Wednesday, April 26, 2017

One Room Challenge Dining Room Makeover Week #4: Wallpaper, Chair Rail & More


It's One Room Challenge week 4, and we're getting to the point where we can really see how the dining room is going to come together. The mood board is one thing, but real life results can look a lot different. Fortunately we are loving how the dining room looks so far.

In last week's update, I told you how we managed to get a bit of work done over the Easter long weekend. Unfortunately this last weekend we were out of town from Friday to Sunday for my son's basketball tournament. That's the job when you're a parent though, right? I'm sort of glad in a way, because I think it's fitting if I can show you how we managed to make over our dining room in just five weeks while still conducting our regular business, like work, tax preparation, cooking, cleaning and parenting. The blog is called Woman in Real Life after all. And real life means you don't often have a lot of spare time for diys and decor.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

DIY Terrarium Made With a Candle Jar & A Jewelry Organizer


quick diy open terrarium - made with a cleaned out candle jar and a jewelry or accessory organizer

Earth Day is just a couple of days away. To celebrate and show gratitude for the beauty of our world, I added a happy little piece of greenery to our home. I don't keep many plants in the house. In fact, most of the time we don't have any plants in the house. You see, I'm not good at caring for them. (I forget to water them.) My husband has more of a green thumb, but he over-waters in my opinion. We used to have a few plants on the kitchen counter and I would often find pools of water around them, staining the counter. (He'll deny that.)

I couldn't help but catch the succulent fever that's going around. I see so many sweet little succulents and clusters of succulents around the web - nestled in vintage containers, topping wine glasses and peeking out from glass terrariums.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

One Room Challenge Dining Room Makeover Week #3: Trim & Tools


Thankfully this past weekend was a 4-day weekend for us, without any activities to shuttle kids to. We did dog-sit a large puppy and attend two Easter dinner parties, but there was at least some free time to work on our dining room makeover for the One Room Challenge.

That's a good thing, because we are at week 3 (out of 6) already! Seeing as week 6 is the reveal, we have three weeks left to go. Where are we at with it? By last week, most of what was accomplished was painting. From there, we planned to move onto wallpaper, picking a paint colour for the secondhand china cabinet and installing some of the mouldings.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Another Common Writing Mistake You're Probably Making Right Now - Decor Bloggers Take Note

Another common writing mistake you're making right now! Decor bloggers, take note - your fireplace isn't wearing a mantle.

A few weeks back, I wrote about one common writing mistake you might unknowingly be making right now. That post involved it's vs its. You might want to check it out and see if you are on the right side of that writing rule.

In this second post, I take a look at another common error I see in writing all the time. One of my pastimes is decorating. I enjoy decorating our home and sharing diys here on the blog. I also love to look at design magazines, websites and other blogs that feature decor inspiration.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

One Room Challenge Dining Room Makeover Week #2: Preparation & Paint


The weeks fly by quickly, don't they? Especially when you are renovating a whole room in just five weeks. It has already been a week since the launch of the spring One Room Challenge. You might recall from my first post that we are making over our dining room to create a more sophisticated space that coordinates with our newly renovated foyer.

We progressed fairly well considering that we're doing all the work ourselves and both my husband and I were busy with other things every single day of the week. Things like our regular work and orthodontic appointments and then an entire weekend taken up by our daughter's dance competition (me on duty for hair, makeup and cheering on) and our son's basketball tournament (he on duty for driving and cheering on).

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

One Room Challenge Dining Room Makeover Week #1: The Before & Mood Board


Is your home everything you want it to be? Chances are it's not. Most of us don't have the budget or the resources for the perfect home. But doing renovations yourself certainly makes a home (or room) makeover more accessible. My husband and I started redecorating our home back in the fall with our big foyer makeover, which we revealed in early December.