Showcase Sunday: Cabinet Updates

My cabinets are ugly. Yes. I will admit it. They are some weird orange toned veneer covering particle board.. . Don't be fooled what you see below is not wood.... It doesn't even look like wood really does it? Alas. What do you do when you're cabinets are homely but your budget says "N.O." to getting to cabinetry? Well....  I say paint em!

I decided to use some semi-gloss on the cabinets in order to make them a little bit more water resistant, especially in the small and cramped bathroom. I went with a darker charcoal sort of color as well so that way it would cover up the wood grain and hopefully look a little more sophisticated.

We had to sand down the cabinets as much as possible in order for the paint to take with the particle board but it ended up looking really good! We removed the previous straps that were on the cabinet and patched in the holes with paintable caulk. Looks pretty great after we added some new handles. Aside from the office this is perhaps one of the most finished rooms in the entire house! Love it. 

Anybody have any good ideas on how else to update bathrooms? I still have an entire master bathroom that's in need of a face lift. 

Linked up to: The Thrifty Home, Addicted 2 Decorating

Antique Vases!

I absolutely love antique vases. I also love mason jars. Recently as my Mom and I have been out on our weekly thrift store hunt I have managed to accumulate an even greater collection of my sweet jars. I even found an antique jar that has tinted glass! It's gorgeous and it has a lavender hue. It's somewhat similar to the really rare and reallyyy expensive Leadville CO glass like this one which sells on ebay for 50.00 at least:

Here's my entire collection that I've gotten at Goodwill in the last few days. I loveee it. My mom is really great at finding the blue Ball jars too. Those ones are my absolute favorite but they're hard to come by around here. 

I also found some cute white vases that are a bit more modern but still totally adorable. 

That little guy in the middle is an IKEA vase! Amazing to find in my town especially at a thrift store.  Of course I have to start finding places to put all of my amazing vases... right now they are just collecting on my counter.... hmmm time to decorate I think!

Hope everyone is having a great Saturday so far!

Painting aka Increasing Property Value

T G I F!

Owning a manufactured home immediately brands me... think... trailer trash... ghetto... dumpy.... you just imagine a moldy old couch on a dilapidated porch and weird looking counters and cabinets and "wood grain" in the whole house. Well.... the cabinet part is right. The cabinets came with these great straps on the doors. The whole house was decked out in a New Mexican Western Flare. It had wallpaper o' ceramic pots, swinging saloon doors into the bathroom, and the ever presiding dusty rose laminate counter tops. Ahhh the romance! The intrigue! The lack of style and taste!

I won't deny it's pretty bad. I felt an instant connection to Toby Keith's song "Trailerhood"




But I like to think that I'm a little bit classier then that so I figured it would be best to start covering up some of those trailer specific things. The first place I started was in the hallway. Remember when I gave the tour of my house and I showed the fabulous 80's "wainscoting?"

Eckkkk. This stuff only came up a little bit above my knee and I'm 5'9" so that's being a little generous. It also was faded in spots and the previous owners had attempted a great patch job by sticking some wood grain patterned contact paper over it. Good idea I guess. It said trailer all over it though.  So we decided to splurge a little and add on some real bead board. 

Oh my! Sooo much better! In the weird little nook hallway that connects my office and extra bedroom I decided to just paint over the remaining wainscoting to save on the budget. We had plenty of leftover white paint but the beadboard was 20 dollars a sheet and the molding was an added cost too. Plus I like painting. I have a painting outfit. Seriously.

I even have the white painter's pants! Amazing! And that is also an excellent shot of my flooring! Which is a huge improvement from the original blue stuff. Huge. Drastically large really. This weekend I am hoping that I will be doing a little re-arranging. I always "nest" at the beginning of August in preparation for classes. Deep cleaning starts the semester on a good foot.

Vintage Love

I very much long to be able to go to Pottery Barn... but my little town is so limited with the different options for home shopping. So I like to scour online for different ideas. I found this totally darling wall sign at potterybarn.com. ADORABLE!

I really love Pottery Barn and their vintage like wall art. I think some of these I could recreate with a little extra wood and some paint... future projects!

I also have a thing for vases. Lots of vases. I love vases. I would LOVE to find some great vases like these somewhere here in town for a decent price....

Hope everyone is having a great week so far! I'm hoping to be better this weekend to get on track with some projects I've been wanting to do! Thanks for hanging in there for me. Yayyy for weekends.

Laundry Room Shelf Makings...

I am sorry that I've been slacking on posting this week. I haven't been feeling very well because I found out that this:

This guy is just hanging out on one of my ovaries which is EXTREMELY painful. It hurts it to lay down... it hurts it to sit down... basically it just hurts. But it does put a damper on any of my DIY because I have done little more than clean the dishes and lay on the couch watching the entire 4 seasons of the Tudors. Which is a great show.

I love how clever this picture is... hehehe. But anyways! I thought I would share a little bit about how we made that totally sweet shelf in the laundry room. 

First we used the left over MDF that we had from building the laundry room counter. 

Justin designed it all and measured it out to get it to fit into the random nook area that we were so blessed with. Awww he's so nice. 

The way that it works in our house is that Justin designs and builds it. I come up the ideas and then paint it. It works out so far. So with my white semigloss that I love I painted the MDF so that it would match the cabinets and the counters. I discovered a trick with the paint too since I don't have a garage that I just put a plastic Wal Mart bag around the paint can and then I can hammer the lid on and any mess just falls into the bag. Makes storing a bunch of extra paint a little bit cleaner when it has to be stored inside.

Justin cut out these pieces with a Jigsaw and put them across the front to give it a more "finished look" He thinks of everything!

He even created a cool piece for the back part so it would act as a support and also look good. Of course I didn't think ahead and paint the bottom of the shelf before we put it into the nook.

Since trying to maneuver it caused a little trouble....

Ehhh ooops. I decided just to paint the shelf in place. Which was somewhat of a challenge. But it did turn out great!

I have so much storage in my laundry room now that I don't even know what to do with myself! It's amazing and I totally love it!

Hope everyone is having a great week and getting lots of great projects done. ;)

Linked this fellow to: Christina's Adventures

Whooo loves decorating!

I recently checked out the new Salvation Army here in town and I came across a great little piece! A ceramic owl! Awwww I thought that he would be a great touch for my bookshelf in the office because well... It's an owl! He was only .49 cents too. Cheap lil fellow. He was hand painted before I acquired him which was cute but he sort of had a creepy vibe...

Now after a little bit of white spray paint he is a clean and classic little owl who is cute and adorable.

He fits in well with his new surroundings on the new office bookshelf. He is so happy now!

Gotta love random little knick knacks! Hope everyone is ready for the start of another week. I'm hoping I can get to feeling better the next few days so I can get back to my projects. :)

Bookshelf- cheap and custom :)

The hourglass is beginning to run out of time. I have exactly 29 days before classes and the most hectic semester of my life begin. I have dedicated my huge DIY and project time to making sure that the office is completed and ready to go for many long hours of work. Since I am going to become a high school English teacher I have begun to collect a large number of books that I will share with students in my classroom. That way each student is able to read something that they prefer and it is a classroom activity. So far at my parent's house I have a couple hundred and at my own home I am bordering close to the 100 book mark. So it was time to get a book shelf. Once again I run into the dilemma where I want something that is cute and custom but I don't have the budget for it. Luckily Justin tends to have a few tricks up his sleeves so we went to WalMart and found just a standard 5 shelf white bookcase.

These bookshelves are cheap at only 25.84 a piece but they look so cheappp and booooringgg. So! My excellent creative love Justin had an idea on how to liven up the cardboard on the back. Magically we used some spray adhesive and some great Moroccan patterned green fabric that we found at Hobby Lobby here in town:

I sort of want to make it into a dress and wear it all around! Yay! But it was dedicated for the book shelf so we got it all dressed up!

We actually think it may have made the entire structure a little bit more solid since we backed it with the fabric as well. Another great touch that we added was the corner thingys. (I dunno what they are called.) They seem to add more structure plus I think they look pretty darn cute!

I still have to figure out the perfect accessorizing for my bookcase it always takes me a few weeks to tweek it exactly how I want it but! Here's what it looks like so far! A little less WalMart and a little bit more custom!

I don't know about you guys but I love it! I think it's the perfect addition to my office! Hopefully I won't fill it up with books for my future classroom too fast!

 

Like this one? Hit "home" to see some more of my decorating misadventures! :)

Linked up to: Beyond the Picket FenceCrafty, Scrappy, Happy The DIY Home Sweet Home, DIY Showoff, Addicted 2 Decorating, Making the World Cuter,

Liven up the Living Room!

Sorry for my delay on posting today! An ambulance ride from work yesterday sort of put me behind. Don't worry! There wasn't anything major wrong. I have a persistent cyst on my right ovary the size of a small citrus.... It might need surgical intervention. I won't lie I'm terrified! Scary stuff to find out at 21, isn't that suppose to be in its prime? But it'll all get taken care of, I have faith in that.

My new goal now that I have the office mostly completed and the laundry room entirely finished is to focus on updating some of my other spaces through inexpensive measures. One way that I wanted to do that was by getting a new squishy rug for the living room as well as wall art. My Mom and I were hunting around (again) for  some deals and steals when I came across a lovely fellow at Target. Target always has such great stuff and it is even better because it's not very expensive either!

It was definitely fun trying to push this guy around the store. lol. Here's what he looks like in action:

I think it looks so much more grown up then it did before! And the rug fits the space much better then the little IKEA rug did. Though I still love that one a lot. Hope everyone is having a great start to their weekend!

Seeking: Comfy Loveseat Sleeper

I am decidedly on a mission. I am looking for either a loveseat sized sleeper sofa or some sort of alternative to a futon. I hate futons in all honesty because I think they look college-y and they are remarkably uncomfortable. I am looking for something to fit into the office. It would have to sit below the window area.... hmmm.... Remember how little the space is?

Sorry about the dark picture, dang camera. Anyways. The max that I can fit in there comfortably length wise is about 6 feet. I've spent a ton of time on the internet the last few days researching a good sleeper. I keep finding sofas! They look great and make me want to replace my living room furniture but... nothing that quite fits the bill. Either it's too big, too expensive, or just doesn't have a sleeper in it which kinda defeats the purpose of the whole hunt anyways.

I have noticed recently that JCPenney actually has some pretty decent furniture but the shipping is insane! But lucky me my little sister works there! Score! Possible discount!This guy is CUTE! And I love the color! It's 599.99 but my sister gets a 15% discount plus there's the option of opening a JCP card and saving another 10%.... hmmm I could get this guy for under 500.00! Which would be a good investment at that point I think. Plus he folds into a twin sized sleeper bed. Which would work perfectly! I think I'm going to check for any coupons and verify with my sister that I can use her discount but! I really reallllyyy like it! Check out the specs here.

 

What do you guys think? Does it sound like a good deal or is there a better site I should check out? 

Porchin Pick Up

This summer I have been trying to work a lot on updating the outside of my house. The exterior is the first thing that people see and I want it to make a good impression. Also if I plan to sell within the next few years I have to make sure that my yard is up to par. The side yard of my house is a weird shape. It faces towards the street and has a honeysuckle bush that smells wonderful. Last summer my mom brought me this old park bench. It was sun-bleached and worn out. This is what it looked like before:

The wood of the seats was actually looking a little something like this:

I had some left over paint from another project that was Glidden "Brown Leather" I dunno how much it actually looks like brown leather... I thought it really looked a lot more like green goop but hey. It worked okay on the bench. I also used some of my Rustoleum Glimmer spray paint in dark brown and sprayed the metal that had taken on a greenish rusty look. For no money it doesn't look too bad. Here's how it turned out:

Not too shabby for a quick fix! It was a nice that it was a quick project because of my complexion I have a lot of trouble being outside for extended amounts of time. Natural redhead + sunshine= yyyyouuuuch. Not to worry! I have SPF 100+ and a long sleeve and long pants outfit that I wear to work on the yard. Even if it's hot it's better then skin cancer.

 Any other ideas for doing a fast yard update? 

Happy Wednesday! :)

Laundry Room Reveal!

At last! The long awaited reveal of the entire laundry room renovation! We are officially done with the laundry room!! YAYYYY!!! Just a reminder of what this space was like before....

There was duct tape and drywall all over the place, the venting was run illegally and there were random wires all over the place. After my dad corrected the venting issue and replaced the holes in the walls we were able to fit the washer and dryer in. This was the first set that we got from Goodwill. Well I flirted with some dude and got the dryer for free while we paid for the washer. It wasn't a bad set. It was clean and white, just not energy efficient and LOUD!

Again it was never terrible like it was originally but it was outdated and well... traileresque, it had no storage and ugly cabinets.

And now!! It's totally beautiful! (the pictures are a little dark I was trying to beat the sun but... alas) The cabinets are white and repainted with new silver knobs found for a STEAL at Habitat for Humanity. My "Live Well" sign I found at Big Lots for only $5.00 and my vintage wine box up top was from Goodwill as well. Of course the washer and dryer aren't so shabby either! See the steps to this area here and how Lucy got into it here!

Here is the little nook area that we weren't sure what to do with. We recently learned the the previous owners had a freezer chest smushed in there. Which would explain all of the wires. Remember how it looked before?

You can see the old cheap broom and mop hanger and how the desk used to be such a dark wood. You can also see how big of an eyesore the litter box is.... eck. It soon morphed into this....

AHHHHHHHHHHHH! That's terrible and messy and overly disorganized! This is about when we realized that the ceiling light stopped working in the laundry room.... still haven't figured out what happened there. lol But finally after much hard work, purging, and cleaning we were able to make it look like this: (PS that is my arm in the mirror, I was trying not to be in the picture and I may or may not have been laying on the floor.)

Still a little dark in the pictures but well that's just because of the lighting and the fact that we still haven't figured out the ceiling fixture situation. I love how great it all turned out! It was a lot of hard work and creativity with Justin building the great counter top and the shelving unit. 

 

I hope everyone enjoyed my laundry room transformation as much as I did! It's a huge difference and I think that it really sets the stage for the rest of the house updating that is going to be happening. We added 7 new surfaces, 5 shelving spaces, 3 drawers, a designated litter box area, and a brand new mop/broom holder.   I believe that is about 12x the storage available before! I may live in a manufactured home but I have a SWEET laundry room with an amazing set up that is 100% custom and 0% ghetto like before. :)

Still not totally convinced that a manufactured home can be great too? Feel free to follow me through Google Friend Connect or any other available reader and watch how I eliminate the "trash" factor and kill the stereotype.

Linked to:The Mustard Ceiling Lil' Luna, Savvy Southern Style, Addicted 2 Decorating, Remodelaholic, SAS Interiors, A Beach Cottage, The DIY Home Sweet Home, Chocolate, Drool, and Kisses, My Repurposed Life

PS: Hit "Home" to see what else I've been up to since the laundry room!