// REVEAL: KB's Workspace Makeover

Huzzah! A newly updated workspace for the new year! I'm ashamed to say how bad my workspace had gotten during the holidays a few weeks back. My computer went untouched, my desk became a catch-all for every discarded piece of paper, and I could maybe find my keyboard or mouse if I searched long and hard enough. It was bad. Like, bad bad. Don't get me started on how dingy my desk had become thanks to the far-too-matte white paint! I wanted to spruce the place up so I'd be more motivated to keep it clean and be productive with the new year. It was sort of perfect timing for my January Michaels Makers challenge because the theme was "New Year's Craft Resolutions." I had resolved to organize (!!! there's that magic word!) my work area and keep. it. clean! I had put it off long enough, right?

I went from having an entire bedroom as my "studio" to a mere 8 foot by 3 foot corner of the kitchen. (Yes... that picture directly above is the "before"... except it has totally been a lot worse... So embarrassing!) It took some getting used to, but generally speaking it's been a good change. I had so much fun decorating the nursery that I didn't mind giving it up for Linden. And I'm also the type of gal who can't really have drawers on her desk because I'll stuff them full of useless clutter and junk. Anyway, Mike built my desk last year and even though this wasn't it's original home or purpose, it fits perfectly in my little nook. I knew I wanted to liven the space up a bit by painting the desk, but I had the hardest time deciding what color. I fell in love with a color on a spray paint can at Michaels and that's what I ultimately matched it with. (The desk color is "Blushing" by Valspar). I knew I needed a high gloss sheen to keep it clean and wiped down, so I topped the pink paint off with some high gloss clear spray paint. So far so good! It's shiny and smooth and perfect! Did you catch the hot pink paint-dipped legs?! I think that's my favorite part! The hot pink matches the color on the backside of the honeycomb shelf.

Organizing my space was the next challenge. I opted to lose the dry erase board and cork board because there was no balance for me. It was either full blown explosion of stuff pinned to them, or bareness. Instead I asked Mike to build me some thick floating shelves and a matching honeycomb shelf so it'd visually match our living room (which you can see from my workspace). I also took advantage of a 50% off sale at Michaels to load up on a few organizational pieces like this super cute honeycomb lazy Susan and the hanging tier that goes in the center. That lazy Susan is probably my favorite new storage solution for the space because it holds so much stuff! Prismacolor markets, Sharpies, scissors, cards, glitter... you name it! It's incredibly functional. I also picked up this wire basket drawer set that sits underneath my desk and it gives my printer the perfect boost so it's easy to reach and use.

I have a few berry baskets hanging around on the desk and shelves and they hold various things like my post-it notes, alphabet stamps, and mini ink pads. The little pop of blue makes a small but sweet impact, but provides the perfect amount of hidden storage. And my absolute favorite "totally can't live without it now" thing is my Cricut Explore! Holy moly, I'm going to be doing ALL THE PROJECTS! It fits perfectly up on my first shelf and it's so easy to bring down to use. I've already made a handful of car window decals and I can't get enough! You know those people with an insane amount of bumper stickers on the backs of their cars?! That's going to be me with vinyl decals. They are SO MUCH FUN to make! (If you have any awesome Cricut projects to share, let me know! I've started a board on Pinterest and I've gone Cricut crazy haha)

I still have a few bits and bobs that I want to work on like finding homes for a few things and hanging a few prints, but overall I'm so happy with the space! We finished it up earlier this week and I've been so insanely productive ever since. It's nice to have a space that feels cozy and purposeful. My trusty lava lamp made the cull and it bears repeating: It's like my silly little productivity secret. I turn that baby on when it's time to get to work and then I flick it off when I'm done. I don't know why it works but it's made the cut for the last several workspaces. 

This has been the perfect first challenge for the new year because I feel like it's really set me up to do awesome things from here on out. My space may be super tiny, but I love it and it's mine! Can't argue with that!

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If you're looking for a project to help kick off 2015, drop by the Michaels' blog The Glue String for inspiration from all 30 of the Michaels Makers! If one of your New Year's resolutions is to clean out your closet, office or even your bedroom, check out these fun and creative DIY storage ideas. If you just need a place to store scrapbook paper, paint, markets and yarn, these craft storage systems might be perfect for you!

Thanks for letting me share my new space! Maybe this will motivate me to finish the rest of the house and share it soon. You know, we've only been living here for two years... ha!

An InLinkz Link-up

// Home Sweet Home: Bedroom Sneak Peek

Mike and I have been hard at work on a little mini bedroom makeover this past weekend. Our walls were a medium grey (much like the rest of our house) and we had very few things on the wall. It just felt so drab and boring. We knew we wanted to spruce it up a little bit before the baby comes, but we weren't really sure how to go about it. I knew what color I wanted the walls, and we planned to do some faux board-and-batten on the lower half. We still plan on actually doing that, but that was just too much for us to take on at this particular time. We repainted the whole room and that was all of the cash we spent. Everything else was refashioning things we had, building frames and shelves out of wood we had laying around, and finally hanging some artwork on the walls. We still have plenty left to do, but here's a little sneak peek at how it's coming along. We're hoping to have it totally finished by this time next week, but you know how that goes...

I'm sure I'll get an earful about how it's so girly or pink or whatever, and Mike can't possibly be okay with it. But he is (surprise!). I didn't show too much of his side of the room just yet because that's actually the part that needs to get finished. He hasn't really decided on artwork or decor just yet, so here's to hoping we can nail that down. It feels so nice to finally feel happy with our bedroom. The past year and a half has just been so "blah" when we went in there. I love that it's bright and happy now. I'll be sure to share the final photos so you can see everything (and link where everything is from) in case you're interested!

Not bad for only spending $50 on a gallon of paint, right?

// A Cozy Bed

There are few things I enjoy more than freshly laundered bedding. Especially white bedding! It always makes me feel like I'm in a hotel, ya know?

Mike and I agree on a lot of things, but one thing we don't agree on is the type of bed frame we want. Over the past several years we've had the conversation more times than I care to remember, and it never ends agreement. I love all things white and feminine. He loves low, platform beds and minimalistic lines. We compromised (if you can call it that) in East Nashville with some rustic palettes as the bed frame, just to keep our mattress and box spring off of the floor. Even still, we had yet to agree on a headboard. We didn't have one in East Nashville because our bedroom was mostly windows so we didn't want to block the light, but now that we have a full wall behind our bed we knew it was time to do something. We've tossed around the idea of doing our own tufted headboard, or a simple wooden one. We had a lot of weather scrap lumber laying around so we decided to whip something up just for the time being.

Mike built this simple rustic headboard in under 30 minutes earlier this week. It's such an easy project honestly. I wasn't planning on loving it as much as I do, but after an immense amount of support via Instagram I couldn't not love it, ya know? A few people have requested a tutorial on how to build your own, and luckily we have a lot of scrap wood left. Would that be something y'all would be into? If so, I'm sure we could make it happen! I feel like a lot of our woodworking DIYs are sort of hit or miss. Sometimes they can be too involved for anyone to want to tackle, but the great thing about this is all you need is a drill and a saw. Easy peasy! 

Do you have a traditional bed frame and headboard? Or have you DIY'd something yourself?! Toby will be growing out of his bed before too long so I'm constantly on the hunt for bigger and better ideas. Who knows how long our little headboard will last either. The great thing is it cost us exactly ZILCH so I'm not too worried about it haha! I want to do something super fun for Toby though... Hmm!

Adventures In Home Renovation - v.2

Well, we're making progress on the house! Mike, my stepdad, and a family friend laid the black and white tile to finally finish up the flooring yesterday. We chose that floor for both the kitchen and the bathroom. As for the pink in the bathroom... um, well... It was a beautiful shade on the swatch, and even dumped out into the pan. But once we rolled it onto the walls we were just kind of in awe. It was BRIGHT. We took some meatures to add in a little more white to the room, and then envisioned it with a white vanity, white toilet, white washer + dryer, and white shelving, etc. It still looks a bit bright here but I'm hoping it's much softer with the finishing touches. Cross your fingers for us?!

We had no clue what color we were going to do the bathroom and of course I cheekily suggested pink. Mike at first was like "Oh haleee naw!" and I was like "ha okay. Saw that one coming." Later that night Mike got all sweet and sentimental and said we could paint it pink. He said he thought it'd look good with the floor and at least it was a small room haha I know so many of you will side-eye that and scoff, but I think it's sweet that he'd agree to something so overtly feminine. We are going his route in the new bedroom so it's a nice compromise I think.

But the floor! Ahh, the floor! I am so excited about it. I love it so much. Now they just need to put down all of the molding, attach our new countertop to the cabinets, then paint the cabinet doors! We already moved our first (small) load of stuff into my office and I'm ready to get settled in!

It's an amazing feeling - seeing a house that was just kind of (mega) blah! and then transforming it into something that feels like home for our family. I am so excited!

Cottage Tour : Office/Studio

I feel like I should pre-face my office tour with a big ol' disclaimer: It won't look like this (hopefully!) for much longer. One of the first projects I plan to tackle post-honeymoon is rearranging + organizing my office. Right now there are just too many shoes and not enough area to cut fabric and store it. Since Toby came into the picture in February I've realized how impractical 6" platform shoes are. I plan on keeping around a handful of pairs, because the tag line of this blog does include "ugly shoes" afterall haha Mike and I are planning on expanding our online offerings via Etsy and a more legitimate e-commerce site later this Autumn so work and storage space is a must. I'll miss being surrounded by those shoes though!

I also am not sharing to many photos of my closet. It's huge (15"+ wide) but it's still a mess from getting rid of nearly 70 items last week. It also has shoe storage at the bottom of it, too. I'm really proud I was able to part with that much, so I'm trying to keep the trend going. The purses you'll see up top? Totally haphazardly thrown... and it's kind of embarrassing. I'll be cutting those down majorly and getting rid of some via Kaelah's Closet and the rest will be donated or given to friends. I see a lot of things changing for me over the next week or two, but I'm saving that for another blog post!

Anyway! Here's where I spend 8-15 hours every. single. day haha!

Desk + sidecart : Ikea
Chair : Reupholstered yard sale find
Tall cubbies + shelving : Lowes / Target / Walmart
White bookshelves : Walmart
Pink dresser : Restored thrift store find
Mugshot print : Larken on Etsy (via Renegade '11)
Dog breed illustrations : Tiny Confessions on Etsy (via Fab)
Dream Big caravan watercolor : Ella Masters
Gertrude / Taxidermy : yard sale + some paint + a wig

I didn't think about doing a resource list from our living room, but most of it was made/thrifted anyway. If you have any questions about the source of anything else (in this room or otherwise), feel free to ask below :) You can also see past home tours HERE! Happy Wednesday!

Pretty Art for a Pretty Home

I took advantage of a sale that went live on Fab yesterday to snag up some absolutely gorgeous art prints for our home. I've been slowly but surely collecting pieces from Fab, Etsy, and the like, to help outfit the walls that I've been scared to scar with nail holes. We've been living in our little house for almost 5 months (!!!) and the walls were so bare for so long. We really got a move on it the past couple of weeks and I think these 4 new prints will really help warm the place up a bit. Now if I could just stop putting off the frame buying!

Below are the 4 pieces I snatched up from Fab yesterday. They're from the illustrator Alyssa Nassner, and I'm so excited for them to arrive. Once they're here I think I'll finally be ready to share the home tour! Not that it's anything too exciting, but you'll get to see how we live now I suppose. The sale is still live for another day and a half, so sneak on over and snatch up a few favorites. You can always find her work on Etsy for full price if you need some time to dole it over. xo

And these are 4 others that I put in my cart to consider for probably entirely too long. You've probably seen several of these floating around on Tumblr lately! 

Found anything fabulous on Fab lately? I'm always open to suggestions for other awesome artists to support! Have a lovely Saturday! I'm spending the day with just my mister, and I'm sure it'll be so nice!

Sunday Funday

Happy April! Mike and I are spending the day at my parents' house, along with Toby, so he can adventure with Pawpaw and maybe ride the lawnmower once more (he loves that!). We're also dropping by a really really pretty barn to see if it just might be the perfect fit for our October wedding. Cross your fingers for us, we're hoping this one is a winner!

I thought I'd share this picture of our bedroom today. We found a man at our storage unit that has dozens upon dozens of palettes and we were able to procure 11 of them for some handy dandy projects. We used the first 4 as an improv bedframe! Yea, you can predict lots of stubbed toes and whatnot (totally happened the first night at 5am!) but it gives our room a little rustic charm. We plan on using the others to assemble planters, signs and various other doodads around the house. I know palettes are totally the "new black" (aka blogger cliche), but they're fun to work with!

And man, few things beat the beautiful natural light that pours into our bedroom each and every day. I love it.

(and yes, before you ask, that is totally Ron Swanson on Mike's nightstand. Like how our nightstands are totally polar opposites? :P) April sponsors will be up on the sidebar later today, so come by and say hello. Then tomorrow I'll finally be posting my 24 before 25 list and then I'll promise to shut up about growing older. ;)

 What are you getting into today? Whatever it is, I hope it's lovely! xo

Home Sweet Home

Our little family has been hard at work making our little house a home. Most of the inside is done with the exception of wall hangings and a piece of (small) furniture here and there. The outside really needed some TLC though. It was a cute little cottage in it's own right, but we wanted fresh flowers, colors, and plenty of dirt for Toby to dig in.

The past week or two has been loads of fun. We've picked out flowers, hanging baskets, and started to mock up our small raised bed that we'll have in the back. We're excited to plant a few of our favorite veggies (zucchini, squash, and red peppers please!) as well as have a nice little area for an herb garden. The transformation so far has been awesome to watch. It may not look like much, but we're kind of loving it! We "built" three new flowerbeds (two at the porch, and the one circular one in the yard). We also added the birdbath and a strawberry plant on the porch! (Apparently we also inspired our neighbor, Flo, to start beautifying her yard! She sent her son over to see what we were up to so she could put him to work! We really like her, she's the sweetest lady!)

In case you didn't see the house when we first moved in last month, this is what it looked like:

(and yes, someone was using the rocks in the front to spell out things with haha)

I'd say we've done a good job so far! Can't wait for the rest of our plants to sprout up!

Do any of you have green thumbs? (Confession: I don't. I once forgot to water my succulent for THREE MONTHS. I'm amazed it survived.) I'd love to know your tricks! Happy Friday!

Edited to add: Today we're putting in the red mulch! So exciting! Seriously, it's so pretty!

Home Inspiration

It's crazy for me to sit in our loft and think that this is our last week here. It's so incredibly bittersweet. We're so tickled to be moving across the river and to have a home, a fenced in yard (soon!), and a bathtub (!!!), but we can't help but sit in bed every night and tell each other how much we really love it here. We're not sure we'll ever live anywhere with this much character again, but who knows. Our loft totally isn't for everyone, but we love how "home sweet home" we made it feel. But we're also really excited to do that with our new house, too! I can't help but scour Pinterest on the daily for home projects that I want to sink my teeth into. I shared a few in a recent TiLT post but here are some things I'm hoping to give a whirl over the next several weeks (or just things I think are neat!)!

♥ this inspiration board right behind the monitor ♥

♥ this chic and minimal jewelry display ♥

♥ this is exactly the look we're going for in the bedroom ♥

♥ this would be perfect for our kitchen ♥

♥ this DIY wreath made of shims ♥

♥ this is a super cute storage/display idea ♥

♥ this is another cute jewelry display idea ♥

♥ while i'd never do this much chalkboard in my kitchen, this is cute ♥

♥ these pallet shelves are so cute! ♥

♥ these beautiful handkerchiefs in frames ♥

♥ this has made me consider building a new desk for our bedroom ♥

♥ loving this wood on wood look! ♥

Do you have a specific aesthetic? (Better yet, do you + your partner agree on the same style/look of things?!) Mike is much more modern/minimal than I am, and I love shabby chic and feminine... It's always a fun tightrope to walk in our home! (At least he's handy with some power tools!)

Happy Tuesday! It's going to be a crazy week. xo