Better After

11 In bathroom

Leave It To Fever

This wallpaper from Lura’s former bathroom looks exactly how I feel today. Queasy and uneasy. I spent most of last night either crouched ’round the toilet or flopping back and forth in bed with simultaneous chills and night sweats. Booo! But look, I am up and blogging for you, dear reader, because I love you so!

So, may I present to you Phase 1 of Lura’s bathroom makeover. Phase 2 will involve new tile and de-brassing the fixtures, but I actually don’t even mind them next to the bronze and blue accents she’s added to the room. Do you agree, or is that the fever talking? See more on her blog Domesticability.

This post brought to you by:

Still time to enter the $50 giveaway!

December 20, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

8 In outdoors

No Maroon’s Land

Better After reader Emily and her husband bought this foreclosure, which I’ve nicknamed The Maroon Manor, back in June. They worked their buns off all through summer and fall to de-maroon-ify it and get it to the eye-pleasing point it is today. And they managed to stay within a miraculous budget of less than $1,000, including tree removal! Woahvilles.

Now I can’t think of anything catchy to call it, other than good lookin’!

This post brought to you by:

Still time to enter the $50 giveaway!

December 19, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

3 In chairs/ottomans/seating

Curtain Bluff

Not long ago, Roeshel was trying to sew some curtains for her family room. One thing led to another, and next thing you know she had made-over a pair of chairs for her sitting room. Isn’t that how it always goes? You try to start one project, but first you have to clear off the table, which means cleaning out a closet, finding an old can of paint, then obviously you have to redecorate the adjacent room?

That’s exactly how this $6 pair of orange and fuchsia chairs got toned down with nothing more than latex paint and a crazed crafter in pajamas. BEEN THERE. See more from the always fabulous Roeshel on her blog The DIY Showoff.

I like how the picture below shows off the quilted texture of the chairs. Also, those legs! Didn’t even notice ’em before, did you?

This post brought to you by:

Still time to enter the $50 giveaway!

December 19, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

3 In tables/dressers

A License to Thrill

We all have a collection of old license plates laying around that we don’t know what to do with, right? Actually, I really did have that problem once. I nailed them to the wall, because I ooze creativity. Here is a much better idea from Holly at Holly Do.

She forgot to take a before pic, but I forgive, because I always forget to do that too. This one is pretty durn close. Don’t you think it would be perfect for a little boy’s room? And could easily still be cool for a teen’s room too!

This post brought to you by:

Still time to enter the $50 giveaway!

December 18, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

165 In Uncategorized

Pooh Pooh Pillow $50 gift certificate giveaway! (GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED)

** GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED **

Because we had a little day of silence on the blog on Friday, I postponed this giveaway until today. So please give a warm welcome to Wendy and her brand new shop Pooh Pooh Pillows!

I know you are wondering about that name; so was I. Her dad is the one to thank for bestowing her with that childhood nickname, while her mother gets credit for patiently teaching little Wendy a love of sewing. Now she’s an accountant by day and a professional pillow purveyor by night.

And what pretty pillows they are! Here are a few of my favorites from her shop:

Metallic polka-dot burlap? YES.
She has it in pink too!

I also love her collection of monogrammed pillows. Here’s more good news: now through Christmas day, everything in her shop is 15% off with the code CYBERMONDAY.

But today she has generously offered one Better After reader $50 to spend freely in her shop! Entering is easy! You could be lounging around on your new pillows before you know it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

December 17, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

9 In tables/dressers

Nail Removal

I’m sure many of your hearts were heavy all weekend with the sad news of those beautiful children, as was mine. Maybe you came here today to get your mind off the tragic events just for a moment. I can relate. I keep switching between news sites and celebrity gossip sites, just to escape reality for a quick minute and pretend that I live in a world where Jessica Simpson’s new dog is the most important thing we have to talk about. Oh, if only. We’ll carry on, as we must. But we’ll never forget.

So, here is something happy and fun for your eyes and hearts this morning, a great little console table makeover from Caitlin at Desert Domicile. She nixed the zebra, but planned to keep the nailhead trim. Then she discovered that nailing the trim back into place was not so easy after several coats of paint (finding the perfect paint color wasn’t so easy either), so she changed course and went with a pyramid trim found at JoAnns. It’s so much edgier now!