Every year Matt and I decide to tackle some big project in our home. We do a lot of things ourselves but this project was out of our league. We wanted to add a wall between our office and formal living room. Yup, you read that right... ADD a wall! It's not often that adding a wall in your home improves it, but in our case it made a huge difference!

I worked with my friend, Michaela, who helped me with the design elements and I love the way it turned out! She was so knowledgeable and easy to work with. I highly recommend her! If you'd like to work with her she is offering my readers $25 off her consult package. Just mention my name. Take a look at the before and afters below:

As you can see there was no door prior to the remodel. I wanted to make sure we still had natural light coming in through the office window so I opted for a glass french door. It arrived primed and I painted it black and added the matte gold lever.

At first it didn't cross my mind to do anything other than slap up a textured wall like the rest of the ones in our house. Luckily it dawned on me that I should add some interest by using shiplap. And whew! so glad I did! The contractor installed it and I went back and painted it myself. I love the character it adds to the room but I purposely brought in other modern design elements to keep it from looking too "country" or full blown farmhouse.

Remember the Barbie house monstrosity?! Maybe not...I clearly don't try to advertise it haha. We moved the Barbie house up into the girls' bedroom and Matt put a ton of shelving inside the nook to make it a closet. The contractor framed it in and added  the sliding barn door.

In order to give the barn door a bit more of a modern feel I went with a shaker style door (instead of the typical X style) and added the track to it with a modern handle. Can I get a hallelujah for how much better this space looks?!

If you turn around to exit the room you'll see the magnetic chalkboard Matt made for this space. Instead of cluttering my refrigerator with all my kids' *darling* art I tack it up in here. They still feel special with their masterpieces on display but it's in a more conspicuous location. Win-win!

Sources are listed below... let me know if I missed something you're interested in!

Matte Gold Door Lever: by Emtek, purchased at Amazon
Braided Rug: Pottery Barn Outlet
White Kids Table: Ikea
Toy Storage Unit: Target
Seagrass Storage Baskets: Amazon
Seaglass Blue Lamp: Crate and Barrel
Artwork: Minted
Letter Board: Letterfolk
White Craft Storage Drawers: Ikea
Metallic Plant Basket: Target (old)
Black Desk: Ballard Design (old)
Matte Black curtain rod: Amazon Basics
Pinstriped Curtains: Pottery Barn
Gold Floor Task Lamp: Target (old)
Magnetic Chalk Board: DIY
Barn Door Handle: Amazon
Light Fixture: Shades of Light
Faux Fiddle Leaf Fig: Ikea
Large Basket: Yard Sale Find
Desk Chairs: Target (old)
Ask Dad Sign: Hobby Lobby
Black Picture Frames: Magnolia Market
Floor Pouf: Target
The paint on my walls is called "Simply White" by Benjamin Moore. Ace Hardware carries it. I hope you enjoyed the tour! Stay tuned for the formal living room!

One of my new year's goals was to paint our great room white. When we moved into our home all of our walls were painted a fleshy tan color. Slowly we have painted the bedrooms grey and are now getting to the rest of the house.

I love how rooms photograph when they are white and they always look good on Fixer Upper. ;) So, we went for it. At first M and I panicked a little bit because the room looked SO white. It was pretty sterile looking but we recently added some curtains and it really softens it up.

We also took down our old mantle and M built this new one from some distressed wood from Home Depot. I love it!

Check out the befores and afters! Such an improvement.

Candle sticks and chalkboard from Home Goods. Vases, frames, and olive branches from Magnolia Market. 

Before 

Before

Still saving up for wood floors and eventually want to update our furniture but what an improvement!

Bye bye fleshy walls

Just got these baskets with lids from World Market for half off because their store was closing. No more looking at Blair's ugly toys!

Curtains from Home Goods. Rods from Target. Pillow from Home Goods.

Allllll the heart eyes! I just love how bright and clean it turned out! And I do realize I need to let out the hem on the curtain. It perfectly touched the ground on the carpeted side but not the tile side. I also wanted to raise the rod up but then my curtains would have really been high waters. Either way I'm loving this fresh new look! 

Remember this old ugly mailbox? Well it is ugly no more! I can now say that I am no longer embarrassed when the mailman comes to deliver our mail. All it took was a screw driver and some black spray paint and voila! A chic new mailbox! Plus it matches the shutters and front door on our house (extra bonus). I can now officially scratch this off my summer bucket list! 

BEFORE...

 ew. gross. how did i live with this for 4 years?

 the glorious new version!

 LBM: little black mailbox

Ta Da!

I was pretty pleased with my little DIY project. I even used a screwdriver! :) Happy Wednesday! See you tomorrow!

     Recently I've been on a mini redecorating binge. I say mini because I've been purchasing small items that make a big impact. I say binge because I've been purchasing a lot of them! I replaced this centerpiece with the one pictured below. I have had this serving tray since we got married and only used it for dinner parties. The pictures were cute but seemed too juvenile for me now so I replaced them with scrapbook paper that complemented my new throw pillows. 

before...

all the pictures had food in them some how. whether it was wedding cake or a slice of pizza

pale blue print paper with linen paper

 this is what it looked like before i hit the clearance rack at pottery barn and home goods...

and after...

 a cute doggy, some potpourri in tuberose (my fave!), a shiny candle holder, and coasters

i love!

and this is what it looks like after!

     It's amazing what accent pieces can do to a space! And it didn't break the bank! I purchased some other awesome things but those will be posted later. :) I love the new look and find myself trying to spend as much time as possible in this room now. 

     On a side note I noticed that my new accessories have a hint of grayish blue to them which I would have hated in the past but I am currently loving it. I think blue used to remind me of older houses that had blue tile in the kitchen/bathroom with geese (with bows around their necks) printed on everything from hand towels to soap dispensers. However now I think that it has a soothing quality and can be very "pottery barn" when done right. It is also a great color for summer and when winter comes I can switch it out if I want. But since I love it so much I probably won't. :) I can't wait to show you the other updates I did tomorrow!

If you have been reading my blog lately you know that I am lovin' anything ikat pattern. I scoured Etsy and found some pillows that I love and they arrived at our house while we were in Yosemite. Such a fun surprise to open when I got home! I also changed out the center piece on the coffee table for a different look that goes better with the new pillows. Stay tuned for that DIY update tomorrow! Here are some before pictures of our family room...

before with the coffee table center piece and old pillows

hard to get a good photo when it's light out but this is another shot of the "wintery" pillows

and after...

 i even saw ikat print pillows in my newest pottery barn catalog!

 a little ikat print and a little trellis print

 

 

 

this picture is a little dark but do you think i should get one more ikat pillow for the right side of the couch to match the left side? or do you like that it's not matchy matchy?

On a side note, Matt created a video from our backpacking trip that I really want to share but youtube and facebook both disabled it from being posted because it contains music that is copyrighted. I am SO bummed because the movie is not the same without the music. Suggestions? If you still want to take a peak of us in action click on my facebook tab to the right and you can watch it there. And while you are there watching the video be sure to "like" my page. Thanks!

See you tomorrow with the updated coffee table tray!

PS Matt says it's okay to update the pillows every few years just not every season. ;)

While I'm away backpacking in Yosemite...

I love looking at other people's before and after photos of pretty much anything so here are a few from our garden before summer and during the middle of it. Excuse the horrible mid day lighting...

 tomatoes and santa barbara daisy planted here

 right after everything was planted...

strawberries and bell peppers

 AND AFTER...

huge early girl tomatoes!

 

 big roma tomatoes and catnip for Stan :)

 ripening strawberries

 waiting for these bell peppers to turn colors

grapes!

 this guy is way too early...

 eggplant, sweet 100 tomato, jalapenos, and yellow bell peppers

 basil

 crazy zucchini and squash!

 eggplant

What do you have growing in your garden this year? We are thinking about planting heirloom tomatoes next year...any suggestions?

See you on Monday with lots of pictures and stories from hiking half dome!