A Little Bling Never Hurt Anything

We've been making tiny bits of progress in our master bedroom makeover. Tiny being the keyword. The last update I shared with you included our new dresser and nightstands from the Hemnes line at Ikea.

We're still liking the furniture, the nightstands in particular but I decided I wanted to spiff them up a little bit. Adding new hardware seemed like an easy and reversible change so I set out to find some new drawer knobs. The knobs I ended up purchasing are from Hobby Lobby and they're sporting a little sparkle!

The price tag was just right - $3 each! Even paying $6 each wouldn't break the bank but it's so awesome that Hobby Lobby always has their hardware 50% off! The installation was quick and easy, it literally took about five minutes to install all four of the new knobs. And BAM! Sparkle!

I'm loving the extra little something that the new knobs brings to the room. It's nice to personalize the plain ol' Ikea furniture and make it our own a little bit. (Sorry for the cords in the pictures, but that's real life!) A quick before and after comparison:

Cute huh? Hope you like the little update! We've been getting little upgrades done around the house while we're in the process of pricing out some larger projects to complete over the next few months. Stay tuned! :)

Overhead Lighting Upgrade

A couple years ago I updated the light above our kitchen sink to have a pendant light, rather than the recessed light that had been there since we moved in. We've been digging the nice glow from the pendant light every since then.

But yesterday we made a trip to Lowe's for something completely unrelated to light fixtures but I happened to come across this little guy.

What's sort of funny about it, is that on the shelf at Lowe's it was right next to our existing pendant shade which made it all that much easier for me to decide to take home the new shade. I realized that our current cover had a lot of gold/yellow tones to it and I didn't really care for that. And I really loved the nice texture that this other pendant cover had. So for just for $20 I brought it home.

The installation was super easy but did take both hands so I don't have any pictures. It was just remove light bulb, unscrew old pendant, screw on new pendant, and replace the light bulb. Lots of lefty-loosey, righty-tighty. Here's the new cover shining bright:

And a quick before and after:

I'm loving the new cover!! Usually I have something that still irks me when I switch things out but this time I just love it, and feel like it's such an improvement over the last cover. It's so nice when you can be happy with a quick and easy update! Let me know what you think in the comments below!

A Little Bit of Whimsy

I wanted to show you a quick little change I recently made to our kitchen towels; just to add a little whimsical touch to them. I decided to add some pom-pom trim to the kitchen towels we already had so this was a cheap project too! The spool of trim was $3.99 at JoAnn's, and I'm sure it was either on sale or I used a coupon.

The first step was to wash all the kitchen towels so they were ready for their makeover. After that I ironed both the towels so the edges were nice and smooth.

Next it was time to get the sewing machine out. My sewing machine and I have a love/hate relationship. When I manage to get that sucker to do what I want, I love it. Otherwise, we're not friends. I also noticed after taking a sewing class with fancy sewing machine that it really does make a difference. Anyway, off topic. I pinned the pom-poms in place along the edge of my towel and was ready to go.

You'll notice that my pins were going in both directions and that's because neither way was working all that well. I started sewing hoping it would somehow work and it did. With no pins at all. The easiest way to sew the trim on was to just go slow and guide it along the edge of the towel. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the sewing but you get the idea; line the two pieces up and sew. :) My lines aren't perfectly straight, but you can't tell one bit. That's my kind of sewing! 

Here's the towel hanging on the oven. I love it!

That's the quick little update I made in the kitchen. It's not a big change but it makes me happy when I see the little pom-poms there. I was thinking that you could easily make these for a housewarming gift for a friend or family member...cheap, cute, and easy! Do you like the new trim? Anyone else been adding trim to their textiles? I feel like I've been seeing pom-poms all over Instagram! 

P.S. Just a quick note about the amount of trim needed - one spool from JoAnn's was enough for one towel, edging both sides. 

The Slowest Makeover of All Time

I know it's been forever and a day since I even mentioned any progress on our master bedroom makeover but there has been a little. I think we left off last summer (eek!) when I shared our updated bedding and I figured it was about time to show you the updated paint job as well as the furniture update.

First things first, the paint. I took forever and a day to pick out a paint color. I wanted it to be a neutral color (I'm not brave enough for bold colored walls) but yet a little different than the other colors in our house. I finally settled on a Sherwin Williams color called Versatile Gray. I feel like that is the perfect description of the color. It's warm and cool at the same time and doesn't seem to have any glaring blue or green undertones that are so common with grey paint colors.

Next update is regarding the dresser and nightstand situation (pretend you didn't see the nightstands in the pictures above). Our original plan after getting the new bed was to find some different coordinating pieces to finish out the room. This plan didn't last very long. We tried looking around at local furniture stores and looking for pieces on craigslist but we just weren't able to find anything to suit our needs. When it came down to it we liked the Hemnes six-drawer dresser the best out of anything we'd seen so in July when Ikea had a sale on Hemnes furniture we picked it up.

We ended up getting the matching nightstands too. I had thought about getting the white shade for the nightstands but Loren wasn't into it and I think getting the same dark brown/black color was the right choice.

That's the long overdue update with our bedroom. So far we've been liking the furniture, I especially like the nightstands. I was previously using a hand-me-down end table so I love having drawers! The new year has given me a little giddy-up to get busy on finishing up the bedroom so I'll be back with more updates soon! 

My Date with John & Sherry

I recently had the good fortune to meet John and Sherry Petersik; the super cute, uber-famous bloggers behind everyone's favorite blog Young House Love. And, I should be clear that when I say "my date" I mean me and hundreds of other YHL lovers at the Tacoma Home and Garden Show.

I went to the show with my sweet friend Blaire. It was so fun to go with someone who was just as excited about everything as I was. For some silly reason, I failed to get a picture of the two of us together but we had lots of fun. I am going to be honest, and say that I didn't really look around the actual home and garden part of the show. It seemed like there was a lot of great vendors but most of them were offering home improvement services that I just wasn't in the market for. I did pick-up this cute little sign though.

Embarrassing as it is to say, the lady actual got me to sing for the sign. You might recognize that words as being the lyrics to a song from the musical Guys & Dolls. My high school choir performed a medley of Guys and Dolls songs and this one has always stuck with me. I sing it Loren from time to time so I just had to have it. Anyway, the creator of the sign couldn't remember how the song went and told me if I sang it to her she'd sell me the sign for two dollars less. So, I did it. I'm a cheapie and saved 2-bucks. I'm still a little surprised at myself to be honest.

Anyway, on to the main event. John and Sherry (yes, I've decided we're on a first name basis) gave a cool talk on 7 tips to share about DIY. I'm not going to lie, it crossed my mind that they chose 7 because it's their favorite number but the fact that I know that is probably a little weird. My favorite topic they covered was basically to just get busy doing something. If you don't like something about your space already, then what's it really going to matter if you try a new paint color and don't like that either?! Makes so much sense, and I swear that my stair railing is now taunting me with a "what would John and Sherry do?" look/voice. Also, the Petersik's speak to a crowd just like they write, and I found that to be really comforting. They also had a Q&A session and I was so annoyed with myself for not being able to think of a question to ask.

After the speaking portion of their gig, we all got in line to get our books signed. Something I noticed is that they don't rush anyone. I've been to other book signings and you have to put a post-it note with your name on it for the author and barely get to snatch your book back from the table before you're pushed out of the way for the next person. John and Sherry take the time to talk to everyone and listen to whatever random piece of information you want to share with them. I honestly think I blacked out a little bit when it was mine and Blaire's turn to meet them because I was so nervous. I think I said I thought John would like to visit Seattle because there's a lot of airplane history and he likes bikes?! What the heck does that have to do with anything?! Ugh...way to go self. They were both so sweet though and I'm thrilled to have met them.

That was my exciting day of meeting the creators of Young House Love. Anyone else been able to make it to one of their book tour stops? If there's any dates left on the tour I'd highly recommend heading out to meet them!