The pots on the left are for spices. I have started growing chives, parsley, and basil in them. I was not sure if they would actually grow, since they do not get direct sunlight, but I hoped for the best. As you can see below, they totally started growing! There are tiny sprouts in each of them. Success! Matthew used leftover fence wood for the material and waterproofed them with red guard (usually used behind tile in showers). Total cost of this project – free (because all materials / screws / seeds / dirt was leftover from other projects). Yay! I am going to paint the names of the plants on soon, but I wanted to wait until they actually grew and we knew they were sustainable there. [The seed packets will then disappear.]

The spice cabinet is custom built for these awesome little spice jars (which we got for $1 at World Market). We are slowly buying more of them and transferring spices into them. I keep waiting for another $10 off $30 coupon, and a $10 reward for buying food there. Oh how I love rewards programs!

These little improvements have made all of the difference in our kitchen. I love the way that it is becoming our own home. Sure, we have had it for three years now, but each little improvement makes it feel so much more like home. I cannot wait until our spice cabinet is filled (which means we can get rid of the basket of spices to the right of the cabinet)! Yay! Do you store your spices in fancy jars, or just use what they came in?

Master Bedroom

• Caulk and Paint (casing, shelves, base)
• Trim around Closet
• Bathroom Door Trim
• Closet Curtain
• Window Curtains & Valence
• New Comforter
• Replace Ceiling Fan
• Wall Stickers
• New Door
• Matching Dresser Set
• Transition Strips
• Repair Termite Damage

Guest Bathroom

• New Door
• Solar Tube
• Tile Shower
• Grout Shower
• Transition Strip
• Base Trim
• Drywall Mud
• Sink / Faucet / Stand / Cabinet
• Linen Storage
• Re-Texture & Paint
• Tile Front of Tub
• Repair Tub Surface Scratches
• Finish Hardibacker
• Red Guard Hardibacker
• Move Toilet
• New Art

Misc. and Whole House

• Double Pane Windows (bedrooms, living room, entryway)
• Ceiling Texture & Paint
• Wall Texture (hall, entryway, guest room, living room)
• New Wood Floor
• Electrical Panel (replace original, sub panel garage, Christmas plugs, living room sconces, garage plugs, outdoor landscape, backyard, attic light)
• Teapot (for Matthew)
• New Pictures in Frames
• Organize Spices (50 jars, label jars)
• Etch Pyrex
• Fewer Magnets on Fridge
• New covers for cushions for Kitchen Chairs
• Large Wedding Photo
• Frame with Three Wedding Pics
• New Pillows on Couch (new covers?)
• Chore list in Vinyl on White Board turned it into a giant calendar instead which included chores
• Organize DVDs / Front Shelves
• Plants in Kitchen Pots
• Vinyl Labels on Kitchen Pots
• Print Large Photos for Gallery

There you have it, a few rooms from our giant home list. It should be intimidating to me, but it is not. We actually have a reference point now, and will have some major satisfaction when we cross things off. As you can see, we have already completed a few items since Christmas. Yay! I am hoping to share the projects with you all as well. There is actually one coming up later this week. Also, that list pad is from etsy and you can order it here.

• Fashion for Less:  While Dana of What the Frock was on vacay, she had some awesome guest posts.  I particularly loved Kim from Anthropolic’s post about buying Antho-esque clothes for less.  How cute are those dresses above?  And I would so prefer the $53 price tag instead of $300.  You?
• Fall Decorating, 5 ideas:  I am totally ready for some fall decor after Andrea of Ever After Blueprint’s decor post.  If you want a different list of 5 things, check out Gussy’s five fab fall tutorials.
• Redeeming Love Redeemed Her:  Francine Rivers is one of my favorite authors.  I remember reading Redeeming Love in high school; the girls at church passed it around so quickly — we each wanted our own Michael Hosea!  We all related in some way or another, and I am so grateful to Rivers for bearing her heart with each book that she writes.  Her blog gives insight into the backstories, but you can also learn other great things (like debt free living).  Awesome to see how God uses his faithful servants, right?
• Pantry Envy:  John and Sherry of Young House Love shared some Never Before Seen shots of their house and let me just say, I am totally eying their giant pantry.
• Dress Like a Glee Star:  Okay, so I may be outing myself as a fan of a cheesy teen show, but I just LOVE Glee!  There, the cat is out of the bag.  The stars get to wear some of the cutest outfits (oh, and some of the weirdest), both on and off screen.  This fun blog tells you all about where to get the items that the cast members wear.  Who wouldn’t want this cute yellow dress that Quinn sports?

(Via KFD Designs)

(Via Jones Design Company)

We just couldn’t find something we loved and I was concerned that it would look funny with our textured walls. Then I thought about stripes…

(Decor Pad via Pinterest)

(Young House Love)

But I wanted to put my own touch on it, so you know I blinged it out a bit.

We mostly followed Young House Love’s painted wall stripe tutorial, with the exception that we had an odd number of stripes, and did Living with Lindsay’s tip to painting perfect stripes on textured walls. We did the odd number of stripes so that we could avoid having to paint against the ceiling (nasty popcorn stuff) and the baseboards. It was easier that way.

Step 1: Tape and paint the original color of the wall over the to-be-painted edge of the tape. This is part of Lindsay’s tip that I mentioned above.

Step 2: For the metallic paint we used (Valspar from Lowe’s) you paint one base color and two coats of metallic paint. Ours was called Shimmering Bronze. While the paint was good quality, I almost had a heart attack when we brought the two gallons (same price as two quarts, which was all we needed) to self check-out. The cost was $83 for both, $50 for the metallic alone! Not one to make a stink, I couldn’t help but refuse to pay. Since it would just go on clearance, the clerk said she could sell it to us at clearance price: $27 for both. Sweet! But yeah, this stuff is PRICEY!

Step 3: Remove tape while the last coat is drying and wait a few hours before moving your furniture back into place.

To see the final product, click on over the jump…

So here’s what she looks like! Eventually we would like to put a round mirror or something over the bed and move the framed honeymoon photos on the wall to the right.

We did one wall behind the headboard, and the wall facing it, which is actually part of the master bathroom and is partly hidden from the room. We didn’t want to go overboard. The one below is probably the closest representation to what it looks like in real life. The base color is a light taupe and the stripe is a lighter bronze. The wall is a little bare, but eventually I’ll add some black and white photos or something below the LOVE sign. You know, to be especially cheesy and stuffs.

Hmm, I wonder where I get this affinity for the metallic stripes comes from…

What do you think? We’re really pleased with how they turned out. Not bad for about $30 and a weekend of light work. Have you thought about painting your walls with a metallic paint?

“So while yes, I think our current place is more valuable than these others that won’t sell (ours has a bigger and better layout with a view), it’s not immune to the impact of falling value. Our home is now worth less than what we paid for it. Thankfully, we had our mortgage reduced, so we’re not in trouble there. It just means we’re hanging onto our place longer than we had intended and spending money on improvements would not result in a guaranteed return on our investment.”

Upgrades don’t automatically mean a higher home value

In the past, we were convinced that $1 in upgrades to your home could equal $2 in your home’s value. We got that message loud and clear from HGTV of yore: upgrade your kitchen and/or bath and make some basic upgrades and sell your home for more! As the bad economy continued, the mantra was that these improvements would sell your home faster (but not necessarily for more). Did you notice that the end of the show would end up with fewer people actually selling their homes? This is part of the reason why I think HGTV has started to steer away from these types of shows, because upgrades don’t always equal a bigger payout.

I keep hearing from Realtors and news articles that say kitchen and bath updates won’t get you more bang for your buck. Instead, it’s stuff like more secure front doors, energy efficient windows and converted bedrooms.

Being smart with small upgrades

So where does this leave us? To be honest, I’m really hesitant to put in any more upgrades to our home. Even if we put in an upgrade that would double in value, we’re currently starting with a lower home value because our house is likely worth less than what we paid for it. So it would be like paying a lot of money to try to break even.

We’ve saved up a bunch of Home Depot gift cards and used these for our recent kitchen upgrade, which was less than $150. My upgraded chandelier cost about $30 and it’s something that we can take with us if we want. Our crown moulding was also cheap because we used gift cards, discounts and borrowed equipment. I’m thinking of painting a few more rooms in the house, which would be one of the cheaper ways to make a big impact.

This has been a struggle for me, because I really want to get going on some projects. We have some funky tile in our bathrooms and living areas that we’d love to totally redo, but I firmly believe that it would be solely for our enjoyment because we wouldn’t see a return if we were to sell soon. For me, the enjoyment factor isn’t a big pull, because this was never meant to be a long stay for us. We had intended to sell this place within two or three years (making a modest profit) and move onto the next. Ha! So funny to think about that now as we head into our third year of being here and no moving in sight.

Since we don’t expect to sell any time soon, we have toyed with the idea of renting. This would also mean that any upgrades we put in could help get a better rent price, but they would also be at the mercy of the occupants. That’s not really a gamble I want to take.

As much as I love watching HGTV and finding cool home improvement ideas on Pinterest, I have to keep these things in mind and be mindful with how I spend my time and money. To us, as much as this is our home that we love, it is also an investment that has a huge impact on our finances.

Does anyone else feel the same way or struggle with these things? What do you do to increase value in your home in a smart way?

I should note that the creating of this particular drum shade, which is 24 inches in diameter, was not an easy task. The decorating of it, however, was super simple. So if you had more time than me, maybe you want to buy a large one online.

Start with an ugly chandelier. Carefully remove it — turn off the power at the breaker box — and dismantle the parts. Clean off any dust or stuff on the parts to be painted.

Paint it! Tape up the sockets and the tops of the exposed wires. I put the ground wire in a plastic bag. Get your ORB (oil rubbed bronze) spray paint and spray on thin coats. To cover the brass, it took about three coats.

Make a drum shade skeleton … if you happen to know a welder or can figure out a better way of doing it. For the drum shade, I found that pretty much no store sells them wider than 16 inches in diameter. This would have meant the shade was too close to the bulbs and would likely have been a fire hazard. I have read about making drum shades from quilting/embroidery hoops, but I couldn’t find any hoops big enough.

My father-in-law happens to weld and has equipment at his house. He graciously took the time to help me create a drum shade. Originally, we tried to make it from about 16 gauge steel wire, but it just wasn’t working.

We then went to Home Depot and found a six inch wire mesh sheet for about $5. After cutting, shaping it with a tire and welding … it looked something  like this:

Cover the drum shade skeleton. Using a white flat sheet that we weren’t using, we covered the wire portion, securing it with pins and then with hot glue.

Trace, cut and paint your faux leather circles. With about a yard and a half of brown pleather fabric, I used the center of a roll of masking tape to trace out circles. (They are about three inches in diameter.)I ended up cutting 180-ish circles for my 24-inch wide, 12-inch tall shade. I then painted them with a craft store paint that was a silvery champagne color. To give it some texture, I painted about eight at a time and quickly folded them from the center (first fold in half, then in half again). Hold it for a few seconds and then let it unwrap and dry. It’s good to have some of the dark brown show through, but not a lot if you want a lighter look.

With a hot glue gun, adhere them to the drum shade in rows. For the first and last rows, glue them over the edge so you can trim them once you’re done. That way, none of the background fabric will show.

Wire up your drum shade. We used some thin wire and a washer to adhere the lampshade to the chandelier. Be careful that the washer is in the direct middle or the shade will be lopsided when you hang it. (You can kinda see the wires in the picture below.)

Carefully reassemble and reinstall the light and admire your handiwork!

May all your lamps be pretty and bright!

I’m exhausted. It’s been a whirlwind past few days as I’ve scrambled to finish a DIY project to join in with the Pinterest Challenge. For those unaware, it’s a blogging challenge to put our inspiration found on the addicting website. It was put out by Katie Bower of Bower Power, Sherry Petersik of Young House Love, Emily Henderson of Secrets from a Stylist and Design Star fame, and Lana of Make a House a Home.

To call this a challenge is quite fitting. I had planned to work on it last night after a birthday dinner with my parents. Walking back up the stairs to our house, I was surprised with a bunch of friends there to celebrate my special day. What fun! So grateful for one of the best birthdays yet, even if it meant that I had to sacrifice sleep to finish my project. I’ll be back to share more with you later, but I’m afraid my instructions will be incoherent given my sleepy state.

So, it all started with a couple of lamp photos I saved to Pinterest. First, the metallic parts of these two lamps, one from Ikea Hackers and one from Isabella & Max Rooms:

Here’s the fugly chandelier that was in our upper hallway. Anyone else have one of those?

I knew I wanted something metallic, modern and slightly beachy. As I continued trolling around Pinterest, I saw the image below.

Unfortunately it didn’t have a link besides a Google image. Anyone know where it’s from? To make my own version, there were several missteps, hours spent in the car bouncing from store to store, and times where I thought it would never work. But I’m pretty dang thrilled with the results. Sure, it needs some touch-ups here and there, but I’m glad to present you my completed project!

It’s hard to tell with the 1:30 a.m. light, but I painted the lamp in ORB (oil-rubbed bronze for the newbies), then made our own lampshade, covered it with fabric and glued more than 150 painted pleather circles onto the shade.

What do you think? We’re tired, but really digging the new light. Well, the Bachelorette has chosen and now it’s time for bed! Good ole’ four hours sleep…

Below you’ll find my review of the Rust-Oleum product. I was not compensated for this review, I shelled out my own hard-earned money for the kit. While I would recommend it, I don’t think it’s quite the miracle product we were expecting. Maybe my expectations from all the blog hype were overly inflated and maybe my execution wasn’t spot on. I will say, however, that I had already painted the cabinets in our three bathrooms in the traditional sand-prime-paint method, so I’m not a complete stranger to this type of project.

What I Liked

• I liked the water-based base coat. It was thinner than the latex paint I had used on my other cabinets, and it let the wood grain (even fake wood grain) show through. To me, this made it look more expensive. It also meant that we needed touch ups, so it was more like three coats instead of two (which means more drying time).  Water-based was also less fumey than other paint we had used.

Before and after -- you still see the wood grain.

• The espresso color, which we chose, was very true to what we were expecting. It’s also nice to have so many color choices to choose from.
• There was plenty of information and the customer service was responsive.
• For the most part, the kit was handy instead of having to buy everything yourself.
• Overall, we are pleased with the results, and that’s really what it’s all about.

What I Didn’t Like

• The top coat was a pain! Gloppy, foamy and hard to get a good coat the first time, it seemed too thin after our first coat so we decided it needed two. Then we ran out and needed to buy more. The second product seemed less gloppy, but still very touchy when it came to getting even coverage. Perhaps uneven coverage might not be as bad on lighter cabinets?

Top coating. I eventually gave up on the gloves and mask. I'm still alive, though, and enjoying my cabinets.

See that white stuff on the edge? That's the foamy top coat that dried. That stuff foams more than a rabid dog. I scraped it off with a razor blade.

• Since our cabinets didn’t have knobs, there were certain places where years of grime had built up and the deglosser didn’t really get rid of it enough. This led to the base coat not sticking and the original oak slightly peeking through. Also, the paint bubbled at some point, after putting on the top coat. Not sure why this happened.

Check out that grime! It was all caked on and difficult to get off completely. All the more reason to put knobs on your cabinets.

Here's a place where the paint wasn't sticking. This was after two coats of base coat.

• Inconsistent information was frustrating. We liked the DVD for the most part. The website, box and papers inside seemed like a mountain of text for what is a simple process. Yet, with all that information, only one place on the box and nowhere else did it say to get the paint tinted at the store before you buy it. This makes sense, but is also strange to me. I originally thought that maybe  you mixed the color yourself.

Home Depot Man saved the day when we brought back our little cans of base coat to get some color.

This may just be the former editor in me, but the DVD and the box recommend a different number of brushes that are required. Then there was also the matter of trying to find the glazing techniques online that were mentioned in the video. After searching online and emailing customer service, it turns out that the videos didn’t exist yet. And it’s not like I was in the first wave of people to use the kit.

• Despite claims on the box and in the video, the glaze didn’t really show up on dark paint, like at all. The hours of dry time to wait and find that they looked no different than when we first applied was a pain. Plus, it just made the kit less valuable to us in the end — could have skipped the cloths and two cans of glaze. (Also, the cloths included were really linty.)
• The video recommends putting your cabinets onto nails through spare 2-by-4s while you apply the base coat and top coat. I wouldn’t recommend this as we just ended up with visible indents in our doors.

Painting the cabinets on nails. I think next time I would paint them while still attached by the hinges.

If I Were to Do it Again…

• I would keep my dishes in the cabinets and wouldn’t remove the doors. We were carefully painting, and I think as long as were careful, we wouldn’t mess up anything inside the cabinets. This takes too much precious time.
• Expect it to take longer than a weekend, unless you don’t sleep.
• I wouldn’t buy as many paint brushes. I assumed the kit would ruin my brushes. While I didn’t want to use my expensive Purdy brushes, I think I would have been OK.
• Do the project with your spouse or a friend. It just makes it more fun!
• I would lightly sand the especially greasy places. Like mentioned above, we didn’t have knobs and the deglosser just wasn’t powerful enough. (And yes, I did scrub like the dickens.)
• Buy a work light. We ended up snagging one during the late painting sessions. Got it at Wal-Mart for a good price.
• Don’t do touch-ups with the top coat. You will notice it. You have to recoat all of it.
• Skip the glaze if you’re going dark. Also, calculate how much you can get the rest of the kit for and see if it might be cheaper to just buy deglosser, water-based paint and top coat.
• Get a moving packet from the post office. They’re free and usually include a 10 percent off a purchase at Lowe’s or Home Depot. And each one accepts competitor coupons, so you can use it at either place.

It’s finally here: the big kitchen reveal! As you may remember, Matt and I tackled the kitchen cabinet redo over Memorial Day weekend. It took a little longer (OK, a lot longer) than expected, but we’re glad to finally have it completed. A full review of the Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations will follow. I’d recommend it, but not without some helpful tips that I will write about later.

Here was our kitchen before. It actually doesn’t look bad, but when you look closely, the cabinets were faded and grimy and made our kitchen feel older. Plus, we tend to like darker woods.

What our kitchen looked like.

Here is some of the progress…

Home improvement -- isn't it glamorous?

Here are the painted cabinets!

Notice anything else new besides painted cabinets? But we wanted to go one step further. Cabinets should really have pulls, or else there is grimy stuff all over them (like in our original cabinets). So a quick trip to Ikea and Lowe’s our cabinet transformation was complete!

What do you think? We really like the fresh update!

———

Hi Newlywife Readers,

I’m really in love with the DIY {Do-It-Yourself} movement that I’ve been seeing while surfing blogs. They have been such a source of inspiration for my husband, William, and I. So many talented people who can foresee the updated final product when looking at a crummy, out-dated, but steal-of-a-deal priced piece. When William and I got married, we had very little money and a recently purchased townhouse to fill. Most of our pieces {even today, 3.5 years later} came from my parents and grandparents who kindly donated to our start-up cause. So, since we love spending time together, William has some experience with construction and I love getting crafty, it was only a matter of time before we turned DIY into a hobby while our son, Ezra, is asleep.

3) We primed