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! ;)

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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?

I Heart Art.

I really do.  I may not be the best at it, but I have a blast creating swap-able, inexpensive pieces to hang around our home.  I've dabbled in super amateur art before. Here, here, here, here, here and here.

Then last spring I created a few more pieces on some scrap wood I had stashed in our hall closet.

This past winter, I painted another scrap piece to help make a statement next to our Christmas tree.

After we took all of our Christmas decor down I was craving a bit of spring.  It's been very chilly, and once the holiday season ends, I am NOT a fan of the colder, darker months.  To combat the current season, I added pops of coral and citron to our great room.  An inexpensive way to get these colors into our living space was to update some of the art I previously painted above.  I can't wait to share it all soon!!

Anyone else ready for winter to end?!?!

Leaner Mirror Makeover.

Once our walls went dark, I really fell out-of-love with our large leaner mirror.  It blended in with the walls and didn't provide any pop.

I solved that problem the same way I solve 90% of my other problems....with some leftover paint!!

For our master bedroom refresh, I knew I didn't want to completely rid our room of my signature teal color, so rather than have an accent wall covered in Behr's Balmy Seas, I wanted to incorporate it using accessories and accents. That gorgeous shade of teal would be the perfect hue to make our old mirror come to life again.

I took it outside, spray primed and painted it with a leftover paint sample.

Once that was done I got out my Citri-Strip gel, coated the over-spray and used a scraper to clear the mirror surface.  (Yes, I was lazy and didn't want to cover and tape before I primed, so I had to strip later.)  After that, I used Minwax's polycrylic in semi-gloss to cover and protect the paint.

And voilà...a new mirror!

I think it looks great against our dark walls, and all dressed up for the holidays... ;)

Can't wait to share more details soon!!!

Quick DIY Cork Coasters.

Here and there I've been working on our master bedroom refresh.  I promised myself and even declared to the blog-world that I would finish the space by the end of the year, but it just didn't happen.  I'm getting close.  As you can see here, it's all about the details now.  Once I check a few more things off my to-do list, I'll finally be D-O-N-E!!!

What's left, you ask?  Finding the right pillows (I've been on the pillow hunt for more time than I want to admit...I've fallen in love, but my budget never got the same warm and fuzzy feelings), DIY'ing some jewelry storage, pretty-ing up our exposed lamp cords (with paint or a DIY cord-cover project) and a DIY art canvas.

Since I've talked enough about what ISN'T done, let me prop myself back up on what I've actually finished: upped the cozy factor in our room with dark walls, installed our DIY lucite curtain rods, painted our DIY curtains, hung our TV gallery wall (sneak peek here), stenciled our gloss-on-matte accent wall (sneak peek here), hung our wall lamps, swapped out our focal point mirror, painted our old leaner mirror and DIY'ed some simple coasters for our nightstands.

You see, hubby and I drink a ton of water...and every night we each have a bottle or glass of water next to us in bed.  Normally I wouldn't be such a freak about putting a drink on a side table, but these "nightstands" are one of my favorite Craigslist makeovers I've ever completed.  

The thought of ruining one with a water ring makes me cringe.

So the easiest/cheapest/most-stylish solution I could come up with was painting a 4-pack of cork coasters from Michael's.

This project took all of 10 minutes, is embarrassingly easy and pretty much self-explanatory, so I feel silly even posting about it, but hey, I love how they turned out...so why not show them off?!

First, I gathered my supplies: 1) the coasters, 2) some left over paint samples and acrylic paints, 3) old paint brushes, 4) painters tape, 5) liquid gold leaf, 6) Krylon clear finish spray and 7) an old piece of cardboard to paint on.

Then I taped off different areas on the coasters and started painting!  I didn't have much of a plan for shapes or color placement.  I just crafted without thinking or measuring.

Once everything was painted, I used a Krylon clear spray to lightly coat each coaster 2 times to protect my award-winning paint job.

After the coasters dried, they were ready to go!  I love the colors and how pretty they look compared to the folded over paper towels we were using. ;)

High-five for super-simple, cheap projects!!!!  Happy Friday, friends! :)