Better After

Pattern of Time

Cheetah print, is it a trend?

Hmm, let’s ask the cheetah.

He says no. He has looked this good for thousands of years.

Except for that one time in the ’70s …

And then, of course, there was that phase in the ’80s …

And then I heard he got all into the whole chevron craze for a while …

Silly cheetah. Trend come and go, but nothing beats the original. And animal print is the best because can be so many things at once. Trendy and timeless, neutral and edgy, a star on its own, or a supporting player in a room full of color.

Let’s observe this chair for example. It was upholstered in a muted pastel fabric, reminiscent of a teacher’s lounge sofa. Definitely past its prime. But look!

Jessica at Domicile 37 replaced it with animal print and it looks so glam!

(I realize that this is leopard print, not cheetah print. But by the time I noticed my mistake, I had already spent so much time sloppily photoshopping Chevron Cheetah and his friends that we are just going to go with it, OK? OK.)

Check out Jessica’s blog for a thorough how-to. You may think that reupholstering a cantilevered chair is impossibly difficult, but she makes it seem easy!

February 22, 2016 By Lindsey @ Better After

1 In office

I’ll see you in my office.

Maybe you would love a home office, but then you think “No. I can’t. I just don’t have the room. I’d probably have to knock out a wall and add on to the house. And then there’s the furniture. Because obviously I would need official “office” furniture. And possibly some built-in shelves. Yes, definitely built-ins. And a cushy leather chair on wheels, of course. And fancy frames for which to frame fancy things. Sigh. It would cost a million billion dollars. Just another impossible dream, I guess.”

Oh, stop being ridiculous! You CAN create a beautiful home office without hardly any money or time, or even space. (You knew that, I know you did. You’re such a drama queen sometimes!)

Let’s let Bre show us how it’s done. She formerly had not what I would call a ‘home office,’ but more of a ‘computer corner.’ But she didn’t settle for that.

She didn’t have to knock out a wall or buy some oversized suite of mahogany furniture or spend a crapload of cash. Pshhh. She created this modern office with a saw-horse style desk (easy!), a breezy gallery wall (no framed diplomas here) and a few accessories that sneak in a little storage.

Attainable and stylish? That’s an office that knows how to work for YOU.

See it at BrePurposed.

February 19, 2016 By Lindsey @ Better After

4 In bathroom

Out of the Blue Bathroom

You might think the bathroom is the perfect place for a little accent color. You’d be right. However, paint an entire room turquoise – including the ceiling – and you’ve moved far beyond accent territory, honey. You are treading the dangerous waters of over-saturation.

Sue was ready to swim to shore and ditch the turquoise, not to mention the linoleum and “hollywood” style light fixtures.

So she did! The paint was upgraded to a crisp white on the ceiling and a soft gray on the walls. New flooring and lights were the biggest changes, everything else boils down to accessories. Fantastic, and so doable! Sue accomplished this makeover in two days!

See more details on her blog A Purdy Little House.

PS: Thanks so much to everyone who shared their dating horror stories the other day! I shared a bunch at my youth night and they were a HIT! Head over to the comments and give ’em a read if you need a laugh.

February 18, 2016 By Lindsey @ Better After

6 In desks/hutches/buffets

What’s on your desktop?

In this day and age, when you can carry your entire music library in your pocket, instantly talk to people on the other side of the world, work from home, order groceries online, get two-day shipping, watch live-streaming, I forgot where I was going with this.

But the future is now, and we are living in it, and it’s pretty great!

Still, sometimes you might just want to return to the good ol’ days, when people wrote things called “letters” and sent them by “mail.” The best place to do that is at a “desk.”

Here’s a great little desk makeover by Better After reader Dolores. She jazzed up this shabby old desk just for me, because my high school colors were black and gold, and she knows I love stripes.

Ok, fine, she didn’t do it for me at all, but my eyeballs appreciate it anyway. I like how she painted the back half of the knobs gold too, otherwise they would have blended right in.

Shelly at 100 Things 2 Do had to dig deep to find the beauty hidden underneath a bad paint job or two or three on this sweet writing desk, but look what she uncovered:

So much better! That natural wood grain is so much lovelier than that murky brown paint could ever be. I have no problem with painting wood, but why would anyone ever paint solid wood brown? Why not use a stain? These are the mysteries that keep me up at night.

Anyway, aren’t desks great? Even in this electronic age, I don’t think they’ll go the way of the archaic entertainment center. As long as we have bills to pay and homework to do, I think they’ll stick around. Plus, you can always use one to hold your laptop.

February 17, 2016 By Lindsey @ Better After

46 In kitchen/dining

Drool-worthy Kitchen

Hey gang, quick question for you before we delve into today’s makeover …

I am speaking at an “etiquette night” for the youth in our church; specifically on dining etiquette. I know that’s not the most thrilling topic to discuss with teenagers, so my plan is to try and keep things as entertaining as possible. I’m looking for a few dining etiquette horror stories to share in the hopes of making them laugh, while sneakily teaching them about manners at the same time. They’ll never suspect a thing.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about from a woman who offered to take a date out to a nice restaurant on his birthday. She says, “The drinks came and one of them spilled on the table. He stopped the waitress from wiping it up and proceeded to slurp it off of the table and said ‘These drinks ain’t cheap!’ Then he spent the rest of the night on his phone.”

Hahahilarious! And a fine example of what NEVER to do.

Anyway, if you have any dining/bad manners horror stories to share in the comments, now is your chance. Or just even your worst date stories, because even though that won’t help me at all, those are my faaaaaavorite.

And now, I hope your manners are in check, because this kitchen makeover by Elisha at Pneumatic Addict might make you drool.

Although in some cultures, it’s actually considered polite to drool over a stunning kitchen makeover. That signals to the owner that you are very impressed with their workmanship and also a little bit jealous. Just be sure to wipe up after yourself.

February 16, 2016 By Lindsey @ Better After

9 In fashion

ReFashion Friday: Love Edition

It’s almost time for Love Day! Ooooh, romaaaaantic!

Unless you don’t have anyone special to spend Valentine’s Day with. Then it is not so much romantic. But so what! Who cares! We can celebrate love anyway. I’ll be your valentine. Here, I got you a dozen Roses.

HAAAAAAA!

Cracks me up every time.

Anyway, let’s not lose that loving feeling. Let’s have a heart-filled reFashion Friday. It can be as easy as spicing up an old sweater with a giant heart.

A giant black heart. Because the world should know that behind your smile beats a cold and deadened heart of ice. Or maybe because it just looks cool. There’s also that reason. From Havalah at Sisters, What!

This next one has love written all over it.

Literally, Lisa simply stenciled this heart pattern with a fabric pen! She also cut off the sleeves and left the edges raw for a no-sew makeover. That’s my kinda jam. See it at Grey Luster Girl.

And while we’re going around cutting off sleeves, what do you think about this oversize sweater-turned-sweater-dress by the ReFashionista herself, Jillian?

She was inspired to create a sweater dress after falling in love with a red one at BCBG Max Azria. The old sweater was a perfect starting point, but she was worried that she wouldn’t have enough material left over to make the skirt long enough. Luckily she did. It was obviously meant to be, and it looks nearly identical to the BCBG dress. It’s just that the BCBG dress came with one thing her version didn’t. A $378 pricetag!

Here’s another look that went from shapeless to shaZAM.

So ridiculously cute! And as easy as 1, 2, 3, plus 4, 5, and 6.

1: Dye your dress. 2: Shorten the lining so it doesn’t show. 3: Cut the jacket apart and use the lower half to make a peplum. 4: Cut the jacket sleeves off and shorten them. 5: Sew the sleeves to the sleeveless underdress. 6: Alter the dress to be smaller and more form fitting.

See? SO EASY! That is, if you are a seamstress wizard like Sarah at Life is Beautiful. She says the dress is red, even though it came through as fuchsia on camera. I actually really like the fake fuchsia!

Here’s a refashion from Becca at Halfway To Hipster that might be more doable:

Short and sassy! I think could pull this project off; it looks like she just cut off the bottom half of the skirt. Oh, but I see she did some sleeve finagling too, so now I’m not so sure. Worth a shot though, right?

Let’s not neglect the boys. Let’s get the whole family in on our Valentine’s Day refashioning funtime! Kara found this pink gingham shirt at a thrift store and thought it would be perfect for her husband and two boys. Don’t believe me? Just watch…

C’mon! How cute is this?! That wee little baby bow-tie? I can’t even stand it.

Kara is no stranger to the refashioning game, look how she also updated this lacy pink dress:

I would buy this dress in a heartbeat! See it right here on her blog While Camden Sleeps.

Seriously I need to learn to sew. Like, yesterday. Actually, like last year. I’m sure I told you this sad, sad story before, but here it goes again. Last year I had a friend who is a professional, award-winning seamstress ask me to help her with a “fun little job” that required “alteration skills.” I admitted that I really didn’t have “alteration skills.” Turns out the job was fitting the costumes of the Super Bowl halftime performers. Just Lenny Kravitz, Missy Elliot, Katy Perry, and Left Shark to name a few. INSERT SAD SOBS OF SADNESS.

Let that be a lesson to you kids. Learn to sew now, in case some day you too are asked to help sew Super Bowl halftime costumes. Learn from old Auntie Lindsey’s mistakes.

But you know what just about anyone can do? Spray paint.

Now you can feel the love all the way down to your toes with this makeover from Aimee at SwellMayde. Gold-toed heart flats, so simple and fun!

Hope you have a love-filled weekend, friend!

February 12, 2016 By Lindsey @ Better After

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