guestroom: star wars room

when i asked matt to move in, he said that he would only move in if he could hang his yoda picture some place.  now, i would be lying if i said i loved star wars.  if i even knew who yoda was.  and if i didn't think, perhaps you should hang that picture in the garage.  however, marriage isn't about just me.  it's about compromise and making the other person happy even if it doesn't make you happy.  so, i said he could make the guestroom a star wars room.  BUT i will decorate it so it doesn't become some nerdy kids wet dream.  it had to look grown up and classy.  and a little nerdy.  i guess.

so, we started off with a blank slate.

my niece exploring the new house

and so of course, we painted 3 walls light grey and one navy blue.  it kind of mimics the guest bath. and i put in the bed i inherited when my grandfather passed away.  which is just a full size bed with a wooden frame.  apparently, this was my grandparents bed when they first got married many moons ago.  and i like to keep old things that have been passed down.  but anyways, we started with that bed.  and to keep it looking 'adult' i went with just all white bedding throwing in a few accent pillows in grey or navy.

i also used my old dressers from my room when i was a baby.  originally they were white with 'wood' accents and little yellow flowers painted on the drawers.  matt painted the white parts navy.  however, we did no sanding or priming so we're finding that the navy paint keeps chipping.  however, we eventually may buy new dressers down the road and were just using these for the time being.

i got a small side table from my mamaw that i used as a side table for the bed.  it currently is storing a lot of my scrap-booking material.  but on top, we stacked some books and put matt's old touch lamp on them.  (it was perfect that it was navy!) and i printed off some prints with our wifi password and a small sign saying "be our guest"

on the other side of the bed, i found a small shelving unit at a discount store.  on this, we have a star wars lamp that matt and i made.  we purchased a small lamp at the dollar store.  and we went to a local flea market and bought some old star wars toys.  matt glued them around the base, stacking the characters as he went.  and i just spray painted the entire thing silver.  i think it turned out pretty well.  we also have some more star wars pictures i found on pinterest that i just printed off and framed.  i painted some tiles with star wars characters to be used as coasters.  on the next shelf, i bought a large glass container and filled it with sample size toiletries in case our guests ever forget anything.  and we stacked some of matt's star wars books next to that.  on the bottom shelf, i just placed some towels and wash cloths for our guests.

above these side tables, i printed off more pictures i found on pinterest of star wars characters and framed them.  i chose pictures that were more pop culture than a basic star wars poster.  i feel like that helps make it look more 'adult' than child like.  i also loved that i found the picture of han solo and princess leia that mimic the old drawing by norman rockwell.  my parents have had this picture hanging in our house for all my life.  and i like that i could bring that to our home.

we also included the mirror matt and i made over the summer in the corner.  i always hate going and staying someplace and they don't have a full body mirror for you to use.  i like to know if my outfit looks OK before i leave the house.  and i hate when i don't have that option.  so, i wanted to make sure i included one in our guestroom.

right now, this room is taken over with boxes of wedding stuff.  but i think it turned out nicely.  i'm not sure how often it'll actually get used.  but it was a good compromise for matt and i.  and i believe it really made my house his home.

the picture that started it all

ipsy vs boxy charm

i love make up.  so much so that i will spend mindless hours watching youtube channels of various girls putting make up on or showing off what they bought at ulta.  it's an obsession.  i will literally go buy whatever they suggest is a "great" product that is "life changing" - and sometimes it truly is.  and sometimes i don't fully understand the hype.  however, youtube has taught me how to contour and how to do brows like a champ.

buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut - my wallet hates my make up obsession.  especially when some of the better products are $20+ a lipstick.  why are you so expensive!????!!! so, i did a little research, watched a few girls open some boxes on the youtube and decided on getting an ipsy bag.

ipsy is a monthly subscription that costs $10 a month.  there are usually 4-5 products in each bag.  sometimes they're full size but mostly they are travel size.  very rarely is it awful packet samples.  and every month comes with a pretty sweet make up bag.  they're always different designs and some are square, rectangle and round.  so, that's nice.  i love the bags for travel or organization around the house or in my purse..  but like most monthly subscriptions some months are GREAT! and some months suck.  but for $10 i felt like it was worth the risk.  the other upside to ipsy is that they have a survey you take to make the products more compatible with you.  like i'm fair, blonde and blue eyed.  so a lot of my products will go along with that.  some of my friends get ipsy but they are brunette or have darker skin tones and so their bags are different from mine.  which is really nice.  and makes swapping out stuff you don't really care for easy with other people who may have the same product just a different color.  also if you don't care for what you're getting or want to try something different, you can always retake the quiz and receive different things than what you were originally getting.

after getting my ipsy bag and having it for a year, i wanted to try another service just to compare.  i researched again on youtube to see what other people were getting and if they were saying it was worth it and went with boxycharm.  boxycharm is the same thing as ispy but is $21 a month and the sizes are more full size than travel size but there is no make up bag.  i also like that in boxycharm you get a card that says how much each item costs, if it's full size or travel size and a description on how to use the product.  sometimes you get coupons for companies like tarte.  the downside to boxycharm is that there is no survey.  everyone gets pretty much the same box.  the difference may be they're rotating 3-4 nail polish shades and you just get which ever one they choose for you.  i like it because it's larger samples but you could be stuck with something that's totally not you because you don't really have a say on what you get.

i wanted to do a side by side comparison of the two for the month of October.

ipsy comes in a pink envelope.  usually a card and a make up bag are down inside the envelope.  boxycharm comes in the box.  both come usps.

the top is ipsy open and the bottom is what boxycharm looks like when you first open the box.

inside this months ipsy bag i received a travel size bwc hand cream, arura gel polish in a dark purple shade, travel size nourish organic argan face serum, sample size the balm matte lip gloss and a pair of emite make up tweezers.  the make up bag was metallic gold on one side and black on the other side.  this bag was mostly sample sized items.  but i'm pretty happy with my options.  i haven't tried any of the products except for the hand cream and that seems to moisturize my hands just fine.  i think the nail polish will be a staple for the fall/winter season.  i'll need to see if the lip gloss is a good shade for me.  but tweezers and face serums always come in handy.  i also like the makeup bag.  there have been months when the designs are definitely not my style but i'll use this one when i travel or toss it in my purse to hold electronics or something.

boxycharm is normally full size items.  this month we got palmetto derma antioxidant rejuvenating face mask, doucce punk volumizing mascara, bella pierre blush, cult nail polish in a grey color and a black eye pencil.  pretty much this entire box is legit size but the blush.  however, i hate these samples.  i never use a liquid version of blush/bronzer - mostly because i'm not sure how to use them and because i'm so much more comfortable with powder.  i get these all the time between the two services that i'm mostly always giving them away..  however, the face mask i'll use for a personal spa night.  the mascara and eye liner is great in black.  i hate when they send some crazy color like purple or green eye liners.  i get that i should step out of my comfort zone but i'm almost 30 and i look like i'm 12 so i'm trying to stay away from anything that makes me appear more younger than i am..  the grey nail polish is my fav for this month from both services.  i'm currently obsessed with grey manicures! so that's a win.  really both shades of polish were a win.

one month boxy had 3 different shades of polish they rotated - mint, coral and baby yellow.  i hate yellow nails.  they're totally not me.  i reaaaaaaaaaally wanted the coral but ended up getting the mint.  i like it ok but would've preferred the coral.  so that's a problem when they do that.  you never know what you're going to get.  there's no way to tell the company what you really want.  but i noticed some subscribers were trying to swap colors in the comments on boxy's instagram.

speaking of the instagram - i don't follow ipsy but i do boxy.  and boxy will usually do a "sneak peek" on 2-3 of their items before they start shipping them out.  i kind of like knowing what i'm going to be getting so i'm not completely surprised. but it does suck if you're wanting to be surprised.  and once they start shipping, they'll post photos of the entire box so if you don't get yours til last, you'll already know everything inside. but one of the big reasons i joined boxy was because i saw their instagram and looked at some previous boxes.  i'm somewhat a fan of coastal scents.  i have a lot of their eye shadow palettes. and one of the boxes they gave away coastal scents revealed palette which is a knock off of urban decay's naked palette.  coastal scents now has 3 of these palettes and i own all 3 mostly because i got the other two in my boxy.

all in all i think boxy is worth the extra $11 every month because you get full sized items every month.  but if you're only wanting to spend a little then ipsy is a great option to try new things.  i have purchased full sized items because i liked the samples i got from these subscriptions.  i would highly recommend signing up for any kind of subscription service.  there are so many available depending on your interests!  let me know if there is something out there worth trying!  i'm debating on if i should sign up for food one, clothes one or puppy one!

master bedroom redo

one of the last rooms to be pulled together is the master bedroom.  this room originally was the garage.  the previous owners transformed it in to a bonus room, full bath and the laundry room.  there were so many doors coming in to this room.  one from the kitchen, one from the living room, one from the laundry room and one from the bathroom.  we closed off the one going in to the kitchen so we could move the fridge to that space.  the one going in from the living room was wider than a standard door and had no physical door to it.  we had them adjust the size of the opening and moved the door that was attached to the kitchen opening and moved it to the new main door to the bedroom.  this room has a lot of traffic since it's the only way to the backyard currently.  with transforming the garage to a bonus room, the original backdoor from the house now leads to the garage/out building that's attached to the back of the house.  the only way out to the backyard was through a garage door.  with a puppy, we go through the bedroom a lot to take her outback to potty.  so it's been a long time coming to get it to the stage it's at now.

here's the before:

BEFORE

BEFORE

as you can see, there are 2 doors on the right hand side.  the one closest to corner was covered.  the door on the side wall leads to the burgundy bathroom.

after taking out the door that lead to the kitchen, we painted that wall dark grey since that's the wall the bed will be on.  the rest of the walls are light grey (per usual).      

AFTER

we purchased a tempurpedic king bed (yahoo!!  highly recommend the tempurpedic for sure!!) anyway...  the headboard came from target.  then came the purchasing of the bedding.  i believe the sheets are from target and the duvet was found at home goods. the striped grey pillows came from walmart.  the sequin pillow and quote pillow both came from marshall's.  the black blanket was purchased at kohl's.

AFTER

AFTER

AFTER

 the mirrored side table was originally purchased for the living room.  but after getting the puppy cage side table, i moved it to the bedroom.  it was purchased at target.  needing a small dresser, i purchased this black one and a matching side table at walmart. the mirror above it i got at target.  the two small black lamps are touch lamps from walmart.  they really aren't worth purchasing as they both flicker and turn themselves off after being on for a few minutes.  the white lamp on the dresser was given to me by my mom.  the lamp shade used to be khaki and i painted it black.  some fake plants by the alarm clock are from marshall's.  the white fuzzy rug is from marshall's as well.  i purchased another one just like it for the living room.  the floral chair was my great grandmothers.  i left it in its original fabric and stain.  i debated on refinishing it but decided i liked it the way i got it.  the 2 small black pillows on the floral chair were originally outdoor coral pillows that i painted black with regular wall paint.  they are a little crusty feeling but they felt like that before since they're outdoor pillows.  but no one sits in that seat so who's gonna complain?

AFTER

next to the dresser i placed a blanket basket and a laundry hamper.  i wanted a laundry basket to match the blanket basket i got at marshall's.  i found the perfect one at target.

AFTER

 i used an old bookcase to display photos of me and the boyfriend.  you see this bookshelf as soon as you walk in to the bedroom.  most of the frames are old frames i've had lying around the house.  some of the newer ones are from kohl's or target.  the small quote square thing is from kohl's.
 

AFTER

finally, i had storage issues.  like in most rooms in this house.  i had no where to put towels as i stated before.  and some other nicknacks i wanted to store inside the house instead of the garage.  i purchased some wood and brackets from lowe's and hung them where the kitchen door used to be.  the second shelf that barely has anything on it is used for the decorative pillows when the bed isn't made.  i have a hard time just lying them on the floor when it was bedtime.  i used shelving as shoe organizers underneath since we're always stopping by the laundry room to take our shoes off or on.

i'm really happy with the way the room turned out.  hopefully next summer i'll have enough money to put a backdoor in the kitchen so i can take the puppy outback through the kitchen instead of the maze we currently go through now.  a girl can dream!

guest bath redo

the guest bathroom will be a complete redo.  we gutted the entire bathroom down to the studs.  we also had to repair the flooring under/around the bathtub.  in my kitchen redo, i showed you where the floor completely rotted away.  that was due to the bathtub leaking in the guest bath.  when they removed the tile flooring and the old baby blue tub, you could see the rotted floor underneath.  gross!

as you can see in the before pictures, the bathroom was a baby blue north carolina fan's dream bathroom.  baby blue bathtub, baby blue tiles from floor to about mid wall all the way around the bathroom, baby blue marbled sink.  too much baby blue for my liking.  we removed the walls since it wasn't salvageable after removing the tile.  the tile floor came up, tub was removed, toilet removed and the sink/vanity taken out.  the only thing in the bathroom that was pretty much left alone was the small closet next to the shower that has shelving for towels and other bathroom items.  i removed the bottom shelf in this closet to store my clothes hamper.

BEFORE

BEFORE

GUTTED

i wanted the guest bathroom to go with the guest room decor.  kinda.  at least have the same color scheme.  majority of my house is light grey, dark grey, black and white.  i decided i wanted to keep blue in this bathroom.  but go the opposite and use navy.  i decided to paint one accent wall navy and do the rest light grey.  i kind of wanted a nautical theme but not so in your face, my momma's kind of nautical.

AFTER

AFTER

as you can see in the after pictures, we did new tile flooring which is the same flooring in the master bath redo.  replaced the tub with a white tub and tiled the walls around the tub with white tiles.  replaced the old toilet and replaced the sink/vanity with white on white.  replaced the medicine cabinet with a new mirror i got at target.  got new lights above the mirror and a new light that is close to the shower.  i got my shower curtain from target.  i purchased two spice racks from ikea that i painted navy and hung above the toilet.  they currently hold extra hand soap and a beachy quote i got at kohl's.

SPICE RACKS ABOVE TOILET

SHOWER TILES

in the corner when you first walk in to the bathroom, was a lot of space i wasn't for sure what to do with at first.  i knew i wanted some kind of cabinet.  in my head, the space was always a lot bigger than it actually is.  i purchased this small cabinet at target.  the navy color was a close match to the navy wall and helped bring the navy color to the other side of the room.  inside the cabinet, i stored extra toilet paper and some guest towels.  on top, i placed the hand carved crab we purchased at the straw market in the bahamas.  behind the crab, i placed a picture i purchased at hobby lobby depicting an octopus.  in the small glass canister, i keep puppy treats for the little pup.  (originally i was training her to use pee pads in the bathroom.  now that she's older, we have got her to use the bathroom outside and she now refuses to use the puppy pads inside.  yay!) on the wall next to the cabinet, i hung two sea shell hooks.  for now, they mostly hold wet bathing suits.  but i envisioned my guest's hanging their towels or robes there.

SMALL CABINET & SEA SHELL HOOKS

SMALL CABINET

 a towel rod is hung underneath the window.  a toilet paper holder is on the same wall next to the toilet and there's a small hand towel hook between the door and the mirror by the sink.  the sink ended up being a lot more shallow than i had expected.  inside i have stored some of my bathroom stuff and extra soaps and shampoos.  i mostly use this bathroom since it is directly across the hall from my closet.  it's so convenient to shower here and walk across the hall to get ready than to walk down the hallway, through the living room and in to the master bedroom.

the small closet in the bathroom has come in handy to store extra towels and wash cloths.  i hide bathroom cleaning supplies on a shelf and hid the clothes hamper in here as well.  i have also used this closet to store some of the puppy stuff she doesn't need every day and extra soaps and shampoos.  (you can never have enough!  especially when you have hair like rapunzel!)

before and after next to each other:

BEFORE

AFTER

master bath redo

like i have said before, this house was built in the 60's with very little updating.  the garage that was transformed in to a bonus room also came with a full bath.  however, this bathroom was completely decked out in mauve fixtures.  that had to go!

the other problem with this bathroom was the floor around the toilet.  as a renter home, i'm not sure if much of the problems were reported or never truly fixed.  but apparently this toilet leaked.  leaked for some time.  and made the flooring around the toilet very weak.  every time you stepped in to the bathroom it felt like you were going to fall through the floor.  so that had to be fixed as well.

here are some before pictures:

BEFORE

BEFORE

as you can see, everything was mauve.  the toilet, shower and sink had the marble mauve.  not pictured is a beautiful gold chandelier.  a chandelier in the bathroom.  it's like i'm showering in a castle..  which of course, i kept.  i also kept the shower.  mostly because it'll be covered with a shower curtain and i was running out of renovation money.

you can see that we took out the toilet, sink and floors below:

RENOVATIONS

we replaced the toilet with a new white toilet.  the sink with a white on white sink.  replaced the mirror with a medicine cabinet. installed a cabinet above the toilet.  added a chair rail and painted walls white and grey.  the tile flooring is the same tile flooring that was later installed in the guest bathroom i'll highlight later.

another problem with this tiny bathroom is no storage.  there really isn't a place to put extra towels and things.  i had to come up with a solution in the bonus room that i made in to my master bedroom to store towels.  the places i could have put them in the bathroom would have put the towels above the toilet (ew) or above the door.  and being 5'1", i wouldn't be able to reach them above the door.  i'll show that solution when i do the master bedroom redo.

here is the after:

AFTER

It looks ten times better than it did before.  not pictured is the grey and black shower curtain.  i also added a toilet paper holder next to the toilet, a hand towel between the shower and medicine cabinet and a towel rod on the wall across from the shower.  i think the mauve shower in all the grey and white looks more modern than it did with everything mauve and creme.  and the chair rail gave it a lot of character for the small space.

the before and after together:

living room redo

when it came to decorating the living room, i knew i wanted to do it with a travel theme.  i am addicted to traveling.  i will use every ounce of my time off from work to see some place i've never been.  i even have 'wanderlust' tattooed on my foot in my grandmother's handwriting.  i want to travel and see the world as much as i possibly can while i'm on it.

wanderlust - the desire to travel and see the world

so, i went around and collected all the little nicknacks i've collected over the years and printed off some of my favorite photos and have combined them to create my living room.

the living room is the first room you walk in to entering the house.  there is no entryway or anything.  so, i needed the room to be perfect.  to describe me and express what the rest of the house would eventually look like.  so here are the before pictures of the big open plain room when i first bought the house.

BEFORE

BEFORE

as you can see, there is no defined entryway after entering the front door.  the walls were plain off white and some wood floors.  the door you can see in the second photo leads to the master suite.  there is another door not pictured that leads to the kitchen and then a hallway past that kitchen door.  i really had a large blank canvas to start off with.

of course we started with painting three walls a light grey and the wall that the tv will be on a dark grey.  and then we filled the space with furniture.

AFTER

on the dark wall you can see my tv.  the tv stand is from walmart.  it has 2 cabinets to hold movies and a cubby for the cable box and has a small fireplace in the middle.  on top, i used a photo of me and the boyfriend and a photo of my grandfather.  the truck in front of his photo was his when he was a little boy.  and in front of the boyfriend picture is a scentsy burner.  the other picture frame has our wifi password on it. and then i have ohio state coasters propped against it along with a fake succulent since i couldn't keep the others alive.. (oops)  in front of the fireplace is a small rug i found at marshall's but it's available for a reasonable price at ikea.  the large grey rug is from ollie's.  the black accent chairs i got from wayfair.  the fuzzy pillows (both black and grey) are from marshall's.  the rocking chair was the one that went along with my baby furniture when i was a baby.  the standing lamp is from home depot.  and the red 'you are here' sign is from mod cloth.

AFTER

AFTER

AFTER

on this side wall that separates my living room from the kitchen, are two tall bookshelves that hold my travel pictures and movies.  the masks on the left are from my travels - top from costa rica and the bottom one from the bahamas.  the table lamp is from home depot.  the table is from target.  another black accent chair and fuzzy pillow.  the map is from value city furniture.  most of the smaller accent pieces (car, globe, clock) are from marshall's.  and other small accent pieces are souvenirs from my travels.

AFTER

AFTER

i used this couch to create an entryway.  this couch is a brownish grey and i got it from the same friend that gifted me the kitchen table i spray painted black.  the chevron blanket and window curtains are from kohl's.  the two black pillows are from walmart.  the entryway table and coat rack are from target.  most of the items on top of the entry table are from marshall's.  and the mirror is from target.  the side table next to the couch is my puppy's cage.

here is a closer look at the puppy's cage.  i removed the tie dyed pillow and replaced it with a small dog bed.  that allowed me to place two small bowls with water and food for her.  i do leave her in this cage all night and while i'm at work.  she hasn't messed in the cage and it really helped with getting her potty trained.  prior to this cage, i had her in a larger cage that gave her a lot of room to move around and so she would go to the bathroom in it and then would make messes around the house.  after putting her in this cage, she very rarely makes messes in the house anymore and potty training was a breeze.

puppy side table

puppy side table

here's a picture of the happy puppy :)