DIY Home Projects

I had this conversation with someone a few months ago that really got me thinking. She had a friend who was getting ready to put her house on the market and they were doing all kinds of projects to get it ready. Of course they were doing all this work to sell the home and wouldn't actually be able to enjoy the fruits of their labors since they would be leaving it. We both thought wouldn't it be better to do those kinds of home projects before it was time to sell so that you could actually live in it and enjoy it for a while?

This has spurred me on during these last few months as I have slowly made changes and improvements to make our current house the house I would really love to live in. 

This is what our dining room looked like when we moved in. We painted it a nice deep red color above the chair rail and replaced the light fixture with a hand-me-down from my sister but that was about it.

I wanted to make this dining room kind of like our "travel" space so I made my own canvas prints by painting the edges of inexpensive canvases black and then printed out 12x12 pictures of some of our favorite places we have visited in black and white images. I then used modge podge to attach them to the canvases. It's personal, fun and inexpensive...just how I like things to be!

I also studied many different tutorials on how to add picture frame moulding down below our chair rail. I became very good with a miter saw during this project! The hardest part was measuring and figuring out the spacing for each of the frames. After caulking and new paint, I think it added a lot of bang for very few bucks!

I really wanted cork-board framed maps for this room but they are pretty pricey so I made my own. I ordered these two vintage maps from Amazon, glued them onto some inexpensive cork-board and made my own frames for them. We have pushpins in the United States map of past places we have lived and where we currently have family. On the world map, we have pushpins designating where people in our family have served missions!

Our table and chairs were a cherry color that clashed with the color on the walls plus the seat cushions were fabric, not very kid-friendly at all. So I painted the table and chairs with black chalk paint and reupholstered the chairs in a wipe-able damask fabric. I love how it turned out!

Our laundry room was the next project I tackled. I don't really have any before pictures, but it was very plain. Imagine a room with just a washer and dryer and a cheap wire rack running along the side.

I wanted to create a sort of mudroom in this space since this is the room we enter right from the garage. I used the foot board section from Abby's old white bed and added a seat cushion to the top to create a sitting bench. I then added moulding, beadboard and hooks to create a custom space for each of the kids to keep their coats and backpacks.

I got rid of the old wire rack and added some closed storage for cleaning supplies, installed a white board over the washer/dryer for storage and included some fun accessories. I also painted the room a nice dark grey color. I am obsessed with the color grey right now!

Did I mention I also installed new vinyl flooring? These are just vinyl tiles that I stuck down right over the old nasty linoleum. Love it!

 With a family of six, I am in this room a lot doing laundry and now I LOVE being in here because it is so much fun. I also really like this quote I have above the washing machine. It helps me keep things in perspective a bit!

Project #3 was the kids' bathroom. We already had a monkey theme, so I just painted the walls a nice tan color, replaced the hollywood lights with an oil-rubbed bronze fixture, and added moulding around the frameless mirror to give it a more custom look

 I also replaced the builder grade faucet with a nicer oil-rubbed bronze version to match the light fixture...

I replaced the silver shower rod and hooks to oil-rubbed bronze to match everything else too.

I made these prints and found some frames to fit them in for some fun decor. I also replaced our towel rack with four towel hooks which gives room for all four of their towels and they are much easier for the kids to hook back up after their baths/showers. I love the little labels for each hook too!

I installed new flooring in here too. Stick-on vinyl tiles for the win!

 The only problem with home improvements is that they kind of spur a life of their own and you keep coming up with more and more ideas. I sure do enjoy working on the home though and it has been good therapy for me during this difficult time after losing both of my parents.