Brass Lamp Revival & A Painted Rug - Sponsor Features

For the month of April, I'm going to tackle highlighting my sponsor swaps a little bit differently than I did before. Instead of just posting a blurb and a picture, I'm going to show you why you should go and click on over to these fantastic blogs. I have the pleasure of swapping with ten bloggers this month, and I'll be splitting it up into five different posts. You'll be able to find all ten buttons in the sidebar for the entire month. Read on!

Lamp & Shade Redo

Lori from Bleak2Unique gave a pair of dated brass lamps a breath of new life a snappy coat of blue paint. Click on the picture below to see the full how-to!

Lori is a southern girl who loves to find trashy treasures and make them uniquely new. Crafting, DIY projects and family is what she does, and she loves to share her ideas, listen to your ideas, and together find the simple joy of "home". Chat with Lori in your favourite way.

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Painted Ikea Rug

Brandi from His Shabby, Her Chic transformed a plain Jane Ikea rug into a stripey masterpiece with the help of a little paint. Click on the picture below to check out her method.

Brandi blogs at His Shabby, Her Chic. She moved into man's bachelor pad 2 years ago and they’ve been making progress towards making his house their home.  She enjoys all things crafty, décor, and of course loves her dogs, Bot & Izzie, beyond all reason. Join her on her journey of turning this boring old house into a home.

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Mantels & String - Sponsor Features

For the month of April, I'm going to tackle highlighting my sponsor swaps a little bit differently than I did before. Instead of just posting a blurb and a picture, I'm going to show you why you should go and click on over to these fantastic blogs. I have the pleasure of swapping with ten bloggers this month, and I'll be splitting it up into five different posts. You'll be able to find all ten buttons in the sidebar for the entire month. Read on!

Fireplace Mantel

Louise from Laid Off Mom created and styled a fireplace mantel that is truly unique and fits into their space perfectly. Click on the picture below to learn more and poke through Laid Off Mom!

Louise started Laid Off Mom in November 2011, a few months after being laid off from her job as an apparel designer.  After crying her eyes out and second guessing her talents, she looked around herself, at her life and loved ones, and realized that maybe her lay off was a blessing.  Instead of seeing her layoff as a misfortune, she saw it as a chance to give her children a solid upbringing, and give her girls their mother back. Make friends with Louise!

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California Love String Art

Erika from Our Cozy Cubbyhole made this neato bandito piece of string art - I've been seeing more and more of this lately and I'm kind of crazy about it. Click on the picture below to see how she did it!

Erika blogs at Our Cozy Cubbyhole. Follow her nesting adventures full of DIY projects, crafts, life, and love in her apartment in Los Angeles. She shares a great one-bedroom apartment with her boyfriend, Walker, and their dog, Bo. She loves living simply and enjoying the little things.  Find Erika on the web!

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Giant Stencils & Layering Patterns - Sponsor Features

For the month of April, I'm going to tackle highlighting my sponsor swaps a little bit differently than I did before. Instead of just posting a blurb and a picture, I'm going to show you why you should go and click on over to these fantastic blogs. I have the pleasure of swapping with ten bloggers this month, and I'll be splitting it up into five different posts. You'll be able to find all ten buttons in the sidebar for the entire month. Read on!

Damask Armoire Redo

Kate from Discover. Create. Live. put her own spin on a Pinterest-inspired piece of furniture that makes a huge impact in a room. Click on the picture below for a detailed tutorial to learn how to make your own.

Kate blogs over at Discover. Create. Live. She is happily married to her high school sweetheart Wes, and they have a beautiful little girl named Hayden. She loves to blog about their family, gluten free cooking, and lots of different projects they tackle to help beautify their home. In addition, she likes to post different printable "graphics" each week as well as the things that inspire her. Connect with Kate!
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Layering Love: The Beauty of Patterns

Marie of All Things Luxurious has a great post all about layering patterns, and it made me think of one of my favourite designers, Sarah Richardson. She's notorious for it! Click on the picture below to get some great insight into this frequent designer dilemma.

Maria blogs at All Things Luxurious -- a place where she explores the wonderful world of interior styling and design for the modern decorator.  She's new to the blog world and would love some more company in her cozy corner of the Internet.  Pull up a chair, settle in with a hot mug of coffee, and go check her out!

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DIY Pendant Lights & A Gorgeous Living Room - Sponsor Features

For the month of April, I'm going to tackle highlighting my sponsor swaps a little bit differently than I did before. Instead of just posting a blurb and a picture, I'm going to show you why you should go and click on over to these fantastic blogs. I have the pleasure of swapping with ten bloggers this month, and I'll be splitting it up into five different posts. You'll be able to find all ten buttons in the sidebar for the entire month. Read on!

Glass Insulator Pendant Lights

Amy from Buffalo Roam created brilliant (pun!) custom pendant lights with her man for their kitchen. Click the picture below to see how they turned old glass insulators into something more than just pretty.

Amy got the name of her blog, Buffalo Roam, from the song "Home on the Range" - she's a Kansas girl! . Her and her husband have both owned and sold several houses, but once they settled down and decided to start a family, they began to dream of their forever home. She started her blog to document building her rustic dream, and she mixes it up with a little DIY, recipes, and even mommy posts.You can catch up with Amy and her goings-ons all over the web.
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Beautiful Bungalow Living Room

Shannon from Bungalow960 lives in a lovely American bungalow that was built in 1924. The floors in this room (and throughout the whole house) are to die for. Click on the picture below to visit Bungalow 960 and see more.

Shannon started Bungalow960 as a place to document the renovations and improvements of the 1924 American Bungalow that she shares with her boyfriend and two cats, but it's morphed into a place where she shares snippets of her life. Shannon has always got something to say, and it's always entertaining. Visit Shannon all over the world wide web. Blog|Facebook|Twitter|Pinterest

Laundry Love

Hallelujah!

We have laundry privileges again and it was well over due. I totally lost count of how many loads I did over the weekend. All I know is that I just kept loading and folding, loading and folding, until I was completely caught up.

How about a quick trip down memory lane?

The old dryer was right in the road on the way into the bathroom...

...and it was vented out the window.

The washing machine wasn't in that bad of a location, but it was completely not level, and the drain was connected to a big piece of ABS pipe that came out the side of the vanity.

Anything we did would have been a huge improvement.

Ready to see our laundry room closet "reveal"?

It is literally impossible to get a good picture of them together.

See the bins up on top?

Storage! We didn't have a home for light bulbs before, and batteries lived in the junk drawer. Extra toilet paper and paper towels were always haphazardly thrown to the side of the stairs to the basement. These bins made a previous appearance here, but they were too big for that space.

Now...in retrospect, we absolutely should have made this space wider. Mike and his dad ended up having to recess the plugs into the wall in order for these guys to fit, and apparently hooking them up was a bit of a nightmare. Whoops. If you're DIYing a similar space...learn from our mistake and give yourself far more room than what is recommended as the minimum in the installation guide for the machines!

Moving on...remember this tin from the end of this post?

Well it's not just pretty - it also has a purpose.

I've tucked my dryer sheets inside - I think it looks way more appealing than the cardboard box that they come in. I want to come up with something for the laundry soap, too.

Back in this post, I had a certain vision for a particular wall. Well, I don't have the space that I thought I would.

The window casing that will go back on once the window has been replaced is 5" wide. I think it will look far too cluttered to put anything at all in this spot. Bummer.

Anyway, we're moving along. Lots left to do, but we're getting there.

Happy Monday!