the dear house

Cabinet face-lift

I inherited a cute little hutch that needed quite a bit of work. It had been sitting in a basement for a long time, and I think it acquired a little water damage a long the way. But it had a great shape and I was willing to put in a little elbow grease to bring it up to par.
Here's the before:

And after new shelves, a new back panel, 1 coat of primer, two coats of paint, and new hardware, here's the result:

New Window Treatments

I'm not very good with posting, but here's a new project I recently completed. I needed attractive window treatments, but didn't have a whole lot of money. I bought a few yards of burnt-orange linen-like fabric and 6 canvas drop cloths (about $12 each). I spent an evening sewing and came up with the drapes! A few months later (once I got around to it) I finished the making the cornices in the same fabric. I love the result. They look so much more expensive than they were.

Labels: drop cloth curtains canvas drapes linen look window treatements

Home is where the heart is.

And where Molly is.

My Bedroom

It's still not done, but here's the progress!

I got a set of four of these chairs at Salvation Army for $2. Unfortunately, only one was salvagable. I spray painted it and recovered the seat. I think it's charming.

Ryan painted this for me. I think it's my favorite painting.

I love love love these paint by numbers. My mom picked them up at a flea market for $5.

Ryan bought this Eames rocker for me for Christmas last year. It was on backorder though and I didn't get it until April.

The Bathroom

Next on the list was to make the bathroom usable.

First, we gutted it.

I then went over the walls with a skim coat to get rid of any texture. My mom and I then hung wallpaper. I fell in love with this wallpaper from work. It's from Seabrook's Antonina Vella collection. It makes me happy.

Then we laid a new subfloor and put down ceramic tile. This was the first time I had laid tile. I think it went pretty well.

Sorry I don't have further pictures of the room! After the tile was laid, I grouted it, put up an IKEA vanity.

I need to take an updated picture so you can see how it looks. I have to say, I'm pleased with the progress!

Hardwood Floors

I've been super busy over the last couple months getting my house in livable condition. I thought I'd share some of the progress with you!

The first thing we did was to rip up all the old carpeting so that the original hardwood floors could be refinished.

As you can see, the wood was in pretty rough condition in places.

I really had my doubts that they would be able to come completely clean. They were not very well cared for.

After the carpet was ripped up, I had to go around the rooms and take up the tack strips. That was a NIGHTMARE. Those things are like weapons.

I felt that if I so much as looked at them the wrong way they would poke me.

Yuck.

After the carpet was up, we painted all of the rooms. I went with "Gull Green" from Do It Best hardware in the living room, dining room, and hallway, "Grey Gull" in the front bedroom (my bedroom), and a soft violet-grey in the back bedroom (what will be the den). The colors came out great.

I hired professionals to come refinish the floors after all the walls were painted. I chose a semi-dark stain and a low-gloss finish. They look amazing!