TV Console Update

Hello lovelies :)

Tonight I am sharing the simplest DIY that only cost a few bucks, but made a world of difference. 

As some of you may remember from our family room makeover we converted a used and ugly dresser into our TV console. Don't remember? Here it is in all its storage-wielding beauty:

{you can see the whole transformation here}

It has been in full action now for about 9 months, and I would tell anyone even considering a new TV console to not just walk, but to run and find a dresser to use as one. It has been working out beautifully for us! The storage it gives just can't be found anywhere else. 

But, I have to admit there are....downsides to finding an old beauty and fixing her up. Um, like this:

Yeah, that would be what I like to call our dark, little secret - the inside of the drawers were pretty gross. 

Nothing some cleaning and contact paper couldn't fix ;)

At the same time that I picked up the contact paper I used in our kitchen organization project, I grabbed some gray and white chevron contact paper as well. I honestly didn't have a plan for it when I bought it, but once I started working on the family room as part of my one room at a time series I knew exactly where to use it. 

A ton better, right?!

 After covering each drawer, I went through each and organized and purged. The center drawers all hold the electronics:

Wii games and remotes are organized in dividers:

The bottom has their tablets and games {just to prove how much more work I still have to go in organizing out house, I could only find four of the games that go with these consoles!}:

The larger, side drawers hold all our games and activities. We actually still have two drawers empty which is one of the reasons I know this system will work - we have room to grow ;)

Ready to see some ugly again?

Happy Monday {night}!

xo,

Rachel

Kid's Bookcase DIY Makeover

Hi guys!

I am excited to share with you one of the first projects we conquered in our Family Room. 

Here is a little secret about our house: it's full with needs-to-be-done projects. As in ugly stuff everywhere that is looking for some love ;) 

This bookcase I bought a few months back was no exception. 

I picked it up at Goodwill for a few bucks because I couldn't help but think how great it could look...with a complete redo, ha!

Aside from the primary colors that totally don't go with anything in our house, it was covered in cheap fabric that was just inviting a rip to happen:

First thing I did was take it apart and prime and paint it. {sorry- I totally forgot to take pictures of this part!} To keep it looking light and airy we choose a soft white, {Dove White by Glidden} in high gloss.  Since we were taking it from a dark red, it took three coats of primer and two of paint. 

Next up was recovering the fabric pouches. Originally I thought about just making a new one, but I thought that if I just sewed new fabric to the existing one that it would be easier to get the lines right and it would be sturdier. 

All in all I used a little less than 2yds of fabric. I cut it to width and pinned it around the edges, making sure to  mark where the poles went through so I didn't sew them shut. Pinning was tedious, but easy.

The fabric was a find at Ikea for only $4.99 a yard. After the pinning I sewed the edges and across the width  under each pole insert:

Wanna see how this baby looks now?

I am over the moon with how it turned out! It is {finally!} no longer an eyesore. We are using it to store some books and some of the kid's magazines as well. They have a lot of subscriptions, but we never had a good place to put them. 

And since everyone loves a good before and after:

Happy Friday!  

xo,

Rachel

Linking Up....

One Room at a Time :: Family Room Plans

Now that we finally have our kitchen under control, I have been redirecting my attention to the Family Room. 

You may remember our complete redo of the space here. I left you with it looking like this:

The built in desks have been working better than I could have imagined, with the kids pumping out art work like it's their job:

The only problem? Their desks tend to look like this more often than not:

{and I'm not even showing you the really bad stuff!}

The main thing I want to address in this room is really organizing their art supplies and desktops. Now that we have had this layout for a few months I have really been able to see what is working and what is not. 

The next thing I had planned on changing was the gallery wall. Although I loved it in theory, having it up with all the other elements in the room always seemed too busy to me. 

Then something happened. In a recent complete-house rearranging marathon (what? you don't move stuff around constantly?!), we switched the sofa from our living room and placed it in the family room. The space now currently looks like this:

I don't know if it's the gray of the sofa, or the fact that there aren't as many pillows being seen, but I sorta fell back in love with the gallery wall! I do, however, want to switch out some of the art (maybe even add more??).

Other projects I have on the brain for this room:

curtains for the smaller window 

redo a book rack I found at goodwill

update the magnetic wall where their artwork goes

do something to fill up the empty space above the shelves 

recover the bean bags (this one really scares me & I'm not sure if it's really in my sewing capabilities!)

Figure out a solution to the jacket/shoe issue we have at the back door

Honestly, all the projects I have planned should be pretty simple - it's mostly organizing one of the most used rooms in our house. 

I am excited to take over this project a little differently than I have in the past - by sharing with you what I do as I do them, one project at a time. I think a lot of times I get caught up with the big "reveal" that I leave out a lot of the smaller details that go into making it happen because I think that no one would want to read about them. But you know what? Some of the blog posts that I enjoy reading the most are just that - the little things. 

Thanks for reading :)

xo,

Rachel

One Room at a Time :: Kitchen Reveal

Hello!

We are just getting into the swing of things around here after a fun week spent in Tennessee with my parents. All the kiddos are officially back in school, and Jason (boo!) goes back to work tomorrow.  

I am excited to share with you the details of our little kitchen redo. The funny thing about this post is that I have had everything ready to go for weeks - in fact, I even thought I wrote the post already! Um, oops? This probably just goes to show you how absent minded I have been lately, ha! 

For those of you new here, awhile back I decided that I was going to go through our house, room by room, and clean it, declutter it, and get it looking {semi} put together. You can read more about it here. We moved into our house a year ago. During the moving process I got rid of all the things that I thought we didn't need or wasn't part of our style any more. This left us with a pretty dull house. Combine that with three kids, we had a dull and MESSY house!

The first space I decided to conquer is the most used space in our home: the kitchen. I first shared the space here in all its ugly glory. 

The first step was to clean & organize, which I shared here. It has been so amazing just to open up the drawers and not have them be a hot mess!

Since I am trying to do this on a barely-there budget until we buy our place, a lot of love went into this in the form of DIY projects. It kinda felt like once I started, I couldn't stop!

Here is the boring space (complete with dirty dishes - keeping it real here, folks!)

I really think the few simple projects we did made a big impact. Ready to finally see the outcome?

One of the first purchases we made was to buy a new rug. This Urban Outfitters rug brought just the right amount of color and interest into the room. 

This stand was a Goodwill find I purchase a few months ago with the intention of painting it and turning into a cake stand. I bought this for under $2 and used leftover paint from our banquette project. The dishwasher powder jar was a Goodwill find from a year or so ago - it's just been sitting in our laundry room waiting for its home :)

I still think our DIY pot rack is my favorite project in the space!

We actually bought this fruit basket when we moved in - finally hung it! I made the curtains on the window using leftover ikat fabric we had and bought some nice gray, linen fabric for the rest. The curtain rod is just a cheap one that we already owned!

I love the look of layered art. The yellow print on the left I made myself, while the adorable print on the right was a find from the Etsy shop LittleLow. Both were placed in frames we already owned that I just painted with paint we already had. 

I used a curtain we had up in our old place to line the back of our cabinets. I have been debating on whether or not I want to leave the doors on or off. For now they are still on. 

{you can check out all the details about this before & after here.}

I made the art with a canvas we already own. I am going to be honest. I am not super happy with how it turned out, and we already have a little something in the works to replace it :) I do, however, LOVE how nice it's been to have all our coffee stuff in one spot. And off our counters. 

I made the little coffee print and placed it in a random frame that we have owned for years. 

Originally on this wall was our kitchen command center. Although I loved the way that had turned out, I wanted this space more casual and modern. I felt like a lot of the elements I had there were too country. When I really stepped back to see how it was working for us, I realized that all we really needed right here was a spot to make notes, hang items, and our small file system on the opposite wall: 

{spoiler alert: I am currently knee deep a project involving the other items from the wall!}

So here is a little before and after of our space to really see how far it has come:

For the most part, I am really happy with how much of our own resources we used for this project. Aside from the rug, art print, and hardware for the kitchen cart, everything else was used from stuff we already owned. Which is awesome - and speaks volumes to how much stuff we own :)

We absolutely love how this turned out, and I am so ready to get started on the rest of our house!

xo,

Rachel