Better After

Halloween Pillows

Sometimes my brother does nice things for me, such as building me a bench out of a headboard, like I’ve always wanted. All I had to do was buy an old headboard and leave it thoughtfully on his front porch with the explicit instructions to ‘BUILD ME A BENCH OUT OF THIS HEADBOARD.”

This is what he returned to me:

And here it is after I painted, and attempted to glaze the details.

Pretty cute, huh? (I started glazing it one time at about 1:30 in the morning, when I was homealone, and then I got a little freaked out and started wondering why the heck I was out in the middle of the night painting a bench, and who was watching me, and I scared myself and ran back inside, and so it’s still only about halfway glazed).

But that’s not the point! The point is, do you like my burlap Halloween pillows? I made them myself, and you can too! I’ve been playing with some heat transfer products from Silhouette, and this is what I came up with.

So much fun. I love that you can use your own fonts with the Silhouette machines. The bat and the witch shapes were only .99 in the online store. They literally have billions of shapes and graphics in there. Slight overstatement. But there really are tons.

(Close up of the witch, ack she’s so cute!)

Here is everything I used:

(Also, you need an iron). (Also, I used the Silhouette hook, which is really helpful for getting into the nooks and crannies of the design to pull off the excess). Then it was just a matter of cutting, ironing, then stuffing the pillows and sewing them shut. I might have actually hot-glued them shut. Not like anyone is going to be laying their heads down on these ya know!

October 23, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

7 In outdoors

The Patio Act

Too much patio furniture or not enough patio? That was the question.

Either Amy and her family could A: make themselves stop liking the outdoors so much and move the party inside for the rest of their lives, or B: extend their patio. (Spoiler alert: They chose B).

Now there’s plenty of room for cooking, eating, entertaining, s’mores-making, square dancing, or whatever it is you like to do outside. Check out more on her blog We Stick Together.

October 23, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

11 In tables/dressers

Chest Reconstruction

I bet people come up to Faye all the time and are like, “Hey Faye, nice chest! And great legs too!” And Faye takes it as a compliment. Because look what she did to this sad and broken old cedar chest: added legs and turned it into a fresh little console table!

Not only that, she did some major reconstructive surgery on her chest and made it open from the front instead of the top. Smart thinking, because otherwise you could never decorate the top without cleaning the floor. Yaheardme?

Check out more on her blog, McGIRLver.

October 22, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

4 In living room

A little hunt-over.

I don’t know too many people who would select “Southwestern Hunting Lodge” as their first choice in home decor, and Cami was no different. So, much to her husband’s dismay, she painted just about everything in their cave-like living room white and never looked back. And her husband eventually came around and agreed that she was a genius. (They always do.)

Check out TONS more pics on her blog Tidbits.

October 22, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

9 In bathroom

It’s just some sweet, sweet vanities, baby!

Happy Friday! Let’s kick the weekend off right with some bathroom makeovers! (Those words have probably never been said by anyone looking to kick the weekend off right.)

And actually, I’m not looking to kick anything off right, because I think I have broken my foot. I dropped a weight on it at the gym on Monday and it’s still killing me today. Lest you think I am some kind of gym-animal, it was only a 10 pound hand-weight. I am not buff. I probably should have iced it right then, but I decided to pretend that it didn’t hurt and continued working out, just in case anyone was watching, but seriously man, it hurt.

Anyway. Kicking off. Here we go:

This bathroom comes from Better After reader Vanessa who was forced to renovate after a broken pipe flooded the entire first floor of her home. Darn. Shucks. What a shame to have to part with those shell sinks and tiny shower. The new look is fabulous, I’m really loving the separate vanities and softer shade of blue too.

And here’s a cool solution for a small bathroom from Amanda at NorvelLove: Shrink the vanity! Look how much floor space she gained by swapping out that clunky old vanity for a sleek and narrow design. Hop on over to her blog to see all the details up close.

This white-done-right bathroom from Rita reaffirms my dreams of someday having an all-white home. That dream is not so possible with kids. Some people say, “Oh, you can totally have white with kids! Just Oxyclean it! Bleach it! No problemo!” Lies. Those people have never met kids.

See how Rita customized this IKEA vanity on her blog Suburbs Mama

October 19, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

13 In tables/dressers

Green Party

If you can’t go another minute without seeing some green dresser makeovers, than today is your lucky day. Green is a lucky color, yes? Green used to be my favorite color, back when I was a young lass and dreamed of someday owning the coolest car that could possibly ever exist in the universe:

A hunter green Ford Explorer.

Dream big, kids.

Anyway, enough about me and my sheltered little past. Here is a mini-round up of some great green makeovers for you.

This one comes from Kaeli at Fancy That Furniture. My daughter was sitting on my lap when I scrolled through the pictures and said “Oooooh, pretty,” when she saw the after. And you know little kids. They don’t lie.

Cathy had to contend with a strange surface glued to the top of this dresser. Some sort of dinosaur-egg fossil laminate countertop thing. You know that thing? It was all the rage way back in never. Now it’s less Jurassic and more fantastic! See more on her blog All of Me … So Far.

Ashley was dying to try out some stencil magic on this old dresser, and opted to do just the drawer fronts. A coat of stain over the whole thing sealed the deal, and it’s looking, as my daughter would say, pretty. (Kids. They may speak the truth, but they sure are no help in the synonym department).

See more on her blog The Freckled Redhead.