It’s been almost ten years since we purchased our 1920’s home, and during this time I dreamed of renovating our upstairs hall bathroom into something, well, nicer.  The bright yellow painted tile (whyyyy did someone paint it this color?), cracked floor tile, cracked plaster, and cramped space combined to make this bathroom my least favorite spot in our house.  I never even painted the walls because I disliked it so much.

For years I dutifully knelt at the tub, bathing my babies . . .

helped brush teeth at the sink with marred console legs . . .

and potty trained at the toilet with a wall-mounted tank. 

I did my best to overlook the poor aesthetics over the years, but in addition to the cracks and plethora of yellow tile, the plumbing started failing in here.  Multiple plumbers told us we should plan to remodel “soon” (meaning, before we were forced to do so in a state of emergency).

So we started planning, and saving, and planning some more.  And we decided that the time was right to say goodbye to our vintage yellow bathroom.  We got our plans, got our permits, got to work (well, got to work picking finishes.  We hired a contractor to do all the hard stuff!).

Being the “old home meets modern living” lover that I am, however, the plan for the new bathroom had it looking very similar to this bathroom – just updated for 2019 – with important items being salvaged and re-used (hint hint: this 1927 date stamped mirror will probably look familiar).

But, before we said goodbye to our 1920’s yellow bathroom, we had a little fun.  We pulled out the Sharpies and let the kids write all over the walls.  They were beside themselves.  If you ever do a gut renovation on a bathroom, I highly recommend that you give your kids a Sharpie and let them go to town. 

Their joy over writing on the walls made our last night with the yellow bathroom bittersweet.  Lots of memories with little kiddos in this space, but hopefully the new hall bathroom will serve us better (and look much better)!

I cannot wait to show you the fully remodeled bathroom!

-Bre

I like to complain about how I don’t have a shopping mall near my house – you know, where I can park my car and hit up 150 of my favorite stores in one fell swoop.  #firstworldproblems as they say.  I do, however, have a Paper Source five minutes away, so I really should get over it.

One of my favorite things to buy there is flat wrapping paper because I use it for everything BUT wrapping gifts!  Quality wrapping paper is a crafter’s and decorator’s best friend, and I use it all the time.  Over the years I’ve shown many ways to use gift wrap in decor, and in this post, I’ve rounded up seven of my favorite ways to decorate with wrapping paper. 

Scroll through and click on any of the posts to get the full tutorial for that project.  I bet you’ll never look at wrapping paper the same way again.

Seven Ways to Decorate with Wrapping Paper

Give your home big style on a little budget with these seven ways to decorate with wrapping paper! It's so easy to add a pop of personality to your decor with wrapping paper. Let me show you how!

Make DIY Canvas Art with Wrapping Paper

No artistic talent needed to create beautiful DIY wall art - just pretty wrapping paper! Learn how to get a custom art look with wrapping paper in this post.

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DIY Plywood Poster Frame

Pop some pretty wrapping paper on a piece of stained plywood and you'll have instant decor!

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Wrapping Paper on Furniture

Use beautiful wrapping paper to upgrade a plain piece of furniture. Read this post to see how to do it!

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An Easy to Make DIY Wall Art Hanger

Printed flat wrap sheets pair perfectly with DIY Wall Art Hangers! Learn how to make these great poster frames in this post!

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Line Shelves With Pretty Wrapping Paper

Give the undersides of shelves a pretty pop of paper! Why hide the pretty factor in your closets? See this closet makeover and how wrapping paper was used to upgrade the look.

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Upgrade a Bookcase with Wrapping Paper {IKEA Gersby Hack}

Line the backs of bookshelves with pretty paper! This instantly upgrades the look of a plain bookshelf.

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Wrap Books for a Decorative Touch

Prop items on books to add height and visual interest! Wrap the books in pretty wrapping paper and you'll have an even more interesting look!

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-Bre

The coffee table – it’s the center of any good living space!  Arguably the workhorse of the room, the coffee table serves as the TV remote storage spot, foot rest, snack holder, and, of course, repository of gifted coffee table books never intended to actually be read.  Because this jack-of-all-trades piece of furniture performs so many important functions, it is imperative to pick exactly the right one for your space. 

Because I have picked the WRONG coffee table for my living spaces (on more than one occasion), I am happy to have finally gotten it RIGHT, and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned about how to choose the right coffee table for your space with you! 

Thank you to Steinhafels for sponsoring this post.  The opinions expressed are all my own.

As I mentioned, I’ve had coffee table mishaps in my past.  Most recently, the coffee table I had in my basement living room comes to mind.  Among other problems, the scale was ALL WRONG!  Look how small the coffee table is in comparison to the couch.  It was basically the length of one couch cushion, or 1/3 the length of the couch. 

Thankfully, this poor excuse for a coffee table is no longer part of my basement living room.  Instead, I now have the beautiful Jude Cocktail Table from Steinhafels tying everything together! 

Before heading to their store in Vernon Hills, Illinois (Steinhafels has locations throughout Wisconsin and Northern Illinois –each with amazing kids’ play zones, hospitality areas with coffee and cookies, and helpful but not over-the-top salespeople–and you can shop online, too!), I did my research on how to choose the right coffee table for this space.

Pick The Right Size Coffee Table

First, I made sure to pick a coffee table that is the right size for the room and sofa.  I learned that the coffee table should be approximately 2/3 the length of your sofa.  Clearly I had that ALL WRONG with my little blue coffee table pictured above! 

This new table works with the length of the sofa so much better!

Plus, I learned that the height of the coffee table should be the same as the couch, or 1-2 inches lower.  Bingo!  This coffee table is spot on. 

When considering the size of the coffee table, the shape is another factor to consider.  Because my new coffee table is in a small and narrow living room, the oval shape is absolutely perfect for avoiding bruises on the legs (this is a real problem for clumsy people like me!).  If your room is large and can accommodate a bulky rectangular coffee table, then go for it!  But if you have smaller scale living like me, you may want to consider an oval shape, round, or narrow rectangle coffee table.

Choose a Style That Complements the Room

Once you have the proper size coffee table nailed down, make sure to choose a table that works with the rest of the decor in the room.  I picked the little blue coffee table because it was cheap – not because it worked style-wise.  Big mistake!  I regretted it almost from the moment I bought it.

My new coffee table, with its wood, metal, and concrete-look finishes, blends with all of the furniture and decor in the basement living room.  The transitional style will work for years to come, as it has just the right amount of modernity without being trendy.

When shopping for a new coffee table of your own, make sure to take into account the other furniture pieces already in the room and choose something that will blend with your decor style (but not blend in!)!

Think About How You Need the Coffee Table to Function

If your coffee table is going in a formal living room, a glass top table could be a wonderful choice for you.  But if your coffee table is going in a high-use, family living space, you’ll probably want to consider a more durable (and fingerprint smudge-proof) material for your table. 

A HUGE benefit of my new Jude Cocktail Table is that it has casters underneath, which make it extremely easy to move!

This is such an important feature for the coffee table in my basement living room, because this space serves many purposes, including as a guest room with the pull-out sofa.  Being able to easily move the coffee table in any space is a game changer, and I’m guessing most of you could benefit from an easy-to-move coffee table, too!  Watch this video to see just what I mean! 

I’m so happy to have my basement living room freshened up with this beautiful new rolling coffee table from Steinhafels.  It has made a huge difference in the look and feel of the room, and I know we’ll be spending lots more time downstairs going forward!  Thank goodness I ditched my little blue table and finally learned how to choose the perfect coffee table for my space.  I hope these tips were helpful, and as always, let me know if you have any of your own to share!

-Bre

We’re four weeks in to gut renovations of two of our bathrooms, and while we’re not finished yet, we’re starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel!  This renovation journey has not been totally smooth sailing, but we’re making it through and have learned some important things along the way.  If you have a bathroom remodel in your future, read these five tips for surviving a bathroom renovation and file them away.  They just might save you from losing your mind! 

This post contains affiliate links.  To read my full disclosure policy, please click here.

Tip 1: Pack it up, move it out

Before construction starts, make sure to get everything out of your bathroom.  Take this time to toss unwanted or expired products and pare down to the necessities.  My husband and I each filled up our favorite travel toiletry bags and limited ourselves to those items during the bathroom renovation.  

The rest of the items went into moving boxes that we purchased at Home Depot.  (I didn’t know you could buy moving supplies there before this renovation!)

If you have spaces other than your bathroom that are impacted by the renovation, you’ll also want to prepare those areas.  My husband and I have moved out of our master bedroom and into the basement while construction is ongoing.  

He chose to pack and move everything in his closet and dresser, while I packed some clothing items and put the others into bags in my closet and dresser.  The clothing items that we brought to the basement with us now hang on a portable rolling clothes rack, which has been a lifesaver!  Once we’re finished using the clothing rack for ourselves, our guests can use it when they visit us, or we can use it to hang coats during winter parties. 

Basically, you don’t want to be interfering with construction because you need to get something you left in the space, or be unable to get it because it got damaged or thrown away.  So, pack carefully and plan ahead!

Tip 2: Protect Your Surfaces

If you’ve renovated anything in your home, you know how much dust flies around!  It’s pretty crazy!  Because of that, it pays to protect surfaces and areas that you don’t want to be covered in dust.  

My kids’ bedrooms are upstairs where the construction is happening, and they had to stay there during the project.  We covered their bedroom doors with thick tarps, and then used these awesome tarp zippers to create entrances for them.  During the day we zip up the tarps, and unzip at night to let them back in to go to sleep.  This has helped tremendously in preventing dust from spreading throughout their rooms! 

Other closets on the second floor that we don’t need to access got covered with regular tarps (no tarp zippers).

Finally, in our bedroom, we put our box spring and mattress into mattress moving bags, to shield them from the dust, and wrapped our furniture pieces with moving stretch wrap. 

Tip 3: Stock Up on Cleaning Supplies

Our contractors are awesome and try their hardest not to destroy my house, but construction is messy – there’s no way around it!  Before the project started, I stocked up on cleaning supplies, and I’m so glad I did!  Every day after they leave, I have to clean the upstairs and downstairs – it’s that dusty and messy.  

Here are the must-have cleaning products for a bathroom renovation:

• Broom and dust pan
• Mop and bucket
• Floor cleaning solution (I’m using Murphy’s Oil for my hardwoods)
• Swiffer WetJet for in between mopping sessions
• Pledge and dust cloths
• Swiffer dry cloths
• Vacuum cleaner (if you’re in the market for a new vacuum, I absolutely LOVE my vacuum cleaner)

Mentally prepare yourself for cleaning every single day.  There’s no way around it.

Tip 4: Be Flexible

No matter how prepared you are for a bathroom renovation, there are bound to be hiccups in the process.  You need to expect the unexpected and mentally prepare for there to be collateral issues.  During the course of this project we’ve had to open up a wall in our foyer downstairs, have had water leaking through the ceiling of our living room, failed our plumbing inspection because of the tub faucets I chose, and had major plaster cracking in my son’s bedroom adjacent to the hall bathroom. 

It’s always something.  But we get through it, and so will you!

You also need to be flexible with your own schedule and routines. I can’t tell you how many times my day has gone off course because of this project.  I’ve had to drop everything and go to Floor & Decor for tile and tile-related items more times than I can count.  Or I’ve had to push dinnertime to finish cleaning up the mess from the day’s work.  

Tip 5: Communicate

Finally, my biggest tip for surviving a bathroom renovation is to communicate!  

First, make sure to keep the lines of communication open with your contractor.  He or she needs to know about concerns you have, how you want various design aspects to look, who the main point of contact on the job is, and more.  Making sure to do a daily check in on tasks accomplished and the next day’s plan will help you feel more in control during this stressful time.

It’s also important to communicate with your family members to see how you can help one another cope with this intrusion in your lives.  I have been shocked at how frustrating this process has been for my kids.  Letting them talk it out and helping them understand how this will benefit them in the long run has been helpful.  Being able to vent my own feelings of stress to my husband has also been important for me to handle the intrusion into my daily life.  Since I work from home, I am here while all of this is going on, and since I’m serving as my own designer, I’m fielding all of the questions from the contractor. 

While renovating a bathroom is definitely stress-inducing, it will serve as a place of calm and relaxation once the project is finished!  Follow these tips and give yourself grace, and you’ll come through unscathed – I just know it.  

If you have any tips of your own to add, please leave them in the comments!  

-Bre

Though I would love to be one, I am not a plant lady.  All plants have a hard time surviving in my care.  So when I updated my living room last month and decided to add a fiddle leaf fig tree, I knew I needed to go fake.  I know there are others of you like me out there who cannot keep plants alive, so let me show you how I made my fiddle leaf fig tree look real!  (And p.s. – this trick will work for making any fake plant look real – not just fiddle leaf figs!) 

This post contains affiliate links.  To read my full disclosure policy, please click here.

After searching for realistic but fake fiddle leaf fig trees online one day, an ad popped up for this faux fiddle leaf fig from a surprising place, and the price could not be beat!  I promptly ordered it and was ecstatic when it arrived on my doorstep.  After unboxing it, I loved how the plant itself looked, with its varying shades of green and intentional imperfections, but immediately knew that it would take a little bit of work to get it looking real. 

For one thing, the tag had to be removed (lol), and for another, that tiny black pot in which the fiddle leaf fig rests was not doing it any favors.

So, I ran up to Dollar Tree and picked up everything I needed to make my fake fiddle leaf fig tree look real!

First, I put the small black pot inside a larger plastic pot. 

Next, I placed the pot and the fiddle leaf fig inside this gorgeous, embroidered basket. 

Everything looked okay from this angle (minus the tag still hanging from the tree), but I knew that anytime you’d look in the basket, you’d see those ugly plastic pots.  Not very realistic at all!  So, the next step was to cut a piece of black foam core board from Dollar Tree into a circle that fits inside the basket, with a slice cut out for the fiddle leaf fig tree trunk to rest in. 

Once that was cut, I laid the foam core board circle into the basket, resting it on top of the larger plastic pot, and shoved the fig tree trunk into the cutout. 

Finally, I pressed Dollar Tree craft moss into the basket, allowing it to cover up the foam core board.  I used two bags of craft moss to cover this piece of foam board. 

Now the fake fiddle leaf fig tree looks real!  But thank goodness I don’t have to water it or try to keep it alive. 

I moved it into the spot where my grandma’s painted green table was.  (Don’t worry – I kept that table!  I moved it to our basement family roombasement family room for a pop of color and to replace the junky table we had down there.) 

It adds a nice touch to the room and looks great with my new brass sconces, too!  (Those were also a bargain!)

I just love how easy and inexpensive it was to make my fake fiddle leaf fig look natural.  Can you believe it basically takes some dollar store supplies to do it?  Do you have any fake plants on which you could use this technique?

-Bre