Happy 2015! I hope you all have had a restful holiday and are starting to get your heads, homes, and hearts in order for the new year. I love starting the new year with a clean house (although I’m always a bit sad to take the Christmas decorations down) and a clean slate. My mother got me in the habit of sitting down to write out my New Year’s resolutions, and I’ve got my kids working on theirs now.
Part of what we do here at the beginning of a new year is to take a look at what your favorite posts were, because it obviously tells us what we’re doing right and should do more of! We usually do a Top 10 list (just for fun, here are our “best of” posts for 2013, 2012, 2011, AND 2010), but I thought it would be a good idea to do a Top 20 list this year since we’ve been blogging now for over 4 years and have more than 700 (!) posts in our archives.
There are actually quite a few surprises in this list, which shows the power of Pinterest and, of course, Google. There were a few “upsets” from previous years. 🙂
I linked each photo to the corresponding post, and wherever you see a link, it will take you to a related post, so everything should be easy to find.
So, drumroll please…
While this laundry room, that’s in our current home here in Savannah, will never hold a candle to the one in our Nashville house {here}, it still shows how to decorate a rental inexpensively and with fun touches.
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Another laundry room! Maybe because we all spend so much time in them?!
Amy’s laundry room in her Virginia Beach house was a bit hit–probably because of the sweet chandelier and the amazing DIY folding shelf that she added above her washer and dryer.
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Amy had a great big wall in her butler’s pantry between her kitchen and dining room that she needed to fill. With three kids and lots of activities to coordinate, a huge DIY wall chalkboard was the perfect idea.
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The home tour of our Nashville house was next on the list–of course, I got it all decorated just as it was time to move! The tutorials for the DIY moss-covered letter and the moss-covered sphere are easy and perfect for your spring front porch.
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My daughter’s cheerful aqua and coral bathroom in our Savannah house made the list–and yes, the source for the neat monogrammed shower curtain is in the post! The picture that gets pinned the most is of the wine rack repurposed as a towel holder–such an easy idea for a bathroom.
Her (also aqua) bedroom is {here}.
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How to Hang a Vintage or Antique Window for Display
I love to use old windows in my decor, and my quick and easy tutorial on how to hang one for display is a useful one to pin for when you need it.
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Painting Upholstery Fabric: Questions & Answers
I have had SO many questions and comments about my gray painted chair, that I wrote a separate post covering everything I could think of when it comes to painting upholstery fabric. And don’t worry, the tutorial for the painted chair “herself” is coming up later on!
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Dining Room Table and Chairs–Painted and Monogrammed
As you all know, we move quite frequently–courtesy of Uncle Sam–and our dining room table and chairs were absolutely trashed when we moved from North Carolina to Tennessee. So I picked up my paintbrush and staple gun, and got to work. I love how the redo turned out, and you can even see this project featured in a book that will be released on March 1, 2015, called Upstyle Your Furniture. (affiliate link). Yay!
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25 Healthy Freezer Meals from Terry
While Terry took a break from full-time blogging earlier this year, she is hard at work planning our Girlfriends’ Getaway weekends, and this post that gives recipes and instructions for 25 healthy make-ahead freezer meals is perfect for the post-holiday healthy eating that we all try to do!
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Organized Black and White Pantry
This was two houses ago, in our awesome historic house (also a rental!) in North Carolina, but thanks to the power of Pinterest, it’s still one of our most popular posts. I think people like it because I didn’t have a great big walk-in pantry, but I still made it organized and pretty with a few simple touches.
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When we moved into our Nashville home, I knew I would be painting the {very} dark kitchen cabinets. Then I painted the exhaust hood and the tile backsplash, too! Part 1 of this redo was noticed by the folks at Better Homes & Gardens, and it was featured in the Spring 2013 issue of their Kitchen + Bath Makeovers magazine.
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Our Favorite Holiday Home Tour EVER!
My very sweet and talented friend, Andrea, was gracious enough to let me photograph her holiday decor a few years ago and post it on the blog. For years, her home was the highlight of Ft. Campbell’s Holiday Tour of Homes (yes, this is military housing). Part 1 of her home tour is here, and part 2 remains one of our top posts to this day. Thanks for sharing your lovely home with us, Andrea!
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How to Use Canvas Dropcloths to Decorate–Everywhere
We all know that canvas painters’ dropcloths are an inexpensive source of durable and neutral fabric, so what’s not to love about them? This post shows you how we’ve used them to cover chairs, sew slipcovers and pillows, create window treatments, and dress up our tables (among other things!).
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How to Decorate a Rental Home (or Military Housing)
Because–phew!–I’ve had LOTS of practice doing this. So many people who rent still want their houses to feel like home, although no one wants to spend a bunch of money on a house or apartment that isn’t their own. These tips show you how to customize your home (temporarily!) on a dime.
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How to Make a No-Sew DIY Burlap Window Valance
I loved this project–it was another great solution for rental decor–inexpensive and easily removable. A few thumbtacks and some burlap and twine, and I had three windows covered in no time!
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Moving Tips & Tricks and How to Stay Sane
We polled our readers (that’s you guys!) for this post. Lots of you are military spouses, like me, and we make a career out of moving. Amy moves a lot, too, for her husband’s job, so between all of us, there are some great ideas for making a move as painless as possible.
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Really, need I say any more? This drink recipe, courtesy of Amy’s husband (who used to be a bartender), is amazingly delicious–and decadent. For those days when you choose to drink your dessert! 🙂 For the rest of our amazing adult beverage recipes, click {here}.
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Painted Tile Backsplash in My Kitchen–A Year Later
Remember I told you that I decided to paint my kitchen backsplash? I figured it wouldn’t hurt anything since I had planned to take it down and replace it anyway. A year later, it was still in perfect shape. Guess lots of people wonder if they can paint tile–but yes, you can!
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And, our most popular post in 2014 was…
How to Paint Upholstery Fabric and Completely Transform a Chair
Everybody loves to save money, and nobody likes to reupholster. I tried it {here} and it is one tough job! So when I found a chair with great bones at a thrift shop, I figured I had nothing to lose. She turned out beautifully, and my dining room is now complete.
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So, those are our top 20, but obviously there are about 680 more to choose from, so we hope that while you’re here you’ll browse around a bit. And please sign up for our emails {here} or follow us via social media (just click on the black buttons below my photo) so we can keep in touch.
Happy New Year, and thanks for stopping by!
What a great year of super blogging projects from all of you. I served the salted camel vodka cocktail last year( from
your 2013 post) and still have people requesting it. Looking forward to what you have in store for us in 2015. I really want to paint a crudey chair., your number one post. Rosalie
Rosalie–
Thanks for your comment–we really appreciate the kind words! And yes, that salted caramel martini is always a big hit with my friends, too. 🙂
Happy New Year!
Christy