Before & After Renovations

Before & After Renovations

Secret Garden

Looks simple enough. ...Right?

I had big plans for today's post, about wallpapering my daughter's room. My great-grandfather, you see, was a professional wallpaper hanger, and I have this old newspaper clipping with a black-and-white photo of him hanging paper in Rockefeller Center just before it opened. I was going to write about how everyone told me hanging wallpaper was hard, but it's in my blood, and triumphantly post shots of my stunning new wallpaper along with how-to tips and tricks and such.

And then I Googled "how to hang wallpaper."

Before & After Renovations

I Stole My Three-Year-Old’s Closet, And I’m Not Even A Tiny Bit Sorry

This is not my closet; it's Ashley Tisdale's. Mine doesn't have a chandelier, alas.

I was talking to a colleague the other day about a very particular manifestation of mom guilt: the home-and-decor-related type. In short: On top of the other ways that you feel like you have to prioritize your children's needs (all of them), you also feel like you have to prioritize them when it comes to how you set up and decorate your house. And if you don't?

Guilt.

Before & After Renovations

Before And After: How We Turned Our Garage Into A Multi-Functional Living Space

Our garage spruce-up was supposed to be exactly that: a spruce-up. Perhaps a coat of paint. Maybe a throw pillow or two.

We did not start out intending to take on a project that would ultimately transform our garage from a cluttered, creepy-ish hole into the most useful (and most-used) room in our home - not to mention one that would add another 500 square feet (at least) to our living space.

It all started in July (SEVEN MONTHS AGO, if you're counting), when we decided that we wanted to move our old couch into the garage rather than sell or toss it. But then once we decided to put the couch in the garage, we thought we might as well redo the floor. And if we were redoing the floor, we might as well paint the walls. And if we were painting the walls, we might as well take down the old shelving. And if we were taking down the old shelving, we'd need some new storage solutions, and oh wait, Kendrick would love to have a dedicated space for his instruments, and shoot, skylights would really make the whole place feel so much nicer, and...

Before & After Renovations

The Dream Room

Crate & Barrel 2-Piece Lounge Sectional | Gray Malin "Viareggio Pool" Print

One of my most frequent recurring dreams: I suddenly discover a series of rooms in my house that I've never seen before, and am overtaken by a sense of simultaneous frustration (why didn't I know these rooms were here all this time?!), excitement (new rooms!) and anxiety (what will I do with all these rooms?!). Apparently dreams like this symbolize that the dreamer is discovering untapped potential, or moving beyond what they previously saw as their limitations.

To me, they've always felt slightly more literal.

Before & After Renovations

10 Home Renovation Projects You Have To Try

blogger jordan reid of ramshackle glam

Remember back in 2009, when I decided that I was the kind of person who should write a website about cooking, DIY, and home decor, and that it should be called "Domestic Bliss"? Yeah, I have no idea what I was thinking either - other than, perhaps, "fake it 'til you make it" - because for the first few years, "faking it" is exactly what I did. At the time, my idea of a homemade meal was store-bought pasta with jarred tomato sauce (to which I'd added onions and mushrooms - you know, to make it fancy), and was SO IMPRESSED with myself for completing "DIYs" such as...swapping out drawer pulls. Putting up a sticker decal was a feat worthy of a full video tutorial, and I thought that my idea of using teacups to serve soup during parties was the height of inspired entertaining.

I still think that serving soup in teacups is pretty neat, but a lot has changed since the halcyon days of wallpaper-wrapped lampshades and green chalkboard refrigerators. I'm still no Ty Pennington, but after renovating two homes and working on a home construction and design show, I now know about 20,000 times more than I ever thought I'd know about how to update a household on a budget. Below are ten of my all-time favorite house upgrades, all of which I promise you are more than capable of taking on yourself.


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