I don’t know what it is about little boys, but they delight in destruction. Weston builds elaborate, tall towers of blocks or legos just for the one second of BLISS that comes from knocking it down and watching it all crumble to the ground. In that second, he is so alive! The world is HIS! […]
Easy no-sew diamond curtains (Anthropologie knock-off)
Remember many moons ago when my friend Erin and I surprised our friend Jill with a low-budget room makeover while she was on vacation? …and I was all, “BRB with the curtain tutorial!” Sorry. We got a little distracted with the whole master bedroom paint situation, then Andy and I went out of town last […]
Save the books: how to style a bookshelf for actual book storage
I must speak out for the books. Someone is hiding them from us! All those volumes mankind has been printing for the past hundreds of years since the invention of the printing press — oh yes I did just bring up the invention of the printing press and no I don’t know when that was […]
Just a little flash-mob surprise makeover reveal. That’s all.
Imagine if you left for vacation and your living room looked like this. Then a week later, you walked back into your house and it looked like this. What if you were expecting to see this: But instead you saw this: What would you DOOO?!! Jill did this: And smiled a lot, and cried a […]
Jill’s Surprise Makeover: Painting + Furniture
How to be the worst person in the world: invite all your friends to a painting party and then not come. I was all, “Lol, jk guys. I’m sick. You can still come and paint Jill’s living room though.” I didn’t mean to be a terrible person, but in what was the most awful timing […]
Decorating 101: Space Planning (and more on Jill’s surprise makeover!)
I’m excited to show you guys Jill’s flash-mob surprise makeover results! But I thought we’d start with a little chat about how we handled her room layout. Let me just forewarn you that the furniture, rugs and finishes in these little layout sketches are all horrible and not at all representative of the design for […]
Jill’s surprise makeover: the plan
Two hours of pushing with no medications, not so much as a tylenol: that’s how my firstborn came into the world. He looked like a grumpy old man with pointy elf ears, and dang if I didn’t want another one almost immediately after. I forgot the puking-with-every-contraction part of labor, and felt myself romanced and […]
Hi, I'm Kelly. Glad you're here! This little blog is where I chronicle our efforts to fix up our beaten-down home on a tiny budget. We're not there yet, but here's a peek at the view along the way...
