This week I’ve shown you { before pictures } and { after pictures } of my latest project. Or shall I say, part of my latest project. There’s still lots to come. Yep, lots!

Today I want to show you an easy and in-expensive project that you could do in one day. It’s guaranteed to update your space and add a bit of drama to any room. Ready?

Tip: Paint your doors.

If you’ve never thought about painting your door a different color before, take a second to look around your home. Chances are you have one door that would make a fantastic feature in your home. It doesn’t have to be a drastic color, just something different than builder white. Most of the time, the best option to paint is actually the back of your front door.

Here’s a perfect example from the entryway I just finished. The door started out white and didn’t add any character or architectural interest to the space. The space had gorgeous trim everywhere, but it was hard to notice in the sea of white. In this specific room, I thought painting the door black and leaving the trim white would make a great statement and update the room.

Tada! Isn’t it amazing what a coat of black paint did for the space. It didn’t hurt that the walls were re-painted, but the biggest difference in this room is the door. Modern and yet classic. Perfect fit for my clients. Oh and ignore the light fixture. I took this picture mid-project.

So there you have it, painted doors. For other great colors, you could do a soft turquoise or a pale yellow. Bright red closet doors or a fun green pantry door. The options are limitless. If you do go with a bold color, try to go with a color you haven’t used in your decor. For red doors, try a color scheme of creams and blues. You never want to walk in a space and feel like everything matches.

Have fun with it! Your home should reflect your personal style and too often doors get forgotten. An unexpected door will make you smile every time you open it.

Promise.

Today I’m excited to show you the finished entryway! If you didn’t get to read yesterday’s post, you can catch up on that { here }. For those who want quick re-cap, I recently finished up work on an entryway, taking the space from old-fashioned country, to sleek and modern. Here’s another look at what I started with…

And here’s what I came up with…aka, The Plan Stan.

And finally, here’s a few after shots!

I’ll break down the project over the next few days and give you a few tips you can use in your own home. I LOVE this space and am so happy the homeowners are just as happy. Oh and see that gorgeous gray rug in the last picture, I’ll share that room with you soon. Is it wrong to be jealous of a client’s house? Because I totally am.

Someday, casa Smith you’ll be just as beautiful. I promise.

I just finished up a project for the sweetest couple you’ve ever met. Seriously, they are. They recently bought a gorgeous Southern style home (think large front porch) and needed some help updating the interior. I worked with them on their entryway, living room and master bedroom and I can’t wait to show you all the details! Today, I’m focusing on the foyer.

This is what we started with… yellow walls, a too-formal light fixture and lots of open space.

The couple wanted a more modern, comfortable space with ample storage. Since it’s such a large entryway, finding items like a rug to fit the space, or the perfect spot to drop off their keys and jackets took some finesse.

Here’s what I came up with!

 I’m happy to say they loved it! Tomorrow I’ll share a few design tricks I used to create the space and later I’ll show you a few sneak peeks at the nearly finished space.

Can I just say, I love my job.

It’s Monday and it’s gloomy which makes today the perfect day to share a really easy project that’s under $10 and can be done in under an hour. Cheap and easy? Just the kind of project I like.

Enter, the placemat pillow.

I was walking around Target the other day (shocking, I know) and happened upon this cute placemat. I loved the pattern and thought it would make a great pillow for our master bedroom. At $2.99, I snatched it up and excitedly called Justin to tell him my plans. Why are guys never as excited about pillows as women are? Unless he’s sleeping on it, Justin could care less if there wasn’t one throw pillow in the house. What a horrible thought. I don’t even want to think about a world without throw pillows. Shudder.

For the project, you’ll need a placemat, a seam ripper, stuffing and a needle and thread. Here’s what I started out with…

Step 1: Use the seam ripper to undo the stitching on one side of the placemat. I went with the shorter side since it meant less sewing later.

Once you remove the thread, this is what you’re left with.

Step 2: Stuff the placemat with the stuffing (duh!). I used this $4 fiberfill bag from JoAnne’s. It’s really important to break apart the stuffing as you put in in the placemat to avoid any lumps. I simply grabbed large handfuls and pulled them apart before I stuffed them in.

Step 4: Sew up the open side of the placemat and like magic you have a pillow! (P.S. Ignore my creepy hand in the picture below.)

There you have it,  a quick and easy project that’s perfect for a rainy afternoon!

This week I’ve been working on a big project for a client. The final installation is on Saturday so I’ve been trying to find the last few pieces we need to complete the design. One of the main things I’ve been looking for is lamps. My inspiration came from two, rather expensive, lamps. This one from Pottery Barn for $150 (without the shade) and this one from west elm for $150 (with the shade). Pretty pricey, no?

I managed to find two great options at one of my favorite places in the world, Homegoods, that remind me of each of the inspiration lamps. Best part? Each lamp was only $39.99. Heck, yes.

Which one is your favorite?

Even though it’s my favorite room in the house, last weekend wasn’t all about the kitchen. We decided the back of our house needed some love too, so we took advantage of the paint deal I told y’all about last week and re-painted the guest room!

I’ve been slowly collecting items (like this ladder) to use in the room, but I knew painting would make the biggest difference. This is what we started with…

The new color palate is going to be white, turquoise, coral and tan. I’ll whip up a moodboard to share with you guys in the next couple weeks so you can get a feel for where I’m going with this room. As far as paint goes, I knew I wanted a lighter color on the walls since this room doesn’t get much sun.

Tip #1 : Many people forget that white is a color too! It makes a great backdrop for colorful accessories and bold patterns. So, white went the walls. (Say that three times fast.)

To add a bit of whimsy to the room, I decided to paint the ceiling, YES the ceiling, a light aqua.

Tip #2 : Look up! Painting your ceiling can dramatically change your space. Just try to keep it light since darker colors will make the room feel shorter.

We LOVE the color combo. It’s calming and relaxed, with just a bit of the unexpected thrown in. Just how we like it. Oh and if the walls look a bit pink on your screen or the ceiling gray, blame it on the iPhone. They really are white/aqua.

I can’t wait to show you everything else I’ve gathered for this room. I have bedding, a lamp, a re-covered chair, pillows…lots to share!

What about you? Ever painted a ceiling?

We’ve done quite a few things to our bathroom since we’ve moved in, not all of which I’ve shared on the blog. Today I’m getting you all caught up!

Here’s the bathroom in all of it’s original glory. If glory is ugly and painted like Kermit the frog.

Aaaannnd here it is today. Sorry for the weird yellow glow but that’s what you get for using your i-Phone. The biggest change was painting the room a nice, calm bluish-gray. It really is  amazing how much a $30 gallon of paint can change a space.

We also replaced the gold chandelier with a much sleeker recessed LED light. This was the first electrical project Justin and I took on together and when it actually worked, well, I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder. We’ve found out that the wiring in the house is a bit interesting, so we’re approaching future projects with a it’s-going-to-take-much-longer-and-more-effort-that-you-think attitude. For now, we’re extremely happy to have said good-bye to the gold!

Another extremely affordable project I tackled was spray painting the cabinet hardware. Since we really want to completely re-do the bathroom down the road, I didn’t want to invest a lot of money on new drawer knobs right now. Instead, I spent $7 on a can of spray paint and in an hour had completely “new” knobs. In case you can’t remember what the old ones are, or don’t want to scroll up, they were gold. See a theme here?

The last big change in this space so far has been the window. If you remember, there was a faux stained glass window insert that I blogged about removing { here }. Once the insert was removed, we were left with a completely blank canvas.

When I was in Home Depot one day, I happened to pass a curtain panel in the pattern below. It wasn’t the right style since it was a single long panel, but I figured I could work with it. Using my favorite no-sew tape I hemmed the curtain to fit our window and then layered the fabric to give the appearance of a roman shade. I started at the top left and every six inches or so I hand sewed a stitch. I repeated it for every row and it added a fun effect to the curtain.

Here’s a better picture from the side. It’s almost ruffled, but in a more relaxed and imperfect way. We finished it off by adding a set of blinds for extra privacy and have been very happy with the results!

We’ve also managed to replace the ugly shell toilet, but I didn’t figure you guys needed to see that. I mean it’s a toilet. Not such an exciting project. There are still a million things to do for this bathroom but all in good time. The big things on our list are to find a rug, add some artwork and replace the faucets. Again, this project is more about updating this bathroom as cheaply as we can since we plan to remodel down the road.

For under $150, we took this bathroom from outdated to updated. Not too shabby, I’d say.

We had a fun delivery yesterday at the Smith house….

You know you’re old when getting a new dishwasher is THE event of the week, ha! I’ve been stalking this beauty for months now, waiting to hit the perfect storm of sale, coupon, plus extra money off and it finally hit!

We tested it out last night with a bunch of dirty dishes and I’m happy to say that not only did it do a great job of getting everything clean, it’s also SUPER quiet. Like, are you sure it’s on quiet. That was one of the most important features to us since our kitchen is open to the rest of the house. A quiet dishwasher is a beautiful thing I tell ya.

Oh and if you’re wondering, it’s { this model }.

What about you guys? Any fun deliveries this week?

This weekend I had a sick husband. Most of my time was spent curled up on the couch with occasional trips to the kitchen to heat up soup or dish out meds. Sounds fun, right? On Sunday I decided to take a quick trip to Target and came back with these babies.

We’ve been wanting adirondack chairs for our patio for a while and at $18 a pop (on sale), these were a pretty affordable option.  They’re comfortable and since they’re plastic, they can easily be hosed down once the pollen fairy comes out in full force.

I still want to get a few throw pillows to add a bit more color, but I think it’s looking pretty dang relaxing just as it is. All I need now is a well husband to help me test them out…

Hope your weekend was more exciting than ours!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

And what a beautiful weekend it was! We spend most of the weekend outside working on the yard, except for a break on Saturday night to see { these guys } in concert. Loved them!

Anyway, remember last week when I mentioned we were working on re-doing our yard? Well here’s the before and during pics! It’s not really an “after” since we still have more to do, but it’s a heck of a lot better than it was. Let’s just say I have a newfound respect for landscape architects. Hard. Work.

Here’s the beginning of the walkway to our front door before…

And here it is now! We still have more mulching to do and hopefully everything will start to grow. Fingers crossed.

The before for the area to the right of the driveway…ugly right?

Currently!

Here’s the other area by the garage. It was perhaps the most pitiful.

Not anymore! Oh and all those potted plants are mums that my Grandfather rooted for me. That man is amazing.

And the most dramatic change goes to the area down by the curb. We had three HUGE trees removed because the roots were damaging the driveway. Just ignore the men, um, climbing up the tree in the picture. That’s what you get when you forget to take a true before pic.

There’s something to be said for yard work. It’s hard and you work for hours and hours on a tiny little space, but man is it rewarding to step back and see what you’ve done. So many people overlook the outside of their homes, but it’s just as important as decorating the inside. It’s the first glimpse people have of your home. Even if you live in a condo or apartment, a cute doormat will do wonders to make your home look inviting.

Now’s the perfect time time to spruce up your exterior. Start with a rug or a hard-to-kill pot of succulents if you’re thumb is more purple than green. Trust me, if I can do it, you can too.