I get a lot of emails from readers asking for tips and advice on sprucing up their interior spaces or fixing up their thrift store finds, and I’m happy to correspond.  One reader posed this question addressing the exterior of her home, so I thought I’d answer it right here !

“Dear Ms. Kate,  We just got married and purchased our first home a few months ago.   We’re very excited about our new place, but the outside of our house is a tan box and doesn’t look much different than the rest of the cookie cutter houses in our neighborhood.  We’re looking for ways to pretty up our front porch and front yard.  Could you possibly share some ideas on how we can turn our plain Jane into something special, maybe some weekend DIY projects we could tackle ?  Thanks so much for any help.  Jenn R. ”

Congratulations to you and your husband Jenn on buying your first home – what an exciting moment !  Welcome to the world of home ownership where you’ll now spend more weekends than you imagined at the local home improvement store !!!

Since my husband and partner-in-DIY happens to be a real estate appraiser with over 20 years experience in valuing homes, I shared Jenn’s inquiry with him.  Mr. CG has inspected and appraised thousands of homes, so together we came up with these ideas for eight weekend DIY projects that will instantly add curb appeal to any home. 

1.  Paint or replace your front door. 

It’s amazing how much a pop of color on a front door or a fresh coat of semi-gloss can make your ‘plain Jane’ stand out from the crowd.  As long as there are no homeowner’s association restrictions, go right ahead add jazz up your door with a fresh coat of paint.  It’s a good idea to prime it first for durability.  Be the inspiration for all your neighbors – no doubt, they’ll be painting their front door in no time too !

 The Little Greene; BH&G; Blissfully Domestic; Hooked on Houses; Apartment Therapy; Yellow Front Door

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve owned this laminate and particle board media center for about fifteen years.  It was purchased in the leaner years from a discount furniture store.   Back in the 90s, we used it in our family room to store all of our media equipment, but then we eventually moved it to the kids’ play space.  For the longest time (like most moms) I was just grateful for the storage it brought me and I didn’t care what color it was.

Then all of a sudden I just couldn’t take it anymore.  I was staring at the faux maple laminate last week and I decided the day had come.  It was time to paint it!  It’s not that I don’t like blonde wood, I just don’t like faux blonde wood.  It’s the fakeness that bothers me.

So it was time to rid my world of the maple tone and give it a fresh coat of white paint.  This is a relatively sturdy piece, so rather than go out and buy a new system, or build one myself, I determined the best way to save it was to simply paint it.  The best part of all is, I changed the look of this piece in 48 hours!

Here’s the Before:

Here’s the After:

Here’s how I painted my laminate storage center.   

Read the rest of this entry »

First of all, thanks so much to all of you for your very kind compliments from yesterday.  I am so delighted you love this grown up girl’s room as much as my girl does!

Here is the project breakdown, plus source guide for inquiring minds !

Amanda at The Eck Life wrote: “That chandy looks like the one I just put in my laundry room – did you get it a Home Depot per chance?

First let me just say, big thumbs up from me for putting a chandy in your laundry room!  To you, Amanda, I bow.  And yes, my friend, I did find it there last year !  In fact, when our local Home Depot EXPO closed its doors last summer, I picked this one up in the store for $50 bucks.  Sadly, it sat in her closet until last weekend. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past months, I’ve been putting just a few finishing touches on my stepdaughter’s bedroom, and one of the last things I wanted to do for her was inject the space with a dash of big girl glam.  As you know from my fixation on metallic finishes, I’ve been wanting to silver leaf something, anything, for quite some time.  An inexpensive bronze Kmart lamp became the victim.  I’ve had this lamp for over three years and it was just looking a little, well, plain to me.  So rather than buying her a new lamp, I just decided to give it a glitzier look. 

For the faint of heart, the lovers of standard lamp bases, and the devotees to dark bronze, avert your eyes, look away, look away !   Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Now, for those like me who adore all things shiny, feast your eyes on my latest transformation, a lamp refinished in silver leaf. 

Before and After:

This project was incredibly simple, and took only a few hours to complete.  Here’s the play by play. 

Read the rest of this entry »