Remember...

I call this post "Remember..." since I have started several projects around the house and I am ever-so-slowly doing one thing for each project, here and there. I wanted to show you some progress on some of them.

Remember our basement bathroom remodel? Well, the colors of this decorative pillow really appealed to me so I decided to do a burst of some of these bright colors here and there. I haven't done any of that yet, but I thought to show you the pillow anyways because I think it's just so purdy!

I also decided to switch out the light green bath rug with this brown and beige one.

I still have to put my cream shower curtain here to finish the look.

Remember the light fixture that I purchased? Well it finally went up and made it itself a home to complete the vanity. What do you think?



Remember my great thrift store find, the three black press chairs? Well two of them are sitting pretty in my sunroom...for now at least.

We never got around to finishing painting the sunroom so hence the two random colors.

Moving on...

To the exterior of the house. Our front door looked really worn out and bland. It was a faded color of teal green and not to my liking. So we found some brick red exterior paint and voila. Much better and brighter.

(Side project - still need to spray paint all the gold fixtures and door handles)

And since we are outside, here is my little front porch. It's still a long ways to go before coziness and ice cold lemonades

The Basement Bathroom Reveal

I always appreciate a good before-and-after. So here is my paying-it-forward to those who love them just as much :) This was my first official Do-It-Yourself remodel ever and I am so proud of it! Especially due to the fact that I strictly stuck to a budget of under $150! Woohoo!
So let's take a look at the "before" picture (insert gasp here):

And (drum roll please)! The "after":


Let's take a look at all the details:
Wall Paint - Gleaming Tan (Valspar) from Lowes - $18
New cabinets - after sanding, priming and two coats of espresso brown paint and two new knobs (paint $16, two knobs @$1.90 each - all from Lowes):

New mirror $30 - Walmart:

Hand Towel Holder, Toilet Roll Holder and Towel Rack came all together from Walmart for $20!



Sink faucet from Lowes $30 - yet to be installed. I am willing to wait for a skilled plumber to do this for me :)

Towel basket with my angel :) The basket and the angel are items I had around the house - the bath towels were from Big Lots for only $3.75 each:

"And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them" - love it:

My proudest accessory. Remember my DIY jute vase? Here it is, all prettied-up with some fresh flowers:

Rug and Shower Curtain - Pottery Barn - purchased with a gift certificate so I consider them "FREE"!:

I still need to get a new light fixture and get the new sink faucet installed. And make up my mind about the bath rug and shower curtain. Add some DIY art to the walls and it's finito! When I have a really REALLY after picture I will definitely share :)

UPDATE 5/29/09: After searching high and low for a vanity fixture that is decent looking and under $25 (remember the whole being-on-a-budget thing), I found this one for $22.50 with free shipping on Amazon.com! What do you think?

I couldn't decide on the bronze finish or the brushed nickel finish. I finally decided on a bronze finish to match the wall and the mirror. We will see how it turns out!

My First Major Do-It-Yourself Remodel

The idea of remodeling anything scares me because I am no professional. But, who can seriously afford dropping thousands of dollars on remodeling right now? So the wheels in my head started turning and I began reading up on do-it-yourself projects - the cheapest way to go.
First, I found this great idea on Thrifty Decor Chick's blog. She is awesome! Seriously, she has so many great decor ideas and shows you how to do them, while all at the same time saving some serious cash!
Anyways, I had so many empty glass vases - and had no idea what to do with them. So I grabbed one, a glue gun, and jute rope.

 

Two hours later, I got this! What do you think?

 

This was a practice one but I am still so very proud of my first DIY project:)I am doing several more of these with different sized vases to create an arrangement - for my new bathroom :)
Okay, so on to the big DYI project - the UGLY BLAND BASEMENT BATHROOM!
Something came over me - I had to change this bathroom. It is white, boring, ugly ugly cabinetry - just blah! But again, not much cash to drop on a huge remodel so I had to get a little creative. And thanks to the world of blogging, you can find great ideas on just about anything!
So I made a trip to Lowes (scary thought), picked out paint color for the walls, spray paint and spray paint primer for the cabinets. Painting cabinets = SAND, PRIME, PAINT. This is what the blog world taught me :) And here we go:
This is the bathroom before. Horrific, look away, look away!

 

I started by removing all the hardware (fixtures and such) and removed the cabinets.

 

Next, after I cleaned the cabinets with soap and water, I sanded them down. This was my VERY FIRST time using a sander. I didn't even know what a sander was last week!

This picture shows the difference between the sanded-down door and the original.
Next, I primed the cabinets with spray paint primer. Since I was painting the cabinets a darker color, I got a gray tinted primer to hold the color well.


And here is the bathroom so far.

Compared to its horrific state before, I think it's looking great already! There is still a lot more work to be done - put last coat on the cabinets, install the cabinets, get new light fixtures, faucet, mirror, accessorize, etc. So stayed tuned for the big reveal!