Better After

0 In bedroom

Bandwidth in the Bedroom

Hello friends! I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend and ate a lot of great food and got everything you wished for on your Black Friday list. I refuse to go Black Friday shopping, but my husband is a big fan. He tried to make me go again this year, and I just stared at him while shoveling a handful of pie in my mouth in slow-motion. I think he got the point.

No, I much prefer cyber-shopping from the comfort of my bed like human beings are supposed to. Hello, this is why Jesus invented the internet. And if my bedroom looked anything like Jennifer’s at Dear Lillie, even better. I’d never ever leave.

Luckily my bedroom is still a sea of beige on beige on beige, or else I’d be tempted to become one of those rolling iPad robot people and never interact with the outside world again. Beautiful job Jennifer!

November 30, 2015 By Lindsey @ Better After

4 In kitchen/dining

Thankful Day

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are enjoying the day with friends and family and food! Even if you aren’t celebrating Thanksgiving, or already did (Hi Canada!) there is never a wrong time of the year to be grateful for all the wonderful things in our lives. And I’m thankful for you! Thank you so much for coming here and reading this blog, taking time to send comments and emails, and enriching my life with your talents and kindness. If we were all sitting down to dinner together, I’d raise my glass to you, friend.

And now, to get everyone in the mood for turkey time, here’s a stunning dining room makeover from Lauren at Lauren Liess.

Delicious!

November 26, 2015 By Lindsey @ Better After

5 In chairs/ottomans/seating/ desks/hutches/buffets/ tables/dressers/ Uncategorized

Ruffle Shuffle

There used to be a potato chip commercial years ago, probably around a thousand years ago because I remember singing along to it as a child, and it went like this: “R-r-r-r-r-uffles have r-r-r-r-ridges!” Remember that one? My sister and I would sing it over and over, rolling the r-r-r-r part so hard that it eventually morphed into a guttural growl, and we would run around screaming RRRRRRRuffles have RRRRRRRRidges!!! at each other all the time, and it was kind of scary.

Thanks to the power of the internet, I have discovered that old commercial right here, and it is comedy GOLD. From the r-rolling fetishist at the beginning to an unexplainable appearance by Porky Pig at the end, it’s everything you’ve never dreamed of. Please watch it and then tell me your feelings.

Anyway. Today’s makeovers have nothing to do with potato chips or awesome vintage commercials at all. But they do have RUFFLES! Because is there ever such thing as too many ruffles?

Yes. Trick question.

But a little ruffle here and there never hurt anyone, and it can give any piece of furniture some girlish flair. Like this droopy chair that Beck at Beckwith’s Treasures revived.

Just the perfect amount of country charm.

And Kim at Exquisitely Unremarkable also wanted to fluff up this little side table …

… so she added a bit of ruffled fabric with tension rods. That’s pretty genius. What an easy way to bring in some colorful fabric or just hide wires.

And this next makeover has nothing to do with ruffles or Ruffles, but it’s got that same country vibe as the other makeovers, so we are just going to go with it mmmkay?

Samantha at I Love Fabuless Junk won a stare-down with a thrift-store vulture who was ready to pounce on this little buffet the moment she looked away. Unblinkingly, she stood strong and was able to bring it home, where it serves as a chippy and distressed TV stand today!

November 25, 2015 By Lindsey @ Better After

2 In kitchen/dining

Just in time for turkey!

Thanksgiving is almost here! Do you have company coming? Is your kitchen ready for the big day? Here’s a little checklist to make sure things are in order. Do you have any of the following:

Broken Stove
Rotting countertops
No Dishwasher
Leaky sink
Inadequate lighting
Cracked linoleum
Tiny fridge
Unfunctional layout

What if you had ALL of them? That would be a bigger bummer than burning the turkey. (Or in my case, forgetting to thaw the turkey. There’s still time, right??)

But that lengthy list of limitations is exactly what Colleen was dealing with in her old kitchen. Sheesh, I’d never want to cook. I never really want to cook no matter where I am, but still. I’d never ever want to cook. So she undertook a lengthy renovation which involved moving the window and door to the outside, plus tearing down the wall on the right and opening up and rearranging the whole layout.

Worth it! I can’t believe it’s the same space! It looks like a million bucks, but Colleen did this on a serious budget. She saved big by installing her own IKEA cabinets and using faux-stone countertops. There are so many great details to see, go check out her blog for a closer look at Lemon Thistle.

November 24, 2015 By Lindsey @ Better After

1 In decor/ desks/hutches/buffets

A Repurpose Report

All hail the creative visionairres of the world, who see things differently and dare to step outside the norm. I try to be like that sometimes, but the only thing I usually end up creating are words that don’t exist; for example ‘visionairres.’

Gail is one of those creative souls. She took a look at this headboard and didn’t think ‘headboard.’ She thought …

… ‘headboard shelf!’ Whoulda thunk? Obviously not me. See it at My RePurposed Life.

Kandice also took a look at this hutch and didn’t just think ‘hutch.’

Ok, so she kinda did, but more along the lines of “Hutch, only with the top cut off and repurposed it into a buffet/display case with a cute little set of feet at the bottom and the perfectly neural yet visually exciting flowered print on the back.”

It’s just that easy. See more from Kandice at Just the Woods.

November 23, 2015 By Lindsey @ Better After

35 In kitchen/dining/ My House

My Dining Room Makeover

Hey gang! So, we’ve been in our house for about a year and a half now, and I know for some people that’s more than enough time to get their act together and have the entire house 100% decorated and styled to their heart’s content. Are you one of those people? Congratulations, I hate you.

Just kidding. I don’t hate you, I want to be you. But that’s just not the way I work, and I suspect most of us are the same way. Creating a home you love that truly reflects your style is long, loooong process. Fraught with trial and error. Heck, even just nailing down your ‘style’ is tricky business.

So, while the overwhelming majority of my house is still builder-beige and there are plenty of empty walls patiently waiting for attention, I’m slowly trying to make progress.

I’ve been working on my dining room, and while I’m not totally content with it yet, it’s coming along! This is what it looked like last year at Christmas time. Shield your eyes from the festiveness about to assault you:

WHEW. That was overwhelming.

Since then, I’ve made just a few simple changes in here, namely curtains, a new light fixture, a tiny little bit of paint, and a new rug, and here is the result:

I liked the old rug, it just was way too off-white to look good with all the white-white furniture in here, so it has moved to a different room. I LOVE the new rug, it’s super duper soft, and the hexagon pattern is echoed in the mirror on the wall.

I also painted the ceiling black and now, much like Mick Jagger, I want to paint everything black. It’s so dramatic! Unpainted ceilings: so not dramatic. I’m really happy with the way it turned out.

But, like I said, getting to that point is often a LOT of trial and error. For example: I thought I would use a popular deep gray called Peppercorn and that it would look duh, awesome, so I slapped on a quart and it did not look awesome.

I’ve used it successfully in other places in my house, but in this room it just looked purple. And also, a quart was nowhere near enough. So, stupidly, I went back to the store and had them mix up another quart of Peppercorn. And they didn’t mix it exactly the same as the first time, so my second coat was slightly lighter (and more purpley) than the first coat, which meant my second coat was null and void. It looked like garbage. I left it like that for about a week while I pouted.

Then I thought, “Lindsey, look deep into your heart. What do you REALLY want?” And I had to tell myself the truth. I wanted a black ceiling. None of this gentle gray nonsense.

This time I bought a gallon of black (lightened by 10%), and within the first few brush strokes, I knew I had done the right thing.

Oooh, do you notice that perfectly straight line? It’s all thanks to my ABSOLUTELY FAVORITE painting tool of all time, and I’ve only recently discovered it, but I will never paint anything without it. No joke.

It’s the Shur-Line Paint Edger, it’s super inexpensive, and you will never have to use painter’s tape to mask off edges again. It’s the only reason I was able to paint FIVE coats of paint on the ceiling without spending 1000 hours taping and losing my mind, my will to live, and all blood-flow to my brain.

The orb chandelier is a slight step up from the builder fixture that was there before. Understatement.

The curtains are from Budget Blinds and I’m pretty thrilled with them. They offer LONG lengths, which can be tricky to find. They have tons of options to choose from, I went with charcoal linen, and was happy to see that they come fully lined. I was even able to customize my grommet color to make sure it matched my curtain rod.

I actually have two panels on each side, four panels total, because I like a nice full look. I definitely recommend!

(My fiddle leaf fig will die immediately if I move it from that spot).

I’m currently displaying my pretty pumpkin collection for Thanksgiving/Fall; I try to find a new one each year. Also, do you like my plaid table runner? Just kidding, it’s a scarf! A huge, huge scarf. You can find that huge, huge scarf at Target.

And here are the sources for everything else!

Apex Hexagon Rug from RugsUSA (It’s 70% off right now!!)

Shur-Line Paint Edger

Curtains from Budget Blinds.

Orb Chrome Chandelier from Overstock.com

Huge Huge Scarf

Thanks for reading friend, hope you enjoyed. Have a great weekend.

<<This post contains affiliate links; curtains were provided courtesy of Budget Blinds; all words and opinions are my own.

November 20, 2015 By Lindsey @ Better After