Earlier this year we began work on our backyard to prep for the English garden I planned to build. Today I am sharing a quick and easy DIY project that has helped to camouflage the ugly electrical meter on the back of the house.…
How to add charm to your garden with discarded bricks. Install a brick border for instant English garden charm! Easy DIY for beginners!…
This year, I really wanted to give the basement a more finished look and began planning a budget-friendly basement makeover. We built a utility room to hide the mechanicals, updated the overhead lighting, sprayed the exposed ceiling black, and painted the concrete floors. …
Welcome back to Week 2 of the One Room Challenge! Our living room has great bones and the first improvement we made to the room was installing new floors and painting the walls. Check out all of the living room design plans in the…
We started working on our unfinished basement makeover about two months ago and I still cannot get over the transformation! Last year we decided to put our large basement to good use when the country went into quarantine and the kids needed a space…
Spraying the exposed basement ceiling may have been the most physically taxing DIY I have ever done. Don't get me wrong, it was totally worth it for the look and the money saved, but it was exhausting! …
We are so close to wrapping up this basement project and I can't wait to share it with all of you! Creating beautiful and functional areas in a basement is one of my favorite ways to add value to our homes. …
As I write this blog post I am sitting on my back porch enjoying one of the first warm days of Spring. I love when I am able to work on outdoor DIY projects that improve the look of our home while also enjoying…
Last Fall I finished our master bedroom makeover and I am finally getting around to writing the closet organization post. Just in time for Spring cleaning! Our home has incredible storage with large closets in every bedroom and even more spacious closets in the…
My favorite tools to recommend to beginner gardeners | Building Bluebird #greenthumb #englishgarden #gardening #pottedplants…
For the mudroom makeover, I was excited to hang a printed wallpaper above the newly installed plank wall. I chose the mudroom design to reflect an English cottage vibe and the Flora print was exactly what I was going for. …
Our mudroom makeover is complete and I am excited to share how we installed the tongue and groove plank wall in this room. I chose this wall treatment because it worked well with the cottage architectural style of our home. This project is definitely…
The mudroom makeover came with plenty of surprises but I absolutely love the end result! The architecture of our home includes many cottage-style elements including a sloping cedar-shingled roof, large bay window, and carriage door entrance on the front of the house. …
The master bedroom reveal is here and it looks nothing like it did a few months ago! I love these 6-week challenges so much because they really push me to complete the projects in one single space. I often find myself bouncing around from…
For week 5 of the Better Homes & Gardens One Room Challenge, I focused on the design details. I have all of the furniture purchased and in place and I was excited to add our personality to the space. After living in our home…
Week 4 of the One Room Challenge was spent customizing our current IKEA Hemnes dresser. In my week 2 update, I shared that I had purchased a pricey new dresser only to discover that it was way too small for our clothing storage needs.…
With the walls finally painted, I spent week 3 of the One Room Challenge installing closet organization systems and assembling our new bed frame. Our master bedroom has three huge closets and we were definitely not maximizing their functionality. Along with giving our closets…
Week 2 of the One Room Challenge was dominated by painting the bedroom. Six weeks can really fly by so when I didn’t have a paintbrush in my hand, I was ordering furniture. Like all renovations, we already ran into a few surprises that…
Is it just me or does it feel like we just wrapped up the Spring One Room Challenge? Either way, my home is never lacking a space that needs a little TLC and I love participating in this challenge to get me motivated to…
Today I am excited to share how we painted our pool and saved thousands of dollars! Would you believe me if I told you we almost walked away from our house because there was a pool in the backyard? We have young kids and…
Today I am sharing simple bathroom organization solutions for our cluttered master bath! After living in our master bathroom for a year, I identified a handful of areas that needed improvement to function for our family. These simple solutions have decluttered our bathroom and…
Our retro master bathroom was tired, outdated, and lacking function. After my mini-makeover, our bathroom is now a showstopper without any major renovations! If you have been following along, I decided to give our master bathroom a budget-friendly update to add functionality and style.…
The most effective (and rewarding) way to whiten your tile grout is with a simple DIY cleaning solution. If your tile floors were installed with white grout, there is a good chance that it is stained with dirt. This simple solution revives dingy grout…
Today I am sharing tips for one of my most effective renovation strategies - how to remove wallpaper! My latest home project is giving our dated master bathroom a little refresh. …
If you own a home built in the 50’s or 60’s, there is a good chance you have at least one retro bathroom. Our home was built in the late 60’s and we have 3 original bathrooms! This month I am excited to tackle…
Today I am sharing how to update a lamp with spray paint. I love the challenge of updating a space on a budget. Along with saving money, I enjoy finding new ways to use items that I already own. This is exactly what I…
Are you ready for the boys' bedroom reveal for Week 8 of the One Room Challenge?! Even though my design plans changed quite a bit, I am SO happy with how Thomas's bedroom turned out. And most importantly, Thomas is overjoyed with the new…
Week 7 of the One Room Challenge and I am looking forward to wrapping up this project. There are definitely some challenges that come along with renovating a child’s bedroom for 8 weeks! Luckily we have a guest bedroom where I could send Thomas…
We are in the final weeks of the One Room Challenge and I am FEELING it! Last week was heavy and to be honest, the Challenge felt a little trivial. I am grateful that we were able to take Week 5 to reflect on…
Last week I found an old iron arbor on the side of the road with “free” attached to the front. Aside from the arbor being my favorite price, the design was perfect for my English garden! I grabbed my hubby and we tossed the…
I have been hard at work creating my English Garden and the beds are starting to fill up! All of the perennials that I have put in my garden were given to me or transferred from another spot in my yard. …
I gotta be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to finish this week 4 of the One Room Challenge! In the final minutes, I finished my Ikea Billy Bookcase hack and I am so proud of how it came out. …
Welcome to week 3 of the Better Homes & Gardens One Room Challenge! This week, I added some personality into my boys' bedroom by installing a wall mural on one wall, and LOVE how it turned out!…
Whenever I begin a room makeover, I always start with paint. The wall color lays the foundation for the design and painting a room makes it feel fresh and new. Today I am going to take you through how to paint a carpeted…
The Better Homes & Gardens Spring One Room Challenge is here and I am so excited to participate again! Over the next 8 weeks, I will be transforming my boy’s bedroom into a modern and functional space for a growing dude. If you are…
Designing and building an English garden in my backyard | Building Bluebird #landscaping #gardening #greenthumb…
I have always loved the look of an English garden! Since moving into our home last summer, I envisioned creating an English garden in our yard. I have spent hours researching features and flowers found in these gardens and have started the beginnings of…
Building a compost station at your home is a great way to reduce waste and create nutrient-rich soil. My family has been composting for a few years now using a rolling bin and decided to take our composting one step further at our new…
I still can't get over how amazing my freshly painted, old linoleum floors look in the laundry room! For this project, I partnered with Rust-Oleum to try out their interior paint product, Rust-Oleum HOME Floor Coating. …
With Earth Day approaching, I wanted to share 5 easy ways to make your laundry room a little more green! These simple changes can save energy and reduce plastic while doing laundry every day. 5 Tips to Make Your Laundry Room Green 1 |…
My budget-friendly laundry room makeover is finally complete! A few months ago I shared my laundry room inspiration and I can't wait to show you how I brought that vision to life. …
Laundry rooms are one of my favorite projects to makeover because they are often left as boring and uninspiring spaces. It is so refreshing to do a not-so-fun task like laundry in a beautiful space. While kitchens and bathrooms often sell the home, I…
We purchased this old bed frame off of Craigslist almost 8 years ago for $100. When I bought it, I had every intention of painting it right away, but it never happened! When we moved into our new home 6 months ago, we planned…
Organizing your kitchen cabinets efficiently is often overlooked when first moving into a new home. Today I am sharing 8 time-saving tips to organize your kitchen. When a kitchen is organized well, valuable time is given back to the homeowner. In the last 10…
When decorating for the holidays, I like to keep it simple. I am excited to share my home with you today and give you a full tour of my simple, holiday decor. Even more exciting, all of my House to Home Haven ladies are…
My goal for our kitchen renovation was to create an open concept that complimented the traditional style of the home while also adding that modern vibe for our family today. …
For the final week of this challenge, I am sharing the reveal of the dining room transformation AND a festive table setting designed for the holidays.…
I say this all the time, but paint is so transformative! On the blog today, I am sharing a step by step tutorial on how to paint a room like a pro.…
We are so close to the finish line for the One Room Challenge! This week we are getting art and decor up on the walls in our dining room. …
The dining room was in need of a buffet and week 4 of the One Room Challenge was all about finding the perfect piece. When I couldn’t find the perfect buffet online, I decided to go thrifting and refinish a piece myself. We blew…
Week 3 of the One Room Challenge brought on the biggest transformation yet. I say this all the time and I will say it again…PAINT IS SO TRANSFORMATIVE! I spent this last week wrapping up wall prep (filling holes, sanding the walls, etc), making…
Week 2 of the One Room Challenge is all about dining room prep! This week is all about prepping the room – making it ugly so it can look so beautiful at the end of this 6 week challenge! Specifically I am focusing on…
Mood & modern dining room design…
Welcome to our new home, our Cape Cottage! It is still a little surreal that we now own our own home in Toledo, Ohio. It’s also a little crazy that we own a pool! We bought this home from really lovely previous owners who…
Today I am taking a note from one of my favorite blogs, chrislovesjulia.com, and breaking down the 6 renovation projects we plan to complete in the next 6 months. We have some BIG projects ahead of us at our new home! It is going…
Episode 22 is really a time capsule of our journey to finding the perfect family home. We share our experience buying this house and all of the ups and downs we encountered throughout the purchase process. Every home buying process is unique and this…