When my parents bought their waterfront condo in Oregon, it was fully furnished. Awesome, right? Free stuff!
Yeah, except that most of the decorating was done in a style that isn’t my mom’s at all.
She’d like a nautical beachy cottage look like this…
But the whole condo was decorated in an Asian theme like this:
Maybe not quite that bad but almost.
So while I was visiting last week we sold a bunch of things on Craigslist to one couple who wanted all the Chinese furniture pieces and décor that we had.
And then we got down to work trying to update and lighten up the entryway.
This is the before shot walking into the condo:
There were these two green shelves that we painted off white and distressed with sand paper.
My mom painted the main wall a slightly darker color so it’d be an accent wall. Ooh la la, aren’t we interior decorators with our accent wall?!
While she painted the wall, I painted the baseboards white which took 17,000 coats of paint.
My mom finally purchased the Pottery Barn bench and shelf she’d been wanting for forever and a day. She had ripped a picture out of the catalog and saved it for a long time until I convinced her to bite the bullet and buy it.
I have a talent for making my mom spend her money.
A couple days later a bunch of boxes arrived and the process of putting it together started scared us. We were like two blondes in a circular room trying to find our way out. We took more parts apart and at one point almost built a teepee.
{scared face}
I also painted the closet doors that are right next to the entryway. They definitely need another coat of paint, but it already lightens and brightens up the room a lot.
I talked to my mom this morning and she was painting the doors with a 3rd coat and also repainting the walls and ceiling. They’re going to be the same color but hopefully fresher and cleaner looking with a new coat of paint.
We hung a shell mirror (my hus found it at HomeGoods) by the door so we can stare at ourselves coming and going! perfect.
Multiple construction prayers and Hail Marys later, we got the bench and shelf put together:
We ordered rattan baskets to go in each cubby hole, but they haven’t arrived quite yet. My mom would also like to get a few cute pillows to throw on there.
And we put in a new light from Home Depot (the very first picture in this post shows the beauty that was previously there.)
The inspiration picture from Pottery Barn:
It’s getting there and I feel like we made some good progress in a few days. Go ahead and call me Candice Olson. <—I love all of her designs on her show, every single one.
Eventually my mom would like to have hardwood floors put in instead of the carpet that’s in there now.
And I’m working on convincing her to buy this bed set that’s she been wanting for a long time:
You spend 1/3 of your life in bed so why not have the one you want?
Are you an HGTV’er or find it totally boring? Which shows do you like?
I like House Hunters International, Divine Design and Love it or List it.
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{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
My friend who just moved to Colombia is going to be on House Hunters International. He said it doesn’t air until December, so they can’t tell anyone about their house until then. I loooove house hunters!
that is exciting!
My husband and I were contacted by House Hunters Int’l when we moved to Beijing, China for his job. We didn’t end up doing it, but we were so bummed to find out the whole thing is staged. You already live in the house the person “picks” at the end of the show. They just find 2 other places to film that you pretend to consider. I guess I should have figured, but it was kinda like finding out there is no santa.
I like My First Place and House Hunters. The flipping shows were pretty cool too but I can only watch so many episodes of that. Awesome job on the remodel thus far. The end result is usually always worth the fifty million pieces you have to put together to reach that point.
I love house hunting shows and decorating shows probably a little too much. My favorites are House Hunters (but NOT international….that’s the only time I turn it), Love It or List It, Property Brothers, and For Rent.
I think your mom should buy that bed too. It’s super cute.
(Funny how I come out of lurkdom over HGTV.)
have you seen the prices of candice’s rugs? holy shizzle mizzle….starting price for an 8×10 was like $4000. makes me wonder what her whole project costs. but i do love her show!
My husband and I love shows that buy houses and fix them up. It’s like a chocolate addiction!
Your redecorating posts are my favorite next to your race reviews. I think mainly because I have no vision and it gets me inspired to put new crap in my house.
And I totally agree on the bed. That’s one thing in your house that you should love.
We don’t have cable, so no HGTV here. Loving that bench and shelves, though. I would love one in our entryway!
Nice work, ladies! I’m impressed. I love HGTV but I haven’t watched it in years. Then last month we got rid of cable and I started a blog and now I have to stay current with the latest news and celebrity gossip via Facebook.
P.S. and SkinnyRunner.
Just FYI, House Hunters is a staged show. What you see is not what really happens. There was a recent article on it that was quite interesting. http://hookedonhouses.net/2012/06/15/hgtv-responds-to-the-house-hunters-scandal/
I love the nautical look!!! Very cute. I’m design-challenged and watching shows like that is just like fantasy to me! ha ha ha. I could never make it all come to life!
I’m very impressed with you ladies! I am not in to decorating AT ALL. But since we just moved into a new house, I’ve had to learn to get a little better at it!
I LOVE the inspiration photos! If I lived near the ocean (or even any body of water!) I’d love to decorate nautical style. It might look kinda funny in my house in Alberta (prairie country)!
Wow! The entry way looks great! I don’t own my own home, so I’m not into home decorating or projects yet, but I’m sure I will be. My parents are always finding ways to spruce up the house.
The transformation is awesome- it looks so good! What a difference a coat of paint makes
She should get some cute nautical-looking navy stripe pillows for that bench and it will look even better than the one in the original picture!
Wanna come to Nova Scotia and help me decorate my apartment/ convince Ryan to make it NOT look like a bachelor pad??
nice work!! you & your mom make a great design team.
Love, Love, Love Candice Olson!!!! Also, Property Brothers is a fave too! Love It or List It cracks me up b/c of the sometime crabby/catty portions of the show.
OMG if I was rich I would totally have Candice Olson come decorate my new house. Now that we are in the planning stage of building our new house I am freaking out cuz there are soooooooo many choices to make when starting from the ground up. Oh and when you and your hubby and hubby’s buddies are building the new house the thought can be kinda scary
I am totally cracked out on House Hunters too!
I have been looking for a bench with the cubbies for our bedroom. I am going to be heading to pottery barn to get me one. And I am glad your mom is updating. I don’t know if I would want to look at the asian theme. It doesn’t seem to match the location & house.
I LOVE HGTV and Candice Olson too. I get so inspired, but then end up doing nothing. We have so many things we want to do around the house, it’s overwhelming. My husband and I have been talking about putting in hard wood floors for years, maybe one of these days it’ll actually happen!
I swear Peter wakes up every weekend morning early because he wants to get is HGTV and DIY shows on because I find them DEAD BORING!
Nice job on the remodel! Me and my mom would be very confused. Your mom NEEDS that bed – it is no longer a want.
Wow, you and your mom make a great team:) Are you for hire? Lately I have been liking the beach theme too but it will be a while before we can change things around. I like just about every show on HGTV. If I would only spend the amount of time decorating as I do watching HGTV I would actually have an awesome and completed home:)
That bench is going to be super cute with rattan baskets! I love HGTV – I don’t have it right now because I’m too cheap to buy cable.
Love the new look… i gasped when i saw the asian pics, lol, glad it wasn’t as bad as that!
I love HGTV and DIY… I love the show where the guy seeks DIY-ers out in Home depot. I always put on my prettiest dress to go now just in case.
Can’t read some of the post because there’s a moving Nike advertisement that just takes me to their facebook page if I try to close it. What I can see of the post looks cute, though!
sorry about that! ill email the ad company and see what’s up.
Great remodeling work! Doesn’t it feel good successfully sell stuff on Craigslist? I sold a couple things this weekend and loved getting cash for stuff we haven’t used in years that was taking up space in our garage.
HGTV is one of my favorite channels too and I LOVE House Hunters Int’l. Its fascinating to see how people live in different parts of the world.
Ah inspired! The light colors do wonders! My husband and I will be looking for our own place now that we have moved (again) but we plan on staying put for this one! Omaha, NE is my home again!
Nice job, you and your mom make quite the decorating team. Glad you encourage her to spend money for things that she will enjoy!! Love watching the HGTV channels.
I can’t believe nobody named Property Virgins! That’s another one of my favorites, along with pretty much every HGTV show (except Property Brothers, yuck!)
I love HGTV. My favorite shows are House Hunter and House Hunters International. I love the international version of the show because it shows me just how spoiled I am to American design, etc. Like some of the places I’m floored over how they will have to live and the cost of it all so usually I’m watching that one slack jawed, haha. The condo is really coming together!
I love watching HGTV but get overwhelmed in actually doing the projects. Looked like it was a fun house project though!
I love love love house hunters!
I want to marry David Bromstad, but sadly, I’m pretty sure he bats for the other team. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE HGTV. I’m an addict. I usually am watching it and stalking you simultaneously. hmmmmm……..
yeah im pretty sure he does too.
Is it sad that I’ve never painted anything? DH is a painting contractor, so he’s much more efficient than me.
I love home decorating & house hunting shows! I am very SLOWLY redecorating a couple rooms in my house. Currently working on my bedroom. Sadly, budget is always an issue, but it’s getting there.
I love that bed! My husband built a similar one for us. If nothing else is one TV, I know I can flip to HGTV and House Hunters will probably be on.
My mom would love those Chinese jade pair that’s on the wall!
My fiancé and I are obsessed with HGTV. Growing up my mom always wanted to watch it and I hated it. I was shocked when I discovered how awesome it was…mom was right
I love HGTV. Have you ever seen the show Kitchen Cousins? I’m kind of obsessed with it right now and they are going to be the guest judges on Designer Star next week.
I love Divine Design, and HGTV. For a while I wanted to be an interior designer just like Candice Olson.
I used to be obsessed with HGTV. Not so much anymore. I think running took over – before I was running so much (i.e. like 3 years ago) every weekend was some kind of project. Now I’m just trying to focus to get my stinkin’ bathroom done already.
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