Welcome To My Home

Last week, I received an email from a reader named Jill Weston. Here is an excert from her email:
"I was just wondering, and maybe this would be a little too much to share on your blog, but I've noticed in your photos how beautiful you decorate your house! I was wondering if you would be able to do a little side post on your house decor and show it off?! You have great taste and I just thought it'd be inspiring to see how you've decorated your house!!! If you don't want to, I completely understand as it would maybe showcase your life more than you wanted! But if you are willing to, that'd be fantastic!"

I told Jill I would be glad to do a side post on my house decor, but I didn't think it would be terribly interesting or inspiring. However, I did have to decorate my house on a really tight budget, so maybe it can be of help in that regard.

Let me give you some background first. 3 years ago, we were paying a mortgage on a cute little house in the city. After the birth of my 3rd child, my dad offered to give me my grandfather's house which had also been one of my childhood homes. It needed alot of work. It hadn't been updated since we lived in it in the 80's, and it had been rented out to several families over the years. Still, it was a free house, so we sold our house and dove into remodeling. The next few months were a mix of fun and overwhelming stress. It was fun to completely remodel a house, but it was stressful to try and get the look I wanted for little money. Also, we did most of the work ourselves, so it was exhausting. I remember being up all hours of the night painting, and my poor husband worked on it every night for months. I had a newborn at the time, so it was crazy! I'm going to go through each room and give you a little background on the items in it.

So, without further ado, let me give you the tour...

Entryway

I got this entryway set on sale from Brookstone for half the cost of the Pottery Barn version. We use this piece to store our coats, bag, hats, shoes, and many other things. The bench is great for sitting down to put your shoes on before you go outside.

Kitchen

This is my kitchen, and the source of many headaches during the decorating process. As you can see, it's a pretty big kitchen with alot of cabinets and drawers. We could not afford to replace the cheap 70's woodgrain cabinets, so the only option I had was to paint them. I decided I wanted to paint them green, but it was really hard picking out the shade of green. I finally settled on this shade. We lucked out and got all our appliances in a friends and family sale. So, we got stainless steel appliances for the price of the basic white ones! Counter tops were the hardest thing to pick out. Naturally, I wanted some sort of natural stone, but with a counter top this long, we would need to be millionaires to afford it. So, I ended up going with some laminate that looked like stone. It has some flakes of green in it that match the cabinets. My favorite item in my kitchen is the island. I got this on Final Sale from Pottery Barn. It had been $800, and I got it for $400! It was worth every penny! The flooring is laminate and it is the same throughout the whole house except the bathrooms. I would have loved to have gotten hardwood, but it wasn't in the budget. These floors were only $1.37/sq. ft. They have held up well.

Living Room

Ah, the living room. The most used room in the house. The major problem with this room was the super ugly fireplace. The brick and mantle were very dark, and the inside of it was disgusting. We cleaned it out and spray-painted the inside black with heat resistant paint used for grills. Then we painted the outside and mantle white, but let some of the brick show through for a more rustic look. Also, all the molding you see around the room was dark-stained wood. We painted it white as well. The combination of these things totally transformed this room. It instantly brightened it up and took it from 70's to modern for very little money. Yes, that is popcorn ceiling. I hate it, but my dad forbid me to get rid of it, so I'm stuck with it. Yuck! I try not to look up if I can help it! I've had this couch since college. It is in shambles underneath that slipcover. My next furniture purchase is definitely going to be a couch, but, just so you know, a slipcover is a cheap way to make your couch last longer until you can afford a new one.

Dining Room

Well, I bet this looks familar. This is where I take my indoor outfit pictures. The table and chairs are from Pottery Barn. This is Pottery Barn's cheapest dining room table, the Metropolitan. I'm not sure if they still sell it or not. It has a leaf that can drop in the middle, so this table can seat up to 8 people. The chairs are the Napoleon chairs from Pottery Barn. I bought a chair every few months over the course of a year. The light fixture is from Crate and Barrel. This is the only light fixture in the house that I splurged on. All my other fixtures are el cheapos from Lowes.

This is the front door nobody uses. I just wanted to point it out because I love my little rug. It's from Pottery Barn.

Boy's Room

This is about as clean as this room ever gets. My boy's share this room. They each have a TV on their dressers, so they can play their respective video game consoles. Surprisingly, it works out pretty good. The bunk bed is from Pottery Barn, and it was a gift from the grandparents. If you are wondering what those things are hanging from the vintage GMC poster, they are Yoshi's of all different colors. My son insist on hanging them from that poster. LOL!

Hallway

Not much going on here, but I love my runner. It's also from Pottery Barn. See a theme developing here? I told you I wasn't very inspiring.

Guest Bathroom

I wish I had a before picture of this bathroom. It was disgusting! It also had a very long and ugly yellow countertop that almost blocked the door. You had to side step to walk into the bathroom. Needless to say, we tore that out and bought this little vanity from Home Depot. What a difference that made! This bathroom also had carpet. Gross! We replaced that with porcelain tile from Lowes.

Girl's Room

Naturally, the little princess got a bedroom in the house all to herself. After 2 boys, I had such fun decorating this room. This was my room when I lived here, so I think it's neat that it's now my little girl's room. Those are stick on decals on the walls. There used to be more butterflies, dragonflies, and such behind the crib, but my little girl has peeled some of them off. Darn kids!

Master Bedroom

Ah, my sanctuary! This is where I come to hide out with my son's laptop. We just got this furniture a few months ago, and I couldn't be happier with it. I've slept in a full-sized bed my entire life. It's so nice to have a big King to stretch out in!

Master Bathroom

This bathroom is not as pretty as the guest one, but it is more functional. It had the same ugly yellow countertop. We ripped that out and replaced it with this granite-looking laminate. We put the same tile in here but 12 inch squares instead of 6 inch. This is also my laundry room. There is a shower in here, but it's nothing fancy, so I didn't take a picture of it. I did give you a picture of the toilet, though. LOL!

Closet

The Grand Finale - my crazy, disorganized closet! I can't believe I'm showing you guys this! I'm so embarrased! LOL!

Well, I hope you all got something out of this little home decorating post. Thanks to Jill for the idea! Please email me or comment below if you have any questions about where an item came from or if there is anything else you would like to know. We repainted every room in the house with paint from Lowes, so if you want to know the name of any paint colors, I can provide that information.

Oh, one other thing. We have a really old shed behind our house. My dad said it is over 100 years old. It was in terrible shape when we moved in. We pressured washed it, my husband built new doors, and then we painted it. Here is a before and after. It's amazing what a little paint can do!

Before

After