Current Home Tour

Want to peek inside our home? Of course you do! Who doesn't love to see how others decorate and improve their homes. Since we just moved into this house, we are very much in the "before" stage. Because we are renting, working with a limited budget, and opting for DIY when we can, this is a bit of a slow process. But that's more fun in a way. I really enjoy the whole process from scouring Pinterest, to shopping around for the best prices, to finally seeing the result of our hard work.

So here they are... our "before" pictures and our ideas for each room. My plan is to use this as an eventual "before", "in progress", "after" page with links back to all of the projects along the way. But for now, we'll just leave you with our plans and a promise to come back with updates often.

The Kitchen & Dining Area

That corner is begging for storage bench seating with comfy cushions and pillows - something like this plan from Ana White, but modified to look like it belongs in a kitchen. Like this Pinterest gem.
We need some sort of art cover for the circuit box. I will probably build a basic wooden frame and stretch canvas over it.
Some sort of window treatment that is homemade and preferably not one that requires a ton of sewing.
We'll either build or thrift shop (and restore) a wooden kitchen table - square makes sense for the corner seating, but I'm drawn towards round too.
We need something to hold Rooney's dry food, treats and toys. I'd like to build a flip top chest that has a few dividers in it.
I'd love to have an armoire (yes, in the kitchen) to store our Kombucha brewing supplies. And eventually Serial's beer brewing supplies as well. I like this plan from Ana White as a starting point.

Living Room

We brought our bookshelves from Chicago with us - they are from the Expedit series at Ikea and hold majority of our books, our TV and a few decorations.
Our couch (? from Ikea) also made the move from Chicago, but we don't love it. It's not very comfortable and it's the wrong size for two people and a dog. I'd love to replace it with a sectional or get an over-sized chair to go with it.
I built a long table for behind the couch in our last place. It was the perfect size, but just didn't fit in the moving pod. I'd love to build it again. It's a skinnier version of this table from the Shanty 2 Chic sisters.
I've been eyeing these storage ottomans on Pinterest for some time now. They just seem like a good fit for a living room.
We're in need of a coffee table too. In our last place, we used this crate table that I built (and that Pinterest seems to love) but I think in this new place I'd like to build something like this table from Shanty 2 Chic, but maybe modify the size so that it's more rectangle.

Master Bedroom

The master has good space, but not much to speak of with closets so we're going to get creative here. I saw this plan on Ana White and I know I can make something similar for our room. Ambitious? Yep. Doable? Yep Yep.
We brought our bed, bedding and headboard from our last home. I love the headboard and I made it myself, but I still might change it to something different down the line. Maybe something like this farmhouse bed from Ana White.

Guest Room & Office (2 Identical Rooms)

Rather than show you two sets of "before" pics that are identical, just know that the office and the guest room are essentially mirrors of each other. I'll do a separate list for each.

Office:

I work from home and both of us blog frequently so having a good workspace to keep organized is essential. I decided to build a desk that covered an entire wall of the room and had two seats. It's sort of a combination of this desk from YHL and these nightstands from Ana White. I'm working on it right now so hopefully I can share results soon.
I'd also love to build a storage bench that doubles as a seating bench. I'm a filing cabinet kinda nerd, but it'd be nice to hide it a little. I like this plan from Martha Stewart, but I'll probably alter it a little.

Guest Room:

The space is decent, but a bed would take up so much valuable real estate so I think we are leaning towards a sofa sleeper.
We also need to find some way to store all of our extra stuff like gear and tools. We don't have a garage or a basement so we need to get a little creative with how we store everything.

Front Yard

We're renting so we're avoiding too many permanent things, but we would love to add planters to the front porch. We are going to build them ourselves because the ones at the nurseries are outrageously expensive.
We are going to sprinkle some wildflower and sunflower seeds strategically along the perimeter of the yard. Our neighbors have some and the color just looks nice with all of the greenery.

Back Yard

Again, we're avoiding anything to permanent but we do want some sort of small backyard garden. Either by building a small raised bed or several planters. The backyard is on a weird slant, but hopefully we can make something work.
We had a fire pit at our last house and would love another at this house. Nothing crazy, just a basic metal pit that we can hang out around during the summer.
We'd like to find second hand outdoor furniture - something cheap, but comfy. And weatherproof. I don't feel like hauling cushions in and out each time it threatens rain.

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