Better After

12 In other rooms

Stairy Stories

I spent the weekend redoing my stairs! Don’t they look great? Ha, I wish. These are not my stairs, rather, they belong to Better After reader Anne. Anne is a bit of a rockstar and did all of this herself with a circular saw!

I would totally do this myself too, if a) I didn’t have carpeted stairs, and b) I was confident with a saw. I’m actually quite horrified of saws these days, thanks to a story my uncle just told me about his woodworker brother, but I won’t repeat it here in case you are eating breakfast. But it’s gross. Email me if you really want to know. However, Anne survived, fingers intact, and her staircase looks great! Thanks Anne!

December 5, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

17 In kitchen/dining

Sharin’ with Erin

Please prepare your eyeballs for the utter amazingness they are about to behold. This is what happens when you let Erin from Just Grand remodel your kitchen. Erin is new to blogging, but she knows a thing or two or eleven about kitchen design. Yeah, I know, it didn’t really look like a kitchen before, did it? This vintage colonial home was large and spacious, but had a tiny outdated kitchen. So Erin took this extra living space that was just lying around and reimagined it into straight-up dreamyville.

Tons more pics to see on her blog, but I just can’t look anymore. I’m afraid my eyeballs will wither up from my burning jealousy.

December 2, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

4 In tables/dressers

Four-leaf Do-over

Shannon got lucky when she found this sweet little quatrefoil cut-out table for a measly $10. Did you know “quatrefoil” means “four leaves?” Yeah, kinda like a four-leaf clover, the official world symbol of luck! If I were Shannon, I’d never leave home without this lucky lady. She should put it on a keychain or something.

See it on her blog Fox Hollow Cottage. Thanks Shannon!

December 2, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

17 In kitchen/dining

Spot-treater

Debbie’s table was pretty nice, other than those four giant spots of who knows what. I had a friend who bought a new kitchen table once, and two days later her husband’s buddy came over and decided to use it as a workbench to affix a taxidermied deer head to a mount. Scratched the heck out of it. You really can’t quite overlook that, no matter how creative your place mat placement is.

(I would have had TWO taxidermied heads after that business).

(Not really. I don’t condone decapitation).

(Or using deer heads as decor).

Debbie fixed her table up with chalk paint, a five color dry-brushing technique on top, and a distressed stencil on the sides. Now it’s her favorite spot to sit and sip! Thanks Debbie!

December 1, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

4 In living room

The World’s a Stage

You know what I love more than anything? Chocolate chips in my cereal, yes how did you know? But besides that, you know what else I really love more than anything? Staging! It’s like getting a complete home makeover without ever having to leave your home! There’s just something a little bit magical about seeing living spaces completely transform from a simple rearrangin’.

Of course, it’s not a simple as it looks. That’s why people hire professionals like Robin who staged this awkward and clunky room into its best possible self. She’s like the Oprah of furniture placement! Check it out on her site Madison Modern Home.

Another view …

December 1, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

3 In desks/hutches/buffets/ tables/dressers

A Pointed Discussion

Do you have Neiman Marcus taste but an IKEA budget? Hannah had lusted after a Lily Pulitzer piece from ol’ NM, but was stopped in her tracks when she realized how expensive the dang thing was. So she turned those tracks straight towards everyone’s favorite big blue box of happiness and picked up this $39 cabinet instead. A dash of metallic gold spray paint, and she’s got a similar luxe look on her hands with money to spare!

See it on her blog Champagne Lifestyle on a Beer Budget.

Can’t get enough chevrony goodness? Then check out one more redo from Kim at The Sasse Life, who found this little cutie on Craigslist and decided on a bold color combo. I personally have only one red item in my entire house; it’s a hand-me-down KitchenAid that matches nothing. But … I’m quite drawn to the combination of black, white and red here. Hmmm, perhaps I should branch out. At least for the KitchenAid’s sake.