Our First Home

It's a little bittersweet to say we have SOLD our first home.

I bought this home as a young 23 year old and never expected that 5 years later this would be the home that welcomed us home after an engagement, marriage, and our first child. This home was an effort of love and devotion that taught Willie and I so much about each other and I will always cherish the special moments we had living there. This home really craved the foundation of our marriage of building a beautiful home and family together and I hope it brings as much joy to the next family.

I'm so excited to start our next chapter and can't wait to share some fabulous before and after photos from our new house, but for now, here are some of my favorite before/after shots of our amazing first home. Each picture I've made little comments of what we did to transform the space.

Entry:

paint, light fixture, banister stain, flooring

Kitchen:

wallpaper removal, paint, crown molding, light fixture, flooring,

appliances, grantie, stone backsplash

Kitchen/Breakfast Nook:

wallpaper removal, paint, crown molding, light fixture, flooring,

appliances, granite, stone backsplash

Dining Room:

paint, light fixture, flooring,

Dining Room (other view):

this is my beautiful chalk painted dining table

Guest Bath:

paint, light fixture, mirror, storage shelf, granite, new faucet, new vanity hardware

Main Floor Bath:

wallpaper removal, paint, crown molding, light fixture, mirror, granite,

new faucet, new vanity hardware, painted vanity, industrial pipe accents

Master Bathroom: 

paint, mirrors, granite, new faucet, new vanity hardware, painted vanity

Basement:

paint, recessed lighting, new carpet, theather equipment

Simple Rustic Shelving

Hartley's bathroom was my first project at the new house and it turned out fabulous! I just finished a few days ago and can't wait to share the before and after photos.  But for now, how amazing did these simple (and cheap) rustic shelves  turn out? They were the perfect accent to complete my little girls fun boho/beach inspired bathroom.

I jokingly refer to these shelves as my vacation brain shelves. Originally when I started designing this bathroom I wanted to just buy a white storage cabinet and get it hung. But when our beach crew hit up the local TJ Maxx in our beloved Outer Banks over 4th of July and found these adorable quote pieces and the cutest elephant, I knew I had to display them somehow. So I was on a mission, and to my luck, I found the perfect brackets at a local store called Class and Trash (special thanks to my crew for running back to get them for me when I finally made an executive decision haha). This store had the most stunning pieces. I literally could have bought EVERYTHING! So thanks OBX for some wonderful inspiration!


To start out I bought a 1"x8"x8' piece of whitewood lumber. For each shelf I decided on a length of 22", which I measured and cut accordingly. I sanded all the edges to clear any roughness from cutting. Then, I used a staining rag to apply minwax's espresso color stain. This went on super easy and I only did one liberal coat getting all the grooves well covered. Once applied, I did one last dry rag wipe down to remove excess and dried overnight. Motherhood lesson/ husband I told you so moment- clean up anything and everything...my little toddler thought finding my stain can and shaking and throwing it against our deck and her leg was so much fun!

Once dried, I attached the brackets. I measured them 4" in from the end of the wood and attached them with small screws.

Then for the placement on the wall. We couldn't decide center of the wall or center of toilet (both looked a little odd in the scheme of everything) so we compromised and put it just where we thought it looked good and just directly screwed in the brackets with the level on top...and hey it worked out!

Aren't they the greatest? I love them so much and you can easy change the display over the years and add baskets, mason jars, etc.


The total cost for the shelves was about $30. $5 stain + $11 lumber (I have leftovers) + $17 for the 4 brackets. I had the screws from the hubby's tool shed so we were all good!