The guest bedroom is moving along, which is so nice to see since the room sat as a complete danger (aka, junk) zone for months... When I decided to give this room a much needed refresh, one of the elements I knew I wanted to keep, was the headboard. I originally made it 10 plus years ago, which is crazy to think about, but it was the first piece I made for my first apartment after graduating high school. Throughout the years, it's always been in use, and it's honestly aged beautifully! The fabric I originally chose is still so fitting, and I thought long and hard about keeping it, but in the long run I decided to give it a slight refresh by recovering the fabric with something ... Read more
Search Results for: guest bedroom
Guest Bedroom Dresser Makeover
There's nothing quite like having overnight guests coming to give you that needed push to get your guest room in shape... that's right, my cousins came to stay with us for a night, and it completely motivated me to get the guest room to a state where it could actually function as a guest room! (Hand clap!) I know I've been slow to share any progress on the room, but that's about to change! Let's talk about how I gave our old guest bedroom dresser a makeover! Do you remember when I shared the moodboard for the room? Well, included in that, I knew I wanted to use the existing dresser we had in the space, but just give it an updated look by painting it black, and then updating ... Read more
Painted Guest Bedroom Wall
Well, I finally painted the guest bedroom wall. I knew it would probably be a little bit tricky since I was going from a white plank wall to a dark black/green wall... and I was right. This was one of the more time consuming walls I've painted lately, but it was worth the extra time! When I first shared my design inspiration and mood board for our new guest bedroom, I envisioned a dark plank wall that would tie in with several other dark accents throughout the room. I want the room to feel warm and cozy. The dark paint color helps create that warm feeling... but it wasn't the easiest to make happen. Back when the room was our office, we installed the plank wall and I painted it a ... Read more
Saying Goodbye To The Original Wood Grain Cottage
With all of the changes that happened over the last few years, one of the hardest parts of it was letting go and moving out of my home. I dreaded that day. Often though, the thing we don't want to do the most, is exactly what we need to do... and what leads us on a new journey. Today, I wanted to say goodbye to the original Wood Grain Cottage... the house that not only built this blog... but built me. As many of you may know, it can be incredibly hard and emotional to sell a home you've so lovingly cared for. When I first built the original Wood Grain Cottage, I had no idea what would happen, but I certainly didn't expect for it to change my entire path. Without even knowing it, the ... Read more
How We Quickly Painted The Interior of Our Home
Last week I shared all about our process of choosing the right paint color to paint throughout our home. We really wanted to pick a main color that would look great in the natural light, but also enhance all the custom touches we'll be adding over time. After a week or so of looking at the paint samples in different lighting, we landed on Gray Mist by Benjamin Moore. It's a lovely creamy color that has a light green undertone. It looks amazing with white, black and wood tones... all of my favorite things. We couldn't wait to see the instant transformation this would bring, so I'm sharing how we quickly painted the interior of our home. Nearly every single surface of this house has a ... Read more
Our First Home Tour
I'm here sharing our first home tour in the Willow House! I've always loved looking back on past home tours. It's fun to see the progress that's made and all the changes that happen year after year. This tour will be one we'll really enjoy looking back on. We have so many projects in the works, and so many unfinished projects, but even through the chaos, we are loving living in this home. We love going through the house, piece by piece, making it ours and really putting our stamp on things. As we've been living in the house, we keep coming up with new ideas and plans for the future. And I'm sure it will change 100 times over, but actually living in the house always brings a ... Read more
A Big Living Room Refresh
If there was one room in our home that just felt... bleh... it was our living room. It just didn't seem to be working for us, no matter what I tried, and there were so many different elements that needed addressed. We needed a big living room refresh to get the room back on track, and that's just what we did with the help of American Furniture Warehouse! First off, we only have one wall in the room that can have furniture up against it, and that's the wall with the T.V. Until we finish our basement, which won't be for a good while, the T.V. stays upstairs, making the rest of the living room a little tricky to layout. We also have a solid wall of doors/ windows, which we planned ... Read more
DIY Closet Door Tutorial For Our Home Office
I'm back today with another update on our home office... the closet doors! When we started converting the guest bedroom into our home office, I knew the closet doors would need some help. When we built the house a few years ago, we didn't want to spend any extra money on fancy closet doors. We didn't really have it in the budget, but knew we'd update them when the time came. So today I'm sharing our DIY closet door tutorial for our home office. The difference in unreal! Before I share the tutorial on how we built them, let's take a peek at what we started with in the room... They were your basic, cheap bi-fold closet doors... nothing fancy. One of the knobs wouldn't stay on, ... Read more
New Office Window Trim
When we first started talking about moving the office into the guest bedroom, one of the first projects I wanted to tackle, was trimming out the two windows. When we built the house a few years ago, we didn't have extra money in the budget to trim out each and every window, so we opted to do round bull nose corners with a simple window ledge. Lately, I've wanted to start transitioning them over to something more custom looking, and the office was the perfect room to start, especially since we did the awesome grid board and batten walls. And because we wanted the walls and window trim to flow seamlessly, we actually started with the window trim first. Here's how we transformed our ... Read more
Home Office Mood Board & Design Plan
Just a few days ago, I spilled the details on our first big project of the new year. And when I say it's a big project, I mean it. It's basically an entire room makeover from start to finish. Every single element in the room is being added fresh, which makes this an exciting project! Starting from scratch allows me to really nail down exactly what the room will look like, and how it will function- an important element for our new office. I need it to function well, it's a necessity. Today, I wanted to share our mood board for our new home office, and the overall design of the space. We've already begun the process and I'm excited to say everything is looking amazing, and this room is ... Read more
Creating Our New Home Office
Happy New Year! I didn't intend to take last week off, but we've been so very busy working on new projects, I didn't want to over extend myself by trying to get the blog caught up with new posts. Slacker blogger, I know. Lots of new stuff to come though, I can promise you that! I have big plans for the new year. I have high expectations. 2016... wasn't great. It was tough in several ways and I very much was looking forward to a fresh, clean slate. Anthony and I have been prioritizing several areas in our home that need to function and work better for us. At the top of the list, our home office. If you're a long time reader, you know I've been working on our office, or trying to work on it ... Read more
Master Bathroom Demo
Our master bathroom tile is officially gone! I'm sharing the progress update from the demolition. And yikes, our house is a total disaster! :-D Last time I updated you on our master bathroom we were in the process of meeting with our contractor and the tile guy to begin the first phase of ripping out our existing bathroom tile. Since it leaked like a sieve, and had already done plenty of damage, Anthony and I decided to start over. Our leaky shower was on its way out! Monday the crew came to start demoing the bathroom. If you've ever done any remodeling, you know how much of a mess it makes. It basically affects the entire house, not just that room. We have a thick coat of dust ... Read more
Fixer Upper Sources
Thank you all so very much for your sweet comments on our Fixer Upper reveal. This house was a labor of love, and I'm so proud with how beautiful it turned out. My main goal for the house, was to inject as much clean, fresh, and classic design decisions as I could for it to flow with the original floor plan, and character. Even though it didn't look like much before we started, it had so much character and I really wanted to preserve that feeling. It was, and still is, special. Today, I wanted to share the sources of everything in the house. This was a complete gut, so everything you see has been touched and changed in some way. Let's start with the paint colors, which I kept ... Read more
DIY White Fluffy Blanket
Perhaps one of the things I love most about Christmas and the Holiday season, is the cozy and relaxed atmosphere that it brings. I absolutely love snuggling up on the couch, watching Christmas movies, sipping hot cocoa, all while sitting beside a lit up tree. I love, love, love that. Lately, I've been spending quite a bit of time in our local fabric store, more on that later, but while I was in there, I spotted some lovely white faux fur. It looked so cozy, so I knew I had to touch it. Well, one thing led to another, and before I knew it, I came home with 3 yards of that cozy fabric. And today, with it being $30 Thursday, I knew it would be the perfect project to share! In case you're ... Read more
Numbered Side Table Makeover
I really like numbers, so today I'm sharing my cute little numbered side table makeover... I've had the little side table for awhile. It's sat in our guest bedroom, waiting for inspiration to strike... and it finally did... I'm so happy with the way it turned out... I started with this: There wasn't anything wrong with it, but it didn't feel like us... One makeover ordered! I painted the round shelves with the new Chalky Finish paint by Deco Art in Primitive. It's the same color that I used on my side chair makeover, but I knew it would look fabulous with the stained wood... After two coats I had complete coverage and let it sit overnight... The next day ... Read more
One Year Later…
It doesn't even seem possible, but we just celebrated one year in our home. Yep, one year ago we were busy moving in and unpacking. I can remember the excitement of opening boxes and looking at things that had been in storage for waaay tooo long--- and the relief that the building process was over! Don't get me wrong, it was so much fun to design and build our home, but it was exhausting at times and we were so over it towards the end! But now that we've been here a year, I couldn't help but look back at where we started. It's amazing to see what can happen in a year, and our home certainly hasn't been an exception to that. Let's take a peek at where we started and where we're ... Read more
Hanging Ironing Board Rack
I'm all about making my life easier. And my ironing board situation was doing anything but that. Every time I needed to iron, I would have to pull it out of the very back of our guest bedroom closet and move it to the kitchen, which is just about in the middle from the laundry room and guest room. You see, Mr. Iron didn't want to make the looong trek to the guest room and the ironing board was too stubborn to live in the laundry room. Meeting in the middle worked for them. Lately though, they've both decided to live in the same room. And, logically, it's the laundry room! Yes, I finally got my act together and made a hook rack for the laundry room so that I could hang my ... Read more
Thrift Store Headboard & Footboard
I seriously cannot contain my excitement for my latest thrift store find.... Eeee! On a spur of the moment decision, I stopped by our local thrift store. I scoped out the downstairs and then made my way upstairs (YES, our thrift store does have 2 floors... AND I live in a small town...?!). I had just rounded the corner from the book section and walked right into a whole bunch of brass headboards. Immediately, my heart started beating overly fast! You see, I've had my heart set on this certain headboard for awhile now. It's from Pottery Barn (shocker), but the price was waaay out of my budget... Pottery Barn But in that huge pile of headboards, was the one... And it just happened ... Read more
House Update: Drywall Part Four
I've been missing for a while, but you've probably already noticed that. I've been a bit of a slacker, and I completely admit it. It's not that we haven't seen some massive amounts of progress these past weeks, because it's amazing what's been accomplished, but combine computer issues (insert sad face here) with a whole lot of painting, plus a few problems and that equals one stressed out busy lady. But, good for you because a lot of updates are coming your way this week. Put your boots on and get ready! Last update I left you with some major drywall progress: But, add some drywall mud, texture, primer AND Paint, this is what you get: Believe it or not, but the house is completely ... Read more
House Update: Drywall Part Three
Excitement is in the air! It's been a happy day at the house. So much progress has been made and the house looks entirely different. I actually walked inside the house expecting to see a few 2 x 4 walls... crickets.... I stopped dead in my tracks! There are no 2 x 4 walls inside the house. Nope, nadda, zilch! They are covered! Except the garage... which should be finished up tomorrow. But, the garage isn't included in the interior portion of the house... so I'm calling the interior finished! Can you BELIEVE this? I'm still in a bit of shock myself. For realz! I mean, a few weeks ago we had this: And then last week I left you with this: But.... this is what it looks like NOW: Notice ... Read more
House Update: Drywall Part Two
Whoa! We have walls... with drywall on them! The house looks completely different. Initially I thought that the inside of the house would get much smaller once drywall was added. I'm here to tell you that it didn't happen and it looks absolutely wonderful! Completely wonderful! Outstanding in fact! But, enough chit chat, let's look at some pictures! Just a fair warning, there are lots of them! Kitchen/ Breakfast Area Kitchen Kitchen Kitchen/ Living Room Living Room Dining/ Entry Dining Room Hall Bath Guest Bedroom Office Pantry. Love! It's turning out great.... WE CAN'T WAIT TO MOVE IN! Tomorrow I'll have another happy update! It's a good one! :) ... Read more
