How was your first weekend of 2014? We are home now after celebrating a busy wedding and New Year’s week in Arizona (where Kevin’s family is from). The wedding was set in a beautiful rustic barn in the middle of the dessert. The inside was lit from head to toe in twinkle lights, the guests were encouraged to wear cowboy boots, the weather was perfect. Can’t wait to share more photos, but here are two quick instagram snap shots.
I hope you’re enjoying these ‘year in review’ posts as much as I am! It’s nostalgic to take a glance back at 2013 (and hopefully helpful to find new projects/recipes/posts/events that you haven’t seen before). Friday I shared my favorite crafty projects from 2013 and before that a roundup of favorite family moments and recipes.
Today’s roundup of house-related projects has a bit of crossover with Friday’s craft/diy post, but most of the projects we end up working are for a certain room, house fix-it need or the girls, so I suppose it makes sense.
Let’s go room by room to make it easy to mentally organize the 2013 updates…
In our kitchen, I built a breakfast spot out of two cabinets, Ikea legs, foam + favorite yellow fabric (that I tufted), a Craigslist table, consignment store chair and giant diy chalkboard frame (a temporary solution that’s covering up a need-to-be-replaced window). We finally added molding to the end cap on our kitchen island and added a wood pallet pantry for storage on the other side of the room.
In the far corner, a new tiled corkboard space dedicated to family happenings (like wedding invites or birth announcements) and Liv’s artwork.
One of my favorite new additions to the kitchen might be Liv’s play kitchen, a gift that my dad and I made for her 2nd birthday back in January of ’13.
In the living room, we’ve updated the rug, added a few new throw pillows, a shiny gold side table, and new watercolor heart art to the bookcase.
Kevin and I built a wooden sunburst mirror for the mantel and a faux wood stack facade for our currently out of commission fireplace.
It went viral a couple of months after posting and landed on Apartment Therapy, Curbly, even in This Old House magazine.
In the dining room, a new giant piece of pink art to help lighten the space!
And in my office, a new floating shelf set to help me stay organized as well as a reupholstered velvet office chair (I chose a navy blue) and a few new decorative/storage additions.
The nursery/girls’ room has by far received the BIGGEST makeover in 2013. In preparation for baby girl #2, we added a new built in bookshelf/window seat for extra storage, added new gold sconces to said bookshelves, created an acrylic showcase for Liv’s growing library and learned to wallpaper (for the opposite wall) in a design that I made myself over at Spoonflower.
I added a few pieces of diy art, including a framed card from Liv’s 1st birthday and an alphabet print that matches the colors in her room. You can download it here. More to come on this room!
Our bedroom just began its update towards the end of 2013 with the start of a gallery wall.
The outside of our house made big progress towards the end of 2012 with a new wraparound deck, but in 2013 we added kid-friendly features and an awesome 10 person dining table to eat under the stars.
We also added outdoor landscape lighting to the front, side and back of our house.
And new windows! It was great to have all of our windows refurbished (and saved us a bundle in purchasing new ones).
I summed up my favorite quick tips for making an older home feel newer (part 1 and part 2) and also shared the ultimate painting cheat sheet that I created in collaboration with the pros Olympic paints.
Whew. Am I missing anything? 2013 you were a busier year than I remember. Here’s a link to our crafty/diy projects from last year and one with favorite family moments and recipes.
Hope you’re having a beautiful start to your week! Now back to unpacking and repacking for a work trip. Oh busy, busy life – I wouldn’t have you any other way.
