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Living Rooms

Kitchens

Furniture

13 In lighting

Major Chandelier Potential

It’s getting harder and harder to find old chandeliers worth saving anymore. Thrift stores used to be overrun with them, but people are either snapping them up quickly or realizing that they have MCP (major coolness potential) and not getting rid of them at all. It’s the circle of life.

Do you think the ubiquitous boob light will have a renaissance someday and we will wish we had kept them? I doubt it. But you’d better hang on to all of yours just in case.  Make fruit bowls out of them in the meantime or something.

Don’t actually do that.

But if you’re lucky, you can still find a chandelier to transform, like this one from Jennifer at Dimples and Tangles.

Brass Chandelier Before 1

Whoops, this is a clock.  Don’t worry, the clock comes into play here in a minute … hahaha, A MINUTE.

Clock pun.

Sorry.

THIS is the chandelier. A little shiny and dated, and Jennifer didn’t love the swoopy flourishes and white socket covers.

Brass Chandelier Before

 

Brass Chandelier Makeover

But check this baby out now! Jennifer toned down the brassiness with a satin spray paint and cut the flourishes clean off.  She replaced the traditional bulbs for round ones to update the look, and the clock-turned-ceiling medallion is the perfect finishing touch. Stunning!

HOT TIP ALERT: If you are unsure about painting something that is real brass (and thus more valuable), try to stick a magnet to it.  Authentic brass will not hold a magnet. Most fixtures like this are brass-coated steel (aka fakey fake), so if a magnet sticks, go ahead and paint worry-free!

12 In tables/dressers

Nerd Mentality

Did you know there’s a difference between geeks and nerds? Yep, it’s true. According to MastersInIT.org, the terms ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ have different historical origins, traits, jobs, and even favorite movies.

A ‘geek’ is someone with a specific niche-interest or lifestyle that they have become an expert on, while a ‘nerd’ has an extreme interest or fascination with academics.

Geeks’ interests might include: gaming, film, collecting gadgets or technology, computing, coding, hacking, techno music, or screen printing; while nerds’ interests might include: Battlestar Galactica, LARPing, SecondLife, Physics, Chess, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, or computer programming.

Geeks are most likely to love Anchorman, Donnie Darko, Tron, Office Space, and Arrested Development; while Nerds are most likely to love Lord of the Rings, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Matrix, and Pi.

So if someone calls you a ‘nerd’ or a ‘geek,’ guess what? Both of those are pretty cool. Don’t be afraid to own it. Wear your geekiness/nerdiness with pride!

These dresser makeovers are will totally make your inner geek squeal with glee:

Dr. Who Dresser Before

 

Dr. Who Dresser

A Tardis dresser! Geektastic! (Is Dr. Who geeky or nerdy? I’ve never actually watched this show, but my kids are huge fans. Please advise).

 

I know this next one is nerd-friendly, only because Star Wars was mentioned the ‘nerd’ category above.  I’ve never actually watched Star Wars either. Oh wait, I just reread that paragraph.  It actually says Star TREK is nerdy, it didn’t mention Star Wars. I don’t know much about either one, but I think there’s a difference? *ducks as diehard fans throw things at me*

Star Wars Dresser Before

 

Star Wars Dresser

Geeky? Nerdy? I don’t know! But I DO know an awesome makeover and a talented artist when I see one.

Molly at Just a Little Creativity is responsible for both of these adorable dressers, so head on over to her blog for much more! See the Dr. Who dresser makeover here.

 

So what are you? Geek? Nerd? I obviously fall into neither category.  Nerdily fascinated with academics? No. I sweat when I have to do math. Expert level interest in film or technology? My favorite movie is Wayne’s World, so … no. I do have a love of cheesy puns and a propensity for dancing badly in public.

I must be a dork!

8 In kitchen/dining

A Rental Quick Fix Remix

Renting can be a drag. I’ve been there, I know. You have to live with things you don’t love but can’t do much about. All white walls, outdated fixtures, or worse. I once rented a house in college where the oven was in the middle of the kitchen. Like just standing there alone. By itself. Like a girl who never gets asked to dance. My sister is renting a house right now and the lighting situation in the kitchen is so terrible, she often uses a flashlight to see what she’s cooking. I’m sure we all have a horror story or two.

Kevin wasn’t so bad off. He actually had a pretty blank slate of a kitchen. It can’t get any blanker than white cabinets with white hardware with white counters and white walls. He figured it couldn’t hurt to improve what he could, so he made just a few small landlord-friendly changes …

White Rental Kitchen Before

White Rental Kitchen Makeover

… and it made such a difference! He replaced the knobs with modern pulls, using the biggest size he could find for maximum impact. The backsplash is actually a product called SmartTile, a thin adhesive tile which is, as he says, “crazy easy to install and remove, and very cost effective.”

A couple other changes include using a countertop paint to bring some color to the counters, and a very light gray paint on the lower cabinets for a little more visual interest.  You should get permission from your landlord before you go painting your counters and cabinets … or you could always ask for forgiveness later …

See more from Kevin on his blog Thou Swell.

And if you have a rental horror story, by all means, let’s hear it!!

1 In bedroom

Personality Quest: finding your style

If you’ve ever scrolled through page after page of gorgeous home photos in Pinterest and subsequently thrown your computer at your own barren walls in disgust, I’m here to help. Don’t despair my friend! Please remember this: a beautiful home takes time.

Unless you’ve got money coming out your ears and impeccable taste, your home will probably be a work in progress for a while. That’s OK! It takes time to figure out your style. You can count on making a few missteps along the way. You might buy a few accessories that have no business belonging to you, or paint every room in your house a color that you regret immediately. You might save and save to buy that amazing sofa for the living room and still be eating dinner on folding chairs in the kitchen.

But isn’t that half the fun? How else would you become confident in your style? How else would you really learn how to identify what you love? That’s why I think it’s a good idea to take pictures of your house every so often, to see how it evolves and changes and how far you’ve come. Just like you would with your children! I bet you would amaze yourself.

Check out where Emily’s bedroom started:

Coastal Master Bedroom Before

Hand-me-down furniture, those familiar barren walls, mismatched and sparse accessories. Not that there’s anything wrong with hand-me-down furniture, but it certainly wasn’t a cohesive look. Let’s check out the next phase:

 

Getting better! New flooring, curtains, paint color and a DIY wall treatment. She could have stopped there. But I’m so glad she didn’t. Let’s see how it looks today with just a few more tweaks:

Coastal Master Bedroom

Wow! The wall color is softer and complements the new bedding beautifully. The plug-in sconces add some much-needed height. The artwork looks more upscale now that she painted the frames and added burlap mats. She’s brought in softness, pattern, texture, and color, and it doesn’t even look distantly related the first picture!

Don’t you find that so inspiring? I do.  See much more from Emily at Table and Hearth.

6 In tables/dressers

Three ways to repurpose any dresser!

Do you have a nasty old dresser hanging around? Don’t be so quick to toss it. It has more life in it left than you might realize.

“But Lindsey” you say, “my dresser looks like it was attacked by a bear. It’s a piece of garbage. Garbage would consider it garbage.”

Not so, my friend. Check out how Gail repurposed this badly beaten-up specimen:

Aqua Bookcase Before

Aqua Bookcase from a repurposed dresser

 

Ohhh yeah. She took out the drawers, stacked them up vertically, and made a bookcase!

What happened to the rest of the dresser? Would you believe it also became a bookcase? Check out Gail’s blog at My Repurposed Life to see!

 

“Ok, well what about this?” you ask. “I have an cheaptastic Craigslist dresser made from particle board and glue. I absolutely hate it, but at least it holds a lot of stuff.  Is there any hope for me?”

Shush my dear. Of course there is. Mindi also had a junky dresser on her hands, and about 10,000 toys and video games at her feet. Awesomely, one problem solved the other when she used the dresser to create a video game storage unit.

Video Game Storage Before

Video Game Storage from a repurposed dresser

Wait, what? How is it so perfectly narrow? She couldn’t have just tipped the dresser on its side. Did she saw it in half? Did she secretly buy this piece brand new and is only pretending to have created it from that old dresser? Is she a DIY DECEIVER?

No, nope, and of course not. She actually only used the drawers, just like Gail! She attached them together, turned them on their side, trimmed everything out, added doors and hardware, and stained it, BAM. Check out her blog My Love 2 Create and see just how many toys and games she was able to fit in there!

 

“Wow, I’m feeling it!” you exclaim. “There really is hope for every disgusto garbagedresser!”

Yes! You are seeing the light! Let me blow your mind one last time with this makeover from Corey, who has never seen a dresser she didn’t imagine as something infinitely better.

Gray Mini Mudroom Organizer Before

gray repurposed dresser

Yes, that before dresser and this after storage unit are one and the same. I can hardly believe it either! See the how-to at Sawdust 2 Stitches, then get busy making magic to your own super sad dresser today! I know you’ve got one somewhere.

3 In other rooms

Power Playroom

This before room certainly wasn’t bad. I mean, check out that window! Plus vaulted ceilings and hardwood floors? Not bad at all.

But it’s a playroom, in two shades of brown. Probably not the first color choice of most kids. Still, I don’t want to make assumptions. So just to be sure, I called my 9-year-old son into the room and said, “Hey, would you like it if I painted your room in two colors of brown?”

He replied, “Uhhhh … that would be interesting.” Such a diplomat. Then I showed him the before picture. “Oh, that’s pretty cool I guess,” he replied.

I realized my plan was backfiring and panicked a little.

“W-w-wait!” I stuttered. “What do you like better, the brown room, or THIS room?”

Bright and Fun PlayRoom makeover Before

 

Bright and Fun Play Room

Then I showed him this after picture. He gasped. A nine-year-old boy literally gasped. He announced that the after was way better. Then he realized he might have hurt my feelings because it seemed like I had really high hopes of painting his bedroom in two shades of brown. He backpedaled for a minute, until I assured him that I liked the after picture way better too. He seemed relieved. So there you have it.

This playroom makeover belongs to Sara at Shabby Grace and she did a fantastic job brightening it up and bringing it to life. It looks twice as big now. Did you notice the fancy new trim around the window too? Be sure to check out her blog to see all the cute little details!

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