjoy it always. (Thanks, Josh!) I think it looks lovely hanging above the bookshelf, and I don’t know why it took me so long to decide it belonged there.
I know this wasn’t a drastic change, but I love when something small makes a big impact. I hope that you’ve gotten some ideas on how to update your bookshelves or inspired you to hang a fun photo. Do you arrange your books in any certain way? Do you hoard books like I do? Do you have any special photos, posters, and/or works of art? Let me know in the comments.
Bathroom Makeover- Before
BATHROOM MAKEOVER- BEFORE
I wrote a Thursday Thoughts post yesterday saying how I couldn’t believe that we’ve been living in our apartment for almost a year and a half. I also mentioned that I’ve got some big and fresh ideas for our apartment to make it more functional for us. It seems to be my pattern to need to live in a space for almost a year before I really know what I want to do in it. If I want to change anything, paint anything, add anything, etc. I have come up with some ways to help make our bathrooms a little prettier and use the space we have to be super efficient.
I have always just known when a house or apartment was right for us. When we bought our house in Louisiana, I went to see it without Paul and knew right away that it was our house. I told him I thought it was the one, he came back for a second visit with me, and we just knew it was right. I sort of felt that with our apartment now, but it was in a different way. I knew we were going to move in to this apartment when we decided to move. It was a bit of a site unseen situation, but I knew I had to trust that it was going to be alright. When I finally did see it (just before we moved), I knew that it was right. It was smaller than what we were used to, but it was going to work for us.
Front Bathroom
I’ve had a tough time figuring out what to do in this space. Part of that was because I didn’t know how long we’d be here, and I didn’t know if it would make sense for me to do anything to it. If I wasn’t going to be here long enough to enjoy it, I’d probably not want to invest the time, money, and effort into making the changes. But as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I am feeling quite happy here in this apartment. It seems to be the right time to customize the things we can and want to do, because we don’t plan to leave anytime soon.
The previous tenant had the bathroom walls repainted, but the job wasn’t up to my standards. I know that makes me sound like a snob, but there were paint brush hairs stuck to the wall. Nothing wrong with wanting to fix that. Also, I really wanted it to be bright and white. The beige color is a bit warm for my liking, so at the cost of a gallon of paint, I could really make this space over.
The Plan
I want to first say that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with this bathroom. Everything works perfectly. I just wanted to make some changes that make it a little bit easier on the eyes…well, my eyes and that would make it function in the best way possible.
Here’s what I’m planning to do:
- Paint the walls, baseboards, and door bright white
- Paint the vanity black
- Change hardware on cabinet doors
- Add shelving above the toilet for extra storage
- Rug or runner
Things I’m keeping:
- Light fixture
- Faucet
- Shower curtain
- Flooring
- Shower/Tub insert
This will in no way be a gut-job. It’ll be a little mini-makeover. Like getting your hair and makeup done. 🙂
Here’s the inspirational photo that most accurately shows what I could do in my bathroom.
I’ll keep you updated on the progress. The colder temps deter me a little from painting because it doesn’t dry as well. I’m hoping it’ll be a quick weekend project, though. I’m looking forward to putting this in motion and showing you the results.
Have any of you done a mini makeover? How did it go for you? Let me know in the comments.
Have a great weekend, y’all!