Our Rancher: Before & After - The Living Room.

The curb appeal and entrance were certainly not the only areas of our home that needed a total overhaul.  In part two of my little "before and after" series, it's all about the living room portion of our great room.  The wall...the outdated doors...the old windows...the shag carpet...it all had to go!

If you missed the intro and part one of the series, you can catch up here and here.  Next up is our dining room "then and now"!

Our Rancher: Before & After - The Entrance.

I know the title reads "before and after", but the series of posts coming your way are truly more of a "then and now".  Why is that?  Well because I'm never done re-decorating and styling our home. I mean, you already heard my dreams to renovate our 1954 cabinetry.  Yes, one day I will see my kitchen dreams come to life!!  But, anyway, I digress...

Back to the fun stuff...the transformation thus far!!

Our home was a little...ummmm...frightening when we bought it.  "Hot mess" is a phrase that also came to mind.

Ahhhh, our diamond in the rough!  Our home was so far from welcoming.  We took it from dark, overgrown, stained, cramped and closed off to happy, light and bright!

Much better, don't you think?!?

Next up...the living room portion of our "great room"!

Our Rancher: Before & After.

Quite often I find myself daydreaming about changing/fixing/renovating aspects of our beloved home. If hubby had it his way, we'd re-side the place, add some stone detail and take care of our cracking front steps.  I don't mind the charm of our 1950's wood siding and focus my thoughts on things inside our house.  I'd love to install a gas insert in our fireplace and finish our icky basement...but mostly, I dream of renovating our kitchen.  Don't get me wrong, our kitchen has come so far from it's dark beginning!  We fixed it up as best we could, with the budget we had.  I love it's charm, but hate it's function.  Unfortunately, the original 1954 cabinets are showing their age and I find myself planning a kitchen reno that might not happen for quite some time.

It's so easy to get caught up in all the work left on the to-do list, that I like to remind myself of just how far we've come.

And our ranch has come a long way, baby!  The first time we laid eyes on it, I saw potential...and hubby saw a nightmare.  Actually, I think his exact reaction involved letting out a few expletives and a refusal to even tour the whole house.

It was dark, closed off and smelled.  The kitchen and baths were original to the 1954 house...and the master bath was leaking and no bigger than a postage stamp.  BUT, it had potential.

It was a 4 bedroom house in a neighborhood of mostly 3 bedrooms.

If we removed all the walls, we'd have a perfect open layout.  

If we combined the two bathrooms into one, we'd have a huge hall bathroom to accommodate guests and future kiddos.  

If we closed off the third bedroom, I could create a great master ensuite.

If we refinished the original hardwoods, they'd look like new.

If we replaced all the doors and windows, it'd update the look and efficiency of the old home.

If we replaced the roof, we'll be good for the next 25 years.

If we threw a fresh coat of paint on, well, everything...it'd look like a million bucks.

If, if, if...

For a house that was priced way too high considering it's condition, I was throwing around a whole lot of if's.  BUT, the price dropped...and the day it went down, I made sure we were there to see it.

Thankfully, hubby trusted the vision and the house was ours.  We bought our green monster.

My next few posts will be a "then and now" series showing our home when we bought it and how it looks now.  I started this series on Instagram (#RRRbeforeandafter) and loved it so much, that I couldn't help but want to post it to the blog too!  I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do! :)

Now, what renovations are you guys daydreaming about?!

One Frame Down...

Those of you that have been around here a while (thank you, love you!!!), you know our hallway has gone through a bit of an evolution.  I tackled my first stencil project on those walls...

...and then I even hung a few frames. 

Not long after they went up, I realized I wanted something more.  I decided to hang a few mini-galleries on each wall. 

I liked it, but I wasn't satisfied.  I wanted something a little bold...something that made more of a statement.  So I did what any insane person would do...I removed all the frames (don’t worry, I only hang stuff with 3M picture hanging strips), rolled over the hours of stenciling I had originally done and started stenciling, again.

I’m 99.9% certain my hubby thought I was nuts, but I had a picture in my head I just couldn’t shake.  

After a veryyyyy long day, I had the results I wanted all along!  I was smitten.

...except for the fact that I had to re-hang. all. of. those. frames.

UGH.  I, legit, loathe hanging things.  I really don’t know why I hate it so much, but I do.  It’s one of my least favorite things to do...which is evident by the fact that our halls are still bare.  Yup, I re-stenciled well OVER a year ago, and have yet to hang a single frame back up.

Until now!  Thanks to UncommonGoods reaching out to review one of their products, I quickly found some motivation to hang at least one piece up in our hallway!

UncommonGoods is a super cool company, out of NYC, that supports artists and designers.  Half of what they sell is made by hand and most of it is created right here in the USA!

Their site is super easy to navigate, and allows you to shop by category.  I headed straight to their art page (here) and fell in love the minute I came across this piece, Balloons Over Brooklyn Bridge.

The print looked so good online, and was even better in person!!  It came matted and mounted on matboard. All I had to do was pop it into my frame and hang!

Like their name suggests, UG sells many interesting and unique gifts.  Mother's Day is just around the corner and they have a page dedicated to buying gifts for her that you can check out here. If you want to make sure you're mom's favorite, then click here to get her something good! ;)

_______________________________________________________________________

Thank you UncommonGoods for providing me with the art for this post.  All opinions are 100% honest and my own!

More Easy DIY Art.

As you already know, I’ve created a ridiculous amount of very amateur art for our home.  It’s fun to use little money and a bit of creativity to spruce up our space.  My latest “creations” include two amazing brights...coral and citron.  Mixing these invigorating colors with my favorite blues add a super fun pop to our home...perfect for spring and summer!

Two of the pieces I made were painted over old designs.  You might recognize them from my last post...

I mixed my colors mostly using a combo of $0.99 acrylic paints from my craft stash.  First I painted over my beloved stripes from Christmas to create blank canvas.

Then I started layering my favorite colors, and ended with a little liquid gold leaf.

After that was finished, I turned my attention to revamping a piece from last spring.  I truly loved it as is, but needed to freshen up the color scheme.  So I swapped out the hot pink for bold citron...just painting the new color over the old.

Then it was time for two new pieces.  Well over a year ago, I found two sizeable gold frames from Michael’s.  Both were on sale for $8...a deal I just couldn’t pass up!

I didn’t have a plan for them at the time of purchase, so I hoarded them in my junk craft room.  

One day I had a light-bulb moment and realized they’d be perfect to hang on our expansive wall that houses our barn door.  I didn’t have proper paper to paint on for these frames, so I simply flipped over the “picture” that comes with the frame and painted on that.  It wasn't ideal, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. ;)

A few brushstrokes later and I had new art!

For wayyyy too long they sat on our fireplace mantle because, well, I hate hanging things.

Several weeks went by and was finally forced to hang them because we were having company.  (Isn't that always the best motivator?!?!?!)

I absolutely love the statement they make in that formerly boring corner.

I love getting four "new" pieces of art for next to nothing!  

Anyone else swap out and recycle their art?