Master Bedroom Before & After Phase 1

To continue our one year update. We move onto the master bedroom before and after. 

As I mentioned before this was Grandma's house. The before picture was from our first walk through. Part of our agreement was that I would go through and store all of Grandmas belongings host a yard sale and clean. The uncles all live out of state and doing this would have required vacation time for them not to mention it was a sucky job. 

So on to the Before...

As you can see the room looked pretty small...well it is pretty small...but it looked even smaller! I knew it had potential but wasn't sure if I would ever be in love with this small bedroom. Our king size bed was sure to fill it up and make us feel cramped. I knew light colors were the way to go for my "vision". 

On to the fun part.


After:

I love the light airy feeling our room has now. Obviously it is not finished but it is a huge improvement in my opinion.  I guess I am still finding my "style" and seem to lean toward a french country look for some areas...other stuff I like cleaner more modern lines...I think...maybe. I have never been great a pinpointing a style but its style just the same.

Details:

If you saw this room for the first 10 months you would know about the 10 different color swatches painted all over our walls. I had the hardest time picking a color for this room. I went from caramel walls and white and navy accents to white everything and any other combination in between. We decided to paint the walls and ceiling the same color. With high ceilings I wanted it to be cozy, depending on the time of day the ceiling looks different than the walls most of the time.

I fell in love with this fabric (fabric.com) and the rest has kind of evolved.

Future Plans:

I have borrowed a damask stencil from my Mom to do a feature wall behind the bed. I have Martha Stewart Living Precious Metals paint in Silica to use with said stencil. 

I plan on making a upholstered headboard to add some height behind our bed as well. 

I love our nightstands but may possibly refinish them to something less black.

In the way future I would love to have hardwood floors in here or some yummy plush carpet. 

I often imagine french doors instead of a window in here. Natural light is hard to come by in this south facing room. 

I have been playing with the idea of introducing yellow or another color in here to add a little punch. I may just mix up the blue/greens some more and get more adventurous that way.

I adore having pot shelves to put pretty stuff on. I often sit in bed reading when look up at this pretty display it makes me happy. If only my entire house looked like this all the time! On a normal day you will find magazines, sippy cups and a discarded sock on our bed!  

We love the extra light our mirrored closet doors give...we hate the mirrored closet doors themselves. I am still brain storming on what to do with them. Would white doors offer enough light in this dark room? Should we tear out the closet and start with a new design? The doors are huge and it is difficult to access stuff in the closet so I am not attached to them. Anyone have any suggestions?

Our dresser is obviously too big for this wall...but that is the only space we have to put it and the only dresser we have. I have my eyes peeled for a tall dresser or armoire to put here. I would love a distressed white or taupe one. I doubt I would miss the storage and the TV would be out of site when not in use, big bonus plus 90% of the stuff in this dresser should be tossed. All of my comfy clothes have paint on them, I guess that could be a sign of a constant DIYer.

The breakdown...

Furniture...we had already

Bed...Down Comforter...Target on clearance for $70.00

Kiss Pleated Duvet & Pillow Shams...Target for $80.00

Bed, Euro Shams and Drapery $100.00 for fabric

Blue Throw...we had already

Small Decorative Pillow...JC Penny $7.00

Drapery Rod...Furnishing Touches lhc. aka. Mom...Free
Lamps...Goodwill $6.00 each Shades...Target Clearance $12.00 each

Island Painting...Family Artwork...Free

Accessories from Michael's and Home Goods...$95.00

Paint...Home Depot Berr Paint and Primer color matched to Sherwin Williams Rainwashed...$90.00

Grand Total...$478.00 for our entire room

Not too shabby in my opinion. With a few more things to do to get it "done". 

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Hollister House Before and After Phase 1

It has officially been one year since we moved into our new home. Of first official real house...the condo didn't count...well it did when we lived there...now it doesn't! haha

I figured there was no better way to celebrate than to do a good old fashion before and after. We have done so much around here that it will have to be in phases. 

So I'll start with the Yard Phase.

A quick little back story...we purchased this house from my husbands Grandma. After Grandpa passed Grandma was injured and lived in a assisted living facility. The house sat empty for over two years. We were all busy with life, Grandma and other sick family members so other than the occasional check in the house didn't get much maintenance. 

When my husband and I decided we were outgrowing our two bedroom condo we went house shopping. It just happened that Grandma was ready to sell her house. We made a offer and she accepted...we celebrated and here we are today! 

Since I first saw this house I have wanted to work in its garden. I have a vision...I am sure I will get there someday...but for now I am thrilled with all that we have done. On to the fun stuff...pictures. 

The Front Yard

Before: 

The front of the house needed a little TLC. After sitting for so long with out much care other than lawn mowing the yard was in need of some major curb appeal.

Large flower bed on left side.

Smaller flower bed on right side.

After:

We ended up taking out the view blocking hedges, flower bed in the middle of the lawn and most of the over grown plants in the flower beds. I kept the rose bushes but moved them around. I reshaped the right flower bed for a more organic feel.  We also dug out a four foot wide flower bed along our right hand property line. We wanted to separate the blending of our lawn with the neighbors lawn. We have five Iceberg rose trees there and plans for more at sometime in the future (note to self...get a picture of that tomorrow).

New garden Aug 2011

Here is a closer look at one of my favorite new roses.

My first go at roses...the Golden Sunset is looking good.

You can see why its called a Golden Sunset now.


We have other plans for the front including painting the house...fixing the porch railings and columns, as well as big stuff like installing a much nicer looking walkway and putting a picked fence in around the lawn. But those are all dreams at this point...someday.

The Backyard

This one was a big project...that did not get done until last weekend...if you can believe it.  It was a jungle out there.

Before:

 

Take note of the scary dark back corner...I am glad I didn't have to go in there and deal with the boogie man along with the spider colony! 

 

In the last year we had the over grown fruit trees taken out, the out of control ivy removed, old furniture donated or dumped and the rest cleaned up. The roses were moved to the side yard. Then the big work started.

After:

Grass glorious grass!

We rebuilt the fence on this side and yes we should have had the cypress taken out as well. I thought they would grow on me...they haven't. Anyone have a chainsaw?

These flower bed are ready for some love...next spring! The fence...well maybe next summer.

The back yard was a huge project...just the rototiller killed my poor husbands hands...so I helped a lot with leveling out the soil. We raked and raked and then we started with the sod. Husband did the hauling and I did the green side up part. It was actually a quick process...10am to 2pm if you want a specific time line...we were beyond exhausted when we were done though. 

I am thrilled with the end result. I have big plans for the flowers back here and already have seeds to save some money on plants. But more on that later. Right now I am just going to sit on our back patio and enjoy the green...so much better than dry and dusty!

Stay tuned...we have the entire inside of the house to go over! 

Christy

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