Our Florida room transformation

Here are some before and afters of my favorite room in the house as it stands.  We tackled this room not long after we moved in, but just recently added new flooring to give it a completely finished look.

Here are the befores of this room:

The bricks on the back of the fire place were painted "brick red" and the mortar was painted white.  Just a bad combination of ugly.

The room is small and narrow so the red bricks were super overwhelming!

The first thing we did was prime over the painted brick on the fireplace.  The primer took several coats.

We then painted it with several coats of white eggshell paint, along with the rest of the room.  And unfortunately didn't take any pics as we were painting.  Here are some afters before the new flooring went down.

We lived with it like this for about 2 years then we redid the flooring.

And here are some of the final photos:

The pendant light is from Pier 1.  I got it around 2 years ago, but it is one of the pieces that I feel makes the room.

I got the adirondack chairs from Craigs List, the day bed at a yard sale, the accessories at Home Goods or TJ Maxx, and the bamboo blinds at Big Lots.  I also have some local pottery that I got at the St Pete farmers market.  I love putting handmade items by local artists in our home b/c it makes things much more personalized.

Hope you enjoyed the pics!  I love spending the afternoon curled up on the day bed with a good book!  The room is always bright and sunny and I think that's why it is my favorite room in the house. 

Which brings me to my final question.  What's your favorite room in your home and why?  If you could make over any room in your home what would you do? 

Brief History of Matt and Britt!

Hi All,

Forgive my manners, I started this blog and have been posting half-hazardly without taking the time to introduce myself.  As a girl from the South I should have known better.  My only explanation is that I figured that anyone reading this blog already knows us.  But as I was writing the about me section I realized that if anyone stumbled across our blog they would have no idea who we are or what we're about.

So here goes.

My name is Brittany and I have been married to my wonderful husband Matt for 4 years now.  We have a small dog named Bobbie Sue who I received as a college graduation gift.  I am originally from Virginia, born and raised in a small town called Abingdon.  I met Matt in college at Radford University and we lived in Radford, VA throughout college and during the beginning months of our marriage.  Matt's job as a Music Therapist led us to move to sunny St Petersburg, FL which we absolutely love! We bought our first house around 3 years ago and have been working on it ever since.


This blog will mostly be about our DIY excursions but something you should know about us is that the most important things in our life is God, our marriage, and our family and friends!  Our work on our house can never come before those things.  I will admit sometimes I am overly zealous about design ideas and find myself having to refocus on what is most important.   But first and foremost we love God and want our lives to be for Him and following the example of Jesus.  I admit that I fail in this example more times than I succeed but deep down this is my true goal and ambition in life.

Our House:

It's a 1920's craftsman bungalow fixer-upper and we have been hard at work doing just that.  Although nothing is exactly as we want it now, it is getting there. This blog is going to be our share all of DIY bliss: the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Oh, and did I mention that we both have full time jobs with a local non-profit?  Yeah, so time and money are not on our side either.  That being said we do not ever spend money we do not have and you will come to realize if you know me or read this blog regularly that I am THE #1 cheapo.  I do not pay full price for anything.  Craigs list and thrift stores are my best friends and when I shop I go straight to the clearance section first! 


Anywho,  I will leave you with some pics of us and our life here in St Pete.  Please feel free to introduce yourself.  I am always happy to meet other bloggers/web-surfers with similar interests! 

The reason we love St Pete!

Our dog Bobbie Sue

Matt, me, and my sis-in-law Sarah (who lived with us for the summer)

me and sis Sarah

Rug Inspired Mood Board

Rug Inspired Mood Board by brittru84 on Polyvore.com

I went on-line this morning to a blog by Emily Henderson (last season's design star winner.)  She is giving away this rug from West Elm.   And the rug inspired me to create a mood board that centered around it!  So here it is!  I am absolutely in LOVE with this room, I couldn't decide on which mirror to place above the dresser but decided that I could use BOTH mirrors in the moodboard (and thus also a room).  Hope you like it!

I'm not absolutely in love with these curtains b/c I think they are a little bland (and too matchy).  But I was unable to find something that I have in my head.  If I were really going to do this for a room I would probably go to some fabric stores and find just the right material for the perfect curtains.  

WOO to the HOO! Thrift store finds

I just got back from my favorite thrift store this evening and boy did I get myself into trouble.  In a good way of course.  I cannot go to this particular thrift store without leaving with something, and I'm so glad that I went tonight!  Let me paint a picture for you in the most dramatic way possible.  Here goes.

I walk into the thrift store, hope filled, and itching for a good deal.  My eyes scan racks of clothing, cases of jewelry, and oh so importantly the sale dry erase board.  The dry erase board reads "25% off all furniture."  My heart starts racing!  What can I find for 25% off of an already cheapy cheap thrift store price?(I think to myself).  And then, that is when it happens.  A beautiful bamboo style table and chair set catches my eye.  Nevermind the ugly brown color; shape and form is what I'm after! Nothing that a can (or a couple) of spray paint can't fix.  I run over to look for the bright red tag, it reads $39.96 and I do a 25% calculation in my head and exclaim  "It's only $30".  I run to the sales clerk to ask them to place a Hold tag on it until I finish my shopping trip (you never can be too careful).  I paid for it, and did a little happy dance!  REJOICING that this wonderful piece of furniture is mine!

okay, okay, I'm done.  I warned you that it would be dramatic.

Sadly the table and chairs did not get to come home with me tonight b/c I didn't have the truck with me.  I will go pick it up tomorrow but once I got home I went onto my favorite web-site Pinterest to see if I could get any inspiration on a color that I should paint the set.  And found the exact same set (minus the ugly brown color).

drum roll please:
HERE IT IS!!

from Pinterest via danshamptons.com

I will be using it in the backyard as a patio table and chair set.  I'm teetering between painting it oil rubbed bronze and bringing in some punchy outdoor pillows; a bright color (teal, yellow, green) to make it fun and energetic; or something super romantic and sophisticated like silver or gold.  We'll see where we end up.  It's way too hot in FL this time of year to sit out back and enjoy them anyway.  I'll post the makeover once its finished!

So have you all found any good thrift store finds lately?  What color do you think I should spray paint the table and chairs?  

I'll leave you with some beautiful inspiring rooms with bamboo chairs a la Pinterest:

 


 

Lilac, plum, and gray. !Ole'! (oh-lay)

Lilac, plum, and gray. !Ole'! (oy-lay) by brittru84 on Polyvore.com

This is a very quick unedited mood board option that I created for my sister Sarah.  The idea is to have a light gray sofa with upholstered wing back chairs in the duralee Plum, lilac, and taupe-ish fabric.  I went ahead and set it up for a bedroom setting as well with the tree bed from anthropologie and amethyst pintuck comforter from west elm.   I would also put at least one wing back chair in with the bedroom design.  Hope you like it!:)

The Pinterest Challenge

Whew...okay..so here goes.

I just completed my Pinterest Challenge project at 10:30pm (still meeting the Tuesday deadline) and am here to tell the tale.  

A few weeks back I went to a local thrift store here in St Petersburg, FL.  I found 2 end tables that I thought might have potential and brought them home with me for $5 a piece (after a $10 coupon).  That's right I got not one but two end tables for $10.

Anyway, I started out with some inspiration Greek Key dresser style pieces and thought this would be the perfect design for my end tables.  Here are my inspiration pieces:

From Decor Pad

http://timmythewienerdog.blogspot.com/2011/03/ikea-and-greek-key-have-baby.html

a la:  Christina Murphy

Anyway,  here's a pic of what I started out with..(i.e. the ugly $5 thrift store table).  

 

And this is the amazing transformation: 

 

I styled this for a picture very quickly and yes..I am aware that the bowl next to the origami horse bank looks like a watering trough.  I'll do better next time.  I'm just happy to have at least one of the two end tables behind me.  So whattaya think?  Do you love it as much as I do?

And here's a quick budget breakdown.

   -two end tables -  $10

   -quart of white high gloss paint - $12

   -sand paper - $0 (already owned)

  - paint rollers and brushes - $0 (already owned)

   - 4-2" moldings (which were cut down to 1") - $6

    GRAND TOTAL:  $28
for 2 completely transformed end tables!

Special thanks to  Katie, Emily, Lana, and Sherri for creating the "Pinterest Challenge" and lighting the fire under my backside to get me to do something with the 'inspiration' that is Pinterest.  Check out their amazing blogs to see what they created!