My home office makeover

Hi everyone! I am so stinkin' excited about my latest DIY project! My husband and I just finished with my home office makeover. I spend a lot of time in here working on my Young Living Essential Oil business, so I wanted it to be a pretty and relaxing space. Mission accomplished!

My office wasn't bad before (pictured above), but I had a vision in my head that I wanted to come to life. I kept the same paint color, Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray, on the remaining walls and put up shiplap on the focal wall behind my desk.

My amazing and very handy hubby put up the shiplap. I am a very awesome woodworking assistant, though! hehehe :) We used maple plywood underlayment from Lowes. They were nice enough to cut it into 5 and a half inch strips for us. That saved us a TON of work! We started with a thin piece of molding at the top since my ceilings in this room are angled. We marked the studs in the wall and penciled in lines so we would know where to nail with the nail gun. We used very random placement with the longer boards and filled in with the shorter boards. Nickel's were used as spacers... I'm still finding them in the carpet! lol

I used Sherwin Williams Antique White for the shiplap wall. I went with this color because it is the same color as the trim in the rest of the house. I ended up deciding to leave the nail holes at the last minute... I LOVE the rustic look of the holes. I was going for an old look for this project.

Earl, the amazing faux stag mount came from one of my favorite online home decor boutiques, www.paintedfoxtreasures.com I could seriously decorate my entire house with their items. Go check them out! They are very sweet ladies too!



I am so thrilled with how this project turned out! We put the shiplap up in a day, start to finish and it completely changed the room. This may be my new favorite room in our home! Only thing left for this room is installing hardwood floors. Hopefully, this will be soon! Thanks for reading!

Outdoor fireplace!

Hi everyone! I know it has been a very looooong time since I have blogged. I have really missed it! I've had several messages asking for details on our outdoor fireplace we had installed two years ago. When we bought the house 4 years ago, it was a brand new home that was just built. We loved everything about the house except the back yard! It was nothing but a big hill!

We had originally planned on putting a pool in. We had a couple of pool companies come out and draw up some plans, but found out we had a big easement on the back of the property. We also found out that the pool has to be several feet away from the back of the house... Our pool was going to be really long and skinny. Not what we were wanting. We went back to the drawing boards and decided that an outdoor fireplace would be perfect! We absolutely love it!

Here are a few pictures of the "backyard hill" we had to work with. Yikes! As much as my husband and I love to do DIY projects, we quickly decided this one one we needed to leave to the professionals! We hired a great company to do all the work from start to finish.

Our covered back porch was great, but we wanted to extend it by adding stone all the between the fireplace and the patio. My husband & I brainstormed our ideas for the space, put a few things on paper & met with the company. They loved the ideas we had and followed them exactly!

I thought I had some pics of the first days of work, but couldn't find them. They basically dug out of the hill, laid a concrete pad with giant rebars to support the weight of the fireplace, laid the stone pavers, and created a drainage system behind the fireplace & rock seating area.

The fireplace was brought in three pieces. I was jumping for joy the day it arrived! It was exactly how I wanted it to look like.

Once it was set in place, they began building the wood storage boxes. We had tossed around the idea of having a waterfall on each side, but decided on the wood storage boxes in the end. Glad we made that choice. Love how it looks when it is full of wood!

Next came the sod, adding the outdoor furniture we picked out and decorating! They were still cleaning up their messes and washing down the patio when I was decorating for Fall! I couldn't wait! 

One of my favorite times to enjoy the patio is at night, fire going, happy lights on, music playing... Ahh... So relaxing.

Now, we need to start thinking about phase 2 of the project. We would love to add landscaping all across the back fence. Thanks for stopping by! Maybe it won't be as long between posts next time!

Board and Batten Project

My husband and I had talked about putting up board and batten for a few months, but knew it would be a huge job.  This was one of our biggest projects to date, but made such an impact!  I am in love with how it turned out!

We started with some free labor...  Ha!  She begged us to help rip off the old baseboards!  This little girl loves anything DIY.  Just like her Mom & Dad!

The hubby then started cutting boards & nailing them up with his nail gun.  That thing is amazing!  Saves so much time!

Ahh... Starting to see what it's going to look like!  I seriously thought I was going to go crazy from all of the messes at this point...

My husband working hard.  Did I mention that this was his first big woodworking project without his Dad's help?  This man is amazing!  We had to put plastic up everywhere to protect the rest of the house from the dust.  Lots and lots and LOTS of sanding!

So close to being finished.  That's what I kept telling myself, until I realized how much painting I had to do.  I painted all of the trim all day every day for three days!

The finished dining room!  I am in LOVE with the light airy feeling in this room now.  All she needs now are some pretty hardwood floors.

The finished entryway!  My husband did such a good job on this project, I may just find a few other things to add to to the honey do list!

Thanks for stopping by!  You can see some before pictures of these spaces here.  Feel free to pin any pictures!