As I planned ahead for the arrival of baby Simon, I thought it might be fun to resurrect some of MY favorite posts from the past 3.5 years of blogging. I’ll be publishing this 10-post series during the 4 weeks after his birth (read all the posts here).
I hope you enjoy reading (or re-reading) these posts as much as I’ll be enjoying the extra snuggles, books, smiles, and naps with Nora and Simon!
Renovating an old farmhouse has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. Thankfully, Dave was pretty-much “on board” with my crazy dream, and we were fortunate enough to purchase our dream house just over 3 years ago (only months after starting my blog).
Since then, we’ve been gutting and renovating every square inch and are well over half way. So today, I’m sharing some of those favorite (and pretty remarkable) renovation stories with you!
Here are my Top 10 Favorite Farmhouse posts — in no particular order.
1. Our Kitchen Renovation:
The massive 5-month-long kitchen renovation is definitely the biggest, most dramatic, and most expensive renovation project we’ve tackled in our house. However, considering how much we use our kitchen and how much we’re enjoying the new beautiful kitchen area, it was totally worth every day and every dollar spent!
You can see the final kitchen reveal here or track ALL the progress here.
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2. The Kiddo’s Bedrooms: {links below}
Our kid’s nurseries and bedrooms have definitely been some of my favorite renovation and decorating projects in our home so far. Not only are they relatively inexpensive to pull off, they are SO fun to decorate!
- Nora’s Nursery Makeover
- Simon’s Nursery Makeover
- Nora’s Big Girl Bedroom
- Nora’s New Bedroom Upstairs
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3. Our House Featured in HGTV Magazine:
It was super exciting to have our home featured in HGTV Magazine last spring — definitely one of those “cross off my bucket list” experiences!
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4. The Garage:
I’ve always ALWAYS had a thing for nice, neat, organized garages with fabulous organizational systems and that awesome painted floor coating.
So last summer, when the MonkeyBars company contacted me to see if they could GIVE us a complete garage makeover, I was beyond thrilled!
The results were more fabulous then I could have ever imagined and we now have our “dream garage” if there is such a thing 🙂
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5. Our Long Summer of Landscaping Work:
We did SOOOO much work on our yard this past summer — and we still have a bit more to do this coming summer — but we’re simply thrilled with the results. I can’t tell you just how excited I am to see everything pop up again this spring!
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6. Our Master Bathroom:
Aside from the kitchen, our master bathroom is definitely the next most dramatic “before and after” transformation.
Not only did we completely gut the entire space down to the studs, we got all new plumbing, all new electrical, and knocked out a wall to create a nice walk-in shower!
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7. We’re Moving… To Our Dream House:
The story of how we found our dream house, purchased our dream house, and sold our old house (in 3 days) still gives me chills. I simply can’t believe we found such a perfect house for us, in a perfect location, AND for the right price!
And since we moved the week before Christmas, I also have to share the fun parody post I wrote based on the ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ poem!
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8. Our Playroom:
We initially created a fun play space for Nora under our stairs (seriously, it was so cute!) However, once we realized we would need more room for baby #2, we set off to renovate part of the upstairs — which included a nice new playroom that we are absolutely LOVING!
And of course, my favorite part of the play room is the DIY Play Kitchen we made for Nora!
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9. Let’s Talk Slipcovers:
I’m absolutely in love with slip-covered furniture, so it’s no surprise that almost every piece of furniture in our house is slip-covered.
If you’ve ever considered slip-covered furniture, making your own slipcover, or have any other questions about slipcovers — you’ll want to read this post!
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10. Our Reclaimed Barnwood Floors:
Our reclaimed barnwood floors are one of my all-time favorite features of our house — and one of the things we get THE MOST comments and compliments on when visitors see our house for the first time.
I love all the imperfections, I love all the character, and I love that you can’t even tell if we add a few (or a bunch) of our own scratches, scuffs, dings, etc. !
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So that’s my list…
Which farmhouse posts are your favorites?
Debbie says
I’m curious to know why you like the Corian for your bathroom counter as opposed to granite or quartz, other than the price of course. I thought granite is pretty easy to maintain, and quartz even easier since sealing is not necessary. We have quartz in our kitchen counters and thinking of changing our laminate bathroom counters in the future.
Heart and Haven says
Another post I enjoyed was your post on distressing furniture.
I’m considering buying this IKEA nightstand to refinish: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50219609/ (I’ve been keeping an eye out on Craigslist, etc., but haven’t found anything yet with the correct dimensions I need). I’m thinking of either doing wood stained top, with white/distressed on bottom (similar to the nightstand you have in the nursery), or black milk paint on top w/lighter rustic pine briwax on bottom. I already have products on hand for either finish, but I have to get the rest of the boys’ room put together to see which color scheme for the nighstand will work best. I’m going for an “Americana style” w/dark red & navy blue colors. I’m using this quilt for their beds: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/perry-stripe-quilt/3167098/ (I already had one from when my oldest was still living at home)
Andrea says
I love all your ideas — and I’m a HUGE fan of the “America Style”!! We have lots of red, white, and navy in our house too! For the night stand, I’d say go with the stained top first. You can always paint over it if you dont’ like it — but it would be much harder to remove the paint and stain later — just my thought 🙂
Debby says
Andrea,
I have commented on several post over the last year. I always shared that I am renovating my kitchen this winter. I have looked at the pics of your kitchen dozens of times. Ok so here’s where I am going with this. I have literally been struggling with what countertop to put on my island. I too will have white cabinets (black granite) and a distressed black island. I didn’t particularly want white or gray granite and keep coming back to butcher block. Then when I looked at your pics again today, I realized that is what you have!!! Is it hard to take care of? What do you do to maintain it? Is this where you do most of your prep for cooking? I hope you have time to answer these questions, since I know your days are long and sleep is short right now.
Andrea says
Hey Debby! yay for a kitchen renovation — they are a ton of work, but SO worth it in the end!
As for the butcher block, it will honestly depend on what type of wood you get, what type of grain you get, and where you get it from as to how you will care for it. Wherever you get it from SHOULD definitely provide you with the products and instructions to care for it — if not, I’d personally look for another company to buy my butcher block from.
We got our butcher block from a local Grand Rapids MI company and they gave us some Bee’s Wax and some oil to rub on it every few months to keep it from getting too dry. Other than that, there’s really no maintenance — just wash with warm soapy water after you’re finished working on it.
Also, just because I’m a little grossed out by raw meat, I rarely ever prepare/cut raw meat on the butcher block… just in case!
Hope this helps!
Debby says
Thanks Andrea! It does help. I too am grossed out by raw meat and always prepare or cut it on a platter that i rinse and throw into the dishwasher. I am glad that you love it. I am thinking that is the direction we will go. Thanks for answering me so quickly.
Erin says
YES!!! You must’ve done this just for me! I love love love farmhouse posts! Keeping mom company at her chemo today so we will be catching up on our farmhouse love! 🙂
Hope you guys are settling in well!
Andrea says
Thanks Erin — all is going pretty well over here. Glad my farmhouse posts could keep you company today!