The basement is no longer ugly.

Let me describe the basement in this in pictures.

Here's what it looked like before we moved in, three years ago:

The basement became Bubba's toy center. Complete with a very tired leather couch and loveseat (both freebies from CL) that we had in our old home. And at the time, they were our best option. These couches were in such sorry condition they just had to go.  Here is our pics for Craigslist in our attempt to get rid of them:

Anyways, here is the basement now:

The artwork up close

The last two items that is left to do in the basement is to cull the bookcase for items we have not used in the last three years.  Second item is to paint the guest bedroom and remove/sell items that we store there (like toys Bubba has outgrown.)

I realize the "after" pictures are not from the same point of view as the "before" pictures. I've looked through my photo library and I do not seem to have a full view photograph of the basement in the last three years we have lived here. Also, apologies for the iPhone pics. It's so much easier to whip my phone out than go look for the regular point and shoot (which keeps malfunctioning on me. It's time for a new camera for realz.)

Here's the breakdown of the room:
Paint: Valspar Weathered Wood
Couch: Belfort Furniture (in the Warehouse/Clearance section)
The TV stand is temporary, but it was a Craigslist find, nonetheless.
Wall art: Canvas Photo from HomeGoods
Train table: Craigslist find ($20 bucks!)
Curtains: Target Farrah Floral Window Panel in brown
Curtain rod: HomeGoods.

Craigslist Crush: Vintage bed

I am so *in love* with this bed frame. LOVE. However, I do not think my husband would appreciate it in our son's bedroom. I don't think painting this a masculine/neutral color would lessen this bed's lovely curves. It's a shame our guest bedroom has a king size bed.

Vintage GIRLS' Pale Pink Full Bed - $200 (NW DC)

 If you are in the DC area, this is my loss- your gain. Someone snatch it up!

Whoah-oh Domino!

Um. I got my copy to the special edition. However, I haven't seen any bloggers besides sfgirlbybay reviewing this! What's up with that?

Spring Cleaning and then some.

* Look out this is gonna be a long post since I haven't been dedicated to writing a post in a while! You've been warned so stop giving me the shifty eye - All eight followers of this blog.*

For the past month and a half, I've been organizing random places around the home. No major DIY projects. Just trying to maximize our space and efficiency here.

First was the rarely used coat closet. Things piled up on that top shelf. Hats, gloves, reusable bags, toilet paper, play dough- you name it, it had a home on that top shelf.  Bins from Target ($9.99/each) corralled like items together. Stuff don't fall on my head anymore. I also got a crate to store all my flats everyday shoes in that green crate on the floor. Indeed. NOt all of our shoes fit in that Hemmes Shoe cabinet.

We've finally hung some pictures around the house as well. Here's the area by the front door where we keep our shoes. I've even added the bar of hooks since we can never make it down the steps to put our coats away.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here's the area above the bar with pictures. There's a few empty frames. The most notable empty frame is the shadow box at the bottom center of the gallery.  I was thinking of filling that up with wine corks. My issue is that we are not big wine drinkers.  Need ideas, here. Hit me up on me up on the comments for ideas, please!

BEFORE

AFTER

Next stop was the kitchen cupboards and pantry. After a while, I realized that my kitchen will never be one of those kitchens that displays flour, sugar, coffee, and tea in beautiful Kilner jars.  Our cooking routine is just not suited for that kind of pretty. Plus, our countertops are already filled with appliances that we use on a daily basis. I finally got one of these from Wal-Mart (about $4.75 each) to store my sugar and coffee.  SOOOOO MUCH cheaper at Wal-Mart than at Chef's Catalog! Just saying.

I organized my shoe storage (you know, those pretty heels you wouldn't dare store with your running shoes.) Got these plastic shoe boxes at Target. Five plastic boxes for $5.99. Seriously- that's a deal!

5 boxes for $5.99 at Target.

BEFORE

AFTER

And then. Then. Then...I finally figured out how to maximize storage in the house utilizing the space in our laundry room. All it took was getting hubs to do the actual work.

BEFORE

BEFORE

Here's hubs handy work! We are now able to store both vacuums in the laundry room along with all of the cleaning products and extra paper towels and toilet paper. Plus the room was painted in the same shade as the entire basement (Valspar Weathered Wood). The last item to install in this laundry room is the closet rod to hang below the bottom shelf. We need a place to hang ironed clothes when ironing.

AFTER

AFTER

Lastly. Pinterest. Sometimes, you just put ideas into my head. This time it was good because I had been wanting to sew something for Bubba. Here's Heidi trying it on for size.

What have you been up to?

Craigslist Crush: on the bench

Hi there. Here again perusing the web with Craig. I've been itching to use the pneumatic staple gun again. And sew. I've been thinking about getting a bench to reupholster/refurbish. Here are today's finds on Craigslist:

Pecan Veneer Bench - $35. Awesome price. Although the legs of this bench has got me thinking this may be vintage. I wouldn't want to staple that wood.

Ikea Bench with shelf - $40. (IMHO, the price seems a bit much for an Ikea piece of furniture).

Just cut to size high density foam and upholster that to the bench. I've been crushing on this fabric for a while now.  This fabric would be perfect on a bench.