redo |

Hot Pink, Aqua Blue, & Light Green (Oh, My!) –My Daughter’s Room Reveal

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Christy

I’ve done three previous posts on my nine-year-old daughter’s bedroom, as we updated her decor to reflect her ever-changing style (I’ll link them below). Today–finally–is the room reveal. We didn’t change that much, but it took weeks to get her room clean enough to photograph! I know lots of you can relate!

This was a small update. When we moved into our new house last summer, I painted the walls Ionic Sky by Behr at my daughter’s request, and accented the aqua blue with white and pale celery green. While soothing, it lacked the punch that her vibrant personality requires, so we decided to add pops of watermelon pink to kick the color combination up a notch. Here’s what we wound up with:

First, I spray painted the old iron headboard (it was mine as a kid) with watermelon pink Krylon spray paint. You can read about that HERE. The bedding is from Target, Stein Mart, and the Paris pillow is from Hobby Lobby. My daughter is learning French and has big plans to move to the French Rivera when she grows up (she’s going to work there as a marine biologist). I don’t think my life was as well-thought-out when I was nine!

I recovered her thrift shop chair with Amy Butler’s Love Bliss fabric, and spray painted a breakfast in bed tray pink (read about that HERE). Her armoire door panels got covered with the Amy Butler fabric, too (LOVE that print!).

The tied fabric lampshade is from the Nashville flea market; I bought it although I think it would be a super-easy project to do with an old wire lampshade (you could even use ribbon instead of fabric). I bought the nightstand at the flea market on the same day–it was black but it wound up with a coat of blue paint! I blogged about those two flea market finds HERE.

We added a hot pink throw to her papasan chair (the papasan is from PB Teen); it’s a great corner to snuggle up and read in. I scored the throw a few years ago at a yard sale. The pink polka dot window treatments were at Ikea when I stopped a few weeks ago in Charlotte–they were on clearance for $9.99 for the pair. Score!

I hung this cute lamp from Ikea over her papasan chair so she has plenty of light to read by. I sewed the cord cover from a green and white polka dot sheet I bought at the thrift store for $1. I love buying sheets there–it’s a great way to get yards of fabric for a steal!

Her desk has seen a few different paint treatments in the three years since I found it at an antique fair. Currently, it’s white with watermelon pink hardware and it serves as a desk/dressing table. My daughter is contemplating taking the bulletin board down and putting a mirror in its place to facilitate its function as a grooming station, but where would we put photos and paper ephemera then?!

To incorporate a little bit of the Paris theme into her room, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut three pieces of vinyl art. I mounted them on hot pink card stock and put them in three 8×10 frames that I pulled out of the attic. They were natural wood so I spray painted them black. The Eiffel tower was meant to be a black one, although they were all sold out of those at Hobby Lobby when we went to buy it, so hot pink it is. It clashes a bit with the other pink, but DD doesn’t care, so I’ve decided I don’t, either!

The carnival-striped table that I blogged about HERE is the first thing you see as you walk into her room, and I think it’s a great piece that ties all of the colors together.

It’s fun, it’s cheerful, and it’s full of personality, just like my Bitty Bear!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer Rizzo

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Posted in Before and After, Kids Rooms, Real Spaces | Tagged aqua, bedroom, french, girl's room, green, Paris, Pink, redo | 20 Comments

Stair Redo with Painted Treads and Beadboard Risers

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Christy

Because I have my entire powder room ripped apart right now and it’s nowhere near ready to show you yet, today I’m sharing a project done by good friends who we met when we lived in Virginia Beach–Steve and Robyn. Despite several moves (all on our side ) our families have remained close, and most recently Robyn visited us so that we could run the Country Music Half Marathon together. Or, more accurately, we both were running the same course on the same morning, but she managed to finish it in record time and I just managed to finish!

Here we are post-race, with the gorgeous Nashville skyline behind us:

And because she’ll probably be annoyed that I shared a photo of her looking less than her usual glamorous best, here we are the same night (after blissful showers and a big nap!) enjoying a post-run margarita:

But I digress, because we’re talking about stairs here, and not margaritas, right? That’s a shame…

Steve and Robyn decided to get new carpet in their house, and as so often happens, one change led to several must-do projects. As they ripped the old carpet off their stairs (they were completely covered in carpet although I don’t have a before picture), they realized that they wanted to go with a different look. I had sent Robyn a blog post written by Miriam at Prudent Projects (read it HERE), and it gave them some inspiration to get to work on their stairs! They wound up with a dark espresso brown banister and treads, and crisp white spindles and beadboard risers–gorgeous! Here’s what they did to get these fabulous results:

1. Yanked up the old carpet (underneath they found MDF stair treads, but they did have a nice bullnose, or round, edge on the front).

2. Hung sheets to protect the doors to as many rooms as possible from sanding dust (this was a smart step and one that I usually skip, I’ll admit).

3. Sanded, sanded, and sanded the treads, banister, and spindles.

4. Caulked the edges, where the stair treads meet the wall and the banister.

5. Primed the stair treads with gripper gray primer and also primed the banister and spindles with regular primer.

6. Painted the banister with this lovely dark brown paint from Home Depot:

And below is the color match formula if you’re interested:

Here’s the banister before (hi, Steve):

And after:

7. The spindles got a couple of coats of white (just regular white latex off the shelves). Robyn said that everything got one coat of primer and two coats of paint (either dark brown or white). She also said there was a lot of painting and repainting around spindles to make sure that white areas were only white (with no brown smears) and vice versa. I don’t doubt it!

8. Next, the stair treads got two coats of espresso brown. Robyn reports that they sent the kids to sleep over at her mom and dad’s house that night, and she and Steve ate sushi and watched a movie downstairs while the treads were drying in between coats. You could also paint every other stair so that you could still climb the steps two at a time during a project like this, although that doesn’t sound quite as much fun as dinner and a movie!

9. After the treads were painted, they added the beadboard to the risers. They bought one of the big sheets (I think they’re 4′ x 8′) and Steve cut them to fit on his table saw. They adhered them with glue, and while they did caulk around the edges, they didn’t paint the beadboard–it was already white and Robyn said they didn’t need to.

It took the two of them three full days to complete this project, due to the multiple coats of primer and paint and the detailed painting work required. However, they’re so pleased with the results. They did add a carpet runner to protect their hard work–plus, with two kids and a dog, the stairs are in heavy use all day long. Let me know if you have any questions for Robyn and I’ll have her answer them.

Here are a few more “after” shots–I love the way she styled her steps!

Great job, guys! I’m almost inspired to rip up the carpeting on my stairs and see what I find! Thanks for sharing your project with us, Robyn and Steve, and thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Before and After, DIY, Home Inspiration | Tagged bead board, beadboard, cottage, painted, redo, risers, stair, treads | 15 Comments

The Kitchen Photoshoot is in the Can!

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Christy

Woohoo! It’s done–except for waiting for the issue to come out. The team from Better Homes & Gardens Real-Life Kitchens & Baths Magazine (say that five times, fast!) descended on Nashville last week and, after shooting some fabulous, high-end spaces, they came to my humble abode. So what did I do? Headed to Disney World, of course, with my family!

Real-Life Kitchens & Baths features kitchen redos done on a budget

Seriously. I wasn’t here for what will probably be the one-and-only photo shoot of my entire lifetime. Because as luck would have it, they decided to come to town during the ONLY week in the first half of 2012 when we had plans…plans we’d made last November, and paid for last December. The hubby will be gone for work all summer, and next summer we’ll be moving again, which always means no vacation, so we didn’t have many options but just to go to Florida!

I called in reinforcements–two of my bestest friends, Carolyn and Andrea–and asked them if they could “be me” for the day. Here they are:

Carolyn, Andrea, and me, at one of our military formals

We’re not normally dressed like aging prom queens…here’s a real-life snap:

Carolyn, me, and Andrea

Yes, we’re in a ladies’ rest room in the above picture. Where do you hang out with your girlfriends?!

So, these two dear friends drove to my house early in the morning to meet Bonnie Broten, the editor who “discovered” my shoestring-redo of a kitchen here at 11 Magnolia Lane (read the redo posts HERE and HERE, or check out our truly magazine-worthy old kitchen HERE). She was accompanied by the photographer and the photographer’s assistant. I had left them a sparkling clean kitchen and cleared the counters of everything that made it look like people actually USED the kitchen!

Prior to the shoot, I sent Bonnie lots of pictures of “props,” also known as “stuff I have collecting dust in my cupboards.”

She and the editors had decided on pink as the accent color to make my beige and white kitchen “pop.”

I left all the props on the dining room table, and left the crew and my girls some snacks and a fridge stocked full of water and soda. Then I snuck out of town!

While the pantry wasn’t included in the shoot, I still feel like a new woman after tackling that dreadful space and making it awesome!

I can’t show any of their photos, of course, because that would spoil the surprise, but the girls did shoot a few behind the scenes snaps for me.

Carolyn and Andrea report that much of the work of a photo shoot involves lighting the shot, checking it again and again on the computer and having it approved via internet before snapping the final pic. They texted me to get the password for our wireless network, but other than that, I didn’t hear a peep.

I love how the area that’s being photographed is *perfect* and there’s a perfect mess everywhere else! That’s exactly what I do when I’m taking pictures!

Those gorgeous peonies were on their last legs when we made it home from Florida, but they sure were pretty in the shoot!

The pink cushions were just for the shoot…this is what I usually have on my chairs:

There were a few minor hitches, of course. The valance over the kitchen sink took about an hour to get draped and folded just the way they wanted, and the seagrass pendant shade over my kitchen table was hanging just a little crooked. Andrea weighed one side with a metal clamp from my husband’s workbench and all was well…

Not everybody was happy with the fact that our kitchen was going to be in Better Homes & Gardens. The cat was most definitely pissed (there’s really no other word for it). He wanted to sleep under my bed and access was DENIED all day long!

Angry Kitty!

In the end, the girls and I decided that it was probably God’s plan that I be out of town for the shoot because they’re not sure I would have handled it well (as if!). I promised them that when their kitchens are photographed for BH&G, I will help out while they go to Florida to relax!

They’re not sure exactly which issue we’ll be in, but chances are that it will be Spring of 2013. That timeline is typical–you always hear about magazines shooting Christmas spreads in May and June–but of course it’s hard to wait.

I can’t thank Bonnie and her team enough (and of course Carolyn and Andrea, too!) for all their efforts.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Inspiration Friday at The Picket Fence

Wow Us Wednesday at Saavy Southern Style

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Delightfully Inspiring at Delightful Order

DIY by Design Swing into Spring

Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now

Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots & Jello

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Posted in DIY, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Kitchens, Real Spaces | Tagged BH&G, budget, kitchen, magazine, redo | 18 Comments

New “Fearless” Series at 11 Magnolia Lane!

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Christy

We’ve had such a great response from Terry’s healthy eating/meal planning In the Kitchen series (click on icon on the right sidebar for all the recipes), that we’ve decided to introduce a second series here at 11 Magnolia Lane. We’re going to call it, simply, “Fearless,” and it will showcase the absolutely-not-afraid projects of a variety of guest bloggers.

: One of my VERY fearless moments–taking a paintbrush to two dozen cherry cabinets!

Over time, one of the things that readers have mentioned to us repeatedly is that while they want to improve their home through do-it-yourself projects and decorating, they often get stuck because they’re scared. They’re afraid that they’ll hurt their home’s resale value, that they won’t be able to finish what they started, or that it won’t turn out like they envisioned it. I think we’ve all been there! Any DIY’er will tell you that in addition to her amazing, blog-worthy successes, there have been any number of epic fails. I still remember the time I spilled an entire gallon of bright-red paint all over the pristine white ceramic tile and grout in my powder room (this was years ago), or the time that I punched a hole in the drywall while attempting to pry off molding (only months ago). It even happens to the professionals, though.

I think the best advice I can give you is just to give it a try! Start with a smaller project, like painting a room. Worst case scenario, you hate the color and have to repaint it. I do that on a regular basis–paint is CHEAP! If you don’t know how to do something, call in an expert, watch how he or she does it, and then do it yourself the next time. That’s how I learned to rewire lighting fixtures and hang chandeliers. I wasn’t sure how painting my tile backsplash in my kitchen would work out–I couldn’t find a lot of information on whether the paint would stick or how it would hold up over time–but I realized that the backsplash had to go, either way, so I just decided to give it a try. Six months later, it’s holding up beautifully, and I’m so glad that I saved all that time, money, and effort that it would have taken to tear down the brown and put up white, just by pulling out my paintbrush and being fearless.

: Before–brown tile backsplash

: After–pristine white and perfect!

Go ahead, add a built-in! You CAN do it yourself, and what potential buyer will come to your house and say, “Oh, no, I can’t stand having all this extra storage!”?

: Make an Ikea bookcase look like custom, built-in storage shelves? Why not?!

So what if you put a pry bar through your drywall while you’re putting board and batten in your upstairs bathroom? You’ll learn to patch drywall (it’s not hard) and the end result will still be pretty, functional, and a definite improvement on where you started! Oh, and you’ll still have paid about a quarter of what a pro would charge you to do the same thing.

: This result was well worth a little suffering along the way!

We’re looking forward to showcasing the amazing efforts of some of the most fearless DIY’ers that blog-land has to offer, and hopefully they’ll inspire you that “you’ll never know until you try!”

{Do you have a project that you overcame your fear and tackled? Do you know of one that we should feature? Email us at 11Magnolialane@gmail.com and tell us about it and we may feature it!}

Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Before and After, DIY, Fearless Series, Home Inspiration, Real Spaces | Tagged add value, diy, fearless, home, redo, renovate, series, update | 4 Comments

Kids’ Learning Center Reveal

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Terry

I am so excited to reveal our Kids’ Learning Center as “Part 1″ of my Basement Office/Kids’ Learning Center/Craft Station Makeover. As some of you may recall, the gals at 11 Magnolia Lane listed out our 2012 Home Goals earlier this year and I am thrilled to mark this off the list. I guess I cannot mark it completely off my list at I am still working through the details on My Office (Part 2) and the Craft Station (Part 3) but that just gives us something to look forward to . We really have come so far, check out what our basement used to look like (you can see more here).

Basement prior to installation

My husband and I couldn’t be happier with how the built-in desks and shelving turned out. Our contractor went above and beyond our expectations with the fancy sliding drawers that even close on their own. What a treat to have such quiet (and distraction-free) cabinetry.

Both our children have their own desk space for homework and projects. I personalized their space with their initials, photos and artwork. I love using their art to decorate my home. I think it is so important for kids to see their creative works on display, plus it adds some much needed color in this particular space.

I love the touch of green and the personalize art to add some color to our kids educational center

Pretty open shelving and I just love the work station sconces I found at Lowes.

We were on a serious budget with our remodel as we have two other expensive projects that we are trying to finalize prior to 2013 (check out our 2012 goals here). One of the main reasons we decided to do open shelving was to save money, with the hope of upgrading to cabinets next year. I have to say, I LOVE the open shelving and I cannot imagine changing them out now. These were custom-made by our contractor and I adore the style and design.

Pretty open shelving with work station sconces from Lowes.

I love the touch of green and how the personalized art adds some color to our kids educational center

My hubby’s main concern with open shelving was organization and clutter, which I can understand. It is hard to keep open shelving looking tidy without the proper storage containers and bins. I had to be very budget conscious with the project, so IKEA was my first stop, and I was lucky enough to have Amy shopping by my side for all my decorating dilemmas

The chairs and the storage boxes are all from IKEA. I am loving the chairs, even though it is not the dreamy designer chair I initially wanted. These are functional, adjustable, reasonably priced at $39 per chair, and simply perfect for our space. The storage boxes are also reasonable in cost, but they do take a bit of time to assemble. Once I figured out the instructions, it went pretty quickly. I love the black and white color scheme and IKEA really had lot of storage pieces to choose from. The black boxes are my favorite as they are heavy duty and have a fabric-like texture. I definitely feel so organized and tidy in our new space, which gives me such peace.

IKEA storage boxes, and tin containers for paint brushes and pencils

They jars were actually sprinkle containers that I repurposed for supplies

Kitchen utensil holders and jars are the perfet solution for color pencils and crayons, a must have in any kid space

I loved the idea of having a message board for each station so I found these great pieces of art from the local Salvation Army. I simply covered up the shoe & purse design with chalkboard paint and I love the final result–especially the green chalk initial. I ended up loving the black and white newspaper border and decided to keep as I thought it made the overall design more interesting.

Art I found at the local Salvation Army

Here is the final product…

Repurposed art turned into a chalkboard for our kids educational center

This is my favorite picture because my boys really love their new learning center. My youngest is heading to kindergarten next year which is breaking my heart but look at him work… I think he will be ready, don’t you?

Here is “L” hard at work writing his first and last name. Kindergarten here we come!!

Lastly, I want to thank everyone for your sweet comments about my son’s 7th camping themed birthday celebration. I am excited to announce the two winners for our Simone Made It Party Printables Giveway:

The winner is comment #4

Nicolle J. (who said)

“What a great party, Terry! Love all the details!
I would love some printables for my daughter’s November, election day, birthday. School is out that day and she has already decided that she’d like to have a Patriotic/Election themed party complete with a mock election.”

AND

The other winner is comment #8

Judiq (who said)

“I love that you even had logs around to have cut into cake stands.
Just celebrated my youngest son’s 18th birthday… no party…we treated him and a friend to a concert he really wanted to go that fell on his birthday. Now 18 is one that really takes your breath away and sets the waterworks flowing! Beautiful party..cupcakes look great!”

Thank you both for the kind words and I do hope you swing back and share how your next event(s) turn out.

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Best DIY Projects of 2012 Party at Southern Hospitality

Posted in Before and After, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Office, Organization | Tagged area, basement, homework, Ikea, Kids, Office, open shelving, redo, room, study, work | 18 Comments

BIG BIG News {!}, Plus My Pantry Redo Reveal

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Christy

***The BIG, BIG news first, because I can’t stand not to tell you right away–my kitchen redo is going to be featured in a Better Homes & Gardens magazine! Their Real-Life Kitchens & Baths magazine comes out seasonally, and one of their editors contacted me about including my kitchen in an upcoming issue! After I got up off the floor, I agreed immediately because, let’s face it, this sort of thing doesn’t happen every day. I will, of course, be the example of the “shoestring” budget renovation, but as more of us have small budgets than large ones, that’s just fine with me. We should be doing the photoshoot next month, and of course I’ll keep you updated every step of the way!***

While it’s going to be impossible to top that, I’m so happy to tell y’all that I’ve checked off another BIG item on my 2012 to-do list for the house–the pantry. It has been an eyesore since we moved in last June, and when I redid the kitchen (those posts are here and here) I was so DONE with that room that I skipped the pantry. It’s a great size, though, and I knew it had so much potential.

I made a few quick and easy changes to our cabinet-sized pantry in our North Carolina house, and loved how that turned out. Regardless of the space you have available for your pantry, it’s easy to make the best of what you have. In our NC house, that meant chalkboard contact paper, polka dot ribbon, and lots of mason jars (easy! cheap!) to jazz things up a bit.

Our Nashville house has a big, corner pantry (because that was at the top of my wish list!), but sported white wire shelving (which I hate, hate, hate!!). Here is the embarrassing “before” picture:

Pretty scary, huh? I hated how my cans always fell over sideways, plus my shelves were just a little too short to hold my small appliances (bread machine, blender, etc) on any shelves but the top one. My kids like to make smoothies, and they couldn’t get the blender down easily on their own. Small things, but they annoyed me.

My husband was out of town Palm Sunday weekend, and so late Friday night I decided to just go for it. I took everything out of the pantry and ripped out the white wire shelves, taking a picture of the empty shelves first so I could sell them on Craigslist. They’re already gone; I sold the whole lot for $30 and considered it good riddance!

My recommendation if you’re doing a pantry renovation is that you use a bunch of cardboard boxes or plastic storage bins and put your pantry items in there in an orderly way. Even if it takes only a few days, you’ll still want to be able to find your cereal, peanut butter, and other essentials without searching through everything. It also keeps you sane, as you don’t have to cover every single kitchen counter with pantry stuff! I stacked my boxes in the dining room, which is used more as my workshop than as a dining room these days.

The next step was to patch the holes in the drywall–there were so many holes that I really despaired at this point, but spackle can work miracles. I then gave the pantry a coat of paint that matches the kitchen (Benjamin Moore’s Alexandria Beige), as it was still the contractor color that it was painted originally. That gave me a clean slate to work with!

After measuring several times, I headed to Home Depot. I wanted to use solid shelving, and I wanted it to be white, but I didn’t care too much about whether I used melamine or wood. Once I looked at my options and realized that with wood I would have to prime, sand, paint, sand, and paint again, I decided that melamine would be just fine, thanks! I had the nice guys at Home Depot cut my melamine so that I could build five shelves high, and I bought 1″x 2″ x 8′ primed pine fingerjoint board to use to build the supports under the shelves. I also bought five brackets so that the “floating” shelf would have a support in the corner–pantry items can be heavy!

As I tried out the shelves, I ran into my first problem–while I had measured several times, the front of my shelves needed to be wider than the back of my shelves. Why? Because my pantry isn’t square (!) to the tune of 3/4″. That’s WAY off! I will admit to thinking a few bad words as I loaded all ten pieces of melamine back in the car, and the kids and I headed back to Home Depot after church to have the pieces re-cut. The guys only said, “Measure twice, cut once,” about a thousand times, and how silly of me to expect that a room would be square!

Look how far off the edge is from the front of the shelf to the back–crazy!

It took me about three days to build all five levels of shelves, but only because it was a busy week, with a couple of functions for hubby’s work in the evenings, plus kid activities and homeschooling during the day. It was so exciting as I made progress, though!

I won’t lie–getting the shelves level at the corners where the two pieces met up was a bit tricky. A laser level would probably have made my life easier, but I made it work with just a regular level. I used a combination of 2″ and 2-1/2″ #10 screws to secure the supports to the walls, and where I couldn’t screw directly into the studs, I used Pop-Toggles as my drywall anchors because the nice hardware guy said they’re his favorite and they hold up to 60 lbs.

I spaced the shelves 15″ apart, which is a little taller than the norm, but I wanted everything to fit and there’s always so much wasted space in the top of closets and pantries.

When I had all the shelves built, I realized that I needed to come up with something to hide the fact that the pantry wasn’t square and the shelves were all wonky. After using my brad nailer to secure the shelves to the supports for all eternity, I cut screen trim with my miter saw and used Liquid Nails to glue it to the ends and fronts of the shelves. Take a look at the before and after–the finishing details really make a big difference!

Before:

And after:

I also dabbed a little white paint on the screw heads in the supports and the brackets to camouflage them, although I will admit that I didn’t paint over the primed wood of the supports. They really didn’t need it.

When all the shelves were in place and level, it was time for the fun–moving back in! One idea that I love for a corner pantry, and have had pinned for a long time, is Decor Chick’s corner carousels {read her great redo HERE}. What a great way to utilize the space in the back corner that’s usually wasted! While her father made her beautiful wooden lazy susans, I went to the store and bought five 18″ turntables (using my 20% off coupons, of course!). My shelves are 16″ deep, so that diameter worked perfectly. Here we are with the turntables in place:

Now I’m just going to show you a ton of “after” pictures without much text. I know the pantry looks styled and it won’t stay this neat forever, but the solid shelves and the turntables created SO much additional space for me that I really do have room to leave the serving pieces and cookbooks in here for the long haul. I love it!

The stoneware crock on the floor was my grandmother’s and it holds my onions and potatoes. An old freezer basket holds my cracker boxes and large chip bags. And the blender’s low enough for the kids to reach now!

The chip rack was an Ebay purchase; I have two of them in different sizes.

The Jessie Steele apron was a birthday gift from my friend, Andrea. I love the colors!

I also got the idea of hanging a wreath in the pantry from Decor Chick. Why not decorate this often-used room? I also added a plain black “B” from Hobby Lobby on the other wall.

About a week after I finished the rest of the redo, the chandelier I had ordered arrived. Our friends were visiting from Virginia Beach, so I pulled the box out one morning and put them to work–Robyn put the crystals on with me, and Steve hung it (that was a nice break!). I chose the same little white chandy that’s in my laundry room, as they’re just a few steps from each other and I thought it would provide continuity. It’s impossible to get a decent shot without it being on, but here it is:

Why not hang a chandelier in a pantry? I left the white wire shelves on the inside of the door, although I am debating whether to build a wooden spice rack to take its place on the door, or to replace the door itself with either a screen door or a frosted glass paneled door. Does anyone have an opinion?

I can’t tell you how good this redo made me feel, and even though the shelves were a huge pain because the room wasn’t square, it was still well worth it. With the chandelier, lazy susans, and the shelving materials, I spent about $260. I consider it money well spent, because now I like opening the pantry door!

Here’s one more “before:”

And one more “after:”

Aaahh…much better!

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to~

The Best DIY Projects of April at Beneath My Heart

Organizing Party at A Thoughtful Place

J ennifer Rizzo

The Best DIY Projects of the Year at Southern Hospitality

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Posted in Before and After, DIY, Home Inspiration, Kitchens, Organization, Pantry, Real Spaces | Tagged baskets, carousel, chandelier, diy, kitchen, lazy susan, mason jars, pantry, redo, reveal, shelves, shelving, turntable, white, wood, wooden, wreath | 54 Comments

Monogrammed Burlap Tote Bag Giveaway Winner AND Sneak Peak at My Pantry Reveal

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Christy

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We enjoyed an early worship service, followed by dinner and an egg hunt with dear friends. My hubby even managed to see the end of the Masters in his recliner–a perfect day all around!

Amy and I appreciate all the nice compliments on our Home Tours, if you missed seeing both our homes, click HERE to see the post.

And, thanks to everyone who entered the drawing for this monogrammed burlap tote bag.

The winner is comment #29

Sharon Hoham (who said)

Glad Rhonda sent me over, impressive site, ladies. Love the idea of a combined site, especially with your talents.

True Random Number Generator

Result:29Powered by RANDOM.ORG

(Thanks for the nice compliment too Sharon!)

Congratulations! Please email us at 11Magnolialane@gmail.com and we’ll get your bag on the way.

We have friends visiting this week and I still need to get the pantry redo post written up. Also, the chandelier I ordered only arrived tonight and I need to install that before the final reveal, because what is a pantry without a chandelier, I ask you? Still, I can tell you that I LOVE how it’s turned out. Here’s a nasty “before” picture so you can see what I had to deal with–lots of space but white wire shelving (which I am allergic to), and a big fat mess of my own making.

Yep. Pretty bad. I just love showing you my “before” pictures; it’s like showing you how I look in my sweatpants without makeup! Plus, it makes my OCD flare up in a bad way. Well, here’s an “after” shot just to get your attention:

Ah, much better!

In the meantime, here’s my old pantry in North Carolina (if you’re not sick of it yet), so you can see what I did with a much smaller space. Hang in there with me for a few more days and I’ll have it up soon. Meanwhile, thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Before and After, giveaways, Home Inspiration, Kitchens, Pantry | Tagged Burlap, chandelier, giveaway, kitchen, monogrammed, pantry, redo, reveal, tote | 1 Comment

My Master Bedroom & Sitting Room (aka the office!) Redo Reveal

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Christy

This has been a long time coming–I’ve actually had the room painted since January, as this was high on my list of home improvement goals for 2012, but I just didn’t have time to decorate the room because I kept getting derailed by, well, life!

We’re fortunate to have a really large master suite that includes a bedroom with vaulted ceiling, a sitting area, two walk-in closets, and an en suite bathroom. It’s almost 950 square feet, which is more than half the size of our first house, so I fully realize that we’re blessed with great space. I wasn’t convinced that we were using our space wisely, though, especially in the sitting area, which became more of a “treadmill room” and a catch-all for stuff that I was selling on Ebay and Craigslist.

When we bought the house, the whole area was painted a vivid shade of green apple. I loved this shade of green, but I loved it about ten years ago, and it was looking a little dated. Here are a few before pictures:

Check out that green!

I completely understood why the previous owners hadn’t repainted. The room is huge and the cathedral ceiling is about 16′ high, requiring an extension ladder (which I somehow have managed to survive without for all these years). What won out in the end is my feeling that I always neglect the master bedroom and it gets fixed up last when we move to a new house, and this time I wanted to make it nice and enjoy it for as long as we’re here.

I started with the bathroom, which I painted right before Christmas, because I didn’t have anything better to do (yeah, right). You can read all about that {here}. I love how it turned out, and I also love the color I chose for the walls, Benjamin Moore’s Pebble Beach. It looks gray on the paint chip, but it’s a blue gray on the walls. The cabinets in the bathroom are cherry, which I didn’t feel like painting after my kitchen redo {here}, and we also have a TON of cherry furniture in the bedroom that I also didn’t feel like painting, although it may happen one day if I can talk hubby into it. I’ve mentioned all that because, although I don’t really like dark wood anymore, I’m stuck with it in this space, so a pale blue is one of the best colors to set off the beauty of dark wood. You can see how it worked out in this picture of the bathroom:

Once I got all the Christmas stuff put away in January, I borrowed an extension ladder from our neighbor, bought two gallons of paint, and went for it. I covered everything but the closets (they are still on my to-do list and will be painted then). I also pulled down the flush mount ceiling light in the sitting room and replaced it with this chandelier I scored on Craigslist for $20. It was a rusty red when I bought it. I spray painted it white and added a ceiling medallion, a cord cover, and black shades that I found at Goodwill for $.99 apiece–can’t beat that!

After moving a few pieces of furniture around, I would up with half of the sitting room for my home office area and the other half for my treadmill and my husband’s armoire. The Barcelona chair in front of the window is the real deal–we have pictures of me when I was five years old sitting on this thing and there is also green shag carpet in the photos! It’s not my usual style, but it works in this room as a nice balance to the other furniture.

The white table and chairs were my mom and dad’s. I repainted them white about five years ago and recovered the chairs and enjoy them so much more now.

The little bookshelf below was a thrift store find. The tutorial on the chalkboard picture frame is {here}. The wire basket on the bottom shelf (from Target) holds my file folders, although I have fewer of them now that I have Pinterest! I love the polka dotted frame with the picture of me and my sweet goddaughter (Amy’s baby girl). When I see her picture, it reminds me to pray for her.

The infinity shelves were a freebie from a neighbor, but they sagged a bit when I hung them, so I bought corbels and hung them beneath. It was still less than buying or making shelves. The picture of me with my mom and son always takes the place of honor in every house. It’s been almost ten years since I lost my precious mother, and I love to look at her face and remember what an amazing gift she had for making others feel good about themselves.

I spent about $200 total on this room redo–mostly paint, curtain rods, and this black and white beauty. If you’re like my husband, you’re wondering WHY I needed a mannequin for my office? I’m not sure either, but I had to have her! She was $55 at Hobby Lobby.

Oh, of course, she can hold three necklaces to earn her keep! The cute white one is from Terry; she brought them to me and Amy when we had our fun girls’ weekend {here}.

I blog at the table, and find it very inspiring!

I was going to add black curtains with a white fretwork pattern, but even the ones at Target were $30 a panel. I had three pairs of gauzy white panels from Ikea (“Lill”) that I bought for $5 a pair and even though the color didn’t “pop” as much, I couldn’t justify the extra expense of the black panels. They do let in tons of light, though, and I love the way they puddle on the floor.

Since getting rid of the treadmill wasn’t an option because I actually use it I decided to do what I could to decorate the corner it takes up. I hung all my race medals from a hook and framed two Bible verses that are all about running (1 Cor. 9:24 and Hebrews 12:1-2). Hopefully they’ll give me inspiration as I knock out the miles!

**You can see the post and get your own free set of these printables HERE**

Moving into the bedroom, I have yet to add something above the bed; I am thinking about bringing down a tin-framed mirror from Pottery Barn that’s currently in the guest room, or something sparkly. Oh, and despite the fact that I have changed out several light fixtures for chandeliers in this room, please note that I left the ceiling fan above the bed in deference to my husband’s request!

The two sconces are from Ikea and I was so happy to hang them up and put away the lamps we had on our nightstands. They sell conduit at Lowe’s and Home Depot that can be painted to match your wall color, and then the cord just disappears.

Before conduit…

After conduit…

Here’s the view into the bathroom:

I’m so pleased with this room–it’s peaceful, calm, and soothing, just like a master “retreat” should be. And I’m even more pleased with the price, because for little more than the cost of paint (and my mannequin!), I managed to redo the room, proving that you don’t have to spend a fortune to update your space.

Happy Palm Sunday, and thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Before and After, DIY, Home Inspiration, Master Bedroom, Office, Real Spaces | Tagged Bathroom, black and white, home, master bedroom, Office, redo, retreat, suite | 22 Comments

Master Bathroom Reveal–Finally!

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Christy

I kicked it into gear right around Christmas and got to work on the master bathroom–because of course I didn’t have anything better to do but paint (ie bake, wrap presents, decorate the house, write Christmas cards…). I just couldn’t live with the green another minute, though! I have since painted the master bedroom and sitting area the same color, but they’re still being decorated and aren’t ready for public consumption yet. In the meantime, welcome to our new and improved master bathroom!

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I actually took the above picture while standing in the bathtub. As is true of most bathrooms, it’s laid out in a way that makes one panoramic shot virtually impossible. I tried to get some good angles to show you what we’ve done.

The below shot is taken from the hallway where you enter the bathroom. The WC is off to the left in a separate room, but I figured you really didn’t need to see that, and the shower stall and soaking tub are to the right. The double vanity is to the left, obviously.

I decided not to paint the cabinets, which is odd for me since I love white cabinets. However, my paint color (Pebble Beach by Benjamin Moore) is a very light blue-gray, and it goes really well with the brown cabinets. I also opted to keep the existing lighting fixtures, which are an antiqued bronze/gold color, and found this chandelier on Craigslist to keep the theme going:

Just a note on chandeliers–I personally think they add a ton to a home’s resale value, but they’re pretty expensive when you buy them new (even at Lowe’s and Home Depot!). I comb Craigslist on a regular basis and have found some real steals. From my screened porch chandelier that I spent $20 on (here) and spray painted white, to the Ballard Designs Grande Claire that I found for my dining room and paid $100 for, to this beauty (from the same guy I bought the Grande Claire from), you can really make your home more beautiful, even if you’re on a budget. While I hang my own chandeliers, I know that some of you might not be comfortable working with electricity. It’s actually pretty simple once you know what to do. I would recommend that you hire an electrician to change your first light fixture for you, and make sure that he explains each step to you. Take pictures if you need to! There are also great online tutorials. I am at the point now where I can rewire the chandelier to fix non-functioning arms, and also lengthen the electrical cord and chain when I need more length than the previous owner did. In this case, the chandelier was way too big to hang in the exact place where my flush-mounted light was, because the door to the WC would have bumped into it. Instead of moving the box, which is a pain and probably something I’m not qualified to do , I just lengthened the cord and chain and swagged the chandelier over to the bathtub. I’m sure it would make for a nice, luxurious soak with a chandy overhead, but of course I haven’t done that yet!

Large chandeliers look better with a ceiling medallion in place, and this one came along with the light fixture. I painted it Pebble Beach and screwed it in place, although some of them are light enough that the canopy of the chandelier holds them up.

While we didn’t do much more than paint and add the chandelier in here to change things around, our one major project was to add shelves on the wall behind the sinks. We used an Ikea Billy bookcase as our starting point, and just added trim and molding to make it look like a built in. Kate at Centsational Girl has a great tutorial on how to do it here. We had to modify things a bit, because there’s a heating register under our Billy, but we took it slow and just figured it out as we went. Thank goodness for spackle and caulk! What was wasted space is now much more functional, and beautiful.

My one remaining goal for this room is to pull down the huge mirror that the builder put in and instead install two separate mirrors over each sink, but there are other things in the house that are going to have to happen first. I can live with it in the meantime. I’m also considering changing out the cabinet and drawer knobs for crystal ones, but I’ll wait until I find just the right ones.

I had fun styling the room. Most of it is either flea market, thrift store, or just old stuff that was my mom’s. I added a shelf over the bathtub to display some of my old glass bottles and some bath accessories. The B monogram in the silver frame is actually vinyl, applied directly to the wall, with the empty frame hung over it. I borrowed that great idea from my very creative friend, Andrea.

I love my old gravy boat that’s losing its silverplate. I found it at a thrift store and put it to work holding bath salts.

Here are a few other shots showing you how I used old silver and crystal pieces to dress up boring bathroom items:

I’ll leave you with a shot of Amy’s Christmas present to me: words to live by, from Coco Chanel:

Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Bathrooms, Before and After, DIY, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Real Spaces | Tagged Bathroom, blue, bookshelves, built-ins, chandelier, crystal, redo, remodel, silver, white | 54 Comments

A Place to Create–My Teeny-Tiny Craft Area

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Christy

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Right before Christmas, I decided that I was sick to death of hiding my sewing machine in the guest room closet every time I was done using it. Surely (if I moved around several incredibly heavy pieces of furniture), surely there was room to carve out a craft corner. I already had an old sewing machine table I’d found at Goodwill years ago and painted white…I abandoned all plans of cooking dinner, which is what I was supposed to be doing (sorry honey!), and started moving furniture.

I painted the old sewing table and a thrift store chair in robin’s egg blue. In hindsight, I probably should have used a blue chalk paint so they’d be a little more muted (I used spray paint for immediate gratification), but it’s safe to say that they’ll be painted again one of these days, so I’m not going to stress over it. I covered the chair TWICE before my third try made me happy–Amy Butler’s Love Bliss fabric. The teal and aqua colors match my old mason jars.

Old chair recovered with Amy Butler's Love Bliss fabric in teal.

I already had the two white shelves with fancy scrolled corbels. My dad made them with me years ago (one of my first DIY projects!) to hang on either side of my recessed bathtub area in another house. I just hadn’t figured out where to put them in this house yet. They’re perfect above the sewing machine to hold notions and other crafting goodies.

I made the banner–it was my first attempt at such things! The flags need to be twice as long as they are wide, so just cut them any size you want based on those guidelines. I used tiny clothespins to clip them to the ribbon, which I thought was very crafty (LOL).

Let me give some credit where credit is due here: the “Get Excited and Make Things” printable can be found HERE and the cute number tags can be found at HERE.

I love old spice jars–the apothecary-style ones–and I picked up this spice rack at the thrift store. It holds my tri-beads, organized by color.

Why do I have so many tri-beads, you ask? I have one crafty-type thing that I can do, and that’s crochet bead socks for all the little girls in my life. Here’s an old pair of Annabelle’s to show you what I’m talking about:

Because I do sew things from time to time, I thought it would be fun and different to mount a yardstick on the wall to make measuring easier. I had an old one from my grandmother’s house in Michigan, and I love that it says “Big Rapids” (her town) on it. I secured it on the wall using 3M’s command tape (just no hooks this time).

Do you like my ribbon organizer/dispenser? I love those things, but I didn’t want to go out and buy one (not that there’s anything wrong with you if you do!). I had a wooden curtain rod in my garage, not being used, and when I played around with it, I realized that it was small enough to hold ribbon and small enough to go through the scrolled corbels of my lower shelf. I just cut it to fit and spray painted it blue (I’ll probably spray it white one of these days). Not bad, huh?

Yes, I do have more ribbon that just that. The overflow is stored in the little green box on the first shelf (pictured below) and in the dresser I have in the closet.

On the opposite wall is that old entertainment center armoire that I painted green in this post. It’s not being used for its true purpose in this house because we had to juggle the TVs around to make them work in this floor plan. But it’s great for holding some of my family’s quilts and overflow craft supplies.

Closed--to hide the big mess inside!

Open--because I like letting it all hang out!

I’ve got one more thing to do. The spice rack that’s currently living in the armoire needs to be mounted on the wall to the right of the sewing machine. Spice racks are the perfect size to hold acrylic paint bottles, and they make a colorful display all on their own. You can find an old spice rack at the thrift store almost any time you walk in there.

My craft area is smaller than ten square feet, but it’s big enough to hold everything that I need, and I’m happy with the colorful and fun way that it turned out.

Update: I mounted the spice rack on the wall. All of my paints dried out in the move this summer, so while I work on re-building my collection, I put my vials of glitter on the rack instead. The downside to this plan was that my daughter took the blue glitter and sprinkled it all over her desk and nightstand to “jazz up my room a little, Mommy.” Yeah…glitter defeats even my Dyson!