Home design

This easy DIY lacquer tray dupe saved me hundreds of dollars while achieving the same high-end look I wanted! One of my favorite designers is Rita Konig and I have been drawn to the beautiful lacquer trays she designs and sells. I recently renovated my guest bedroom/office and her two-tone, blue and green, lacquer tray fit perfectly with the design concept. A medium-sized tray like below is listed at $275.

When it comes to Christmas lights, I prefer white lights outside and colorful lights on our Christmas tree. My favorite exterior holiday decor is the twinkling Christmas garland I hang around the top of our porch every year. Hanging the cedar garland and Christmas lights is really easy and I am breaking it all down for you in the tutorial below!

This green upholstered headboard may be my favorite DIY project yet. I created this simple DIY tufted headboard for our guest bedroom and it completely transformed the look of our old platform bed. The beautiful green looks fantastic against the pale blue/gray walls and is really the focal point of the entire space. I have created a step-by-step tutorial for you to follow and create your own headboard for less than $200.

Another One Room Challenge reveal is here and I am so proud of the transformation in our guest bedroom/office. One of my favorite parts of this 8-week challenge is how it pushes me creatively to make design decisions and experiment when something doesn’t go as planned.

Large, blank walls continue to intimidate me when it comes to choosing artwork. Whatever fills the walls has to be substantial and large artwork usually comes with a large price tag. The solution in the guest bedroom/office is a gallery wall and I am so pleased with how it turned out!

Welcome back to week 6 of the One Room Challenge! There are two weeks left in this challenge and I really need to get my butt in gear. There are …

Welcome back to week 5 of the One Room Challenge! This week I have continued to work on DIY paint projects. Paint is my favorite budget-friendly DIY trick to change the look of furniture or a design item. I gave a fresh new look to an old bookshelf and decorative tray through the magic of paint.

Welcome back to week 4 of the One Room Challenge! This week I am focusing on the guest bedroom lighting throughout the space. The guest bedroom is large and because the space is so large, I need to include multiple lighting sources to properly light the room.

Welcome back to week 3 of the One Room Challenge! This week I continued to focus on the bed and nightstands, which are the main focal point of the room. To hide the old platform bed, I purchased a mattelasse bedskirt and it completely changed the look of the bed. I also purchased a white quilt so the green headboard would get all of the attention.

Welcome back to week 2 of the One Room Challenge! This week I am focusing on the design of the guest bedroom / office focal point which will determine the choices for the rest of the room – the bed! For this makeover, I am pushing myself creatively and trying to make choices that are a little less safe. I will take you through my entire thought process below!

I am excited to be participating in my 6th One Room Challenge this fall to makeover our guest bedroom / office!

By the end of the summer, I am ready for fall and all of the fun traditions the season brings. The leaves on the trees are changing, farms are harvesting their crops, and using elements in nature is an easy way to decorate for fall on a budget.

The laundry room makeover at our Toledo flip house is one of my favorite transformations. I thought it would be fun to share a few simple tips to create a functional laundry room like this one.

I love decorating my home with unique and affordable artwork. My latest DIY is easy, cheap, and I was able to upcycle unused items in my home! This easy tutorial shows you how to make your own patterned photo mat using wallpaper samples.

I am constantly drawn to the beautiful and popular Farrow and Ball paint colors. Unfortunately, the accessibility and pricepoint are two reasons why I have yet to purchase this paint brand.
I know this is old school, but there is something about purchasing paint in a store that brings me comfort! Farrow and Ball paints are sold in limited stores so the purchase would be made online. While I am not opposed to purchasing online, the biggest detractor is the price point. I am usually scraping together my budget for DIY projects, so $115 for a gallon of paint is hard to justify.

Blueish green paint colors are a popular choice for the interior of homes. These two colors complement each other really well when combined. Green adds warmth to a space, while blue adds freshness to a room.

Outdoor DIY projects seem to have a domino effect in our household. What started as a simple tree removal project quickly devolved into installing a brick paver border around our pool. We are always guilty of project creep and this time was no different!

If you are just dipping your toe in the gardening pool, planning your first flower bed garden can be intimidating! I have a few close people in my life who are incredible gardeners and I always seek out their advice when I have questions about my flower garden beds.

This year we built another raised garden box in our backyard using pressure-treated wood and corner brackets. I documented the entire process and am excited to share this easy tutorial with all of you!

Going to estate sales is one of my favorite weekend activities! I love the thrill of the hunt for beautiful, unique home decor and furniture to fill my home. It’s also a great place to check out great architecture and stunning properties around your city. Estate sales are an incredible place to find high-quality pieces at a discounted price, but you have to be quick to snag them before someone else does first! You can find a list of local estate sales through the app estatesales.net.

Creating a welcoming space that feels unique to my family is always on my mind when decorating a room. Our current home is pretty large, so I have to get creative when finding one-of-a-kind art that is also budget-friendly! I absolutely love when our guests ask about a piece of artwork hung on the walls. I

Green is definitely having a moment this year, and I have pulled together some of the more popular green paint colors for you to try in your home! If you keep track of the colors chosen by major paint brands that are named “Color of the Year,” almost all of the chosen colors for 2022 are some shade of green! Green is a popular choice because it is so often found in nature and symbolizes growth. It is said that the color green has the psychological effect of making people feel rested and secure.

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.

Our small guest bathroom lacked character and needed some extra oomph. Adding decorative trim to the wall for a traditional look was just what the room needed! Today I am going to share how to easily install box molding to a wall for this classic look.

The guest bathroom on the main floor of our house is the only bathroom that has had any updates since it was built in the late 1960s. The shower was updated, the countertop was replaced with marble and new wallpaper was installed.

Using materials that we already owned, I was determined to give our basement staircase a fresh and modern look. My goal was to complete this DIY project spending zero dollars!

I absolutely love the simple scalloped furniture detail that is having a moment right now. I recently gave my daughter’s bedroom a makeover with a Grandmillennial style and added the scalloped furniture detail with this easy IKEA hack. I am breaking down the entire process with this beginner’s level tutorial!

Painting 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!

Looking for the next good book? I have put together a long list of the best self-improvement books to read or listen to this year! I am a big reader and love peppering in self-improvement books throughout the year.

Create the perfect Christmas scene under your tree with perfectly wrapped presents – Tutorial on the perfect Christmas bow

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.

Sharing the paint color trends each year is one of my favorite blog posts and also my most popular! I am always so inspired when I pull together all of the paint color predictions and can’t help but start thinking of projects for the new year. The theme of the 2022 paint color trends is pretty clear – green is on everyone’s mind!

Today I am sharing 6 ways to create less waste during the holidays. These simple changes helped me to use less and not sacrifice all of the beautiful decor that comes with the holidays.

The foyer in our house is very grand with vaulted ceilings and a winding staircase. It was one of my favorite features of our home when we first walked through it and I immediately envisioned it decked out for the holidays. Brand new garland from the store can cost a fortune, so this year I found creative ways to hang garland on the stairs for less than $20.

Creating a functional living space in an unfinished basement is an incredible way to add square footage to your home! Today I am excited to share affordable ideas to create a beautiful unfinished basement on a budget. These DIY projects made all of the difference in our basement and it’s now a space that we use every single day.

We made it to week 8 of the One Room Challenge and the reveal of the vintage-inspired girls bedroom! For my daughter’s bedroom makeover, I tried to incorporate primarily second-hand and already owned items in the design. My goal was to create a beautiful and functional bedroom that encouraged creativity.

Welcome back to week 7 of the One Room Challenge! Incorporating vintage artwork into a design is a great way to create a one-of-a-kind space and save money. One of my favorite items to find at estate sales is artwork and included quite a few second-hand items in Evelyn’s bedroom makeover.

Welcome back to week 6 of the One Room Challenge! The bedding selection is always important because the bed tends to be the focal point of every bedroom! The goal for Evelyn’s bedding was to find an affordable and durable option that looked great too.

Welcome back to week 5 of the One Room Challenge! This week I have continued to upcycle second-hand furniture to fit within the design of my daughters’ vintage-inspired bedroom makeover. Last week I painted the vanity/desk from my MIL blue and it looks really beautiful against the warm pink walls. This week I recovered a bentwood chair found at an estate sale to fit within the bedroom design. I also tackled a quick paint project on the existing nightstand to balance the other side of the room.

I have owned a pair of IKEA RIBBA picture ledges (similar) for a decade and continue to love their functionality. I actually don’t think IKEA even sells this particular style anymore. When I began planning my daughter’s vintage-inspired bedroom makeover, I

Welcome back to week 4 of the One Room Challenge! We are at the halfway mark of updating my daughter’s bedroom and I still have lots of fun projects to share. This week I tackled another fun IKEA hack in Evelyn’s

Welcome back to week 3 of the One Room Challenge! This week I spent time upcycling a thrifted peg rail and two IKEA Ribba photo ledges and I think it may be my favorite IKEA hack to date!

Welcome back to week 2 of the Fall One Room Challenge! This week I chose the paint color and focused on painting the walls the perfect shade of pink. Check out the design plans for my vintage-inspired girls’ bedroom in the Week 1 blog post. Here is a reminder of what my daughter’s bedroom looked like when we first moved into the home two years ago.

Welcome back to another exciting One Room Challenge! This exciting design event was created by Linda Weinstein back in 2011 with the goal of cheering on and supporting online friends to complete a finished room in their homes.

With rising popularity of English designs and cottagecore trends, mauve has become increasingly popular as an interior paint color. To avoid this color feeling dated (very popular in the 80s), I prefer more muted mauves that can easily be used as a neutral within a space.

e in a home that gives them energy every day and brings them joy. This book has helped me to understand how simple design choices can brighten our moods.

This IKEA hack transformation may be my favorite one yet! I decided to give our current IKEA Hemnes dresser an update when I was putting together the design plans for our master bedroom makeover.

Today I am excited 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.

Chris and I grew up taking family road trips every year and have naturally fallen into the same pattern with our kids. While air travel is nice, we often decide on driving to a destination to save money and have our own transportation.

I have always loved the cottagecore style, but back when I was in college, it was called Shabby Chic! While the shabby chic trend in the 2000s had more of a romantic feel with creamier colors and light pinks, cottagecore paint colors are with warmer, natural earth tones.

You may not have a charming English cottage in the countryside, but you can still create a beautiful English cottage garden in your backyard. English cottages are definitely having a moment and I am all in with the cottagecore and grand millennial trend!

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 my very own English garden in my backyard.

I found this old cabinet at a garage sale and immediately felt the urge to bring her back to life. I decided to paint the cabinet the perfect green paint color that aligns perfectly with the modern designs in my living room and dining room.

We painted the dated, rock fireplace in our kids’ playroom! Our third home had a great garden-level space that we used for the kid’s playroom, but the giant rock wall made the room feel dark.

We have made it to the MCM living room reveal and I am so happy with the finished product. Our living room is the first area that you see when you come into our home and I am really excited to have a finished space that reflects who we are. Over these last 8 weeks, I have bought a few new items for the room, reused materials that we already owned, and finally put some of my thrifted items on display.

Welcome to Week 7 of the One Room Challenge! I gotta be honest, I have struggled with my time management on this project and am a little bummed that I missed writing my weekly post last week

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 brick border edging for instant English garden charm! Easy DIY for beginners!

This week of the One Room Challenge is all about budget-saving DIY projects for the living room. I have always been thrifty when it comes to decorating and this makeover is no different. The saying, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” definitely applies to me and I get such a rush out of creating something beautiful out of items that were discarded by others.

Filling the walls in a large room can be a little challenging for me. My goal is always to hang unique artwork that is interesting and doesn’t break the bank. Whatever I hang on our walls, I want it to feel like our family. For week 4 of the One Room Challenge, I am going to share some of the artwork I will be hanging in our living room and where I find them.

If this first time stopping by, welcome, and thanks for visiting! A few years ago I decided to quit my corporate job in Denver and my family moved back to …

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 Week 1 post.

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 to run wild.

Who’s ready for the Spring One Room Challenge?! This time around we will be working on our living room and I can’t wait to pull it all together! For the last two years, this room was set up with furniture we purchased 10 years ago after we were married.

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 the fresh air.

When it comes to painting projects in my home, I always choose to paint myself instead of hiring it out. The cost of labor adds up quickly and I prefer to use that money in other areas of our home. Today I am sharing the best paint supplies I prefer when painting interior spaces in our house.

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 hallway.

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 doable for beginners and is affordable too.

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.

Have you ever painted latex over oil-based paint without properly prepping the walls? If you are one of the unlucky readers who answered yes, you know exactly how painful this mistake can be!

One of the most common questions I get is how to choose the best paint colors for your home. Often it is from readers who are moving into a new home and don’t know where to start in terms of paint colors.

Planning a home project and want your paint color to be on-trend? This is the perfect post for you! I love following the paint and decor trends expected for the new year because it helps steer some of my design decisions for the year.

Christmas decor can be expensive to buy all at once and personally, I enjoy collecting meaningful decor throughout the years. I have compiled a list of easy and inexpensive decorations for the holidays while the collection grows.

Looking for a unique gift idea for your loved ones this Christmas? Check out these easy and affordable DIY gift ideas for the holiday season!

Have you ever tried one of the popular IKEA hacks found on Pinterest? There are so many incredible DIY projects using IKEA furniture and I am always completely blown away by the transformations! I have tried out a few of my own and am so pleased with the results. I have pulled together some of the best IKEA furniture hacks to try at home.

For the last 8 years, I have used the Shutterfly program to create our family yearbooks. It is rare that I print photos out anymore and these yearbooks are a great way to compile all of our memories and favorite photos each year.

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 project to project around the house, but when I really focus on one area, it is so worth it in the end.

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 for just over a year, we had identified the key areas that lacked function in our room.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 the idea of having a pool was really intimidating to me.

I am digging the rich, moody paint colors trend and am craving this design aesthetic even more as we head into Fall! I love how the perfect paint color can warm up a room and give it a cozy vibe.

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 …

As school starts up again, many of our kids have to remain at home due to the COVID outbreak. When my son isn’t virtually learning online, I have tried to get him outside to explore new places around town. I have created a full list of kid-friendly places to enjoy around Toledo for any parent who needs to find an activity outside of the home!

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 …

The most effective way to whiten your tile grout is with a simple homemade grout cleaner made of 4 ingredients. If your tile floors were installed with white grout, there is a good chance that it is stained with dirt. Using household products that are usually stocked in your kitchen, you can whiten your tile grout without any chemicals!

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.

Looking for a reason to decorate with vintage items in your home? Along with the thrill of the hunt, there many benefits to purchasing gently used furniture and vintage decor items for your home.

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 …

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 …

Today I am excited to show you how to color block a piece of art for your home! This DIY is great for artwork that is usually passed over at …

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 look of his bedroom!

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 …

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. …

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always loved a good DIY project. I also love a good upcycling project! Taking some old and unwanted and turning it …