Month in review

Hello all! Thanks for all the comments, advice and suggestions over the past few weeks as we tackle expanding our family room! You all give me a lot to think about and of course I love that you get so excited for me. :)

During the summer my projects slow down because of two reasons – my boy is home from school so my focus is more on him and I’m just basically the biggest slug ever. I feel like summer is a time when so many people are more active but I’ve always been the opposite. I slow waaaaay down and take way more naps. ;)

So it’s nice to look back at the first month of summer and realize that I did get a few things done around here. I had help with the first one but it did spur me on to get some painting done:

You can see more about the barn lights we had installed in the mud room here. I’ve had that idea in my head for a while and I was happy to get it done. I finally got the new door trim painted in the room but still have a few coats to get done – and then I’ll address the ceiling in there and the storage on the upper part of the bench wall.

One of my most commented decorating posts ever was about glass front doors – who knew it was such a hot topic? I couldn’t get the idea out of my head so I got the best of both worlds with a full glass storm door:

We (including the animals) LOVE it. I celebrated our new natural light by finishing up the new door trim – it looks so good. (Go here for a tutorial.)

Next up, plan B of our dream project. In the late spring we decided to move forward on an expansion on our house, but the quotes were CRAZY. So we decided to use what we already have (this is the project that started last week!):

(First plan)

 

(Plan B, currently in progress)

WHOOT! So far, so good. (Hope it stays that way.)

I shared photos from our local home-a-rama, including my favorite kitchen:

And my favorite breakfast room in the second tour:

Dreamy. There were five gorgeous houses all together, be sure to check out the eye candy if you missed it!

I knocked a couple things off the to-do list and added some black to the staircase:

Someone suggested using a black or darker stain when I redo the treads and the idea is growing on me. We’ll see!

OK, this one doesn’t have much to do with decorating, but we take an RV trip every summer and this time we explored some parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota I hadn’t seen before. It was gorgeous!:

A few of you mentioned some spots I’d like to check out next summer! 

I’ve always wanted to do this lantern projects in the backyard but was intimidated because I knew I’d need to drill into glass. I figured out how to do it and it wasn’t bad at all!:

I could have just hung them as they were but I knew they’d fill up with water over time and I wanted them to be as low maintenance as possible. So far they are draining well!

I took a walk down memory lane and shared our dining room over the years. It’s gone from beige to (all brown) to more neutral with DIY built ins – one of my favorite projects ever:

We’re actually looking to these for part of the new family room configuration. :)

Finally, I salvaged a craft gone wrong and added a little bling to my desk with a DIY stencil:

I love little touches of gold – and yes, I’m OK with some brass as well. (Just not on my door knobs.) :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I’m looking forward to getting back into the DIY next week (after my Haven Conference duties are done for the year) and I’ll be sure to update you on the family room progress as well!