Final Guest Room Prep

We had a great time with Sam's parents over the weekend! I'll work on a recap for tomorrow, but first I wanted to share the final touches I put on the guest room. Nothing like visitors to finally give me some motivation to tackle a few overdue projects!

I worked on the frame collage for awhile last week, but I finally decided to give it up for the time being since it wouldn't be ready in time. I had originally picked things out for most of the frames, but they just didn't look right once the frames were painted white. Maybe I was being too much of a perfectionist, but anything dark just looked too dark and anything slightly off-white just didn't look nice in the crisp white frame. So sadly, the frame collage continues to be on hold...

But the good news is, I might not even need it. I did get a chance to work on my corkboard map project, and I had forgotten how big it was! I originally intended to put it above the bed, but it was so big that it actually fit better on the opposite wall. This was a late night project and I didn't take any pictures of the process, but the short story is: cork board + map + staple gun = corkboard map!

I was quite excited with the end result! I want to get some of the long skinny vintage-y push pins, but the ones I have will do for now. Sam parent's got to put in a purple pin next to the green one I had already added. (Purple = visitors. Green = places Sam & I have been together.)

I also hung up a mirror next to the door that I bought at Home Goods forever ago and hadn't done anything with. Felt good to finally hang it up! Annnnnd all of the doors finally got painted!! Both the bedroom and the long forgotten hallway doors finally match the trim for once. I couldn't get a good picture of the hallways doors since the lighting is bad in there and I take terrible iPhone pictures anyway, but you can imagine :)

And finally, we changed out the bedding! I already had this comforter set form Target, but we hadn't been using it. The other bedspread we have is actually a higher quality, but since we let the dogs hang out on the bed fairly often it had gotten a little beat up. Plus this one is light and fluffy, which I think is nice for guests!

All together I was happy with how the guest room turned out. Altogether we painted, bought new lamps, changed out the bedding and added some wall decor. A decent amount of effort, but not too bad and mostly things I had been wanted to do anyway. I would still like to find something to put over the bed, but in general I was just glad that I got anything on the walls at all!

Now we have my brother coming this weekend and then Sam's sister Kelly and a few friends coming through next week on their way to New Orleans for spring break. So at least the room will get some use!

Dude, Get on that Already: The List (Part 1)

When I first started this blog, I challenged myself to complete a small task weekly - wrapping up some loose end or doing a quick project I'd been meaning to do forever. Inspired by Sherry over at Young House Love, I called it my "Dude, Get on that Already" challenge. But, it was all easier said that done! So like I mentioned yesterday, my new goals is to accomplish at least one item on the list per month - one each week was probably a bit ambitious!!

And since I have no shame, I figured I'd share the list with all of you. Hopefully you can relate and won't judge me for my inability to finish projects haha. So without further ado, here is the current list (in no particular order):


1) Paint bathroom trim in Sam's bathroom. Earlier this year I painted the walls, but not the trim. I went on a painting spree for one weekend earlier this year and ran out of time to finish all the details (this carries on to items 2 & 3 too, eek!). It's hard to tell from the picture, but the trim is a very lame off-white color, and I'll be painting it a brighter white color to give the walls a bit more pop and make it look cleaner/fresher overall.

And yes, you read right, Sam & I basically do not share a bathroom. One of the our many secrets to avoiding conflict when moving in together after only dating three months (maybe we should write a book? haha).

Beige walls + off-white trim = a bit dingy, needs some white!

2. Paint the hallway doors. I seriously HATE painting doors. Hence why it didn't get done during the same weekend painting spree mentioned above. I did manage to paint the trim in the hallway, but the doors are still that same off-white color. And there's FOUR doors, not cool. But it must be done! I'm used to it by now but I'm sure people who come to my house think I am crazy.

Yes, it actually is this terrible in real life.

3. Finish painting the trim in the entryway and master bathroom. Sadly, these areas are the epitome of unfinished. I painted all the trim in the master bathroom except the baseboards, because I was too lazy to wipe them down after a whole two days of painting. And now it has stayed that way. In the entryway, all the trim is painted except for the crown molding, and I think that was just because I honestly forgot. But have I done anything about it? Of course not!

4. Hang a window treatment in the master bath. First of all, can we just say how hard it is to take a picture of a window? The lighting is crazytown. But anyway, I bought a bamboo shade to hang over this window and test out how I liked it so I could potentially do the same in the kitchen. Haven't hung it yet... it's been at least 6 months.

Poor little naked window...

5. Hang window treatments in the kitchen. See the little valence rods I bought and put up over the windows at least 2 years ago? Yep, never used them because I could never find curtains that I liked. So I'm thinking bamboo shades here too, we'll see how it looks in the bathroom first.  

More naked windows, poor things.

I'm thinking something like this, except with the shade hung outside/over the window rather that inside since my windows aren't framed with trim. 

(Image from here)

6. Add shoe molding to the kitchen, laundry room & master bathroom. This never got done when the tile was laid a few years ago, and it's a simple enough fix if I get a nail gun. Might wait and have this done as a part of the kitchen remodel though?

See how tile awkwardly meets baseboard and you can see some extra
caulk, etc.  ... there's also a crack there you can't see in the picture. 

Should look like this - nice pretty shoe molding
in the living room polishes everything off :)

I need to get to cooking dinner & running, so no more time for the rest.... but I'll post them soon. There's at least 6 more projects, and the more I think about it the more I come up with!! I guess that can keep me busy for a whole year if I only do one each month. It's funny how you can get totally used to things (like those crazy off color doors in the hallway) when you see them every day, and only when you think about it do you realize how ridiculous it is!

Finally Hanging the Towel Bar...

So for my weekly "Dude, Get on that Already" challenge, I installed a towel bar in my master bathroom. It's not that I never had a tower bar before, but when I painted the bathroom 2 months ago, I took down the old towel bars and didn't put them back up since they weren't really my style. Unfortunately I didn't take a before pic, but here's the matching hand towel ring, so I'll let you imagine what the two towel bars looked like...

So at the time, I went to Lowes and picked out a new towel bar, but for some reason I never got around to installing it. For 8 weeks I put my towels folded on the closed toilet lid while I showered, and let them dry hanging over a chair in by bedroom for really no reason at all. Because this literally took me about 30 minutes. Like I said, I have a problem with unfinished projects....

Anyway, installing the towel bar was pretty straight forward -  I just followed the directions, which did come with this handy template so I didn't have to measure out space between the brackets:

Then I got to drilling. This is actually the first time I've used my new drill, which I bought along with the towel bar in order to install it (and because I needed a drill in general). And really, I think its probably the first time I've used a drill at all! So for historys sake, here are the first holes I've ever drilled in my own wall haha.

And after that, I just attached the brackets and the towel bar hooked right on! I'm not sure why the walls look so yellow in the pics, in reality it's actually a light tan color, but you get the picture.

At first I was a little worried that it stuck out too far, but once I got the towels on I think there is still plenty of space, so overall I'm pleased with the upgrade! And feeling silly for not knocking this out sooner.

Can you spot another needed upgrade? (other than replacing the hand towel ring and matching toilet paper bar too!) I definitely need a longer shower curtain! I'm thinking of going with plain white, but who knows when I'll get to that... one step at a time I guess!

Dude, Get on that Already...

I am officially the queen of unfinished projects - for some reason, I just have a hard time finishing up the smallest things! So, I've decided to start a "Dude, Get on that Already" challenge inspired by Sherry at Young House Love (a blog I seriously LOVE). She's been doing one small project a week to finally tackle a room full of homeless items after their big move last year, in the midst of a huge kitchen remodel, full-time blogging, writing a book, etc. So, I figured if she can do it in the middle of all that, I could probably handle one these small un-finished (some even un-started) projects each week and hopefully put an end to some of my procrastination!

Anyway, this week I tackled a super easy project, but one that has taken me nearly 9 months to do (like I said, I have a problem). Last summer my family bought me this print of the Britt's Doughnuts, an amazing doughnut shop at Carolina Beach, NC where we vacation each year. I bought a frame, and since then it has sat around waiting to be hung on the wall. And now that I think about it, it may have actually been two summer ago that they gave it to me (again... its a problem).

So yesterday I finally hung it up in the hallway, along with one of Sam's family photos that they took over Christmas this year, which he has been wanting to hang for weeks now.

You can see in these pics another major unfinished project - I recently painted the hallway walls & trim, but haven't gotten around to the doors yet, which is why they are that awful off-white color. Because really, who likes painting doors? My least favorite ever. Other future upgrades definitely include a cuter light fixture to spruce up this little hallway at some point... we'll see!

Sorry for bad quality iPhone pics, I can never seem to find my camera recently...

Anyway, stay tuned for a weekly "Dude, Get on that Already" challenge update. I'm pretty sure you'll be amazed at how many loose ends I have around here, but whatever, I have no shame. Please tell me I'm not the only one with this can't-finish-a-project-to-save-my-life syndrome?