Better After

8 In kitchen/dining

Mixed Feelings

Hilary’s dining room used to look like little more than a landing pad for extra furniture. Grandma’s hope chest? Stick ‘er here! Impossibly narrow china cabinet? Throw it in the corner! Multi-colored plant stand? There’s an empty spot over there! Contemporary console with matching ottomans? I’ve always said the dining room needs more ottomans.

But she streamlined the room by clearing out all the excess and making the back wall a major focal point. Doesn’t the window look twice as big? I love the chunky table with the delicate wire chairs too, such an eclectic look. See, sometimes mix-and-match is a good thing! See more on her blog My So Called Home.

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May 8, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

8 In tables/dressers

Zip Zap I Need a Nap

Woah. Nelly. This dresser was having an ugly crisis. Suzy from Simply Vintageous rescued it with some super cool zig-zagging stripes in alternating colors, which just reminded me of a funny story. It’s probably only funny to me. So here goes: This weekend I had to print out some pictures at the Sam’s Club photo lab, which I hadn’t used in a while. I logged in to my photo account, and apparently, at some point in the past, for reasons completely unknown, I had told Sam’s Club that my first name was Zipzap. That’s what popped up when I logged on: “Welcome, Zipzap!” So I had to go in and pick up my pictures under the name “Zipzap Allen.” And I laughed about it all day. True story.

Anyway, zipzaps or zig-zags aside, this dresser is 1000% improved. Great job Suzy!

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May 7, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

3 In tables/dressers

Worming your Way

Happy Monday! Did you find any treasures this weekend? I had all the intentions in the world of waking up early on Saturday and hitting some yard sales, but when it came down to it, I could not make myself get out of bed early enough. There will always be more next weekend. Yes, I totally take our year-round yard-sale weather for granted here.

But Dionne was an early bird and caught this worm, though it’s practically an insult to call it a worm. It was in amazing shape. She just gave it a little refresher to bring it up to date, and I love it, like, so hard. See more on her blog The Turquoise Iris. (See her now in the after picture if you look close enough!)

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May 7, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

403 In Uncategorized

Pick Your Plum Giveaway! (GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED)

(now closed)

Hey craftypants! That’s right, I’m talking to you. You like to craft and make things and be creative and all that stuff, right? Sure you do. Then you should really be aware of Pick Your Plum.

Pick Your Plum is a daily-deal site with insane prices on crafting swag. Mega insane. Like, pennies sometimes.

They offer one new deal per day, Monday through Friday, on high-quality products for crafting, clothing, baking, home decor and plenty of other fabulous finds.

And guess what? They want to give a whole bunch away! To you!

Yep, Pick Your Plum has generously offered to give away a “Plum Box” stuffed chock full of $75 worth of their favorite crafty finds!

No one knows for sure what is in the box (oooh, a mystery) but all of
the pictures in this post are items that have found their way inside a
Plum Box before.

I’m excited!

Entering is Easy!

To enter to win the Plum Box (valued at $75) simply:

‘Like’ Pick Your Plum on Facebook!

and/or

(don’t forget to come back here and leave separate comments letting me know you did so! And PRETTY PLEASE leave a way for me to contact you.)

If you are already a Pick Your Plum subscriber, well, just leave a comment here and that will count for an entry too.

That’s it! Winner will be chosen at random Monday, May 7th, open only to US residents, (sorry!)

Good luck! Have a great weekend friend.

May 4, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

11 In kitchen/dining

Chocolicious Kitchen

Here’s one for all you dark chocolate lovers out there. Sorry, there isn’t actually any chocolate in this post, but there are some chocolate colored cabinets! Because who doesn’t like dark chocolate? I know plenty of people don’t, but guess what? Those people are crazy. Dark chocolate is delicious. You know what else is good? Dark chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds from Trader Joe’s. My friend (Hi Steph!) brought me some over when I was so, so sick with strep, because if you’re about to die, you might as well die happy, and I have since become addicted to those things, so you should really try them.

Wow, I’m rambling. It must be Friday. Anyway, please enjoy this beautiful kitchen makeover from Andrea at Decorating Cents that is totally making me crave my pomegranate seeds. I have to go to my pantry now.

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May 4, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

13 In bedroom/ kiddie

Earning your Stripes

By now, I’m sure you know of my love affair with gray. And stripes. In fact, I saw a girl with the cutest gray and white striped skirt on at church on Sunday and it was all I could do to stop myself from tearing it off of her and running for the hills. That would have called for some repenting.

This room had a few sins as well, but mostly just that the paint colors made it look like an employee at Target. You know what would perk it up? Stripes! Don’t be fooled, gray is totally a perky color.

See all the great details of this toy-room turned big-boy room makeover from Melissa on her blog A Place to Nest.