House Update!

I haven't updated much about the house, so I thought I would share some before and after pictures of a few rooms. If you have no idea what I'm talking about you can read a bit more about the house here. Honestly I feel like everything is taking forever. Dramatic, I know. I was so motivated right before we moved in, and right after we moved in. My husband and I would stay up late painting, cleaning, and unpacking. Then he got busy with work and school, and I kind of lost my motivation there for a while.

So far we've managed to paint the kitchen, dining room, living room, entryway, hallway, master bedroom, and laundry room. And I've pretty much, on my own, repainted the crown molding and baseboards as well as touched up the white molding around things like closet doors and doors. We also used a product to restore the hardwood floors. We did not refinish them; it would have cost too much, and we didn't want to take on that big of a project. So we basically cleaned the floors really well, stripping off any previous residue. Then we used microfiber bonnets on a couple of sponge mops to apply the product. The results were amazing and the floors are holding up really well. 

I'll go ahead and get into some of the before and after pictures. I, stupidly, forgot to take a before of every room before we changed anything. So some of the pictures were taken after painting had already begun.

The entryway to our house, the first picture was from our final walk through:

We painted most of the house with Behr Ultra Premium Plus paint in the color Doeskin Gray. I added a shoe organizer from Ikea, and a few things we already have like the picture frame, mirror, and lamp. I printed out a printable I found online for free that says "choose happy," and it matches the front door perfectly. I've decided to embrace color! So an easy change was painting the front door. The front door is a paint by Valspar called Niagara Blue. The front door was originally white, and did not have a peephole. It's hard to see in the pictures but the baseboards and molding around the door have also been painted. They may appear white in the before pictures, but the molding was in horrible shape when we moved. Everything was dirty and yellowed, now we have crisp, clean, and white edges. Really makes a big difference.

Next up, the living room:

We started out with the tan and brown walls and a curious corner shelf. I took the above picture after we finished the hardwood floors, so they were nice and shiny and clean. We painted the room with Doeskin Gray, and I added shelves and hung curtains. Amazing what such small touches can add to a room. This space feels much more defined now. We also added a sofa table behind the sectional. One day when Isla is older I can add a lamp, pictures, and decorative accents. But for now it just keeps the couch away from the wall shelves so she doesn't get into them.

This is the room I hang out in with Isla. Originally I wanted a more formal sitting room, but then realized we had a toddler and how insane that notion was. The family room has a gas fireplace and has been taken over by an 80" flat screen and since dubbed the man cave. That's where the hubby and I watch movies at night, and where he studies, plays video games, and hosts poker nights. The living room became mine and Isla's space, so that's also where we've put her toys. I try to keep things organized so my house doesn't end up looking like a preschool. But I've also embraced the fact that yes I have a child, and with a child comes a lot of toys. And I'm okay with that now. If people come over expecting a pristine child free house, then they've come to the wrong place.

Here's a look at the right side of the living room before and after:

Isla has a foam play mat, her Ikea tent, and some toys to play with. The bottom drawer in our entertainment stand also belongs to her, and she has about 20 board books to choose from in it. I hung sheers and thicker white curtains that provide privacy at night since this sliding glass door does not have vertical blinds. Eventually I would like to hang frames with cute printables like ABC's and animals for above her mat. It would help define the space a bit more since some of our rooms just have giant blank walls. I plan on changing out the hardware for the curtains from that dark gray to black to match the other curtains rods in the living room and dining room.

I regret that I didn't take a picture of the dining room before we started painting. But you can see below it had the same dark brown accent wall:

Yes, we have caged Isla in completely. I teach my child boundaries, but as a stay at home mom (for the most part, I still work outside of the home sometimes) I need to know that she is safe. Most days the baby gates aren't closed, but when I am mopping the floors I need her in the other room. Usually when I'm cooking she's either in her high chair, or I leave the tupperware drawers open for her to play with. If you're a stay at home mom, you understand this completely. I have friends who work and totally do not understand why I would cage her in. They also get to pee alone while they're at work, just saying . . . The dining room is definitely a major work in progress. I plan on moving the buffet under the window and adding some decor to the top of it. We have a bar height table that seats six that will be going in the dining room. We need to cut the legs down because we don't want a bar height table. I also want two upholstered chairs for the ends, we already have two wooden chairs with padding for one side, and I would like to buy a bench for the opposite side. And I will most likely be doing a black and white gallery wall with chunky white frames.

The kitchen:

It's honestly hard to believe it ever looked that crazy! This was right after we moved in. My husband was at work, and the baby was sleeping and I was just trying to get things organized! I was exhausted and I felt like things would never come together. Our kitchen is in great shape now. I love the lighter paint color and the cute printables on the wall. They definitely add a pop of color to an otherwise bland space.

I haven't taken a picture of the other side of the kitchen. It's basically the same, long counter with lots of white cabinets and the stove. I also have my Keurig and stand mixer out on the counter. Our refrigerator is at the end of the kitchen, opposite of the doorway you see above that leads into the family room. I snapped the picture below right after I painted the kitchen, hence the tape. I haven't taken a new once since but not too much has changed.

A look at Isla's nursery:

You can see that just depending on the lighting and angle, the paint color changes completely. It's a beautiful bright blue that has a slight minty tint. This was the original paint color and we decided against painting it. I figured new house, new style. Although I was so in love with the soft pink we painted her room at our apartment, I needed to start fresh. I still do miss that pink though! I swapped the roller shade out for mini blinds, which look better but are horrible for blocking light. I definitely recommend keeping the roller shade if your house has them, and buying bamboo roman shades and mounting those outside the window. That's what we did in our master, and it blocks a ton of light and looks great. To darken her room for naps and night time we have room darkening curtains behind these gray sheers from Ikea. And attached to the gray sheers there's a room darkening liner.

Lastly the master bedroom:

I didn't have a before picture of the empty room before we painted, and I really wanted to show the previous wall color. It was a blue that was just too dark for our liking. I tried to crop out most of the previous owners stuff to just show the wall color.

This room is definitely a space I am keeping light and neutral. I love the bamboo shades and the white sheers. I chose to do a wall of curtains behind the bed because we have an off center window that looked very strange with our headboard. I still need to paint the ceiling white (it's a grayish off white currently) and decorate above my dresser. The dresser was originally plain white from Ikea, and I definitely wanted to add more style to the room without purchasing new furniture. A bit of hardware and a whole lot of spray paint and polycrylic completely transformed it:

I have a bunch of different size frames from the apartment. I plan to spray paint them black, add black matting, and print some black and white photos to go above the dresser. I already love how different it looks just from painting and adding a tray.

Phew! That was an incredibly long post. Thank for you reading, and if you actually read instead of just looking at the pictures I'm impressed! Not pictured is the family room, laundry room, backyard, front yard, spare bedroom, hallway, or bathrooms. We still have a lot of work to do, but it's truly a labor of love!