Better After

19 In kitchen/dining

Window Shopping

If you ever have the opportunity to knock out a wall and add a window, I say DO IT! There is never a bad place for a window. I take that back. One time I visited a house that had a powder room right off the front door. The toilet faced the front yard, and directly in front of the toilet was a huge window. Most awkward bathroom ever.

I take that back. The most awkward bathroom ever was this one bathroom in a restaurant that we used to stop at on our way to my parents house. It didn’t have a lock on the door. Not a broken lock. No lock. And it was large enough that it simply wasn’t possible to use the facilities while holding the door shut at the same time. You basically just had to do your business with your hands covering your face, because you were certain to be walked in on at least twice. I … uh … heard this from a friend. A friend who also stopped there … on her way to my parents house. Ok, fine, it was me.

ANYWAY. This kitchen was screaming out for a window, and once Christine happened upon one with the perfect fit, the rest of the kitchen makeover fell into place. Do you love the shaker-style doors? They’re the SAME doors! See all the great details on her blog Simple Moments.

October 2, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

24 In tables/dressers

Aqua Eyefuls

Here’s something you may not know about me: I have terrible, terrible eyesight. Without glasses or contacts I can’t read anything farther than six inches away. I can’t drive. I can’t see how grimy my shower probably is. But don’t feel bad, because I’m getting LASIK next week! *high five high five high five* I’m so excited. *happy dancing* I’ve waited for YEARS to do it. I’m going to be able to SEE! ALL the time! *celebratory skipping* I can hardly wait.

But in the meantime I have to stop wearing my contacts and start wearing my glasses, which are about eight years old and tremendously unattractive. I pretty much hate wearing my glasses, which I’m sure is leftover trauma from a childhood spent looking like this:

Yes, that is me underneath those enormous spectacles and protective helmet of bangs. Speaking of being eight-years-old and tremendously unattractive …

But enough about me. Let’s talk about makeovers.

Even without windshield-sized glasses, it’s easy to see that this dresser was in need of some correcting too. Nice finish, but a little on the boring side. (At least no one could accuse me and my bolo tie of that!) Debbie at Painted Therapy dressed it up with a blue so bold that it looks like she painted the drawer fronts too, but nope! That’s the original finish, which complemented the paint color perfectly.

And Better After reader Lexie gave mixing her own chalk paint a shot, and her results were glorious! This formerly dreary dresser is now a vision in aqua, silver and white.

October 1, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

10 In tables/dressers

Coffee Table Interventions

Coffee table makeovers are super fun and here’s why:

1. They are not hard to find. I bet you could pick up a coffee table from a thriftstore today for like, nine dollars.

2. They are small, thus they are not overwhelming projects to tackle. You could start and finish a coffee table makeover in the time it takes to watch a few episodes of Girlfriend Intervention. (Please tell me I’m not the only one watching this show. I don’t want to be alone in this place).

3. They are a perfect blank canvas to really get creative on, being you know, flat and all. Plus, if you don’t like how it turns out … see #1.

Asia certainly got creative with her coffee table makeover. You wont even recognize it! It totally fits with her feminine and shabby chic style now. It’s like it was the star of an episode of Girlfriend Intervention! (No really, please watch it with me). See more at Under A Creative Spell.

At first it was like:

But now it’s all:

You know what I’m saying girlfriend? I think you do.

Here’s another from Christy at Confessions of a Serial Do-it-Yourselfer. She ditched that nasty yellow-toned table like a holey pair of sweatpants and dolled it up with a black and white stencil that really shows off its curves. It’s ready for a night out on the town! Get it girl!

I think I may need the intervention …

September 30, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

14 In living room

Trim & Proper

I always like to punch Monday mornings in the face, which usually translates into me ferociously making the bed and starting a load of laundry. Take that, Monday! I’m going to kick this week’s butt! *karate kick* However, I seem to run out of steam as the week goes on … so … around Tuesday.

But today is Monday, and we are going to punch Monday in the face! This makeover from Christine at Bijou & Boheme does exactly that. It is just jaw-droppingly good. Prepare to be stunned.

I mean. Wow. This girl has vision and talent and deserves a round of high fives. It went from fusty old living room to high fashion glam. The trim! The tile! I feel the urge to trim every wall in my life.

September 29, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

17 In Uncategorized

Printable Book Covers and Other News

Hey gang!

You may have noticed I’ve slowed down on the posting a bit this past week. When I first started Better After, I, like a crazy person, posted five times a day. FIVE! Slowly I went to three, then for a long time it’s been two, and now, in an effort to keep my self sane or close to it, I’ve slowed down to posting just once a day. I hope you understand!

But listen here. I won’t leave you hanging. I’m going to be doing a little somethin’ somethin’ on Saturdays. Maybe I’ll dust something off from the archives, (did you know I’ve written nearly 3,000 posts!? It’s possible you may have missed one. Or a hundred.) Maybe I’ll share a quick project or two of my own. Maybe I’ll even pop in to discuss something not exactly makeover specific. After five solid years of writing about before and afters, it would be nice to stretch my wings a little bit on other topics. I’m actually pretty excited about it! So we’ll see how it goes. I hope you’ll hang with me!

And now, here’s a little project I did the other day. It involves about 45 seconds of effort and looks pretty durn cool, I think. And there is even a set of FREE PRINTABLES I made just for you at the end! Look at me go!

It was inspired by some similar books I saw at one of my favorite stores in Mesa, called Design Lab. Forgive the quality of this picture, I was trying to pretend like was definitely NOT taking a picture.

So I came home, dreamed up a few designs, printed them out, taped them on some Goodwill books, and bam, Cool-Looking Books! This project needs a catchier title.

Want to make some Cool-Looking Books too?

Here’s my advice. Hit up Goodwill on a sale day, and you can get books for around a dollar a piece. I tried to get books of similar sizes.

Download the printable designs below (or make some yourself!) and print. I just used regular printer paper, but I did buy the heaviest weight, which I believe was 28 lb. Just a step down from cardstock.

Line up your book in the center of the printed paper and mark the length of the spine, then fold accordingly. You know, just like you did with your seventh grade science book and a paper bag.

Tape it on, you’re done!

The paper won’t wrap all the way around the book, (unless you bought tiny books), but I really only cared about the spine showing, so no biggie. You can see that’s how they looked in the store too. If you wanted to cover the whole book, just print two pages and line them up.

Best part is, it’s totally removable and won’t harm the books a bit, even though I will probably at no point in my life desire to read Beautiful Bones Without Hormones.

Free printable time! Here are the links to download the designs I made, (except that overlapped hexagon one, which was my favorite, so of course my computer ate it, sorry). Enjoy!

One Two Three

Four Five Six

Hooray!

September 27, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

9 In other rooms/ outdoors

702 problems and avocado paint is one.

Friday Friday! Do you have any big plans for the weekend? Maybe you should hit some yard sales, buy some stuff, make it over, and send pictures to meeee! That’s always a good idea. Or maybe you are neck deep in makeovers and home improvements already.

Give Sarah a call, she can commiserate. She’s right in the middle of restoring this historic home, originally built in 1902! It survived both world wars, but didn’t manage to escape the shag carpet and avocado paint epidemic of the 70s. Sarah and her husband Charles are slowly bringing it back to its glory days. A sizable task for this sizable house.

But the story gets better. Years and years ago, this home actually belonged to Charles’ grandmother. After she died, the home was sold, and the new owners let it fall into disrepair over the next ten years. Just as it was going into foreclosure, Sarah and Charles came along, and snapped it up for a steal!

BUT WAIT! There’s another plot twist. Check out the full story at 702 Park Project. It might give you chills!

See more on the foyer makeover here, and the oh-so-charming exterior makeover here.

Happy weekend friend!

September 26, 2014 By Lindsey @ Better After

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