Before and After - Alex's Room

Recently, my mom and I helped with my little cousin Alex's room. He is 15 and needed something a little more grown up. He's also a huge fan of University of Utah sports - so he requested the room be themed around that; including a red wall! I'm usually not a fan of red walls, but I think for Alex's room it worked. It's a fun addition to this teenage boy room.

Here's the original room board I put together. We veered a little from this plan, which usually happens, but it gave us a good blueprint.


We did this whole room for under $300. My Aunt Chris did most the work - removing wallpaper, painting the room, and painting the furniture. Once she had everything prepped, we spent a full Saturday finishing the room. The morning was spent at IKEA picking up the last essentials, and the rest of the day we organized and rearranged, hung artwork, and begrudgingly put together our IKEA purchases.

BEFORE


AFTER


BEFORE - Desk


AFTER - Desk

Before Alex's desk held his TV for videogames, and there wasn't a lot of surface left for anything else. Chris painted the desk drawers, and we cleared it off so he can use it for homework now.

We purchased a $12 Ikea LACK table to provide a new spot for his TV. We also put a bin underneath to hold all his videogame systems.


BEFORE - Closet


AFTER - Closet

Alex purged a lot of his clothes he no longer wears, and we brought in a shoe organizer, a drawer system, and some bins. Much better!


We added a shelf above his bed for all his trophies.

We placed a chair here as a place for him to sit to play his videogames. For the University of Utah artwall, we found all the images online and printed them on a color printer. The frames are old ones that we painted black.




So there you go, a teenage boy room on an extreme budget!

Melissa's House

Hey remember when I used to post on this blog? Yeah me too. Well I decided to dust off my blogger dashboard today and show you these before and afters from my friend and client, Melissa. I've posted about the progress at her house a couple times, including the last post about the art I made for her kitchen. Today I'm showing you the pictures from her family room. This room is huge! We worked on it for a few months, and it's about 99% done now. She just has a few more pillows to add, her mom is making the covers for her and they're not quite done. But as you will see, it has come a long way.

Here's how it looked when they moved in, lots of red, lots of floral curtains.


And here's how it looks now, from the same angle.


View from the fireplace.




We stayed budget friendly by incorporating a lot of things that Melissa already owned like her apothecary jars and candle holders.










Picture of Melissa's parents, along with a bowl full of ceramic number balls representing Melissa's wedding date and state she was marrried, AZ of course. This moss bowl was probably one of my favorite finds for her room, it's from Home Goods.




Love it! Some of these pictures are by me, some by Melissa. Thanks Melissa!

Guest Room Makeover in One Day

A couple weekends ago my mom decided she wanted to turn my brother's old bedroom into a guest room. So I went over to her house, we hit up some shops, and decided to do it all in one day. We're impatient like that.

Here's the scary boy-dungeon before picture.


After.


We loved the bold graphic floral print of this cute pillow we found at TJ Maxx - we pulled all the colors for the room from this.


We brought this table in from another room and added some new accessories mixed with some things my mom already had.


And voila! A one day makeover.

Bathroom Makeover

This is my little downstairs powder room/half-bath. And those are my legs, standing on a toilet, because rooms the size of a closet are hard to take pictures of.



Last year, while my husband was away camping I got bored. When I'm bored I do weird things like rip out this bathroom vanity by myself, and drag it into the backyard. Only to discover a big ugly hole behind the vanity.



Well it's a few months later and we finally have a functioning bathroom again. Here are my tips for you.

• Do not think you can remodel a bathroom in a week, no matter how small it is.
• Do not think you and your husband can put in a pedestal sink, because you can't. You will discover this after watching YouTube videos of pedestal sink installations, receive your reality check, and then you will call a plumber.
• Do not paint your bathroom the night before the plumber comes with a color that you chose really fast and in a panic, because you won't like it. Then you will have to re-paint AFTER the sink is in. And that's hella annoying.
• Do not think, "Well I've never done it before, but I'm sure caulking baseboards is really easy and no big deal. Doo da doo." Because you'll be wrong.

And here she be: much prettier, but still hard to take pictures of.














I framed this little Henri Rousseau painting from an old art calendar I had. Zach thinks he's creepy, I think he's very dapper.

Tart House Design : Client's Office

Here are the before and afters for an office install that my mom and I did over the weekend! We helped this client organize and accessorize her room, integrating some of the things she already owned, including all of her furniture. Because of this, we were able to stick to her budget of $300 for the whole room.

Before:


After:


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After:




Before:


After:




Before:


After:




This client's needs for her office were pretty unique. She works from home; and in the morning while checking her e-mail at her desk, she also does her make-up and hair. So she requires a hybrid office/vanity situation. This was her set-up before we stepped in.


After:

We found this desk at IKEA in the as-is section (even though we couldn't find anything wrong with it) for $50!

In addition to helping her organize her vanity area, we also took on her armoire where she keeps pictures, craft supplies, etc. It was in dire need of an overhaul.

Before:


After:


Just shows what organization, a few new accessories, and some rearranging can do!