Better After

6 In decor/ tables/dressers

What the shelf?

Shanna had the good fortune of finding this antique five-panel door, in the perfect shade of aqua and perfectly distressed. Like, real-deal distressed. Like, found in a barn under a filthy layer of 50-year-old-barn-detritus distressed.

She sanitized it as much as possible, then turned it into you’ll never guess. Unless you guessed ‘coffee table,’ because then you are correct! Or psychic! Or already a reader of her blog! See more about this door-to-table process on her blog Restoration Redoux.

Here’s another idea if you’ve got some vintage stuff hanging around, but wish it could be more functional and less ‘pile of stuff hanging around.’ Hannah at Young and Crafty wanted to do more than display these suitcases, so she turned them into the display themselves! Suitcase shelves! Cute cute cute.

Just another one of those things that makes me wonder if our great-great-grandchildren will be nailing our wheeled Samsonites to their walls someday. Ha!

January 14, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

6 In bathroom/ other rooms

Stair Off

Ok, this one is a bit of a visual puzzle. As far as I can tell, the two pictures below were taken from the same viewpoint. Before, when you entered this room, you got a face-full of stairs. But look now! It’s a lovely mudroom/powder room combo. With hooks for hanging and benches for sitting and radiant flooring for toe-warming, it’s SO much more welcoming.

“Hang on, dude,” you are thinking, “how do they get upstairs now?” Details, details. Actually, this was just a back staircase to the attic, and obviously not even to code, so Laurel was more than happy to rip it out. See more on her blog SoPo Cottage.

January 14, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

457 In Uncategorized

Thermostat of the Future GIVEAWAY!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Honeywell International Inc.. All opinions are 100% mine.

Santa (aka my sweet mother) was good to me this year (technically last year) and delivered the one thing my little heart desired most of all: a robot vacuum. Sure, most people probably prefer jewelry, or clothes or whatever, but not me. I just want robots.

Robots to clean my dishes, robots to wash and dry my clothes, robots to turn my bread into toast, and robots to vacuum the floor. Most people probably just call these things ‘appliances,’ but not me. Robots are the future!

And thanks to Honeywell, I was recently able to add another member to my growing home-robot army: the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control.

This isn’t your ordinary thermostat, sir. Let’s break it down:

Wi-Fi – It connects to the internet, so you can control your home’s temperature from anywhere, at anytime! I am so lazy efficient, I actually used the free app on my phone to turn it down a few degrees while I was sitting in the same room.

Smart Thermostat – This feature means it can literally ‘learn’ your preferred heating and cooling cycle times, delivering the right temperature, right when you want it.

With Voice Control – Pre-program your voice commands, and you can tell it what to do from across the room, without getting off the couch or out of bed. I tried it in a noisy room full of rambunctious kids, and it instantly obeyed. I expect nothing less from robots. My kids on the other hand …

I was unsure about installing a whole new thermostat, figuring it’d be some intense process, hammering a hole in the wall and doing some major rewiring or something scary.

I put it off for a long time, and then asked my husband to do it instead. He went outside and shut off the fuse, then came inside and resumed watching football, and by the time the next commercial break rolled around, I had popped off the old thermostat, installed the new one myself and connected it to the internet. VERY simple.

The touchscreen can also be customized in varying colors to match your mood or your paint color, just another reason the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control was named Best New Product of 2013.

Now all I need is a conveyer belt robot that whisks me through my morning routine like George Jetson, and my life will be complete!

GIVEAWAY TIME!

Want to win a Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control for your home or business? Sure you do!

Simply leave a comment on this post, and boom!

You’re entered.

That’s it.

That’s all.

Easy.

Giveaway ends one week from today, open to US residents 18 and older. The thermostat is also available to purchase at Home Depot, Amazon.com and BestBuy.com, should you want to get your hands on one right away. The Wi-Fi thermostat that listens, learns, saves. The Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat with Voice Control.

January 13, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

9 In chairs/ottomans/seating/ desks/hutches/buffets/ tables/dressers

Gold Rush

Gold has made a comeback in a major way. For a while there, nobody could stand the stuff. I think it just conjured up images of Mr. T or something, and ‘T’ didn’t stand for ‘tasteful’ back then. But I pity the fool who hasn’t given it a chance lately! It looks so classy and elegant, especially paired with white. Check out the difference it made on this laminate credenza that came straight from a 1970’s office supply store. Brynne simply applied gold leaf to the edges and little finger-hole things (there has to be a specific word for those) and it looks right at home in 2014.

See more and take her thought-provoking quiz “Is Gold Leafing For You?” on her blog The Gathered Home.

This next one makes me curse a little at myself, because I used to have these exact same nesting tables from IKEA, and I didn’t do anything nearly as exciting with mine. Unless you count selling them on Facebook when I got sick of them as exciting. And I don’t.

Sharon did a gold and white number on hers as well, and notice that greek-key embellishments on the longer table? They’re nothing but drawer pulls! Another nifty IKEA hack, inspired by our friend Pam at Simple Details.

Get an up close look at how Sharon attached the handles on her blog Lilikoi Joy.

And Brenda had a set of plain ol’ stools that wasn’t doing anything for her visually. But after a quick disassemble and a visit from the spray paint fairy, her stools look super glam! I especially love how they look against the pink rug too. See more on her blog From Me, With Love.

So, gold virgins, what have you got to lose other than a few bucks on a can of spray paint? Give it a try! If you’re wondering which paint is best, Julia gives a great rundown of common brands on her blog HERE. I personally like the Rustoleum, it’s a truer gold than all the others I’ve tried.

Happy weekend! Now go paint something gold and send the pics to meee!

January 10, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

15 In kitchen/dining

Lose the weight, renovate!

Say what you will about this bizarre before kitchen, but I can totally see the thought process here. Zero cabinets to store your dishes, which is fine, because your stove so tiny that it is only capable of cooking bite-sized meals anyway, which is no problem because your sink is too narrow to even wash a plate, if you even had a place to put one. It’s brilliant. Move over flashy diet trends, the best weight loss plan out there is the Completely Inefficient Kitchen! Oh man, we could make a lot of money with this.

OR, if you prefer to use your kitchen for y’know, eating and storing your eating stuff, then perhaps a kitchen makeover is a better idea instead. Sarah made the most out of her space with this fabulous remodel, and included a super cool backsplash that I totally want to copy.

See it up close on her blog Squirrel & Puffin.

January 9, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

9 In tables/dressers

Tree Debris

Sometime last year I was visiting my parents in Eagar, Arizona, where the wind blows approximately 367 days a year. On this particular day, we were all returning home from lunch, hurrying inside to escape the wind, when I heard a creaking sound in the yard. The aspen tree that my dad had planted when I was probably five years old, the tree that now towered far above the house, was slowly easing out of the ground and leaning toward the roof with every gust.

I didn’t even think. I just reacted. I grabbed a giant chain in the garage, flung it over my back and fearlessly climbed the toppling tree in 60 mph winds. I quickly wrapped the chain around the trunk, then shimmied down and attached the chain to the back of my truck. Then I hopped in, gunned the engine, and ripped that tree right out of the ground, and safely away from the house, in a matter of minutes. Some might call me a hero, but I just did what needed to be done.

Ok, OK. So … that’s not really true. My dad, the true fearless hero, did all that stuff. I was just the one who noticed the tree was falling and jumped up and down and squealed “Daaad! Look at the TREEE!” But I’m still kind of a hero, right? Sort of?

Anyway, Shannon at Sewing Barefoot was not quite as lucky, as this gigantic tree actually did fall all the way onto her house. Look closely, there really is a house under there! But she took her lemons and turned them into lemonade, or more accurately, took a chainsaw to the tree trunk and turned it into this fabulously funky side table. Who got the last laugh now, huh tree?