Bedroom Makeover

Hello everyone!

This week just feels like it has flown by!!!  I guess it's because school is back in session and I've still been finishing up projects around the house.  

I finally have my master bedroom makeover ready to share! To see how it looked before, click here.  There are two things left to fix in there, but other than that, it's done.   I'm loving how light and bright it is now and "less busy" than it was before.

  

We painted the room in Linen White by Benjamin Moore.  It's my favorite white color!  It's not a stark white, but a creamy soft white  (it really does look like the color of linen).

  

I replaced my green floral bedding with a new white set and added my burlap European shams that I recently purchased.

I added a touch of color by adding some purple flowers on each side of the bed.  

I changed out the drapes with the buffalo checked ones that were in my kitchen.  (I'll reveal what's now hanging in the kitchen in another post.)

I placed a small burlap bench at the foot of the bed.

I kept the cow canvas above my bed and brought in a black pharmacy floor lamp to the other side of the room.  It was sitting in my basement until I realized it would be perfect in here!

I'm loving the change!  It feels like it flows better with the rest of the house now.  If my walls could talk, they would be saying "Thank-you!"  They were in such bad shape.  I had so many nail holes and scratch marks  all over them.  Moving the furniture out in order to re-paint allowed us to clean the room thoroughly.  I cleaned out all the junk that was stored under my bed and took some of it to Goodwill already!  You really have no idea how dirty a room is until you remove the furniture.  It was scary folks!!  

I've still been busy making a few more changes to my kitchen.  The eating area to be specific.  I'll share that soon.  

By the way, did anyone catch the firefighters hostage news coverage yesterday????  That was my husbands fire department!  Luckily, he was not at work that day.  I'm thankful that all ended well.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Dian Mayasari ~

Linking to:  Wow-Us-Wednesdays

School House Light

Hello everyone!

Did you think I had fallen off the planet?  I sort of feel like I did.  LOL!  It was a busy Spring Break at my house.  We worked on a lot of projects so now I can finally share some of them with you this week.  My bedroom is done, but I will reveal it in my next post.  I'm kind of sick of being in it since I spent so many hours in it slaving away with a paint brush in my hand!  It turned out great though and I'm so glad that it's done.

Now, onto my newest and unexpected purchase/project for my kitchen.  My husband suggested that we change out our track lighting in our kitchen.  Well...........uh.........he got no complaints from me on that one!  At first, we selected an oil rubbed bronze track light system to replace the white plastic looking one we had. But it was too dark and heavy looking on our ceiling.  It competed with the other lights and pot rack already in the room.  So, we had to take it down and find a different one.  I selected this school house light. We bought it at Home Depot.

As soon as my husband hung it, we both loved it!  It felt more like "us".  

We had to repaint part of our ceiling in here too because  the track lighting system that was hanging had completely different hardware. So, we spent an entire day working on nothing but this kitchen!

Some other changes occurred in here too.  I moved my lamp to the other side of the counter top (because I couldn't stand looking at the black cord any longer)  and placed my "cup rack" in it's place.  I also moved my small stool to the end of the cabinets.

You didn't think I could just hang a new light fixture and not change anything else in here did you?  I'm sure you know me better than that by now.  LOL!

My blue and white transfer ware plates relocated to the open cabinets.

Also, I found this cute stool (why do I have a thing for stools?) to use at the table.  It came from Target.  It is actually more comfortable than the little round one so it was a good change.

So these are some of the things we did in the kitchen.  I'll share my bedroom makeover in my next post!

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Dian Mayasari ~

Blue Flowers

Hello everyone!

It is finally looking and feeling like Spring around here!  It couldn't come at a better time too.  It is Spring Break here and it has been a welcome addition.  We've been getting some things done around here and still have more to do.  My husband has been pressure washing the driveway and walkway.  He's half way done. It takes a long time.  Also, we had new pine straw put out in our flower beds.  We plan to paint our master bedroom later this week too.  So you can see it has been a "working" Spring Break for us.  

Inside, I added some light blue flowers to my flower arrangement on the coffee table.

I'm liking the softness of this color against all the grey and white in the room.  

It's very subtle.

Also, I wanted to show you what I ended up doing on the bench in my foyer.  After I removed the burlap pillow sham to place back on my bed, I moved my ticking striped shams (from Pottery Barn) and a burlap pillow in there.

My husband and I also just celebrated our wedding anniversary and our waiter snapped this pic of us at the restaurant.

Hope you're having a great week so far!  Hopefully, I'll be back soon with pictures of our bedroom makeover. 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Dian Mayasari ~

Linking to:  Wow-Us-Wednesdays 

Cabinet Makeover

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share a cabinet makeover in my kitchen.  I am replacing some of the black painted pieces in my kitchen with grey.  It flows better with the rest of the house and makes the space lighter, which I like.  I'm still keeping some black in my kitchen though.  The first thing I changed were the cabinets that store my dishes. 

This area of my kitchen doesn't get as much light, so I'm very happy with the lighter color.

I like that this area looks like a hutch above the counters.

On the opposite side of the room, above the stove, I repainted the inside of the cabinets grey as well.

Then I repainted this little table that holds baking items.

I still have one more item in here to repaint.  I'm leaving the computer cabinet black though.
In case you are wanting to know the paint color I used it is Sherwin Williams, Fawn Brindle.   

Also, today is a special day for me and my husband.  It is our 26th wedding anniversary!  He gave me these pretty flowers yesterday since he has to work today (24 hrs @ the fire dept.) and we will go out tomorrow night to celebrate.  

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!  We are celebrating early (at my inlaws) because hubby has to work on Easter.  Boo Hoo!  That's the price you pay for being married to a fire fighter.  So, it will be a busy weekend for us.  I've got some baking I must do in preparation for it too.  

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Dian Mayasari ~

Blue Transferware

Hello everyone!

On a shopping trip to one of my favorite stores recently, I stumbled upon these gorgeous plates.

I was smitten with them for two reasons.  I love transfer ware and I love this particular shade of blue.  It's a light powder blue instead of the darker cobalt blue that I usually see.

I don't have much blue in my house, but I like it in small doses.  So, I decided to purchase two of these (which is all they had).  Want to see how they look in my kitchen?

At first, I had one in here and the other on my mantel, but decided I like the symmetric look of them flanking the stove.

What's even better is what's on the back of the plates.

You see, the store I was shopping at is not an antique store.  These are new plates!  I thought it would say they were made in China or something.  But they're made in England.  Who knew?  Want to know where I found them and how much I paid?  

Ta-da!  Not bad huh?  Home Goods came through again!  

I'm liking the "English" accent they bring to my kitchen.

Guess I should whip up some shepherd pie or something now.  LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Dian Mayasari~

Linking to:  Wow-us-Wednesdays

Props for Plants

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a nice weekend.  I've been busy making changes to my bedroom once again because I'm getting ready to re-paint it.  I keep fighting the green color and busy floral design of the comforter and I'm not winning!  So..........I'm going to repaint my room (probably white) and I've already made several changes to my room.  White bedding to go with the new shams, burlap drapes, de-cluttered table tops etc. I brought in pops of color through flowers.  I want a feminine farmhouse style bedroom.  Here is a sneak peek (minus the new wall color).  The wall color is going to completely change the room.

I also wanted to share some ideas for enhancing your plants around your home.  I like to use different containers for height, or texture.  I think the container is just as important as the plant/flower that you put in it.  It should fit the style of the room as well as the size of the space it's going in.

Here is the newest one on my coffee table.

These flowers fit in this basket perfectly without obstructing our view of the TV.  The basket adds much needed texture to a mostly white room.  

Another look I love is a concrete style container.  This one is small and holds a fern in the foyer.

In my sitting room, I added this concrete looking capital.  It gives interest to the plants and well as height.

In my dining room, I used my olive bucket to hold lavender bushes.  It's a nice alternative to the pillows that were on the bench before.

Also, I found if you have a plant that you like but it's just a wee bit too small on it's own, you can place it in a larger container and it will give it more substance.  Such as this little plant in a larger white bowl.

I don't like a lot of tchotchkes so I guess that's why I like to decorate with flowers and plants so much.

I know a lot of you have been still putting up with snow in your area.  It has been cold and windy here too.  Is ANYONE feeling Spring weather yet???!!!  We're supposed to get pine straw delivered and spread out today despite the windy conditions.  This should be interesting!  I'm just happy that I don't have to do it this year though.  

Thanks so much for stopping by.

~ Dian Mayasari ~

Why Do I Even Bother?

Hello everyone!

Why do I even bother to waste my time looking through other magazines when the best one out there (FOR ME) is this one!

Time and time again, I search for inspiration at the newsstand.  I usually find more of what I'm looking for right here in good ole blog land!  But then, this magazine comes to my door and all bets are off.

Pages and pages of nothing but beautiful images.

I think it is unmatched for the inspiration that it brings me. It comes from the very country where this style originated from in the first place.  So, it's no wonder that I love it!  All translated in English so I can sit down and get lost in the pages.  

Do you covet this magazine too?

If you like this style, and have never ordered this magazine (not available in most stores), you are truly missing out.  

Did I mention there are no pesky ads or little cards that fall out of it too?  Don't you hate those?  

Here is my own stash.  I NEVER throw them away!

Now, you know what I will be doing this weekend!  

Sources for this magazine:

Round Barn Potting Co.

Little Cottage

French Larkspur

(I am not getting paid to promote this magazine.  These are just my own thoughts towards this publication.)

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Dian Mayasari ~