Before & After Home Tour (Part 5) : The Little Girl's Room

  I love how this blog inspires me to get more of my projects done so I can tell you about them. It's wonderful motivation!

  My little princess & I cleaned up her room & hung some new pictures this week. She says, "My room is awesome!" :) I quickly took some pictures to share with you.

  It went from bo-ring to bright & cheery.

  This was actually one of the better rooms in our home when we moved in. It was just bland. We removed the carpet & old navy blind.

  We painted it a pretty pink for our princess-in-training. She wanted a pink & purple bedroom. When I heard that I cringed. I was imagining a hideous, neon shaded room. Fortunately, things didn't turn out that way. Lots of white with only small splashes of purple helped pull this off.

And because we all love a before & after:

  On another note, this weekend is the Fall Festival I've been working so hard to prepare for. If you'd like to see some of the goodies I'll be selling at my booth this weekend, click here, here, here, & here. I'll let you know how things went on Monday. I hope you'll join me.

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

The Creative Paige

Tatertots & Jello

Playful Decor

Before & After Home Tour (Part 4)

  It's been awhile since I've blogged about our house, so today I'm adding the newest addition to the Home Tour Series. Our master bedroom. I was a little tentative about posting this with the room the way it is. But let's be real... life isn't always perfect & neither are our houses. This is how the room looks right now. But there are still some changes to take place.

  When we bought the house, the master bedroom was done in a faux stainless steel look complete with a silver painted shade, upholstery tacks in the walls, & old shag carpet.

We painted, pulled out the carpet, put down laminate, put up new window coverings & things are looking much more welcoming.

Here's the part I wasn't crazy about revealing: The dresser in our room leaves something to be desired. Another word to describe it is B-O-R-I-N-G. I've got plans for it. It's on my to-do list. I promise once it gets finished, I'll post pics. Here's an idea for it:

Source

I love the stripes.

What's on your project list this week? Leave me a comment to tell me. I'm all about reader interaction. :)

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Tuesday Talent Show

Ta-da Tuesday

Tatertots & Jello

From Green to Grey

  Happy Monday! How was your weekend? We tackled our painting project this weekend & I'm here to show you the results.

  Our main floor hallway needed some freshening up. When we bought the house, the hallway was a drab beige colour with dated gold veined mirrors on the far wall. Before we moved in, we removed the old mirrors & painted it a light, cheery green. After 4 years of little fingers & just life in general, it was in need of a fresh coat of paint. We were out of the original paint we used & had to purchase paint to get the job done. So we figured if we were going to make a change, now's the time! I chose a pretty grey from General Paint called "Windblown". After two coats, the deed is done! And I LOVE the results! It looks sophisticated & is fabulous next to my "Camelot" walls in the Living Room.

  I looked through all of our pictures from when we bought the house & sadly, I didn't take one of the hallway. This is the closest to a hallway before picture... the hall linen closet. One really great thing about this house is the fact that it has lots of closets! We have 8 now & there were 10 when we bought the house. We took one out when we renovated the kitchen / dining area / living room & we took out the one in the basement bathroom to redo the shower. The shower is still incomplete but there will probably be a small storage cupboard going in the plans. Anywoo... the old hallway closet...

The hallway closet now:

And here is the green that the hall & back entry have been the past 4 years:

AFTER shots:

I also quite like how the art work I have looks against the grey. 

  My weekend also consisted of copious amounts of laundry, mending a pile of toys & books, cleaning off my craft table, & a few other random cleaning tasks. What kept you occupied this weekend?

  I also added a new tab to the menu bar here at Silver Boxes. "Come Tour My Home!" is up & running. I'll be adding more rooms as I blog about them, but feel free to poke around my house & have a look. :)

  Stay tuned this week for a yummy recipe involving marshmallows, my bulletin board project, papercrafts, & some household tips. I'm also excited to be attending the semi annual flea market here in Saskatoon on Saturday! I'll be posting about that next week. But for now, we'll focus on the week ahead. :) Have a great one!

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Tater Tots & Jello

The big reveal

TA-DA!

  My little side table is complete! I can't believe it only took me an evening to complete the makeover on this little beauty. If I had known, I would have done it long ago.

  A reminder of the before:

Here's a rundown of the process:

I took it outside, gave it a light sanding, wiped off the dust, & taped off the black top & chrome trim - 

I kept those as is.

Got on my painting duds & broke out the spray paint.

My painting pants...
you can actually see all the past/present colours of my house on these babies!
They're like a work of art in themselves! :)

I used Krylon Metallic spray paint in Aluminum.

And all systems go! I sprayed on the first coat:

And a second coat:

After 2 coats. Before distressing.

It was looking a little too space age for me at this point so I got out some black craft paint I had kickin' around & played around with some dry brushing on the corners & edges. I ended up dry brushing on some black paint & then smudging it (purposefully) with a paper towel to make it look a bit more distressed.  

After distressing with black craft paint.

The finished product:

I think it will look especially stunning at Christmas time with my silver/white colour scheme. 

Here's some more after shots:

  Thanks for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment & tell me what you think.

Enjoy your day!

~Steph

Linking up to: The DIY Showoff,  Crafty Scrappy Happy, Just a Girl, Common Ground, Miss Mustard Seed, & Tater Tots & Jello

Before & After home tour (part 3)

  We recently finished our kitchen renovation. It had been mostly done for a long time, but we put the frosting on the cake this summer by completing the back splash. We opted to go with a simple white subway tile. I'm enjoying the clean, sleek look it adds to the kitchen. 

  Here are some before shots. These were taken before we moved in. We thankfully had 1 month to start our renos before we moved into the house. This kitchen was the first thing to change. It just wouldn't have worked very well for us - no dishwasher, single sink, no upper cabinet doors (I like "stuff" out of sight behind doors), very little counter space...

After shots complete with the new backsplash

  We reconfigured the kitchen layout by adding this peninsula with a high bar top which adds more cabinet & counter space. It also doesn't crowd the fridge & stove so much.

Our control centre 

Here's a better shot of my Paris gallery - B&W photos from a calendar &frames fromIkea - easy peasy.

Recap:

Sources:

Paint: Camalot by Benjamin Moore
Cabinets, countertops, hardware, light fixtures: Ikea
Flooring: Floor It
Backsplash Tile: Home Depot

If you'd like to see our living room makeover click here.
If you'd like to see our main bathroom makeover click here.

  Well, I'm off to start my fall decorating. I'm warming to the idea of Fall arriving & my oldest had his first day of Grade 3 today. My little girl starts Kindergarten at the end of September so I have some extra time to cherish with her. I hope you'll join me next week when I link up to Nest of Posies Fall Festival. September promises to be a month full of beauty & inspiration.

Enjoy your day!

~Steph

Before & After home tour (part 2)

  My Before & After home tour continues today. I've got a few a photos to show you of our home makeover.

  This is our main bathroom before. It was truly awful. In fact, when we first viewed the house, I think I laughed out loud when I saw this room. It was SO dirty & outdated. Pictures do not do it justice. Mauve toilet & tub, dirty lilac walls, dusty lace curtains for the shower curtain & on the window. Nasty, grimy lino floor. The tub surround only went halfway up the wall so we couldn't use the shower. The list of nastiness just went on & on.

BEFORE

BEFORE

This after picture literally makes me breath a sigh of relief! 

AFTER

  We (and when I say we, I should give credit where credit is due. My fabulous husband & DIY expert, James, did most of the work. I just picked the stuff out.) started by ripping out everything but the tub. We had it refinished in white since it was in good condition other than the awful colour. We did the tub surround in a simple white tile, tiled the floor, painted the walls a pale green (it doesn't make me look sick, I promise!) put a new toilet in, new vanity, light fixtures, & towel bars. 

  I'm so pleased with how it turned out. Since we painted this room, I've heard that you should never paint a bathroom green because it can make a person look sick. This shade doesn't. It's General Paint's Ocean Bath CL 2041W. Check it out if you want a nice, soft green.

Recap:

If you'd like to see our living room makeover click here.
If you'd like to see our kitchen makeover click here.

We're very happy with how our renos have turned out & I'm enjoying sharing the journey with you all.

I've got recipes, highlighting some favourite vintage finds, & this week's papercrafts coming up later this week. 

Enjoy your day!

~Steph

Vintage finds

I quite enjoy vintage-y type things. Not just anything vintage, but something that fits my style or that I can see some potential in. I haven't been thrifting / antiquing / flea marketing / garage saling / buying on Kijiji for a while but today I have resolved to do it again soon.

The last time I went out, I found a couple of little treasures. This one is perfect as is.  It's just a little fellow. I think I paid .50 cents for it. Don't you just love the swirl effect?

It now sits on my front entrance table. It's perfect for catching a few coins from someone's pocket. It would also be pretty on a lady's dresser to catch rings.

The other thing I found that same day was an adorable owl. I'm crazy for all things owl these days. They are (usually) just so cute! So I found this guy in the thrift store & could see the potential for something great. 

Before

My mom (an interior decorator) had got me thinking about taking things that have been painted in a busy, fussy way in the past & spray painting them in a solid colour. So, guess who my first victim was? You guessed it... this wonderful fellow. Check out the transformation with just a few coats of white spray paint. 

After

I have him sitting on some books in my bookcase. He is sitting on a book, after all, so it seemed fitting. 

I find inspiration for vintage finds in a couple of magazines from Better Homes & Gardens. They put out some great special issues several times a year. One title is 100 ideas: Makeover Style. Another is Do It Yourself.

Do you like to buy second hand? What are some of your favourite finds?