Home makeover

My sister came to visit this weekend with two things on her agenda, to help me clean my house and to throw away the majority of my clothing in her version of the popular show "What Not To Wear". As it turns out, the first task on her list was a more daunting task than she had assumed. We spent one and a half days working on cleaning up my house (which meant organizing, creating storage space, rearranging furniture, and actual cleaning) and were able to accomplish making over three and a half rooms of the house.

The following pictures illustrate the before and after of these three and a half rooms.

THE DEN - BEFORE

These are before pictures of my husbands den, or the man cave. This room is a place where his tastes are reflected in the decor. My husband loves the idea of decorating with roosters everywhere in the house. I generally do not like roosters as art or in themed decor, although I couldn't tell you why. For Christmas, I found an artist's work that I loved, and created a rooster wall in my husband's room that you will see below. The artist's name is Roz, a member of Etsy (an online artist forum with wonderful artists - I shop there all the time), and you can find her work in a shop called RozArt. You'll see Roz's prints in the after or makeover pictures below.

THE DEN- AFTER

The red solid wood baskets on the coffee table cubes are antiques bought in Selma, NC, an antique focused town. They came from an awesome shop called Visual Pleasure Antiques. It is one of my favorite shops in downtown Selma. Omie, our black Border Collie mix loves that there is now space to sit on the couch.

The green box on the mantle is also an antique from downtown Selma. It is from a biscuit company, and opens up like a shadow box frame. We are going to add little hooks inside and hang our keys in it. I am always loosing mine. It came from another of my favorite antique shops, Railroad Street Antiques.

The hat, scarf, and glove holders hanging above my antique church pew chairs were flower planters purchase at Big Lots and repurposed. My sister is brilliant with these sorts of details. Penny loves how clean the floor is, and Charlie (the cat) just wants to be in the picture.

THE KITCHEN - BEFORE

There is only one picture of the kitchen before we worked on it. I wasn't very good at covering all the angles in there. However, much of the work that was done on the kitchen can't be seen from the pictures. We reorganized everything in the cabinets and pantry, and cleaned everything as well. It was a huge project to say the least. Now it just needs to be painted and should be done!

THE KITCHEN - AFTER

The kitchen can seem like a small enclosed space, but my sister hung a mirror over the sink and really opened up the room. I was skeptical at first, but I love it now.

Before we moved our dining room table into the dining room (which you'll see next) Zach and I ate at the coffee table cubes in his den, sitting on the couch. This table was used as a side table to the couch, but is much more useful as a breakfast table. We love eating at this table.

THE DINING ROOM - BEFORE

Once again I covered a room poorly for the before pictures. This one also only has one picture, but that's mostly because the room was empty except for the few random things shown in the picture above. This is also the "half" room that was done, as it isn't completely done but had enough improvement to warrant mentioning.

THE DINING ROOM - AFTER

I purchased the two pictures above from our local Salvation Army for five bucks each. They are Williamsburg prints, and must have been quite a purchase the first time they were sold.

Our dining room table was a Craigslist purchase. We bought it with money we got from our wedding showers. It is a great table with a cabinet beneath it that I will use to store centerpieces for the table.

THE YELLOW BATH - BEFORE

Yes, the yellow bathroom was disgusting. It is the wash the doggy bathroom and the cut my husband's hair bathroom (and apparently the kitty watering hole - at least while I was taking this picture, which made me shudder after I chased Bosley off). It would get dirty fast and stay that way. Before my sister arrived I gave it a thorough cleaning because it is also the guest bathroom, gasp! It looks wonderful now though, and just needs to be painted and decorated a little to finish it off.

THE YELLOW BATH - AFTER

And that is what my sister and I did this weekend. She says that we are not done yet, but will accomplish making over at least two rooms each weekend we have free until everything is done. I love my sister!

While my sister and I were cleaning and organizing, my wonderful husband was hanging light fixtures inside and out around the house. I'll have to take pictures of his work and post that as well. His contribution shouldn't be overlooked, it makes a huge difference in how the house looks.