Porch Decor
Over the course of the summer, we had two main goals for our house. We wanted to:
a.) Work on opening up our front porch. We had screens around the entire area before, that looked like this:
These needed to go in order to achieve the open/airy look we were going for. Plus, it needed new flooring, new lighting, etc. That brings us to our next goal…
b.) We also wanted a “rainy day” indoor project so that we could continue to make progress on the interior of the house during those stormy and dreary weekends. This brought us to our newly finished upstairs bathroom renovation.
We’re proud to say our upstairs bathroom is officially finished, but we never got around to wrapping up our front porch entirely. We’ve installed our new lighting and flooring, have painted the woodwork, removed the screens and have done a little landscaping around the entry. Here’s a look at where we are now:
It’s a definite improvement and I think technically-speaking, this renovation is complete. However, there’s no time like the present with all the season-end sales going on, to fully complete this project and accessorize a bit.
The first thing I did was decide which color to bring with pillows, rugs, etc. We’ve got a lot of dark here with our siding color and furniture wood-work. That said, I’ve settled on different shades of yellow and ivory.
I also took a look for some inspiration online and LOVE this color scheme and the overall feel Pottery Barn’s got going on:
Now obviously I don’t have that kick-arse flooring, old gate nor ivy. But still, I really like the balance of dark and light and the summery look the yellow brings in. That said, I did a little window shopping on Pottery Barn’s site to see what the dollar amount would be to get this look:
For items shown above see end of post.
Even though these items are going for a steal (before shipping and tax all of these items total to around $550.00), sadly, it’s way over my budget. And truth be told, I’ve kind of reached that point of my overall house renovation where I’m tired of buying stuff (I never thought I’d hear myself say that). So, I’m giving myself a challenge…
Before the shops sell out of their summer goods for the rest of the year, it’s my goal to create this look for less. Using items I already have while trying to be more sustainable (buy used when possible), and being friendly to my wallet in the mean time, my plan is to have this project completely wrapped up in one month. Wish me luck!
—–
1. Diamond Dobby Outdoor Rug by Pottery Barn
2. Harbor Stripe Pillow, 16 x 26″ by Pottery Barn
3. Palmetto All-Weather Wicker Ottoman by Pottery Barn
4. Ceramic Garden Stool (Natural) by Pottery Barn
5. Seed Bead Lantern by Pottery Barn
6. Yellow Outdoor Pillow by Williams Sonoma
Upstairs Bathroom Finishing Touches
Earlier this month I posted the before and after photos of our upstairs bathroom make-over. It’s still not officially done as I have some artwork to hunt for and a possible shelf to hang, but we’ve finally installed our window covering and our West Elm rugs came in!
Here’s a look at the window with the new bamboo blind:
We found this shade at our local Medard’s store for only $19.99! It matches the natural look we were going for and also compliments our new West Elm Natural Braided Stripe Jute rugs:
The rugs are nice and chunky and surprisingly soft. I half expected them to be a little rough underfoot, but they’re very comfortable!
That brings this renovation project to a close, for now, and we couldn’t be happier with the results. Definitely an improvement from our red bathroom before! As a side note, we’ve already picked our paint samples for our next room makeover project and have plans to get started on that in the near future.
Beautiful Boise
I had mentioned in my San Francisco post that Shawn and I have been up to some traveling as of late. Four short days after we came home from sunny California, we were on our way back west to Boise. I’d never been before so I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was so beautiful!
We arrived late on a Saturday evening so we pretty much headed straight to our hotel for some shut-eye. We woke up bright and early Sunday morning and started our day with some French pastries at a local bakery. We then drove the Lowman Loop which is about a 4- to 5-hour drive through several of Boise’s smaller surrounding cities and just through the cusp of the foothills and nearby forest and mountains. Our first stop off was the Payette River:
Following the rapids, we came across some mountains starting to take shape:
We drove higher into the mountains until we reached 6,000 feet and saw the most amazing views:
Our drive then brought us to Idaho City, an old ghost town that used to be a Gold Rush hot-spot. They actually had horse parking still for people’s horses!
After we finished the drive, we grabbed a bite and stumbled on an art-fair in Julia Davis park.
We wrapped up our day at the Shakespeare Festival, which is an outdoor, summer-long series of Shakespearean plays. We happened upon A Midsummer Night’s Dream which was wonderful. The theater is completely outside (lighting, electrical and all) and the set backdrop actually splits open to reveal the mountains in the background. Amazing.
Monday through the rest of our time there, we both had to work full days. However, we managed to squeeze in a few great dinners out, we visited Jaialdi, which is the festival hosted by the Basque population every five years, and we also walked on a nature walk at Boise’s MK Nature Center. I wasn’t able to snag as many photos as I’d hoped but trust Boise is absolutely beautiful!
Here’s a photo I found on the web that might help to do the city justice:
This photo is courtesy of boisé.com
Upstairs Bathroom After Photos
For those of you who’ve been reading over the summer months, you know that Shawn and I have been taking it pretty easy. We hit the home renovations pretty hard after we moved in last June and during our long Wisconsin winter which meant we were in need of a lot of outdoor time and a lot of R&R this summer.
We’ve been cranking away on a few outdoor projects like landscaping and making over our front porch (after photos to come next week!). Our only interior project was our upstairs bathroom. We figured on those rainy days when it wasn’t pleasant to be outdoors, we’d keep moving our interior house progress along by tackling one more room as a rainy day project.
It’s almost the end of summer and our plan went swimmingly – we just finished our upstairs bathroom renovation! We’re still in need of a few items to complete the look, but nonetheless, the hardest part is over. Let’s take a look at the make-over we just finished.
Walking into the upstairs bathroom before:
Walking into the upstairs bathroom after:
Bathtub corner before:
We’re still in need of some artwork and possibly some shelving for my bath salt jars, but it’s a big improvement, we think. We painted the wainscoting white to match the new trim-work, but also left some of the slight cracks between each wood slat. It gives a slightly used and worn finish. Here’s the bathtub corner after:
Vanity before:
Originally, we had thought we were going to stain the vanity a dark espresso brown. But after we stripped the original reddish hue off the woodwork, we discovered how patina-esque the piece looked (a little hard to see in the pictures). We bleached the entire piece and went for that Restoration Hardware old vanity look. Here’s our vanity after:
We ripped out that lovely plaid cloth fabric that was acting as the cabinet covers and replaced it with custom-cut frosted glass. We also found some glass hardware at Target which gave a the furniture a slightly romantic feel.
On top of the vanity, I placed a jar of seashells I picked up on the beaches of our recent trip to San Francisco. It’s a subtle way to keep that beach-house feel running throughout each room of our home. I also added a small mirror in the center of the double sinks for my perfume and Shawn’s bottles of cologne. Finally, we replaced the faucets to give the vanity top a much-needed update.
Moving up from the vanity, we installed some new lighting. Originally I had my eye on some really cool fluorescent sconces. However, we just couldn’t beat the price on the ones we had purchased originally for our upstairs hallway make-over. The beach-style lantern sconces are meant to be outdoor lighting fixtures which means they can withstand the bathroom’s moisture.
A few details that we don’t want to leave out are the jute baskets that now act as our toilet paper holder and magazine racks:
Also we couldn’t be happier with the matching towel bar, double towel bar and toilet paper holder we ordered from CSN Stores:
And finally, we love the bath caddy we came across one day at Homegoods – the woodwork on this matches the tub area perfectly!
So that’s the newly-finished bathroom. Like I mentioned, we still have a bit of a to-do list at this point. Here’s what we’ve got left to complete:
1. We need rugs! Slippery floors around the tub and sink areas are no good. We’ve got our eye on a couple of jute finds from a few different places. I’ll be the first to admit I hated the idea of keeping our cobalt-blue tile floors. Now, I’m actually really happy with the way they look against our light-blue walls. Adding jute rugs on top of them will create a nice and cozy space and will also help to balance out this room’s color palette.
2. A new (and matching) window covering. We found a great bamboo blind in a few different colors and textures. We’ll be buying that after we purchase those jute rugs – I think that should relate in tone at least a little bit. In the meantime, we’ll be using this nasty thing:
3. And lastly, I think we’ll be installing a hand-held shower for this claw-foot tub at some point. We debated on whether to install an entire shower standing system in a hallway closet that shares a wall with this room, to add a copper piping system to the current tub or to add just a handheld shower. We’ve got no immediate plans for implementing any of these in the near future, however… Another topic for a blog post down the line!
For now, I think we’re content with what we have. I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for some jute rugs on sale and a new window covering. I’ll keep you up to date as the room progresses!
Hello San Francisco and Napa Valley!
Things have been a little boring around the Fixing It Fancy blog lately. I apologize things have gotten so stale but I swear I have a good reason – Shawn and I have been away on a couple of much-needed vacations. Now, with one week in between coming home from our second and leaving for our next trip, I thought I’d take a moment to fill you in one where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to.
We left a couple weeks ago for our first summer vacation to San Francisco. Our good friends were kind enough to invite us with them to visit their relatives. We were thrilled and couldn’t wait to head west. We arrived in San Francisco very late on a Wednesday and took to sight-seeing right away the following morning.
We started day one with some French pastries at a lovely little bakery followed by a walk to Chinatown and Market Street.
At the end of Market Street we wandered onto the pier where we stumbled on an amazing marketplace filled with yummy cheeses, fresh produce and tempting wines.
After grabbing some lunch, we hopped on a cable car for my very first in San Francisco!
We then headed down to the famous Fisherman’s Wharf for a tour of the seafood for sale, a peek at Alcatraz and to spy on some sea lions sunbathing on the docks.
Oh, and let’s not forget the awesome candy store we stumbled into on our way home before grabbing dinner with our friends’ relatives – look at all that taffy!
Day two, we woke up bright and early, grabbed a bite and headed out to Ocean Beach. I was so excited; we found sand dollars!
We also stumbled upon clams living on this giant beach rock along with a real starfish! After taking a few pics, we wandered into a cave on the beach and hiked on the Coastal Trail, getting the chance to see some amazing views overlooking the ocean and an old ship graveyard.
Following our hike, we headed back to the pier for some of San Francisco’s famous clam chowder in a sourdough breadbowl. Yum! The crab was amazing too. Stuffed, we wandered home and rested for our morning drive to Napa Valley.
We started day three with a drive to Stinson Beach where we found a few more sand dollars and sea shells. We also drove to Muirs Park for a walk through the giant redwood trees. They’re aboslutely amazing to see in person and a quick factoid – did you know they’re almost fire-proof because of the resin in their bark?
We finally arrived in Napa Valley and were fortunate enough to stay at our friends’ relatives’ home. Look at the amazing house we stayed in! It’s an old stone schoolhouse from the 1800s. It was the most relaxing place. The front porch was decorated with flowerpots and rusted lanterns. Such a great getaway…
Once we were settled and well rested, we spend our Sunday at five different wineries – the Francis Ford Copolla winery, the Saint Supery winery, Duckhorn, Franciscan and finally, the Hess Winery.
Sadly, our time in Napa had to end. We drove back to San Francisco for our flight the next morning, but not without a peek at the Golden Gate Bridge.
I loved our time in California and it was exactly the vacation we needed. We flew home and then headed out for trip number two Boise, Idaho a few days later. I’ll be filling you in on that trip shortly!
Bathroom Accessories
We’ve been working away on the upstairs bathroom make-over. So much in fact, we’re actually nearing the finish line! Already we’ve painted the walls, re-finished our vanity, installed new lighting and are now just working on those loose ends. I intended to show photos of the paint job, but I think I’ll hold off until things are done. I’m going for the most impact!
In wrapping up this renovation, we’re at the phase where we’re installing those last-minute accessories such as towel bars and toilet paper holders. Being that CSN Stores has been kind enough to host several give-aways on my blog, they were the first place I thought of for shopping (to find any accessories for your dining room to the patio to your bathroom, they pretty much have everything). After a few minutes of searching, we settled on the perfect fit for our new bathroom; the Creative Specialties by Moen collection.
We love the look of the modern and sophisticated design on these pieces and have chosen to go with the towel bar for the vanity, double towel bar for our claw-foot tub area and the matching toilet paper holder. Not only do we love the style and finish of these items, but the price is awesome as well!
Once they’re installed we’ll definitely be taking some photos (they’ll be up and included in our after-renovation shots) and after a few days of use, we’ll let you know what we think of them. Here’s to having coordinated bathroom accessories!
Better Borders
In an attempt to make our front yard a little more pleasing to the eye, we thought it would be a good idea to line our garden beds with tumbled bricks. Since we’ve moved in, we’ve had rotting logs (or 2x4s or something) bordering everything. Not only does this take away from the beauty of the garden, but it also harbors wasps, bees and other nasty insects. Time for those to go!
Last weekend we took a trip to the hardware store and loaded up on enough bricks to line our current beds and to create a few new ones lining our front walk. Before we show the after shots, here’s a quick trip down memory lane. This is what our house looked like before we removed the wooden logs and installed those new planting beds:
And here’s a close-up of that wood. See how it lines everything?
Not anymore! Here’s a close-up of the gray tumbled brick we used to line our planting areas:
And here’s a few other angles:
And here’s the lovely full-effect, before-and-after shot of what things are looking like around here now:
Given one of these photos was taken in the fall and one in summer, there’s guaranteed to be a big difference. But I can’t help getting exciting about how things are progressing this summer. Last June through August was spent moving in, getting settled and hard-core renovating. It’s so nice to finally put some of our outdoor projects to rest!
Shawn has been off work this past week which means lots of those little lingering projects have been getting tackled. We’ve fixed up a few loose trim and base pieces, we’ve tended to our stair rail upstairs and we’ve also groomed many of the trees on our patio. This project, though, is one of my favorites.
A few months ago, we refinished our stairway to the upstairs. For those of you unfamiliar, this is what our stairs looked like when we moved in:
And this is what they looked like after a little TLC:
For about two months we’ve been without a stair rail and while it doesn’t bother us much, it’s not the safest way to go. So we finally got around to installing one. The thing about this stairway is that it’s extremely narrow. Being that this was part of the original house built in 1900, you can imagine that it’s much tinier than today’s average stair well. Because of its size, we didn’t want to install just any hand rail. Most common sizes would be too big and bulky for this space.
After a little brainstorming, I suggested to Shawn we take our beach-house-style inspiration to a more literal level; in other words, I suggested we create and install a hand rail that resembled that of a ship-deck. We went to the hardware store and not before long we found the pieces we needed in the plumbing section to craft our perfect railing. We bought two 5-foot long galvanized pipes, three wall mounts, one center joint piece and two 90º angle end pieces. Here’s what the joints looked like when hooked together initially:
As you can see, the pieces are all different shades of metal. Our solution? We picked up a can or two of spray paint in a metal-hammered finish.
Shawn applied a few coats of paint and the next day the railing was ready for installation. Here’s a few snapshots of our newly-finished hand rail.
The best part of all about this project? For most handrails made of solid wood, and after adding in the pricing for the brackets and hardware, you’re easily look at $100.00+. For our homemade ship-deck-style hand rail, the cost was just over $50.00. I’d say we came out ahead on this one; a 10-foot stair rail for a lot less money. Plus, it’s personal to our house and the style we like.
The One-Year Mark
Exactly one year ago today we were hauling our boxes and furniture into a dark, wood-panel decorated, drab new home. Everything aesthetic about this place was pretty much off but we fell in love with its potential as soon as we saw it. It’s crazy to think back to what our home looked like 365 days ago – I can’t imagine what year two will bring! What better way to mark the date than with a trip down memory lane?
Here’s a peek at what our home looked like when we bought it. Note the large cypress shrubs on either side of the screened-in porch. No landscaping was done yet and if you look closely, you can see the gigantic mailbox we inherited.
Today, things are looking much better. We’ve ripped out those shrubs, opened the porch up (still yet to be painted) and we’ve done loads of landscaping. Oh, and we replaced that mailbox.
Moving inside, we enter our living room. When we bought the house, there was this gingerbread-house-style wooden scalloping on almost every surface. We also had hand-carved brick (made of wood) that only covered half the wall-height on two opposing walls of the room.
We ripped the walls in this room down to the original plaster and lathe. We topped it with fresh drywall and re-painted the ceiling and the fireplace. We also installed new flooring throughout the entire home. We were left with a room much more suitable to us.
Looking to the right of the living room is our home office. When we bought this house, the owner referred to this room as the “music room.” We intended to use it as a room that was casual and comfortable but appropriate for working in as well.
The floors we installed in our living room renovation were carried through this room, the ceiling was ripped out and completely re-installed and fresh drywall was added to this room as well. We also created a crafty make-shift cabinet for our electronics which connect to the TV on the other side of the room.
Moving towards the kitchen of our home you walk through the dining room and a transitional hallway area. There were about three different wood grain colors I can think of off the top of my head in this room that once covered these walls. Let’s not forget to mention that awesome wallpaper too.
After new flooring, lots of paint and new lighting fixtures, we ended up the following:
The kitchen renovation is still our longest and most challenging room make-over to date. In an effort to be eco-friendly and to save funds, we re-used the cabinet boxes that were already here and simply painted them white. Other than the ceiling and the stove, everything else here was replaced.
That covers the interior renovations on the main level of the house. Let’s move on upstairs starting with our staircase. Our original idea was to leave the wood finish exposed on the steps. After I took a bad fall from slipping, though, we realized carpet was a safer option.
We chose a gray carpet similar in tone to the wallpaint we used in the office. When sitting in the living room, you can see gray on both side of the fireplace/TV. This helped us to create a little sense of balance.
Moving up the steps, we have an L-shaped hallway. The first portion of the hallway was made up of several different wood paneling choices, a bookcase instead of a stair rail that only stood about a foot high, and lots and lots of blue wallpaper. There’s also a door pictured here (you can just barely see the trim on the right side by the window) on the right-hand side of the hallway. This doorway was actually closed and moved elsewhere (more to come on that later).
We installed the same laminate flooring from our main level renovations, added new drywall and painted the ceiling paneling white. I also re-finished a vintage chandelier I found on eBay (shown in later images).
Here’s a look at the second portion of the hallway before:
This was an easier portion of the house to renovate; just flooring and paint was all this area needed:
One of my favorite home renovations this past year was our bedroom’s. We started with a room that really, honestly, looked a bit like a suana. The ceiling paneling was uneven and a strange portion of the room was wallpapered. Here’s the lovely canvas we started with and what we ended up with after new flooring, new drywall, a new doorway for our closet, evening out our ceiling woodwork and installing a mounted flatscreen TV:
Here’s a look at our now-connected walk-in closet (this room was originally a children’s bedroom) before and after:
And this brings us to the final room renovation we have on our roster for the first year; the guest bedroom. This was definitely a girl’s bedroom when we moved in; it had the pink carpet and floral wallpaper to prove it!
With a little time, energy, paint and new floors, we were able to turn that room into this:
On top of these rooms, we’ve also completely re-landscaped our shade garden, have added a veggie and berry garden and have already started another room renovation; our upstairs bathroom. It’s been a long haul, but we’re thrilled with the progress so far!
Thanks to everyone for reading and for your encouraging comments throughout our journey. You certainly keep us motivated and we can’t wait to share more make-overs during year two!
No More Wallpaper
The dreary days keep on coming, which means our bathroom is getting some much needed attention. In my last post, I showed off the bathroom’s beauteous before photos along with our plan for bringing the space up to date and making it feel a little more like “us.”
While we’ve been plugging away, I realized I haven’t yet shown off our photos from the wallpaper removal phase. I tried to take images that were similar to the angles we showed before. So moving around the room to the right, starting at the sinks, here’s our progress:
We’ve definitely gotten rid of the country feel and have now moved on to the dingy and dark feel; sadly, an improvement, no? Now is the part where I paint like nobody’s business to get rid of that yellow color… bleh.
