Tag: before & after

This Week’s Challenge: Clean out your dresser

Friday, in a flurry of productivity, I undertook a task that is sometimes intimidating, but I am so glad I tackled it.

I took everything out of my side of the dresser (three drawers), dumped it on the bed, and put everything back in neatly.  I did this because I’d gotten really lazy putting away clean clothes (isn’t that the worst part of laundry?) and my pajamas had slowly taken up major chunks of all three drawers! How do I have so many pajamas? Can’t bring myself to throw away all of my old college/high school event shirts, I guess…

The pictures are a little small but you can tell that stuff was basically going every which way. In the top drawer is a gallon-sized Ziploc trying to hold all my my tights/pantyhose and failing. Pajamas in all three drawers. Basically a nightmare.

After, socks and underwear corralled into their respective shoeboxes (top drawer), and pajamas and camisoles neatly folded and tucked into rows. This is my favorite way to store shirts in a drawer because I can easily see them all and pull out the one I want without disturbing the rest (stacks, unfortunately, are the worst). The middle drawer houses cardigans and other sweaters. I read somewhere that you should never hang up sweaters because it’ll get deformed shoulders from hanging up for a long period of time. Here I am, making an effort. Lastly, the bottom drawer–the pants drawer–is the new home for rolled-up tights and pantyhose, in a handy amazon.com box. I figure those items fall into the “leg” category (with pants) and the bottom drawer had the most available real estate.

There you have it! My incredibly riveting before and after.

My challenge to you is to do this sometime this week! It was a pretty quick fix… that is, it was about an hour from “Before” to “After.”

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Rolling Out the Red Carpet

…Or, at least the zebra carpet.

The guest room is finally ready for humans to inhabit!
(As opposed to piles of junk from when we first moved in).

This also means I can cross two things off my list!

  • Clean off the guest bed so it’s sleep-able
  • Generally make guest room ready for guests

I swapped the comforter from our bedroom onto the guest bed. I really, really like it in here. The comforter that was on the guest bed, even though it’s twin sized, seems bigger on the queen–possibly due to the addition of an extra blanket. I also think since it’s heavier it moves around less and there’s less fighting for it. It really is much cozier. Plus, the extra length on the twin bed in here hides our under-bed storage! It’s a win-win.

Here is the view of the room as you turn right. I plan on putting chicken wire in that frame at some point so I can collect magazine clippings and such on it.

And the door. On top of the dresser is a mirror I hope my dad volunteers helping us put up… here’s crossing my fingers! Also, you can sneak a peek of what we’re working on in the hallway!

Just for fun, here is the room while we were moving! You can see the sad, bent, directly-on-the-window curtain rod.

End of Day 1: Guest Room/Office

Full disclosure: I am not going tomake both parents sleep on the twin. I now have a borrowed mattress on the floor but wanted to take photos while the room was still pretty!

Let There be White, Part 2

Okay. The other two rooms took longer and took more paint, but this is the real dramatic improvement. The hallway.

What once was a two-toned, navy blue tunnel of sadness…

has turned into a white tunnel of not-quite-as-sad-ness. The ridiculous plaster effect cannot be dealt with, but at least with white on the walls it isn’t bad. In fact, my MIL says it looks like cake frosting–which is true, and actually makes me want to relive the success of my chocolate cake endeavor.

Here are some progress shots:

Yes, covering the blue was UH-HAWFUL!

So, several coats around the edging, two rolled-on coats of paint (with a high-nap roller to get into all that texture) and a bazillion hours of brush work (my fancy term for poking the end of the brush into all the little holes and crevices) the hallway officially resembles cream-cheese frosting.

Breaking up the grey tones of the two bedrooms with the white hallway actually makes them look lighter and less intense, making my decision not to paint those rooms much easier. With lots of white and light-colored accents the darker rooms will still fit into the cohesive “look” I’m hoping to incorporate throughout the house.

Has anyone else painted an extremely textured wall? Commiserate with me in the comment section.