Thinking Ahead to My Next DIY Room Transformation

Once the kitchen is done - I'm going to rearrange two of the spare bedrooms.  The first floor bedroom is right off of the dining room.  It's going to be my next project.  Right now that room is a craft/office area.  It's always a mess.  It may or may not currently only have a path to the desk.  Okay, seriously...if I was sitting at the desk and you walked in, it'd take days to find me.  

It used to look like this.  Then the twin bed became my niece's big girl bed and a tornado (not literally) went through and it doesn't resemble this anymore except that the mirror with the broken scroll and curtains are still there.

We have a smaller extra bedroom upstairs with this beautiful poster bed in ivory...

That bed is getting moved to the bigger room on the first floor but I'm keeping my office there too.  It's a blank slate.  Plywood subfloor.  Four unframed windows.  Tiny closet. A French door with sliding barn door hardware lead to the dining room...the door in the background shown here:

and there are doors leading to the laundry room and this bathroom:

Both the bathroom and laundry room open to the family room.

This room will be my first attempt at DIY wainscoting and framing the windows.  I can also either paint the floor like I did in the bathroom pictured above but depending on budget, I'd love to go ahead and get the dark distressed, wide planked bamboo we're installing in the kitchen, dining room and pantry (2 more weeks!) and eventually the entire first floor..

I snagged a beautiful lantern type pendant from Habitat Restore last year that's going in here too! It's similar to this PB version except a beautiful antique gold...

What's the color scheme you ask? (You were going to!) I know I'm using a creamy white and antiqued gold.  Other than that, I'm still gathering inspiration. I'd love to maybe use navy.  But I'm also leaning towards rustic reclaimed wood tones paired with the ivory and gold.   

Most of my other furniture will be from thrift shops, Craigs List or estate sales but for a desk I'm considering something along these lines...

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I love pairing rustic/vintage with sophisticated...it may not be everyone's decorating choice, but I do what I love. 

Something like this is pretty...

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A desk armoire is a great choice too, especially to keep all of the ugly desk top computer components hidden when not in use. 

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This is the look I'd love to have...

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Do you have a home office combined with another area?  Any advice or pictures to share?  I'd love to see how it works for you!  

The Mustard Ceiling

I'm sitting here multi-tasking: surfing the web, looking at entries for today's blog post, searching inspiration (I could look at beautiful homes all day long), taking a break for dinner, trying to figure out how the Nook works that I got for my birthday and watching "Speed" out of the corner of my eye. Anyway, my point is...I came across Elizabeth's home tour, before and after transformations and DIY projects and knew right away that I wanted to introduce her to you.  I love that feeling - motivation that I get from the blogging community, don't you? Elizabeth will inspire you.

Her blog is dedicated to her obsession with interior design, do-it-yourself projects and other daily musings.  :)

Here are a few before and afters of her gorgeous home. 

Kitchen before had charm but an outdated feel with what she calls 'groovy gold' countertops and matching dishswasher...

Kitchen after is so pretty with even more charm. I'm glad she kept the sink - love that! The open shelving is so convenient and a great way to bring more interest to a wall of cabinets.

Bedroom after...chocolate! I spy with my little eye something beginning with a L-O-V-E (remember that car game?!). A couple of things I want: that bedding, the chairs, that rug and chandelier!

I want to curl up on the couch with a throw blanket and good book and never leave this living room:

See more of Elizabeth's before/after home tour at the The Mustard Ceiling Before/After.

Elizabeth's husband also contributes to The Mustard Ceiling blog.  I love this post about the "Cloffice"(closet office)and living with an interior designer...

And great tutorial on wainscoting (their gorgeous dining room):

Learn how to DIY these chevron magazine files at "Dressin' it Up". So cool!

See more of Elizabeth's DIY projects as listed below:

Tutorials

Dining Room: Wainscoating

Natural and Cheap Cleaning Products

Easy to Sew Sweater Pouch 

Sewing Table Build 

Tips To Bring Spring Into Home 

Turning a Closet into an Office Space 

Making your Storage Boxes Pretty 

It makes me want to get up off the couch and tackle every project all at once, not knowing where to begin!  Thank you so much for sharing your before and afters and DIY, Elizabeth (and Alfred).  Beautiful job on every single detail!   

Before and After at Casa Greer

Elsa from Casa Greer is very excited to share her before and after transformations and I'm honored to share it with you today.  We all know the power of paint. It can be scary but overcoming fear and doing something fun can work miracles and magically transform boring and sometimes even ugly to SHAZAM! Wow! Gorgeous!

Take a look at Elsa's plain but clean and tidy laundry room before...

After is Charm and Beauty...fun stripes and gorgeous accessories:

{View from hallway.}

{View from garage.}

{Opposite wall with door leading to garage.}

{Close up of cute baskets from TJMaxx.}

The baskets and ironing board cover (TJMaxx) are a perfect accent for her aqua/white striped walls. 

~*~*~*~

Elsa's office before was a place that collected everything  and anything that didn't have a 'home', storage for things that needed organized (sounds familiar is it just me?).  

Now it's an organized space to get serious about creativity, DIY and fun projects...

Beautiful job, Elsa!  Thank you so much for sharing your hard work!  

Want to see more?  

Head over to Casa Greer!  She's started a DIY tab with some great projects!

Adventures of Ordy and Joon

Sometimes "before" is pretty and sometimes "after" is stunning.  That's what I see in Joon's office/craft room/studio makeover reveal.  Here it is before.  Pretty and fun:

You'd think that was her "after", right?  You'd be wrong (me too).  Here is her amazing reveal:

I love the gray and white horizontal stripes, the chalkboard wall (great space for notes, ideas and inspiration) and her over all organization.  Don't forget the beautiful coral drapes and frames.  

So envious of her craft stash!  See more pictures on her original post.

You can see more details (tons of accent and organizational eye candy) at her OFFICE REVEAL.

I love her beautiful bedroom - that duvet?  Her Pottery Barn Duvet Wanna Be!  Lucky girl - it's gorgeous!

One of the things I love about Joon is she gives her decorative accents and accessories names and personalities! It's so fun reading her posts!  MEET STANLEY (Stanley's just 1 example of the accessories you'll meet! Darla and Stella are shown above too!)  

Head over to meet Joon - you'll need a little time to visit her posts though (warning - it's addicting!).  She's also hosting a Follower Appreciation Giveaway you don't want to miss!

Ordy & Joon

Joon - I love your creativity and style. Your projects are awesome! Thank you so much for sharing!

Love Your Room

Shoshana from Love Your Room has some amazing talent. She's an interior designer and has been featured at HGTV and Houzz.com. Let me show you why that is! She can be inspired by a pizza box and make her home office look like this:

 

What?!  Yep.  Huge pizza box = large stencil.  Gorgeous, isn't it?  I love it!  You can see her full post with more pictures at Home Office Inspired by a Pizza Box (including a how-to).

She also has a Super Easy (at least her headboard tutorial makes it look easy) DIY headboard. Cost = $63!

And finally, looking for more photo wall inspiration and tips on how to make it look great?  

How To Create a Photo Gallery

Shoshana - LOVE YOUR ROOM!  Thank you so much for sharing your awesome, helpful tutorials!

See more of her blog at Love Your Room for lots of great tips and inspiration for your next DIY project.

Closet Office - More than Rubies

With a new baby on the way and a craft room turning nursery, Amber from More than Rubies was looking for a place to organize her craft supplies and create an office space.  After a lot of research, they decided to turn the guest room closet into an office. Here are some pictures of her inspiration:

From blisstree.com

from dwellerswithoutdecorators

First, they cleaned out the closet (before):

Second step was to re-vamp an old computer desk (a GoodWill find).

They used 7ft piece of plywood to extend the desk top to fill the closet.

Sanding, priming, and painting.

After getting the painted desk and desktop into the closet, they added some side shelving for additional storage...

As a finishing touch, they added a piece of molding to the front of the desk so that the plywood addition wasn't so obvious. It worked out perfectly!

Now, they have an fun space for Amber's craft supplies and a small organized office area!  

The total cost of the closet re-model was about $100 dollars. Amber plans to find curtains to cover the opening for when it's not in use.  

Creative use of space, Amber - I love that it's so organized/out of the way!  Thank you so much for sharing your hard work!

For more of Amber's DIY projects, visit her blog at MORE THAN RUBIES.