A terrible thing happens when you're a homeowner. It starts with some innocent browsing of real estate websites, where you type in what you paid for your house and look at what's for sale for that price now. Pretty soon you find yourself sprinting to the computer whenever you see a new for sale sign in the neighborhood and sneaking into open houses (or maybe that's just me). We're certainly not planning on moving any time soon, but that doesn't stop the drooling over other people's garages and hardwood floors.
I know I need to calm the freak down and just bask in my house's awesomeness (and probably stop watching so many episodes of House Hunters.) For example, how many houses have you seen that have their
very own built-in handmade coat hook wall? I have one of those!
There is an awkward entrance area in the living room right as you walk in the front door. Before, it didn't have anything in it, besides this wobbly lamp and a whole bunch of shoes (not pictured, because I staged this photo to make it look pretty.) Oh, and the walls were orange.
But now, we have our very own FOYER. Do people even say "foyer" anymore? No? Let's call it an Entryway. The board and batten I did all by my little self, and it was my first project using a miter saw. I'm pretty sure the neighbor hates me now because I didn't have a nail gun, and had to pound tons of nails into the wall by hand. There are tons of tutorials on how to install board and batten, so just google it; I used a mish-mash of all of them. I did replace the baseboard, but you can skip this if you have taller ones. I used 1x3 pine for the vertical pieces and 1x4 for the horizontal, and didn't install any boards, only batten. The wall is just painted and looks fine because it's smooth drywall.
The wall color is Benjamin Moore "Alpaca", the choice of which obviously had nothing to do with my fiber-based hobbies. I made the wreath, using
this tutorial, out of a boring book on Joan of Arc. Don't worry, I checked out the reviews online first to make sure I didn't want to read it first.
The two framed pieces of art I made; they list all of the places Jason and/or I have ever lived. It's a lot: Virginia, Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, Kansas, New Mexico, Arizona, Missouri, Washington, Georgia, Ohio, California, Montana, and Ireland.
Here's where I got everything, just in case you're interested:
- Bench: Overstock
- Fabric Bins: Home Depot
- Half-moon table: World Market
- Basket, lantern, and vase: TJ Maxx
- Coat hooks: Lowe's
- Frames and key hooks: Ikea
