Amy's House (You know...like Sarah's House on HGTV? No? Nevermind.)

In March of 2008,  I bought a house.

(Don't mind the lady going into my house...she was my Realtor)

Now, if you know anything about me (or my mother), we can't just buy something and be done with it.  When I buy something, whether it be a picture frame, wall art, or even my house, odds are that I'm going to have to modify it in some way so that it's exactly what I want.  I could probably name off 10 to 15 items in my house that I've actually purchased and not done anything to.  That's not a whole lot!  So anywho, my house was the same way.  I looked at many, many houses and for some reason I kept going back to this one...the one that smelled of animal urine, was covered in dog hair, wallpaper and had so many brass fixtures it looked like royalty lived there.  Oh, but I could see the potential!  I loved the white picket fence first off...thought the screen on the front door was old fashioned and the fireplace mantle...well, just see for yourself.

But I knew it could be so pretty with a lot of work and probably just as much money!  =)  It took three long months of scraping, painting, cleaning and laying floors, after work and on weekends, but with the help of my amazing mom and a few others, it was transformed into my home!  It's truly me and I love just about everything about it.  There are still a few projects to tackle like my barren back yard and my dated kitchen, but it's impossible for me to have a life without projects.

So, my next few posts will be before and afters of each room and some details about what all went into making them look so fab!  I can't wait to share these with everyone and I hope they inspire you to do a few projects of your own.  If not, well, hopefully you like the pictures.  =)  

I will leave you with these words....spray paint is your friend!  

Church Nursery Update

Last year I was asked to freshen up our church nursery.  It still had the same decor from when the new building was built back in 1989.  Not so new anymore.

It was a lot of fun, but also a big challenge to do a gener-neutral nursery theme.  I didn't want to go real girly or too boyish since both would be using the space.  I also wanted to make sure the design and colors were classic enough to still look good in 20 years.  Okay, hopefully it won't be that long before the space is updated again, but even if it isn't, I think it'll still be beautiful. I also wanted a calming, restful space so upset babies (and sometimes moms) could relax.

My mom and I were on a fabric shopping trip and came across the super cute fabric.  It was a perfect neutral with pink, blue and green accents.  This was my jumping off point and it all just fell into place from there! 

My mom made the bumper pads and window treatments from that fabric.  We bought an inexpensive neutral for the dust ruffle and picked out coordinating ribbons that she then sewed into place.  We painted the walls and the church replaced the carpet.  I am very pleased with the results.

Here are some of the pictures of the transformation.

Before Pictures.  This is after we had already taken down the wall paper and border

This is after painting the walls.  We used Light Khaki above the chair rail and Malibu Dune below.  These are Valspar paints from Lowe's Seaside Retreat collection.  I love these colors with the woodwork!

Close up of the ribbon detail on the dust ruffle.

This is what the crib looks like with all the bedding in place.  The cute little brown pillows came from Target.

And the final product

Still looking for the perfect artwork to go above the changing table, but otherwise completed.