I've Moved!

I have moved my blog to:

www.makingithomeinkentucky.com 


Please come see me there! :)

In My Old House: A Plain Basement Room Becomes a Colorful Teen-Friendly Lounge

Basement Room Turned TV Lounge

This is what we were starting with. A whole lotta nothin'. My teenage daughter's bedroom is through the door you see on the right side of the photo. I wanted to use this space as a cool hangout where my daughter and her friends could watch Gossip Girl in comfort.

This is what we ended up with:

The sofa was a Crate & Barrel Sofa from a used furniture store. It was still in great condition and super comfy. The padded bench from Home Goods serves as a coffee table that is also a great place to prop up your feet. The lamps, side tables, vintage look game boards on the wall, and brown faux leather recliner also are all from Home Goods.

I bought a large 8x11 wool rug from my favorite go-to rug spot: Overstock.com and covered the concrete floor with it. I shopped ETSY for vintage game room looking accessories, like the bowling pin and pool balls used as a bowl filler.

The bookshelves and DVD shelf are filled with my children's favorite books and movies.

A fun, comfortable room perfect for my children and their friends!

In My Old House: The Backyard Fire PIt

 Backyard Firepit and Flagstone Patio

I built this firepit and patio over the course of a few weeks. I was smart enough to hire a young man to dig the hole for me. I bought the pavers at Home Depot, and all the flagstone at a local supplier, and all the concrete and sand at Home Depot. I did it one section at a time, bringing as big a load of rock as my poor little Honda Civic could carry! No joke! 


My hands were destroyed in this process!

In My Old House: My Son's Room

This is my son's room. He is twelve. The room is very small, it's about 10x10. He has a twin bed with a trundle bed stored underneath for friends to spend the night.

He is a big time movie maker. He LOVES his Macbook Pro and he uses the iLive program to edit movies he makes with his friends. I decided to use this passion of his to add some art to his room. I found photos of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Tim Burton, three of his favorite directors, online and printed them as 8x10s at Walgreen's. I bought frames and mattes, and viola! Instant art!

I found a vintage projector and a couple vintage home movie cameras on eBay way cheap and used them as accessories. Beautiful!

Hanging the skateboard on the wall is (1) a way to keep it off the floor and (2) doubles as funky art.

In My Old House: Kitchen Remodel

I am currently in the middle of having a new floor installed in my kitchen. I have been living in complete chaos since last Thursday. Why is it taking so long, you might be asking yourself. I am asking myself that same question. My problem is my installer is trying to spread himself too thin. He was supposed to be doing a job for someone else that should have been done in a couple of days, but it has ended up taking him more than a week because "someone else" is a bossy, controlling bully that doesn't give a crap who she inconveniences or steps on as long as she gets her way (yes, I know her, and yes, this is not the first time she has interfered in my life). Hopefully my installer will be finished with her mess today and can focus on getting my floor completed. I am a little (ok, a lot) OCD anyway, and it has just about killed me to live with my kitchen furniture spread throughout the rest of my house; my kitchen table laying on its side, just inside my front door. Yikes!

UPDATE: Everything turned out okay in the end!

Here's what we ended up with:

As with every major home improvement project, you have those moments when you think, "Why did I ever start this????" Just remember that you have to put up with a little chaos and a whole lotta dust sometimes to get to the finished product! :-)

In the Old House: Family Room Vignettes

I have been working and working to try to find the right accessories for the console under the TV. I believe I finally have it right. I am now ready to leave it like this and move on to my next problem area.

I have also changed some of the things on the floating shelves behind the couch. I had stuff on them, mostly from Home Goods, that were look alike vintage or look alike  objects collected while traveling. I am going to move toward authentic vintage items only and get the pseudo crap out. So this is what I have now: the 2 copper pitchers are from my mother's house and are as old as me (definitely vintage), the silhouette is an eBay purchase. I happen to think it looks a great deal like my son, the antlers (naturally shed) are from eBay, and the trophy is from, you guessed it, eBay.

Every time I think I'm getting close to being finished with a space, I think of something that would look better. I suppose I need to just accept that no room will ever be finished.

In the Old House: Main Floor Bath

These are the "before" pictures of my bathroom. The bath had been "updated" with a white vinyl floor and oak vanity with a coordinating light fixture and toilet paper holder. The one piece toilet was new and the one piece tub/shower surround was also pretty new, so I kept both. I know a lot of people prefer tub with tile surround, but I like the one-piece deals myself. I know they're not as pretty, but very easy to clean! I put in a new porcelain 12"x12" tile floor, a new vanity, mirror, light fixture, window treatments, and art. I also had an exhaust fan installed since there had never been one! I guess the previous owners cracked the window to vent the steamy shower? Below are the after pictures:

I painted the walls a soft blue. The vanity and mirror came from Lowe's. They look very similar to a set from Pottery Barn, but were about 1/3 the price! The poppies painting is an original work of art I purchased from the artist via eBay. I also bought the old window on eBay. I love it! The clock is from Target. The faux vintage  mirrors came in a set from Signals catalog and the small gold framed oval French prints are from ETSY.