Guest Bedroom: Before & After

I am finally getting around to posting my new and improved guest bedroom. It is by no means finished since I'm always wanting to change things, but it is much better than the ugly, mismatched look we had going on before.

It's actually an inviting and serene place now, where I can get stuff done (it's also our work space). In addition, I am no longer embarrassed to have guests stay in there. And we do get quite a few guests because J and I live in NC but we are from OK, so family and friends come to visit us, which we really appreciate!

Are you ready for it? Here are some BEFORE pictures:

Do you see the sweet little dog sleeping on her blanket? Love her

Now for some AFTER pictures. Sorry they are so dark! (It's weird how natural light makes a room look darker in pictures than it really is.)

Here are all the things I did to the guest bedroom:

1. Painted the room

2. Made a paper lampshade

3. Painted green desk white

4. Covered the file cabinet with woodgrain contact paper

5. Covered the lampshade on my desk with pretty fabric

6. Made a cork lamp base, but have since replaced it

7. Created a starburst mirror for $2

8. Sewed a pillow

9. Made-over a torch floor lamp

10. Spray painted and reupholstered the desk chair

11. Made no-sew curtains for $10

12. Made a wall decal out of contact paper

13. Sewed a dog bed for the girls

14. Changed the furniture pulls with spray paint

15. Made a fabric tissue box cover

16. Spray painted some dollar store birds

17. Made some easy & inexpensive wall art

What do you think? :) Thanks for looking!

Linking to Just A Girl's Show & Share Day, Funky Junk Interiors, & Remodelaholic.

Sweater Candle Cozies {tutorial}

We got some lovely snow yesterday here in North Carolina. The snow came down in big soft flakes - it was beautiful! It was the perfect opportunity to stay indoors and do a winter project. I've been dying to try this sweater candle cozie project created by the ingenious Stephanie Lynn at Under the Table and Dreaming.

All it involves is recycling some old sweaters (or in my case, buying one from the thrift store) by covering the candle vase in a comfy sweater. Here is what mine turned out like:

Do you like it? I am in love with it! Small changes like this can really warm up a space, as well as turn generic candles into unique, stylish ones. I think it's the perfect project for these snow-filled days.

One thing I did differently than Stephanie Lynn is that I sewed my sweater into place rather than hot gluing it on. The reason being that I know I will want to change out the look of these candle vases later, so as usual, I only made a temporary change. I will be able to slip off the sweater covers and store them away as spring approaches, but I will be able to reuse them next winter. Perfect!

Sewing them was actually really easy. I only had to make around 3 rows of stitches.

Here is the original sweater. I picked it up at the thrift store. I was able to use it for two different projects and even had some left over. Not too shabby for $7.

First step was to slip a sleeve over the candle vase. Then I cut the piece to size, trimming the edges of the candle vase base as I went.

The only thing left to do was to sew this gap in the sleeve. That took about 30 seconds.

One down, two to go!

I did the same thing as before, but this time I made the sweater cozie for the candle rather than the vase. (Tip: If you do this, make sure the sweater won't catch on fire when you light the candle!)

For the round vase, I simply stretched the other sleeve over it. That way all I had to do was make the same few stitches to the top of the sleeve. I also had to make a few stitches to the bottom of the vase in order to wrap the sweater underneath the vase. If I had not done this, the bottom would have looked too frayed.

It turned out to be my favorite! :)

Here are the sweater candle cozies in my table centerpiece:

What do you think? Have you made any cool things with cable knit sweaters? Have you tried this project before? Please do share. :)

I'm linking to...

Swiss Miss Can {Repurposed} as a Tea Container

Hello fellow bloggers! Just thought I would share a simple little project that has made me surprisingly happy considering it is a small change.

My husband loves to drink tea, whereas I am more of a Diet Pepsi kind of person. Anyway, he tends to leave out on the counter the cardboard box thing that the tea comes in from the store. It's not a big deal - I know I have at least one or two a hundred annoying habits. But if you can fix the problem without having to go through the struggle of changing the behavior, then why not, right?

I was about to throw away an empty Swiss Miss can in the trash (and I was feeling guilty about it. Thanks a lot, Al Gore! Just kidding. I really am an avid fan of recycling.) when I realized that I good repurpose it. Yay! (Thankfully, my guilt was allayed....{sigh of  relief}.) So, this is where scrapbook paper and double-sided tape come in. I think the rest is pretty much common sense.  :)

Having this container sitting on our kitchen countertop is much more pleasing to the eye!

What have you all repurposed/recycled? I'd love some other ideas, because I truly do feel much better about myself when I can reuse something instead of sending it to the junkyards forever.