Projects

*Disclaimer: I don't know why it isn't showing my separated paragraphs. I promise I didn't purposefully make this all one long post. If anyone knows how to fix this, let me know! :) For those of you that don't know, I LOVE decorating. There was always only so much that I could do in an apartment. I tried really hard to make both of our apartments homey, but there are some things that go a long way (paint, changing out lighting, etc.) that I never got to do until now. Also, my biggest concern about getting a new construction house was making sure that it didn't look "sterile" and that it felt homey. I think our builder did a good job at this, but we've been trying to do things along the way to make it more "us". One of my big goals this summer is to work on the house. I've mainly been trying to use stuff we already have or buy things extremely discounted (I also found some great finds while waiting 6 months for our house to be built!) Here are some small projects that we have done so far or are currently working on: One of the first things we did when we moved in was install a couple of fans (the builder installs one, but it was way cheaper to do the rest on our own). I found some really nice ones at a sketchy warehouse for $30 each, which was a steal! I don't have a picture of the fans, sorry guys. We installed two and are planning to install two more eventually. The other project we did right away was plant a few flowers, plant a crepe mertyle in front and in back(thanks for the help, Mom) and install cabinet hardware. I was REALLY excited about this because it's a small thing that goes a long way. I found my cabinet hardware on overstock for extremely cheap. I basically just watched it for a few months and then bought it one day when it was almost free (just kidding, but was about 1/3 the price that Lowe's or Target charges for knobs and pulls). It was scary drilling holes in our cabinets, because we're not very handy. I did learn how to use a power drill though! :)

Another thing we did was have a flower bed wall built around our beds in the front. This one was a pain because we had to submit an application to our HOA to get it approved, which was silly. However, then we had two very nice guys come out and build it for us (we weren't about to try to mix mortar and pour cement, installing fans was difficult enough for us). They didn't speak any English, but we did eat donuts together and have their 8 year old son translate for us, haha! It was pretty cheap because they were doing lots of houses in the neighborhood. I am really happy with how it turned out. It was also a pain to replant some of these flowers so that they weren't being covered up.

Next, I painted the study. We actually picked this paint color out a few months ago and knew that we wanted a green study. I didn't do the best job painting, so I'm hoping the room I paint tomorrow turns out cleaner and takes me less time. Speaking of paint, one night I got inspired by some extra paint I had from a long time ago, so I painted the laundry room. It's a grey/blue color. I was planning on using it in our bathroom, but next to the light from the window, it looked like the color of toothpaste. I never in a million years thought I would paint and decorate my laundry room before I did my own room, but it's so small that it only took me an hour and I could just use things I already had that I didn't know what to do with (with the except of the "laundry sign", which I bought at World Market thanks to a gift card from my wonderful sister!)

I'm painting our bedroom tomorrow, so Mitchell and I taped it today to get it ready. It's kind of a dark taupe color. I love grey right now, and wish I had picked that for the main color in our house rather than beige, but I am sure it will go out of style in 10 years, just like everything does, and I will be glad we picked beige.

When we are done, I am hanging these 6 frames above the bed. I am very excited about this project! I bought scrapbook paper at Michael's today and just framed it in $3 IKEA frames. Thank you, Pinterest! Last but not least (and also thanks to Pinterest and my super decorative friends here in Dallas), I made this gallery wall (once again, mostly with things I already had). I just had to purchase the white flower picture (on clearance at Target for $10) and the wooden frame, which I got at Garden Ridge. We spent forever rearranging these things and trying to get them to fit together right. It felt like a game of tetrus. Sorry about the long post! I may post some updates throughout the summer as I work on more projects. My friends and I are planning on setting my garage up as a workshop and building things on our own. I really want to make a solid wood coffee table, and found a tutorial online. My friend Anna has built several piece of furniture and is hopefully going to help me with it (let's be honest, I won't be able to do it if she doesn't help me, ha!) We are also wanting to use scrap pieces of wood to make something like this: I can't save the picture on my computer, so here's the link: http://img1.etsystatic.com/il_570xN.291414905.jpg I know it sounds like work to most people, but I actually really like painting, watering plants, decorating walls, and even organizing the garage. It was perfect timing to move at the exact time that I am the most available in the past several years! Have a great week! :) Update from painting the master bedroom today (6/4):