Meowzers!

Better After reader Alicia recently acquired this unloved dresser and put it to work as a TV stand instead. Much better use of this piece, I'd say. I don't understand these types of dressers with the single cabinet, what am I supposed to put in there?  A small stack of clothes on a dark little shelf behind a tiny door that I have to kneel down on the floor to access? Must have been made for back in the day when people were smaller and more nimble and could see better in the dark. Hey, that also describes cats!  Maybe this was made for fancy little clothes-wearing cats, who knows.

Anyway, isn't that grasscloth wallpaper so totally hip and modern?  Alicia actually found it in an old family friend's basement circa 1970! 

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This post sponsored by:

Now available in olive green!

  Use code BETTERAFTER for 20% off at checkout!

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Taking Shape with Painter's Tape

There are so many things you can do with painter's tape besides using it for painting.  For instance, I am using some to hold up a calendar on my fridge!  Woo!  Ok, so most of the other things you can do with painter's tape are boring. Let's just stick with those that involve paint.  Here come two that I am especially digging!

Heather elevated her plain-jane table's coolness factor by about a million percent with some cleverly placed tape and gold spray paint.  Your knee-jerk reaction to the idea of gold spray paint might be 'yikes, tacky!' but this look is anything but. It looks amazing against the white too. Seriously, I bet people would pay mega-bucks for this!  See more on her site Hrrthrrr.

(a slightly photoshopped before!)

And I love how the original finish of this old locker shines through these charcoal colored stripes.  Such a modern look.  Alina was aiming for matte stripes against the shiny metal for maximum contrast, so she whipped up her own chalk paint! Overachiever alert! See the whole how on her blog My Yellow Umbrella.

This post sponsored by: 

Now also available in olive green! 
Use code BETTERAFTER for 20% off at checkout!

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Getting Pragmatic in the Attic

Have you ever wanted to try something hard, like say ... running?  And talked yourself out of it a hundred times because you are too old/tired/out of shape/busy/cold/hot/whatever?  And then you see one of those inspirational stories that have me all teary-eyed just thinking about, like the little kid who was born with no legs, and how he can run an entire marathon before you could even get off the couch, and so you think to yourself, "Self, you have NO excuse.  Stop being so lame."  Do you know what I'm talking about?  Where is this analogy going?  Am I saying I'm going to take up running?  Ha ha, no.  No thanks.  What I'm trying to say is that if Sarah can make a master bathroom out of this  ... um ... what is this? A spare-chimney attic crawl-space?  I have no idea.

ANYWAY, if Sarah can make a master bathroom out of this, then every single person out there with a working toilet and four walls has no excuse to not have a cute bathroom too!  See the whole story on her blog Lovely Chaos.

This post sponsored by:

WD Bathrooms

 Shower Trays          Bathroom Suites          Shower Doors

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Everything and (especially) the kitchen sink.

Man oh man, I've received a lot of fantastic kitchen makeovers recently.  So don't be discouraged if you've sent yours my way and haven't seen it posted, I'm trying to space them out a little bit so no one gets visually overloaded by all this kitcheny goodness and sues me for breaking their eyeballs or anything.  So, with that said, please prepare yourself for amazingness. 

Today's kitchen belongs to Kelly, and it's so unbelievable, I honestly had to double check to make sure I had used the right before and after pictures. Ridiculous. I love the apron sink, I love the herringbone backsplash, I would give both my left and right kidneys for those pendants.  And did you notice the red stove too?!  Tons more details on her blog Eclectically Vintage, and I want them all!

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Beautifica[tion]

I've said it before and I'll say it again ... (and probably again, and again.  I have nearly 1,600 posts on this here blog, I'm bound to repeat myself!)  Anyway, so like I've said many times in the past, I LOVE home exterior redos!  I don't care how great a home looks on the inside, if it's lacking curb appeal, it's lacking too much for me.

Jennifer's little home was not anything you'd take a second look at driving past. But it had so much character under all that blah, that it didn't' take much to make it shine. Now it's so adorable, I bet she has to shoo people off of her lawn all day!  They just congregate around it, attracted to the cuteness like a moth to flame, trying to take wedding portraits and senior pictures and shoot dog food commercials and stuff.  I really wouldn't be surprised.  Check out more on her blog Migra[tion].

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DIYed and Gone to Heaven

Hello!  Hope you had a lovely weekend.  Did you know I'm a contributor over on one of the coolest websites ever, Cake Wrecks?  My most recent post is available for your viewing pleasure HERE.

Now, welcome Monday! Hey, don't roll your eyes! Facing another week of workdays needn't be such a drag.  But if the thought of spending another minute in your office is giving you a case of the downers, why not try an office makeover like Virginia's here? I am in love with this look. It's like if heaven had a front office. Beautiful!  See lots more on her blog Live Love DIY.

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The Shine Project GIVEAWAY! (GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED)

(now closed)
I'm so excited to introduce you today to Ashley!  Isn't she a doll?  And not only is she nearing illegal levels of cuteness, she is also one of the biggest do-gooders I know. 

Ashley is the face behind The Shine Project, an organization designed to inspire you to live the highest quality of life obtainable.

From hosting service events around the country to providing scholarships to inner-city teens to simply bringing light to those who need hope, The Shine Project is all about love, sacrifice, and CHANGE. 

Today Ashley is launching her latest project Pay It Forward.  This genius idea is designed to get people started doing small and simple things everyday that will make an impact on somebody else in their community.

Here's how it works: With each act of kindness you perform, you can leave behind a card with a unique ID number on it, encouraging your benefactor to do the same.  You can log into a website and track where your card has gone and how much impact you've made with each simple act!

The cards can be purchased from The Shine Project Store for only $2.50 per pack of 10, along with many other Shine items available, the proceeds of which go to The Shine Scholarship Fund.

Today, to help spread the word, she has offered Better After readers a chance to win three of her most popular items!  One lucky winner will receive all three:

The Circle Shine rose necklace seen below:

A Shine wristband:

AND this super cute Be the Change Tee!

(Stop being so dang cute Ashley.  Just stop it.)

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Entering is easy!

Simply leave a comment here!

For up to three extra entries you can:

1.  Visit the Shine Shop

2.  Like The Shine Project on Facebook

3.  Visit the Shine Project Blog

PLEASE don't forget to come back and leave separate comments for each entry you did to better your chances to win, and also leave a way for me to get in contact with you!

Giveaway ends Monday, Feb. 27.

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Get involved today!  Pass it Forward and spread some SHINE!

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Odds and ends, bits and pieces

This post is a bunch of before and afters than have nothing to do with each other!  No common color, no theme of any kind, just a random assortment of little projects that I though were cool in one way or another and wanted to share!  

Well, I don't know if this waterfall project by Becky qualifies as little, because there were some serious boulders she had to wrangle into place to create this great water feature in what used to be a dirty corner of emptiness.  Check out how she did it on her blog Reinventing the Ordinary.

Catherine at Freddy and Petunia always has something crafty up her sleeve, like this frame she made into a jewelry box.  "But Lindsey, that is not a jewelry box, it's just a jewelry frame!"  Ha!  You underestimate Catherine's craftiness!  It is indeed a jewelry box with a lid and everything, see? 

Found a cool old dresser, but is has no drawers?  Well turn that frown upside down, because you just scored a sweet little storage unit.  Liz Marie simply filled in her dresser's empty spaces with open shelving. Try it! Not only will you have more space to stash your stuff, you will have reduced your fingers-slammed-in-drawer-injury-potential to zero percent.

I love Emily's spiff-ified suitcase project here.  I think everything on earth would be more cheerful and fabulous with the addition of vintage bird-wallpaper.  Perhaps I should wallpaper my crotchety old neighbor guy across the street who actually called the cops on my son once for riding his bike through his yard.  I'm sure that would set him straight. See more on Emily's blog Creatively Em.

And speaking of fanciful wallpaper, that's what Anastasia used to fix up this worn out hutch.  Not only did she brighten it up (wow!) but she invented something new in the process: a murphy desk!  Brilliant way to maximize its capabilities.  There's another fun little surprise on her hutch that you can see on her blog Haharyashki. 

Dang it, I meant to post this one on Valentine's day, since everyone knows St. Valentine was the patron saint of all things pink and sparkly.  Or love.  Whatever, same thing. From Elaine at Visual Meringue.

And finally, check out this amazing painted floor from Becca. Anything would have been an improvement over that linoleum acid-trip, if acid-trips were very, very beige. (It's like a kaleidoscope of meh.)  Well not anymore, buckaroo. She covered it in cuteness and you can see how on her blog Becca and Jared. (whoops, just realized this is a private blog.  perhaps she'll enlighten us in the comments!)

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Weather-feign

Kris wanted a raw, reclaimed wood look for her kitchen table. Since Restoration Hardware wants to charge you first and last months rent to even look at their furniture, she decided to forgo buying a new one and make do with what she had. So she set it outside for fifty years and beat it intermittently with a hammer until she achieved that perfect weathered patina.  No, wait, that's what I would have done.  Kris actually came up with this whole aging method involving much sanding, two different stain colors, and wax.  It looks totally authentic!  (But you have to admit, my way is easier.)  Check out the whole how-to on her blog KrisKraft.

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