*Thank you to Article for providing the furniture to complete this project!
Hey there strangers, hope your summer is going well! Ours has been good...busy at times, slow at others, sometimes I'm enjoying the heck out of it, and sometimes I look at the calendar and count the days till school starts again. Don't pretend you don't do it too. This is a safe space.
Honestly Adam and I haven't been doing many projects lately, and it's been kinda nice. We did recently finish the hot tub patio …
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The Ultimate Guide to Painting Cabinets
A few months ago I asked which DIY topics y'all would like me to cover, and the most popular answer was a post on how to paint cabinets. That surprised me a bit, because I've actually written quite a few posts on the subject. The information is scattered and not easy to find though, so the obvious answer was to write one big post containing everything I've learned so far. So here it is, my ultimate guide to painting cabinets!
The first thing you need to know about painting …
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Entry Refresh and a Wooden Doormat Update
Today I have the most well-tested follow-up post for you ever. Not a year, or two years like most of my follow-up posts, but SEVEN years. So what project are we talking about today? These babies...
I made these wooden doormats back in 2012, when my blog was just a year old and I only had two kids. It feels like yesterday, but it wasn't. It's crazy how quickly time goes.
In the original post I said that I had no idea how these mats were going to work out...if they would catch dirt and …
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Hot Tub Patio – Our 2019 Surprise Project
At the beginning of this year I wrote a post outlining our house goals for 2019. It had projects we for sure wanted to finish, along with projects we may or may not get to (you can read that list here). So as soon as Adam and I scratched the RV remodel off that list we started talking about what project we wanted to conquer next.
My suggestion was to finish the laundry room. We started it about a year and a half ago, and it is probably 70% finished. I would love to wrap that up, check another …
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Our DIY Epoxy Garage Floor – One Year Later
Alright, time for another follow-up post! Today we are talking about the DIY epoxy floor coating Adam and I did in the garage a little over a year ago. We used the RockSolid kit from RustOleum. and applying it was simple but fairly labor intensive.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ORIGINAL POST AND TUTORIAL
Before -
After -
Here is a quick video about the process of applying the epoxy floor coating -
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So our garage is really large, a four car. The front half is where we park …
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A Review of our Brick Flooring – One Year Later
Almost exactly a year ago we installed the brick flooring in the mudroom, laundry room, and half bathroom. When we installed it I knew I loved the look, but had no idea how it would actually function and hold up in real life. Would it be easy to clean? Catch all the dirt? Can you mop it? Will it hurt to walk on with bare feet? Will it stain easily? Adam and I didn't know the answers to any of these questions, but we decided to install it anyway and see how it …
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RV Remodel – Dark and Dated to Bright and Inviting!
It's finally RV reveal time! Are you ready for some serious before and after pictures?! In case you haven't been following along, here are all the posts about the RV remodel.
RV Remodel Posts
Buying the RV
RV remodel design plan
Painting the cabinets
Painting the walls
Painting the countertops
Rustic wood accent wall
Reupholstering the banquette
When Adam and I were RV shopping we had a list of must-haves. We wanted a pull behind camper that could sleep all six of us …
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DIY Electric Fireplace
So I know we said the bedroom was finished, but that was a lie. We still needed to add wood flooring and a fireplace, but neither one was going to happen for a few years (since my four sons are now eating our house projects budget. Literally eating it...they never stop eating. I'm screwed when they're teenagers.)
Adam and I found a way to add a fireplace and not break the bank though, and now this exists in our bedroom...
I'm so glad we didn't wait, because having a fireplace in …
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How to Build a TV Frame
Today I have a very simple and practical project for you. It's something that you 100% can do yourself....even if you are new to DIY and your tool collection is nearly nonexistent.
Why would you want to frame your TV? Well because of this...
This giant gap full of cords isn't exactly the prettiest sight, and I'm going to assume that if you have a flatscreen TV hung on the wall then you have the same issue. Fortunately there is a simple solution, and it only requires is a few …
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Our Rustic Master Bedroom Retreat – The Reveal!
Thank you to Modsy for sponsoring this post. Want to try Modsy for yourself? Use code ASHLEY20 to get 20% off a design package!
It's here! Master bedroom reveal day!
Adam and I have been chipping away at the bedroom for the last couple of years, and slowly but surely it went from a mostly empty mishmash of random items to a relaxing retreat where we can escape at the end of the day. It's amazing.
So just to tide you over before we get to the guts of the blog post, here are a few pictures …
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Bed Shopping on a Budget
I've been bed shopping lately. "Lately" being a relative term, because it feels like much, much longer than that. It started off innocently enough, with Adam and I on our floor mattress, dreaming about what bed would be the one to finally lift us up off the concrete. Our bedroom is rustic and fairly masculine, and it has all the traditional elements you need for a great room - wood, stone, metal, white, some color, and plants. The only thing it was missing was leather. A leather bed would be …
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Master Bedroom Reading Nook
It's been a quiet two weeks around here, but I have a good excuse...Adam and I have been in Costa Rica! With no kids! And other adults! It was an amazing trip and just the break we needed. I'll write up a post about it when I'm finished with this bedroom makeover (so two weeks...I have a deadline) and share all the details.
Speaking of the bedroom makeover, we've finished a small section of it...the reading nook!
I love it so much, I just sit in bed at night and smile at it until I …
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A Bedroom Ceiling (Un) Update
A few weeks ago I blogged about our wooden bedroom ceiling, and I finished that post by saying I was pretty sure I was going to stain it.
My issue with the ceiling was that it looked very fresh and new, not rustic and old like I had hoped. Adding to that feel was the fact that the wooden window headers are old and gray, and the two just didn't look like they belonged in the same room.
Staining it seemed like the best solution. Nothing too dramatic, just something to add age. After …
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Vaulted Wood Ceiling (from cedar fence pickets)
In the process of building our house, Adam and I messed up. We knew that we only wanted the builder to build the "shell" of the house and leave the rest for us to DIY, but what we didn't realize (no one along the way did... I'm guessing people don't finance half-built houses very often) is that in order to close on a construction loan, the house has to be 100% finished. This led to a giant, stressful, drawn-out mess when we tried to convert the construction loan to a mortgage. Our solution was …
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Our NBI Drainboard Sink – Two Years Later
It was exactly two years ago now that we started using our NBI Drainboard sink, which means its received enough use and abuse to give it a fair review. A lot of you will have no interest in this, but ever since my initial post about the sink I've received a slow but steady flow of emails asking how it is holding up, so I know there is some interest out there.
When we chose this sink I was skeptical about its durability and functionality. All I knew is that it fit with my vision for the …
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Installing Our Highback Drainboard Sink
The first draft of this post was titled "Installing our Highback, Double Drainboard, Faux Vintage Kitchen Sink", which is quite a big description for a simple sink. That title is like when they introduce Kahaleesi on Game of Thrones, and they're all "Daenerys of the House Targaryen, The First of Her Name, The Unburnt.... eight more super long descriptive tiles...and Mother of Dragons." It's the longest title ever, and I'm over here rolling my eyes at the TV and thinking "just call her the queen …
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Mudroom Reveal – Where Form Meets Function
IT'S MUDROOM REVEAL DAY!! Let's just skip the forced introductory paragraph and get right to the good stuff. Here she is!
I don't think I could love it more. It's so satisfying to have a blank space and a vision, and then watch that vision actually come to life!
From start to finish the mudroom remodel (makeover/finish out/whatever you want to call it) took us almost exactly six months. That definitely isn't a short amount of time, but I think it's realistic for a DIY family …
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All About Our Painted Lockers
Despite what you may have been thinking, we have not abandoned working on the mudroom. In fact, we now have lockers...painted lockers. Beautiful, functional painted lockers.
I love them, and the room is so close to being finished I can taste it. We pretty much just have to build them in and add decor, and it this room will look just like the plan!
So let's talk about these lockers.
The original plan called for six 78 x 15 single tier lockers, and I wanted to buy used ones to …
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My Leather Sectional from Article (aka, the keeper)
Disclaimer - I received 50% off my purchase from Article in exchange for writing a review. And I'm sure you get tired of hearing this, but all opinions are really, genuinely 100% my own.
CLICK HERE to read the first part of my Article furniture review.
Alright, so in the last post I left you hanging when I decided to return the Mello leather sectional from Article. The Mello was comfortable and well made, but the shape and style didn't feel right in my house. Even though I was dreading the …
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My New Article Leather Sectional (and why I returned it)
I've always owned ugly couches. My first couch as a married woman was a floral beauty handed down from my parents, then shortly after I went out and bought a sweet, tan, bulky microfiber set. Adam and I were on a tight budget, and there were only a few options in our little military town in Upstate New York. Shopping online wasn't an option....it was 2005 and we didn't even own a computer (can you imagine?!).
I feel like nearly everyone has owned a sofa set like this, it's like a rite of …
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Living Room Updates and Source List
Our living room isn't one of those rooms that is going to have a clear-cut start and end date. It's a room that will simply evolve over time, and one day we will look around and realize it is finished. That day definitely isn't today, but there have been quite a few living room updates happening recently! The last time I showed y'all the living room was about six months ago (Setember 2017), when it looked like this...
And here is now, a little more evolved and a little less ugly …
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