Year of Epic Makeovers: The Best of 2011

So many amazing transformations took place in our home in 2011! From simple projects to entire room makeovers, 2011 was a year of FUN & Budget-friendly DIY transformations.

Here are the highlights from our 2011 DIY Adventures in Home Improvement & Decorating!

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The Dining Room & Conversation Area

This Transformation post is from May 2011 - more has since been added {like the painted mirror,  West Elm curtains and the reupholstered bergere chairs - see below too!}.

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The Amazing Chevron Wall

This was an amazing project because I truly realized the power of paint. We had originally wanted to wallpaper the wall, but it was too expensive. My beloved zig-zags added the perfect punch to a dull white box of a room!

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The Kitchen Transformation

For details of this amazing transformation, click here for the full post! We've also recently added under-cabinet lighting - what a HUGE difference that makes too! I'm so thankful for a handy and talented hubby!

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Little A's Room: Modern Nursery Chic

I am IN LOVE with Little A's fun & girly {without being baby-ish!} nursery. If we move, I'm going to have to re-create this room! Here's a link to the original post and a follow up post where I did some Dollar Store DIY art!

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Spray Painted Door Knobs

I love this project because it's SO easy & fast and creates a HIGH IMPACT for little effort! It's spray paint. And it's AWESOME. Click here for the full post/tutorial.

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Modern Moroccan Master Bedroom Updates

It didn't take much beyond paint, light linens & a vision to create this relaxing Master Bedroom Retreat! The furniture, rug & even the West Elm sofette was found through Kijiji - so this room is chic and VERY budget-friendly!

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The Family Room

We turned our 4th bedroom into an upstairs family room! Click here & here for how we did it!

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Simple Chair Transformation

This was a simple DIY project - my 1st attempt @ upholstery. Click here for the full post!

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EZ's Room: Modern Zoom Zoom Zoom!

EZ's room is very kid-friendly, but not too childish. The wall treatment was done by Big A - and he did an AMAZING job! It adds a lot of architectural interest to an otherwise builder's box of a room :)

The DIY Alphabet Wall was done with letters from the dollar store! Click here for the tutorial!

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Bergere Chairs

We're *almost* finished this now-gorgeous chairs, but this was indeed an epic transformation that completed the conversation area in our dining room!

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The Entry Way

Our entry way went from being EMPTY to several changes itself this year. We added a bench & a large rug, framed photos, a new light fixture, drapes, painted the door black, then changed the bench to a console table -- I love to have a flat surface at the front entry!

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Spice Organization

This was an easy little project, but I LOVED it because it made my spices so accessible which comes in handy since I'm cooking more since becoming vegan.

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Bulletin Board Upgrade

Click here for the tutorial!

 Whew! We've had a busy DIY-ing year! I've probably missed a few, but I hope you've enjoyed our Year of Epic Makeovers!

Thank you so much for following along in our DIY adventures & madness! Thank you for the blog love and all your comments mean A LOT to us. 

Linking up to:

Southern Hospitality's Top Projects of 2011

Passionately Perfect's Coffee & a Conversation #19

It's Overflowing's Overflowing with Creativity #2

Space 46's Best of 2011 Made Up & Loved Linky Party

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Bergere Chairs are {almost!} DONE - a Sneak Peek!

So...remember way back in March, I posted about the tedious and arduous task of stripping our Bergere chairs, and I never really followed up on it? 

If you need a reminder, the bergere chairs used to look like this:

I absolutely ADORE the upholstery fabrics - especially the bird one. It was from my Sarah Richardson moment from this post!

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Well, it took *AGES* to finish the stripping of the old upholstery, then spray the chairs glossy white. 

We were able to get the chairs to my friend later in the summer who was able to reupholster them {for the most part}. 

 

We still have to finish the nail heads or get the double piping done to finish the edges, but I could NOT resist posting them.  

Because I am in LOVE with them!

So what do you think? Do you love them? {YES is the only acceptable answer.}

Linking up to:


Beneath My Heart's Best DIY Projects of December

 

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Transformation

UPDATE as of January 2012: 
Thanks to Better After for featuring this Dining Room Makeover on the Top 12 Before & Afters of 2011! AMAZING! Be sure to check out how it looks now {we added curtains, painted the mirror white and reupholstered Bergere chairs too!}. Click here to see our top DIY projects of 2011.

Become a follower {on Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest too!} to see more fun, budget-friendly DIY projects to come!


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A few weeks ago when I did the Dining Room reveal, I mentioned I would post more "before" photos when my iMac was up and running again. I STILL don't have my iMac, but that's another story for another day. 

But here are some Before & After photos of the dining room, and our continuing DIY projects and thrifting finds.

Please excuse some of the grainy iPhone photos - I lost my good camera for most of the winter!

So here is a photo gallery of the Dining Room transformation.

With the addition of the new light fixture & sunburst mirror, and the conversation area, here's how it looks today. 

I still need drapes, more pillows and more styling, and my 2 thrifted Bergere chairs are currently being re-covered.  

But you can really see how just paint & a vision for a room can be so transformative.

Before we bought our home:

This is NOT our stuff - it's a photo taken during a walk through when the previous owners lived here. We don't drink, so we thought this room was hilarious when we saw it.

After we moved in:

How it looked for almost 2 years while we thought about what we wanted:

In an effort to motivate the hubby to finish the dining room, I sold our dining chairs on Kijiji 1 year ago. Our dining room then became the soccer pitch, storage room, and an overall miscellaneous useless space.

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In the meantime, I fell in love with the graphic chevron pattern and in one day went from a blank white wall to fabulosity.


Click here for more on the chevron wall!

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Then, inspired by a Sarah 101 episode on HGTV, I found a cool dining set from Kijiji for $150 {table & 6 chairs}. 


It was in rough shape, but with some vision and elbow grease, it became a showstopper.

The "Before" photos:

The "During" Photos: 

The "After" Photos:

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I hope you enjoyed this transformation. 


What projects have you transformed with the power of paint?

Linking up to:

Not Just a Housewife's Best DIY Project of 2011 Contest

UPDATE: If you are Visiting from:

Tips & Tutorials Tuesday at Home Stories A to Z

{AKA} Designs, 

Organize & Decorate Everything 

or Better After - WELCOME & Stay Awhile :) 

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Dining Room Reveal!

So my faithful blog-loving followers, here is my dining room. "TA DA!", as EZ would say!

Not exactly a finished product yet, but it takes time to curate and design a room that truly reflects us.  I'm happy we've taken the time over the last while to really decide what we truly want in our dining room.

Of course, a HUGE thank you to my wonderful husband who caters to my whims and design dreams. His hard work on the chevron wall is amazing.  He's the best! I'm a lucky Mummy!

Again, this dining room isn't finished. We need an amazing light fixture, art {including the Juju Hat!}, paint the large black mirror, add Moroccan poufs, make more pillows, DIY the mirror to a sunburst mirror, finish the reupholstery of the Bergere chairs, find drapery that fits the space,  and maybe add a rug?

I'm still having IT issues, but I will post more "before" photos in another post to remind you how both the dining room, and dining table and chairs looks before.

Here's how the dining room was arranged shortly after we moved into the house:

Here is the space now...what an improvement!

The table top is painted in Benjamin Moore's Aura Paint in a semi-gloss finish in Benjamin Moore's Chantilly Lace {2121-70}. To me, this is the PERFECT white for this space. The walls are also painted in Chantilly Lace, and both the mirror and Bergere chairs will be painted in Chantilly Lace too!

Here are some close-up shots of the chair.  We painted them with Benjamin Moore's Aura Paint in a semi-gloss finish using Benjamin Moore's Stormy Monday {2112-50}. 

The seat was reupholstered by my friend Field {visit her Etsy shop - Tribally Inspired!} in a white croc vinyl from Fabric Empire in Los Angeles.  It was only $15 a yard and all in all, including 3 yards, shipping and duty came to $75CAD.  I saw the same fabric here, but it was $50 a yard! Thank goodness for internet shopping!

The GREAT thing about this material, in addition to being White Hot Sassy, is that the vinyl makes clean up real easy - especially with my two kids roaming the house!

My dining room isn't just for dining. I also added a conversation area. Here it is, in its current state.  I need more pillows and the Bergere chairs will replace the Louis Ghost Chairs that I scored from Homesav.com. The Louis chairs will move back to their home, flanking the mirrored sideboard on the chevron wall.  Until then, they are rocking it in the conversation area!  You can also see I moved the arc lamp down from the 2nd floor family room.  It looks amazing in this space, adding a modern element to this room.

It took me 2 years, but I found the perfect settee! I originally bought a second hand settee but I was never in love with it, and it was going to cost us over $1000 to recover. Then I thought about doing a Barcelona two seater or 2 Barcelona chairs, but they were too expensive. I scored this amazing gray microfiber two-seater from Kijiji for just $400! I adore the tufted buttons, the wing details and, as a Mummy, I love the easy-care of the microfiber fabric. It was a TOTAL SCORE!

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