Better After

4 In kitchen/dining

This was staged!

Ahh, what even the teensiest bit of staging will do! I don’t see any huge changes in this room by Robin from Madison Modern Home, but a few accent pillows and a warmer wall color makes for instant magic. The key is getting it to stay like this for longer than 20 seconds. At my house there would be Cheerios congealed on every surface before I could manage to fluff the final pillow. I don’t know what to do about that. (The general messiness, I mean. I DO know what to do about the solidified Cheerios, and it usually involves a hammer).

October 13, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

5 In desks/hutches/buffets

Green B Gone

Oh Hunter Green, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for your long hard fall from grace. For so long you were everyone’s faaaavorite color. You infiltrated every home, you were prominent in every decor scheme, I even dreamed of someday owning a Ford Explorer in, you guessed it, Hunter Green. (Dream big, kids). But your glory days have come and gone and you’ve been replaced by aquas and yellows, corals and grays, or, in this case milky blues and white. Even you have to admit, it looks way better, right?

From Meg at A Little Knick Knack.

October 12, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

5 In other rooms

Plan B for Beautiful

Hoping for a beautiful hardwood floor when he ripped up his carpet, Mitch instead discovered an unattractive blend of mismatched wood. So he and his wife decided to just paint it white. But then they thought, “Why not add a little pattern?” So they used a rubber rug as a giant stamp: painting the top then pressing it down on the floor. It worked like a charm! Ha, ha, not really. It didn’t work at all. The fabulous stenciling you see below is actually Plan B. Thank goodness for Plan B’s!

Check out more on Mitch’s blog Progressions.

October 12, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

7 In chairs/ottomans/seating

You make my heart sing!

This before sofa didn’t look too bad at all, but if you are familiar with that itchy, velcro-like upholstery fabric favored by furniture makers of yore, then you know it had to G to the O. My grandma had a couch like this, and I swear you could comb your hair out just by rubbing your head alongside it.

Erin had it professionally reupholstered, but saved serious cash by finding that fabric for $3 per yard. It looks fantastic! The great lines of this piece really stand out now. Oh animal print, never go away! See more on Erin’s blog We A.R.E. Randall’s.

October 12, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

6 In laundry rooms

Boy, that was beastie!

Connie had one beast of a laundry room. And not like a tragic beast creature in a fairy tale that was harboring a beautiful soul on the inside, this thing was just downright ugly. NO soul. Not to mention, no ceiling. Also, exposed pipes, ductwork and wiring. Hardly a pleasant place to be.

So Connie got creative and painted over the drab walls and chipped floor, and found clever ways to disguise other flaws, like how about that fabric ceiling? Pretty smart, that Connie. This is just a little slice of the room, there is tons more to see on her blog Connie Nikiforoff Designs!

October 11, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

7 In tables/dressers

Retro in Red

Katie’s man has that look on his face. The “I’d rather be inside drafting my fantasy football team instead of out here sanding this … thing (Seriously, what is this thing? Does she know it doesn’t even have a seat?) in the hot sun on a Saturday morning, but I’m doing it because I love you, but just so you know, I’m not at all thrilled about it, and hey why do you have the camera out, oh niiiice, this is going on the internet, isn’t it?” look. Yeah, I’ve seen it before.

Well, Reluctant Sanders, we salute you! And thank you for your service! Your hard work is very appreciated. How else could we turn out rocking retro telephone tables like this? Check out more on Katie’s blog Amazing Grays.