Category: DIY Home Reno

I moved into my Fiance’s home and he had a lot of hand me down furniture.  And I was like “We are soooo buying new furniture” in my bratty voice.  And then I actually looked at the prices of new furniture and I was like “We are soooo NOT buying new furniture” in my OOPS I was wrong voice.  Instead, I decided to revamp some of his old pieces to match my current pieces.  I went for a beach theme in our bedroom as the Florida girl in me feels most at peace at the beach.

From Drab to Fab!

I’m admitting now that I’m not a professional DIY-er.  And honestly I kind of just do my own thing and see how it goes.  Luckily this dresser turned out stylish and super functional.  It’s made a great piece in our bedroom.

How I updated this 1960’s Dresser:

1. Sand the crap out of the entire thing (legs, drawers, etc)
2. Painted with a flat Beyer Paint & Primer.  I only did one coat, but touched up spots that needed a little more love
3. Let dry for 24 hours +
4. Add new hardware if desired.  I got the new knobs at Home Depot for like $1.20/piece
5. Put your stuff in it and admire your work!

Josh’s home has a large, “Plain Jane” wall leading upstairs.  One day I decided I couldn’t take the “Plain Jane” wall anymore and decided to make a Gallery Wall.  Lucky for me I already had a ridiculous amount of black picture frames from when I moved from my apartment to his house.

**TIP: DO NOT pay full price for frames.  Try places like TJMaxx, Marshalls, or better yet Ross.  Frames that I would have easily paid $20-30 dollars for, I paid $6-$12 at the above mentioned stores.  Also, the Dollar Store sells picture frames that are easy to spray paint to the desired color.

Before.  There are few patched holes that I simply covered with picture frames… Sometimes I’m cheap but clever.  🙂

All I needed to do was print out some pictures.  I used Walgreen’s as I always tend to find a pretty good coupons for 1 hour photos.  And I also wanted to add a few quotes and a monogram letter.

There are a LOT of ways you can do a Gallery Wall.  You can make it super symmetrical, use different colors and sizes of frames, maybe don’t use frames at all.  I preferred my frames at different measurements, no exact formula, and different sizes of frames.  This made for easy hanging as I didn’t measure any type of space between frames.

**TIP: There are a lot of templates online or at stores to help create perfect spacing in between pictures.  I’ve found templates on Pinterest, Michael’s, & Hobby Lobby.**

After.  This little Gallery Wall added just the right amount of decoration.  Since this picture was taken, we’ve added a few more pictures.  Once you have the hang of it, the possibilities are endless.

This is my favorite part of a make over!!!  The decor!  I love searching for good deals and pulling all my finds together to make a beautiful room.  I got lucky and ended up finding all my finds at TJMaxx and spent a total of $55 for the entire bathroom decor.

Once the paint had fully dried and the bathtub was finally done, I wanted to tackle that old and out dated mirror.  I don’t really like medicine cabinet mirrors as they tend to store junk.  We are lucky enough to have a small closet outside the bathroom that we use as a medicine cabinet and towel holder.  Therefore, I opted for a statement mirror ($24 at TJMaxx).

Then came the hard yet fun part of finding a rug, towels, and accents to pull the whole bathroom together.  I wanted to go with a navy blue to add something pretty against the stark white walls.  Here’s what I found all for under $30.

 

 

 

All of Josh’s bachelor pad bathrooms were painted a poop green color.  I’m not sure if the idea was to remind you to poop or if someone just really, really liked that color but I wasn’t going to stand for it!  Also, all of Josh’s bathrooms are on the small side.  So my first thought was, the bathroom colors need to be bright to open up the space.

See ya’ll, I wasn’t kidding about the color!

 

 

 

 

 

As you will notice, I am a lazy painter and don’t like to prime and then paint.  So instead I always go with Behr Paint & Primer.  I went with a pure white and painted the entire bathroom and ceiling to give it a nice open feel.

*Before Painting, I took down the dated mirror, all of the towel & toilet paper holders, and patched any holes.

I’m going to say that the walls look a TON better! – this was mid painting.

 

Next on the to-do list, let paint dry and add decor….