Do It For the Story!

Ever since I was a little girl I've always loved arranging and re-arranging spaces (sometimes on weekly or, to my mom's chagrin, daily basis!). I have vivid memories of sourcing all of my 11 year-old might to push my dresser from one side of my bedroom to the other. I spent many an afterschool afternoon trying to figure out a way to install a swing in my bedroom (that never happened). I remember my aunt's horror when I once "redesigned" the playroom in her house to include a playskool tower of terror so to speak (how fitting!)

So now, many years later with my own house to experiment with, I have done just that. My motto is (with everything in life), give it a shot, if it doesn't work out, that's what paint and spackle are for (sometimes apologies, too). And, more importantly, it will make for an interesting story. As my friend Jon and I decided together the other day, we will try anything once, just for the story alone.
But I digress. I wanted to share some photos with you of some of the work that I have done to my home, so here we go!

My living room/dining room as it was before:

And after (don't worry, the grandma was not tossed out with the plaster, she is safe and sound in a retirement community in Florida, I think). Can you believe these gorgeous floors were hiding under all that carpeting?!:

I found the dining set on craigslist, it was pretty beat up so I painted it white and recovered/repadded the seat cushions. 10 points if you can spot the "tail end" in this photo (nyuck, nyuck!):


On to the kitchen...before:

After:
I painted and recovered the kitchen cabinets in vintage Schumaker wallpaper from ebay. I trashpicked the kitchen table and found the chairs at a thrift shop months later, I thought they looked pretty nice together.

I found the yellow dishes at a local thrift shop. The light fixture was from a vintage lamp that my friend gave me that I took apart and rewired.

Stay tuned, later we'll continue and make our way up the stairs to the second floor.