Cool Stuff - 10 Stunning Before and After Reveals

I have had the pleasure of stumbling upon so many gorgeous before and after projects lately. These are only a handful of the most impressive I've seen lately. Enjoy!! 

Guest Room @ Kuzak's Closet

Living Room @ Paper and Ink

Dining Room @ Perfectly Imperfect

Craft Room @ Nanny Goat

The Best Of: Crazy Cute Party #35

DIY State Wall Art @ Casa de Luna

Easiest Baby Blanket Ever @ I Can't Stop Crafting

Kitchen Reveal @ Life as a Thrifter

Spicy Chicken Enchilada Soup @ My Happily Ever After

Home Remodeling and the Half Way Reveal - Before/After

We decided to tackle the task of remodeling our house. The geniuses that we are, we thought it would be best to do this in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The whole thing started with the purchase of our wood floors. We got a killer deal online and couldn't pass it up. After we received the flooring, I  instructed politely asked my husband to "please, please, please" install them ASAP. So, he did that following weekend and while he was busy doing that, I found it only made sense to go shopping for new living room furniture. That was the beginning of the end.

Here's what we have so far. We still have a long way to go.

 Living room

 Stairs (Looking down to the landing)

These are pictures of the job halfway through. The stair skirt that you see on the sides of the stairs, will be painted white. The nose of the stairs will be stained to match the color of the wood floors.

 Stairs (Looking down to the foyer)

Stair skirt will be white. Stair nose will be stained to match flooring.

 Stairs (Looking up from the landing.)

The stair skirt and the rise on the stairs will be painted white. The nose of the stairs will be stained to match the wood floors

Hallway

And here's some more of what he have going on so far:

The Best Of: Crazy Cute Party #34

Children's Desk Before/After - Life As A Thrifter

Master Closet Reveal - Two Oh Two Seven

Write It Down, Make It Happen - Etcetorize

Tripod Floor Lamp - Pondered Primed Perfected

Pillowcase Dress - About Blogging Time

Furniture Facelift with Chalk Paint - Before/After

Hi everyone! I am so excited to be here today…and so honored! I love Between U & Me…super fun and makes me feel oh so happy!

I am Janel and I blog over at Hating Martha. My blog is all about imperfection and the perfect life chaos and mistakes create. I have a lot of fun doing crafty things, homey stuff, cooking, parenting, and all kinds more craziness. Stop over some time and say hi…I promise to give you my best smile! Today I wanted to show you a quick furniture facelift I did recently. It was done just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas guests to ooh and aah. Cause when you see her…you can’t help it!

Isn’t she a beauty? She cost me $35.00. No joke. I actually wanted to offer more because I felt so bad. But, I sucked it up and walked out with her for cheap, cheap, cheap. I have been seeing chalk paint all the time now that I have joined bloggy world. Bloggers seem to love it. But, it was rather expensive. And I would need to order it. Too complicated. So, I tried the homemade version.

This is the color I ended up with. It was in the oops paint. The whole gallon was $5. I used about 2 cups. So…how much does that end up costing me? Like….75 cents? Ouch. Expensive… Anyways, I was happy because I couldn’t decide if I wanted yellow or orange. Then I saw this in the oops and I said…yellow!

Another view of the color…with a bit different lighting (funny what a difference that makes!)

The Best of: Crazy Cute Party #27

Hey party people! Y'all are a-ma-zing! Simple amazing! I am loving all the Christmas crafts slowly starting to make their way in to the link parties. It makes me smile! Let's take a look at a handful of some of the most popular links from last week! ;)

Anthropologie Knock Off Vase @ Blue Cedar Lane

Farm Fresh Apron @ Ruby Jean

Command Center @ Just the Bees Knees

Turkey Cookies @ Craft Buds

An Heirloom Classic Revamped - Before/After

Hi, BU&M readers! Today I want to introduce you to Angi from AKM Designs. She is this fantastic new blogger (since October) and she is just amazing! Her tutorials are way easy to understand, her projects are awesome, and her blog is just too cute for words! She has the kind of personality where you just feel like you've known her forever and you're super great friends from way back. Here is a little bit about her and her amazing blog:

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Hi-ya!  My name is Angi McCarthy and I am a married thirty-something (we’ll just keep it at that) year old, working, mother of two amazing young men, keeper of two dogs, two fish and an abundant amount of "mommy can I please keep these" lizards, that spends all of her free time (yeah, right, who am I kidding, who has "free time") re-purposing, painting, decorating and when it all goes wrong, baking!
AKM Designs and Delights blog will be a collaboration of our family, our projects, missteps, brownie baking, cookie eating, wine guzzling, hair pulling, laughter filled, moments of sheer frustration, wanna kill each other, MAN DOESN'T THAT LOOK AWESOME!, journey to making this house our Home!
And now that you know me, I welcome you to... AKM designs and delights! I hope you find something you like!

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  First of all I want to thank Courtney at Between U and Me for having me as a Guest Blogger!  I am so honored to be here!  I struggled with an idea on what I should post about today.  After much speculation, I decided it was time to dive into some serious Chalk Painting!   I was over-the-top a bit nervous with this project as it is a family heirloom.

We’ve had this cabinet for years.  It has sat un-noticed, stuck in a dark corner forever filled with our DVDs.  It was functional.  That’s about all I could say about it.  While I did like the looks of it, I wasn’t in love with it.  I did love the little glass knob on the door; however.  And the beadboard on the back and I REALLY loved the shape of it.  But more than looks, I loved the history of this piece.  You see, it belonged to Mr. AKM’s grandmother.  If memory serves correct, his grandfather actually made it.  I love the way it smells of old wood…not musty and gross…but rather more of history, time and use.  Sometimes I would just run my hand over the top to feel the indentations and wonder how they got there.  The glass on the front cracked during a move across the country.  I went to have it replaced but they could not match the glass.  The glass is the original glass from the early 1900’s.  It’s not smooth like glass is now.  You can see small ripples or waves in it.  I love that about it so I opted to not replace it but instead stuck a piece of tape to hold it together.  I am hoping to find someone that can repair the glass as opposed to replacing it someday. 

So why paint it?  Well, there is this wall in my dining room that has been BEGGING for something to fill it.  I’ve looked all over the place for a small table or hutch but nothing seemed to fill the “void”.  When one day it hit me…I mean like literally HIT me.  Like I opened the cabinet door and it fell over and hit me kinda thing.  Not cool.  But while I was picking up the spilled DVDs I realized what AWESOME potential this had!  It’s like it called out to me…Paint me!  Paint me!  Who was I to deny it it’s true self? So, I did just that, I painted it!

So let’s get on with the pictures shall we…because we all know that is why you are really here!  It’s ok…I can handle the truth.  Here it is.  The piece de resistance (say it with a French accent).  Go ahead, try it again…piece de resistance.

Isn't it GOR-geous?  I am seriously in love with this piece now.  I mean like over-THA-top in LOVE!  I know the lighting is a bit off...Daylight savings has seriously messed with my photo ops! 

Cool Stuff - 15 Magical Kids Rooms/Play Spaces {1}

Now, I know that most of us can only dream of giving our child a room like this, but these kinds of rooms can definitely inspire us to do something out of our comfort zone. I hope you enjoy and are inspired!

Pottery Barn Kids Hayley bedding/Thomas furniture Girls Room - {Tour}

E went from a crib this year to her "big girl" bed and the Mr. and I have this notion that our children will move out with the furniture we bought them as a child, so we spring for the best quality you can find and where else to get the best quality, but Pottery Barn? So, we spent a pretty penny on her furniture, but I could NOT be any happier with it! I, seriously, love her room. It's on the main floor, so sometimes I go sit in there and "chill" sometimes and I'm still able to hear the kids playing in the living room. I wanted to give you a little tour of what we have so far,...

Here is the view of her room right when you walk in. (I'm standing in the doorway.)

• "Thomas" twin bed from Pottery Barn Kids in Rustic Sun Valley White as well as the nightstand. We used L's old PB Kids guardrail (which is why it doesn't match.) I thought about painting it, but she's almost done with it anyways and so I figured , "neh!" 
• Pottery Barn Kids curtain - I got that on sale a couple years ago, so I was pretty proud of myself. 
• Pottery Barn Kids Curtain Rod Hardware "Flutter" - I love the hardware. It draws your eye up and I think that makes the room look larger.
• Pottery Barn Kids Hayley Bedding - We got the quilt, pink gingham duvet cover, sheets, quilted sham
• Pottery Barn Kids Large Canvas Tote - Great way to hide all her stuffed animals and I think it's really cute too.
• Pottery Barn Kids Knock-Off Butterfly Chandelier and wall decals- I registered for this $100 butterfly chandelier at PB Kids:

And when my mom saw it in the store, she decided she could make it instead. She cut out (with her Cricut) a gazillion butterflies and we ended up with the butterfly chandelier you see above for a fraction of the cost. She also cut out butterfly wall decals using the same butterfly image and contact paper for us and I applied them on the wall like a swarm of butterflies flying around E's room. I'm really happy with the way it all turned out.

Here's another shot of her pretty bed and her butterfly chandelier. I decided to go with cafe style shutters in her room and roman shades for the top half of the windows. our neighbors are very close on all sides and I thought this would give her privacy while still being able to let in a lot of light. Or, she could shut both the shutters and the roman shades and it gets very dark in her room for nap time. When I'm convinced E won't electrocute herself on the lamp she has on her dresser, I'll put that on her nightstand along with some other girly knick knacks.

Baby Projects and a Nursery Sneak Peek

Hi there! I am Chas from A Woman’s Haven. I am so excited to be here today introducing myself.
I started A Woman’s Haven two years ago to give me a place to showcase my love for my family, home, crafting & photography. I also love having a place to share the things that inspire me.
We are currently expecting a new addition to our family. Lately most of my inspiration has been all things baby. Nursery and baby projects are taking up most of my time right now.

Here are a few of those projects and a nursery sneak peek.

{Yarn Wrapped Lamp Shade}

{Baby Art}

{More Nursery Art}

Master Bath Reveal - Before/After

Today I am spotlighting a fabulous new-ish blog that has a fresh new look and ideas that I know you will all love! Here is a little bit about Ian and Melissa over at Living Beautifully.

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We're Melissa and Ian and this is our blog.

We live in Canada with our adorable Goldendoodle Clover.

We started this blog in April of 2011: 5 months after we moved into our first real home together. The house we chose has become an endless project of updating, renovating, fixing and decorating and we love every minute of it.

This blog is our way to document and share this experience and inspire other young couples to do the same. You can have a fabulous house even on a budget. We hope our endless projects, DIY's, upcycled pieces, and knack for deal finding will inspire you!

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We actually finished the construction of this bathroom back in early September, but the room wasn't finished just yet. We wanted to completely finish it before we blogged about it...however we could barely afford to buy a toilet paper holder to put in there. Reno's are expensive people! So we waited and waited until we could afford to buy a few things...its still not completely finished, but we figured you might completely forget we had even done this, if we didn't blog about it soon!

Lets start at the beginning. Here is what we had to work with:

Ok where to begin. Pink floors. Sigh. We really had no way of working with these- we knew they had to go.

Secondly the vanity was about as tall as my lower thighs. If I was 4 feet this would not have been a problem. However for someone 5ft8, I was barely able to wash my face without sitting on the floor.

I don't know about you, but "beachy" mixed with "roman sconces" does NOT mix. LOVE the beach. Not such a fan of the mideaval flare....

Colours. Where to begin. This bathroom had red, orange, blue, pink grey and gold...and probably other colours mixed in there too somewhere. I am not a 'fall' colour person. Our ENTIRE house was fall colours when we moved in. Slowly...slowly we are changing that, but this bathroom looked a bit like a rainbow exploded in it...we dont do rainbow guts.

In all reality there were no words. We just knew we wanted to change the ENTIRE thing. So now that Ive told you all the things we hated about this bathroom, lets focus on the positives shall we?! The size of the room was great, so we had a lot of space to work with. Great light comes into this room, so that was another positive and we had space to play with- nothing was stopping us from changing the layout around...except cost that is!

I had been saving up tons of ideas and we pretty much knew what we wanted. A 'Spa' feel, light, bright colours, and a clean look. I love when things look clean. You know, like when you walk into a store and eveything is all neat, organized and bright looking? It just LOOKS clean. I love that. So thats what we were going for and I think we achieved that :)

Sooooo...here it is friends - our pride and joy!