No Sew Bench Cushion

Somehow, I never quite got around to making a cushion for the bench in our eating nook in our kitchen.  One year later, I finally completed this project a few weeks ago.  I love how it finishes off the space, not to mention that the seat is much more comfortable...

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Summer Home Tour

Welcome to our home!   

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Bookshelves Turned Kitchen Island Ikea Hack (more details)

Wow!  There are many of you who love a good Ikea hack as much as I do!!  I am thrilled with how many of you have been inspired by our Billy bookcase kitchen project.  I was not yet blogging about our DIY projects when we completed this a couple of years ago so I didn't take any pictures of the process.  I know, I know, big mistake!!  I now take pics of everything...lesson learned!  Many of you have e-mailed and commented asking for more details about this project.  I will do my best to explain the process we used....

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Summer Reading

Have you read any great books this summer?  I am trying to be frugal and only read books that I borrow from the library this year.  Before our last trip to the mountains, I got an e-mail from the library that Elin Hilderbrand's new novel was ready for me (I was on the waiting list).  Perfect timing!  It was an enjoyable read.  Not my favorite by her (that would be The Blue Bistro), but it was good. ..

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Master Bedroom Planning

We have been planning/dreaming of what to do in our Master Bedroom since we bought this house 6 years ago.  We love that our master bedroom and bathroom are completely set apart from the rest of the house.  It feels like an escape when we get up there.  However, because it is so separated from the rest of the house, we have left it neglected for way too long.   Now that the bathroom is done (click here to see our new master bathroom!), it is time to move on to the bedroom.  Finally!

This is what it looks like now.  Since we moved in, we have basically added our furniture, hung a ceiling fan, and haphazardly hung a few pictures.  We plan on keeping our bed (but painting the frame) and dressers (they are pine and high quality construction and I still love them)...

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Covered Patio

We've continued to make progress on our covered patio.  This is what we started with...

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Our Pool is Finally Opened!

It was a very long early summer for our boys while they waited for our pool to be finished.  We needed some structural work done in addition to a new liner.  We also decided to add some built in stairs to a corner.  They couldn't wait to jump in when we finally got the go ahead from our pool guy.

Here's what our pool looked like until 2 weeks ago....

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Bookshelves Updated with Scrapbook Paper

I wanted to lighten up the look of our family room bookshelves.  They are currently a dark wood that I have considered painting white.  I love all the white bookshelves on Pinterest and I may still go in the direction of painting these in the future.  I love the look of these.

Pinterest

But, at the same time, I love how our family room has a library feel to it and white bookshelves might take away from that.  Even one of the signs on our gallery wall says library.  So, for now, I am sticking with the dark wood.

I originally set out to cover some foam board with wallpaper or wrapping paper, but ended up using plain old scrapbook paper.  It was affordable and easy and I love how it lightens up the look but can easily be changed.

Here were the bookshelves before:

And now after with the lightened shelf backs:

Bookshelves are one of my favorite things to decorate and I have a whole pin board dedicated just to that.  Check it out here.   I change my mind all the time, so these shelves just might will probably end up painted in the near future.  But for now, I love how the lighter backs have updated them.

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