Little Things

We have two small children in our house so getting projects done is always interesting.  Normally I take kid duty and my husband gets project duty.  Sometimes though, I want a chance to do some of the work too.  This past weekend was one of those times and when I woke up Saturday I decided I was going to get our linen closet organized (again), and organize the desk area in our kitchen.  

For the linen closet I grabbed some leftover paint and slapped a coat on the walls, I'm not sure they had ever been repainted after the builder did it 25 or so years ago.  As I painted both kids wanted to help so it was really slow going but I got it done and let it dry and managed to get everything back in.

       

In the kitchen we had started letting everything pile up on the desk and were just shoving things randomly into the storage cabinets so I pulled everything out and off and set up some zones in the cabinet.  

These were such little things but they sure did make a difference in my level of stress.

Some favorites from the One Room Challenge

So we got to really enjoy having the porch done over the weekend, just in time for our area to experience a whole lotta rain.  But that's ok cause it's giving me plenty of time to look through all the other One Room Challenges.

There are so many good ones!  But several that really caught my eye are:

Lehman Lane's boy's room.  The built-ins in this room really blow me away.  That room packs so much storage into a rather tight space.  Love it.

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Bees n Burlap's kitchen.  I am really jonesing to do some work on our kitchen this year and this one gave me so much great inspiration.  The combination of industrial and farmhouse is spot on.

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The Crowned Goat's office looks like such a serene place to work.  The organization and decor look like they could calm even a mad working frenzy.  So tranquil, I could definitely spend some time there.

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Ann Jackson's dining room.  This is one seriously talented lady!  Her dining room is exactly what I want for my own, and she designed that wallpaper!  And some other beautiful patterns!

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Miss Dixie's nursery.  That little baby is going to feel so loved and protected in that dainty, feminine cocoon.  Lucky girl!

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So MANY great spaces and again a HUGE thanks to Linda for hosting this event!

One Room Challenge - Curb Appeal the Reveal!

First off, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to Linda at Calling it Home for hosting this awesome experience otherwise know the One Room Challenge.  This is a platform allowing us all to follow along as 20 design bloggers redesign a space.  She also graciously allows anyone with a blog to link up and share a makeover we are working on.

The first time I participated in the ORC we redid our laundry room.  Working under a deadline like this is great because it forces you to get it done, but can cause incredible stress if you have anything else going on in your life (family, jobs, you know).

This time around we chose to redo our front porch to add some curb appeal to our house.  We redid the front porch at our first house towards the very end of our life there and I kind of regretted waiting so long to do it.  This time around we figured we would get it out of the way a little earlier on, and I am so glad we did because many of the changes we made impacted the interior of our house as well!  The porch before was very cramped with the railings there that served no purpose.  Because of its size we didn't want to hang out on it, and the mostly solid door made our foyer so dark.

Just those two changes, the door and removing the railings brought so much light into the interior of our home!  We keep thinking that the door is open and go to close it.  I had started thinking that our dining room paint color was too dark but removing the railings even lets more light in there and now I am back to really liking the color.

We have had a hand me down glider on the porch since we moved in, in fact we had it on our old front porch and used it all the time there.  On this porch the railing was right at eye level when sitting on it so it didn't get much use.  Since removing the railings the hubs and I have sat out there with drinks several evenings now.  We added some side tables as a resting place for aforementioned drinks and it is a really comfy spot.

We had a rolling cart on our first front porch and the UPS guy always put our packages on it which was nice.  We had a piece of granite that we bought off of Craig's List intending to use in our master bathroom reno at our first house and decided that we would use that to top a table for the front porch.  The hubs built the base and it looks great in my opinion.

I also knew I wanted some more visual weight on that side of the porch and some extra seating would be nice.  Growing up my mom had a hanging rattan chair, similar to the Serena and Lily version, and I was hoping to find a more budget friendly version.  I think Ikea used to have one but they don't seem to carry it anymore so my search led me to Amazon where I found this one.  It's obviously not quite the same, but offers the same easy vibe to me.  It helps that the kids LOVE it!

We switched out our old, faded shutters for some with a more rustic, farmhouse feel to go along with the new/old door and added some planters to flank the door.  We changed out the light fixtures to some that fit the space a little better and aren't the dated, shiny brass finish and we are calling it done!

For the next little bit you can bet you will find me out here relaxing, probably with a cocktail, unless I am checking out what everyone else's space turned out like!

One Room Challenge - Curb Appeal Week 5

Yay!  It's that time again!   Linda, from Calling It Home, is once again hosting the One Room Challenge.  This is a platform allowing us all to follow along as 20 design bloggers redesign a space.  She also graciously allows anyone with a blog to link up and share a makeover we are working on.

This is my second time doing the ORC.  Last fall we did our laundry room and this spring we decided to use the challenge as motivation to enhance our curb appeal.  This is one the projects on my 2016 home goals list and I am ready to get it done.  The first week I shared our plans and inspiration and the second week we had made some progress.  The third week we managed to get the columns framed out and the new shutters made.  Week 4 was a slow week for us and I was hoping to turn that around for week 5 but with a short weekend due to a work trip for my husband we didn't get much done for this week either!  We did get another coat of paint on the columns and the new light fixtures up but other than that we got nothin'.  

Since by this time next week we should be giving a reveal we need to really get it in gear this weekend!  Still on the to do list are one more coat of paint on the shutters and getting them hung, swapping out the front door, hanging our new swinging chair, changing out some more hardware (numbers, doorbell, etc) and getting some side tables.  Then the final fluffing with some accents and more plants.  That's a lot to do!  Here's to frantic finishing!

I'll be back next Thursday, hopefully with a finished porch and landscaping, but until then I'm going to see what everyone else has gotten done!