The Guest Suite- Our Most Dramatic "before and after"!

Don't look at these before shots too long- you might be blinded, or have orange nightmares tonight.

 We are not sure what would possess anyone to paint a bedroom in these garish shades of orange, but I guess there is no accounting for taste. ha

 Ahhh....After- so much more relaxing and serene. No more nightmares. Ben had to fill/putty 40+ holes and marks on the wall before priming and finally painting the room.

 A spacious, beautiful room with great features was hiding under all that orange!

I do plan to add more wall décor over time, but for now the room will function just fine.

 The door on the right is the one of two walk in closets in this room. This one is all shelves. The other one has tons of hanging space and another storage area opens behind it. Great for the boxes I haven't
unpacked in here yet. ha

 We did not have to paint the ensuite bathroom, as it was (thankfully) already a neutral tone. I just added the shower curtain, rug and accessories.

The guest suite is all ready for my Mom's visit starting next Saturday! So far baby has stayed in waiting for Grama, but I'm not sure how much longer he will be so patient. ;-)

Baby's Peter Rabbit Nursery :-) before and after

The previous owners used this bedroom next to the master bedroom as a guest room. Before pictures below:

 

After Ben gave the room 2 coats of light blue paint, we replaced the carpet with the same "frieze" style carpet we had installed in the master bedroom.

 I added Beatrix Potter wall stickers to make a border of sorts around the room. We also plan to put in white bead board below the border at a later date. Can't get all our plans done before the new arrival. ;-)

    The built in drawers are very handy, as now we don't need a dresser for the baby.

           And the shelves are very nice for displaying Peter Rabbit collections. ;-)

 The baby's diaper bag is all packed and ready for the birth center when the time comes. In the gift bag is a birthday present for the boys to bring for the baby when they meet him for the first time. :-)

 I just set up the crib today- all by myself with no instructions! This was a proud moment in my life. haha

 I made the bumper pads for Teddy when he was a baby, but the Peter Rabbit sheet is new. One of the few things I've ever bought at Pottery Barn. The BABY blanket was my favorite bed blanket I used with Teddy. It's very soft and just the right size.

                         I added some Peter Rabbit touches to the adjoining bathroom, too.

Now we are all ready and can just wait for the new baby to make his appearance. I'm hoping he waits until just after the 24th when my mom arrives. ;-)

The Kitchen- before and after

The kitchen walls were painted a shade of green that I did not care for at all. It looked sickly to me.

 They are now Diverse Beige (SW) like the rest of the newly painted living areas. Thanks to Ben. ;-)

 I think it's a big improvement!
As far as the rest of the kitchen goes, it was already beautiful and updated when we bought the house. The cabinets are solid maple, and I love the granite counter tops.



 I also love that there are some glass cabinet doors to display some of my teacup and teapot collection. :-)
Since there isn't a pantry in the kitchen, I store all my dry foods in this wall of cabinets. There is plenty of storage space even without a designated pantry. Some of the cupboards are still mostly empty. ha

 Eventually I want to get a little table and chairs for the breakfast space, but I thought for now it would be the perfect place for the baby to swing while I do the dishes, etc. nearby.
I will also add some panels or valances to the windows sometime in the future. But for now, I like them this way. ;-)

Ruffled Romance~The Dining Room (before and after)~

This is how the dining room looked when we moved in:

 Since most of the curtains in the house were not to my taste, I sold them on eBay and made enough money to buy some new ruffled curtains for the dining room. :-) I found them on eBay, too, by the way. ha                       
                         Teddy insisted on being in some of the pictures. ;-)

 


 

You can catch a glimpse of the kitchen in the picture above, but that will be a topic for another post. hehe

                                                       Some of my vintage linens...