Better After

16 In other rooms

Painfully Perfect Pantry

Ever heard of pantry-envy-itis? It’s going around. I have a raging case of it right now, thanks to Karianne at Thistlewood Farms. You’ll probably catch it too, by the end of this post. While there is no known cure, doctors do recommend hanging a chandelier in your own pantry to help to alleviate the pain and discomfort caused by pantry-envy-itis.

June 21, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

11 In decor/ lighting

Pineapple Upside Down

Folks, it is nearing that time again. The most wonderful time of the year. Better After’s Annual Ugly Lamp Contest time! Start keeping your eyes peeled for an ugly lamp to submit. Perhaps you and your ugly lamp will be this year’s big winner! You don’t have to actually OWN the lamp, but it does need to be an original picture, like one you took yourself at a thriftstore or somesuch. No just googling “ugly lamps.”

ANYWAY, more details will be coming soon, but you can check out previous years contenders HERE and HERE. And to get you in the spirit of things, here is an ugly lamp from Charlene. It didn’t stay ugly for long however, after she turned its frown upside down with white paint and the girliest little lampshade ever. Adorable.

June 20, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

7 In tables/dressers

Domestic Diva Duel

Ashley at Domestic Imperfection is destined to become the next Martha Stewart, only more awesome. Because I bet even Martha Stewart wouldn’t have noticed the Union Jack pattern lurking withing this old coffee table and brought it to life. No, Martha would have probably hand recycled it into wood chips for her chicken coop/yoga barn or something.

And would Martha have looked twice at saving this poor little country bumpkin table? Ha!
She would probably just use it as an outdoor
cutting board in her mega-garden to julienne vegetables on the spot. Psh. (Seriously, I love Martha, but I honestly had to unsubscribe to her magazine because it was making me feel like a total loser).

But not Ashley, because she is full of WIN! So is her rad table. See it HERE.

(not the ACTUAL before, but pretty darn close.)

June 20, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

10 In decor

Canvassing the Area

Jesse from Nine Red has such a knack for taking stuff and turning it into things you want to hang on your wall. Or, to be less wordy: I suppose I could just say he’s an artist. Because isn’t this triple cut-canvas project he just dreamed up one day truly a work of art? I’d say so! Such a creative idea. I’m totally doing this one, although I’m pretty sure mine would never measure up to these canvases of Awesometown, and also, that would mean I need to go out and buy an exacto knife, and I’m pretty lazy, so we’ll see.

June 19, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

13 In chairs/ottomans/seating

Color Chaos

Today I am adding something to my list of “Things That Would Never Occur to Me,” which is: keeping the green tufted fabric on this chair and painting the frame teal. Hunter green velvet and teal? Doesn’t the sound of that make your eyeballs want to gag? Well guess what pardner, it actually looks really rad. Especially with those bright pillows, don’t you think? It’s so happy! From the girls at Colorsaw.

And here’s another happy place to perch your posterior, from Amber at A Merry Chaos. She recently sent me her ‘gossip bench’ makeover, and in all my years of blogging it up about furniture, I’ve never heard it called that before! It has always been a ‘telephone table’ to me. You learn something new everyday.

June 18, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

14 In tables/dressers

Rise, shine, sing out the glory glory!

Looks like I have a couple giveaway winners to announce, but I will have to get to that later today. I just returned from girls camp where I was a leader over a whole bunch of girls from my church, and I’m a little brain dead. Imagine trying to control the chaos of a three-day slumber party with 200 teenage girls and you can see why. My ears are still ringing and I may never get the words to “Princess Pat” out of my head for as long as I live, but it was fun times.

So here comes a before and after your way, from Andrée-Anne, who admits she can’t stop herself when it comes to ugly and abandoned furniture. She especially likes the challenge of melamine, aka el cheapo particle board. She fixed this one up with a lot of primer and paint, and “tapestry,” which I’m thinking is probably wallpaper … Her blog is in French, so I’m relying on Mr. Google Translate here, and you know how iffy that guy can be.