Retro Metal Chair Redo

When Husband’s grandmother gave us her spare retro card table chair, I bit my lip. We just got married and weren’t in much of a position to say no to free furniture. We needed a fourth chair for our table. although I hoped new acquisitions would move us in a different design direction from Early Early Marriage and Horribly Mismatched Freebies.

Eventually we bought matching chairs for Husband’s heirloom table. I painted and updated the old chairs with some staple gun upholstery. The three freebie doctor’s office chairs from Husband’s bachelor days now hang out on our front porch.

Grandma W’s retro card table chair made its way to the Room Where Old Furniture Goes to Die – the Guest Room/Craft Room. The minute I pulled it up to my material Grandmother’s enamel top kitchen table I knew I need to keep her. The two look like they were made for each other.

The table has two pull out leaves I use if I need more surface space. Cutting fabric on this table is like a dream!

Turquoise and Orange Eco Modern Patio

Despite the weird bit of snow we got yesterday - in April! I'm dreaming of fun outdoor designs for the patio. A recent diet of Yard Crashers marathons and spending an hour and a half  in an MRI machine will do that to ya.

I mean, what else are you going to do, while holding as still as possible for so long in a tube while it scans every single angle of your leg and knee? Some people nap. I decorate my patio.

Turquoise and Orange Eco Modern Outdoor Patio Mood Board

Craft Supply Wall Storage and Room Tour

My craft room is starting to look like a real studio!

I painted the craft room/guest room last summer. Then I lost steam on this room and let DIY fear take over when it came to making  over the current furniture. That fear stalled the project until I got a little help from a friend.

 Pin these craft room storage ideas on your Pinterest boards for later!

11 Painted Desk Makeovers

 I’m finally on a roll when it comes to decorating the craft room guest room. The general color scheme is falling into place. The decorating style is gelling into Whimsy Retro Fun.

I don’t know if Whimsy Retro Fun is a real world legitimate design style but it is in LisaLand and that’s what counts.

A friend gave me her childhood student desk when she moved. I took it to use as a sewing table until I was ready to buy a real sewing machine cabinet. One of the surprising of being pint size, is I later realized that the student desk fits me better than a big girl sewing table. Instead of replacing the desk, I put that money towards bigger and better and not sewing machine table things.

Years later the desk doesn’t need replacing but it could use a redo. I poked around for furniture makeover inspiration and found a bunch. Do you want to take a look? Of course you do!

Wraparound Recycled Fence Wall Shelves

I don’t have the floor space in the craft room/guest room to add storage shelves for my mountain of craft, art, and DIY supplies. What is a girl to do?

If you can’t build out build up.

Instead of adding artwork to the wall above my craft and sewing tables, I put that wall to work with a set of shelves that wrap around the walls.

Pin this wall storage idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

What Happens When Any Home Improvement May Over Improve Your Home?

A few years after we bought our condo, the value went up. You know, just like it is supposed to do when you invest your money in buying a home. I'm sure my half bathroom remodel with its granite counter top helped.

Then the economy went south taking property values with it - including ours. The only consolation is that all of our friends who bought homes around the same time are under water too.

Since we are living here and will be for the foreseeable future, I wasn't shy about improving our house with basic cosmetic changes like painting the walls or DIY projects that would benefit us in some way like insulating the garage and insulating the garage door. You have to differentiate a bit if you live in a neighborhood of similar houses, right?

12 Gorgeous DIY Greenhouses

My fantasy house would have a gorgeous greenhouse full of lush and lively plants growing year round.
I change the design from Victorian to salvaged windows to secret garden style because I love them all and I don’t need building permits when I’m designing in my day dreams.

Endless winter is making me day dream a bit more about spring, summer, and greenhouses. I collected 12 of my favorite greenhouses to share with you.

Let’s take a little break and dream of spring!

Washi Tape Phone Charger

Sometimes Husband and I are so alike it is scary. I can't tell you how many times we have gone out to eat and accidentally ordered the same meal. We have similar tastes in technology too.

It didn't surprise me when Husband upgraded his phone for work with a Samsung Galaxy S4 like mine. It's a sweet phone! (That's not an ad or anything. I just like Android phones.)

                     People comment on my TARDIS phone cover all the time.  I'm glad I engraved my name on it or it might have disappeared by now. 

I promptly gave Husband a Don't Panic phone cover so we can tell whose phone is whose. He has the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and I have the TARDIS. We are set when it comes to interstellar travel!

Unfortunately, we're back to the is this one yours or mine? game when it comes to our phone chargers.  I was tempted to end the game by buying a cute printed phone charger but I've heard some non Samsung chargers aren't powerful enough for Galaxy phones. In fact, I ran into that situation when I tried to use a free off brand car charger to charge my phone. It wasn't powerful enough to work. Once I switched to a Samsung charger, my phone charged without a problem. Lesson learned. Use the branded charger that coordinates with your phone.

What do to? I made a cute Andriod phone charger instead of risking it on an off brand.

Everything Christmas Mega House Tour!

I just cannot believe that Christmas is almost here!

Join me and get ready to Be Inspired as I participate in the Everything Christmas Tour!

 

What is an Everything Christmas Tour you ask? Well...because it seems as though we are all running a little behind, I thought you could use some Inspiration, Motivation or just help getting into the Christmas Spirit! To do that, I am participating with a few other bloggers, fourteen of them, to be specific, as we spend a week sharing Everything Christmas with you...Mantels, Home Decor, Porches and Wall Designs!

Highball Halloween Party!

Happy Halloween!

Today is one our favorite holidays because it is all about frivolous fun. I got my costumer on and made a rare set of matching costumes for Husband and I to wear to this year’s Highball Halloween party. We were Raving Rabbids!

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!

I’m glad I made our full length Rabbid suits from fleece. It was freezing that night!

Covered Kitchen Storage Boxes

My kitchen is shrinking.

Not really but it feels that way.

We have one cupboard we use to store food. The rest of the cupboards hold dishes, cups, and stuff we want  to keep but don’t use often. In my dream kitchen all of these special dishes and things would live on the tippy top shelves of cupboards that go all the way to the ceiling so they are accessible but not in the every day way.

A kitchen remodel isn’t in the plan this year. Moving to a bigger house is too much work. I need to find some space in the kitchen I have.

I found it!

I know I’m supposed to like having a decorating space on top of my kitchen cabinets. I tried hanging plates on the wall because that is what you are supposed to do in a kitchen, right? I didn’t like it. I tried groupings of doodads on top of the cabinets - meh. I just can’t make it work.

Topsy Turvey Bookcases

I was beyond happy when we bought our house and replaced our mish mosh of overflowing bookshelves with one wall of matching bookshelves in our computer room.  Seeing all of our books in one place made me giddy.

Then we bought more books.

And a few more.

And a few more.

We could use more shelves.

I started poking around for arty book shelves because it is way more fun than sorting through and donating our old and outdated books. Yes, yes. I’ll get to it. It is on the punch list for our computer room revamp project.

In the meantime, let’s have some fun and check out some crazy fun bookshelves. For what they don’t hold in the amount of stuff, they make up for in the amount of whimsy they add to a room.

I can’t help but look at the Woodcurve Curved Bookshelf  and smile. This piece was inspired by the Dr. Seuss books as are several of the pieces in Woodcurve’s Etsy shop.

Warning: Curves Ahead!

How to Fake Crown Molding with Paint

This post brought to you by FrogTape brand painter’s tape. All opinions are 100% mine.

I knew I picked the right wall color in my guest room/craft room the minute I moved my antique black and white table into the room. It it popped against the yellow wall. I am smitten with color scheme!

However, I'm not smitten with the closet.

I never liked the doors or oak stain on the molding at the top. I know I'm supposed to like wood molding but the oak stain makes it look cheap. I tried to hide the molding by painting it the same color as the wall. It is not as awful but it still use a little something while I'm thinking about what to do with the closet doors.

How to Improve a Room

I want to spiff up the living room.

This will do just fine thank you.

Did you enjoy this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Condo Blues RSS Feed or to Condo Blues by Email.

Craft Room Remodel Before

I lovingly call my craft room/guest room The Room Where Old Furniture Goes to Die because that's where we shoved everything that didn't have an immediate home after we moved into our condo. For nine years, it looked like this photo from the Pinterest envy busting post I wrote last December. 

You are jealous of this room, aren't you?

Then Miss Lacey joined our family and taught me a new game: The Floor is Lava.

When Lacey is feeling insecure or feels that Husband and I have stared enough at those boxes on our desks, Lacey grabs something I have stored under the guest room bed,  ever so casually carries it into the computer room, and sits near me so I am sure to notice her because in her mind even bad attention is better than no attention at all.

Here's the current post-Lacey guest room/craft room design:

I have no idea why Better Homes and Gardens hasn't called me to feature my beautiful guest room.

6 Quirky and Colorful Retro RV Remodels

Summer season is camping season! Or as we call it around here, Husband-isn't-always-a-happy-camper-so-buying-one-isn't-even-a-question-but-I-want-to-renovate-a-vintage-RV-anyway season.

I like the quirky retro RV remodels because you have to be a new reader to not understand why. Hi new reader!

In all seriousness (bear with me), I like the colorful and a little bit kooky campers because I spent almost every summer of my childhood camping in a brown and beige RV with my family. Although to be fair, with kids, a dog, and trips that included more rain and mud than we would like, I'm sure my mom was OKfine with a color scheme that looked decent no matter how much dirt we tracked in because small children are allergic to wiping their feet on the doormat in front of the trailer door.

6 Quirky Campers

I think I found my happy place. This is it.

And it is a lemonade stand! I'll take one please.

Why I Bought a Condo

Looks like a free standing house, acts like a condo. The best of both worlds!

Husband and I were renters for a long time before we even considered buying a house. We were busy with lot of outside activities and knew that once we bought a house, we'd be married to the extra work and expenses it takes to keep a house running.  Our landlord never raised the rent which was another incentive to stay put.

Cheap rent that allowed us to buy off a bunch of bills and have money leftover for fun things kept us there longer than most of our relatives thought we should. I lost count how many times we were told we needed to buy a house to "be happy." One well meaning person not so subtly showed us house listings no matter what truth (not now) or excuse (We didn't realize we aren't happy. We were pretty happy on the awesome beach vacation we paid for in cash last summer) we gave him. 

Eventually our schedules calmed down. Husband and I decided it was time to go house shopping. Especially since my steady diet of DIY shows and shelter magazines had me itching to paint/remodel/decorate my home  in any way I wanted and without asking the landlord's permission. The idea of living somewhere where we could banish the white walls Husband and I rented forever influenced us to create an accent wall like this:

Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!

Once upon a time, all we had were design magazines. Each month, readers held their breath and hoped their snail mailed questions and comments where answered and printed in the magazine. It was hit and miss, mostly miss. If you saw an appliance you like in a kitchen tour and it was not given promotional consideration in the article, there was no easy way to search for it, let alone find a place that sells it.

The Internet and its design blogs changed all that. We can easily search for and find what we like, and have our questions answered. If you see that beautiful dishwasher you want to own (yep, mine is still broken) on a blog, a quick Internet search finds it and tells you where you can buy it.

And there was much rejoicing!

Although after you buy the appliance from the store, you’re still kind of stuck when it comes to asking the store for help designing and decorating the room around said new appliance.

Until…

Appliances Online 

Recycled Front Porch and Garden Renovation Reveal !

Husband and I worked on this project all spring and summer. It is finished! I am ready to reveal my summer recycled front yard vegetable garden and Power of Paint Porch renovation project!

  Finished!

I didn’t expect this to be our big summer project. Things snowballed after Husband and I made it a priority to plant something in the front yard.   This remodel is an example of Slow Decorating. We did each project bit by bit over a year and several months. It is a cash only project.