Board & Batten Wall

I'm excited to talk to you about my favorite project to date, our board & batten living room wall!

One thing you should know about me:

I'm a sucker for charming character.

When we bought our home earlier this year, I was well aware that the style of this home wasn't exactly what I wanted. I love unique features, lots of character, truckloads of charm. 

Basically, I want a cottage. A cozy, old cottage.

But I live in Tennessee... and we seem to have a shortage of such things!

I knew immediately that I wanted to transform our cookie cutter home into our dream home. Anyone can add charm, it's all in the details!

This board & batten wall was a step in that direction.

Yeah, I had to keep it real on the before picture!

We'll call that the 'junk corner.'

Classy.

In this picture you can really see how the wall color, couch color, and carpet color are all running together.

The flooring will eventually be changed out to hardwood, but something had to be done about that wall.

Let's get ready to rumble! My mister, starting the task of measuring and marking :)

Woohoo!! Progress.

....Almost there!!!

Seriously, such a big difference. 

Eeeeek! I'm over the moon for this wall, and it's not done yet!

Next, we are going to add a shelf that runs along the top of the board & batten wall. And I will fill it with pictures and such ;)

    

This project took us around 3 days to complete.

Total cost was right around $120.

Not too shabby :)

XOX,

Amanda

About an Armoire

 Originally, I had no idea where I was going to put our armoire. I was absolutely going to incorporate it somewhere, but it isn't small so I couldn't just shove it in some corner and be done with it. Besides the fact that I think it's a lovely piece, it has history. It was my husband's childhood armoire, and when we were first married it came with him. In our first home, we had it in our master bedroom. Then, it got a makeover and went into my youngest son's nursery.

It gets around.

In our new home (which happens to be house #2 for us) I couldn't see it fitting in to our master bedroom or either of the boys' rooms. 

Dilemma.

But our living room is quite big, and once I saw it sitting in the living room I knew it had found its new home! 

Now, I know that it's part of a bedroom set and not intended for a living room... but I really don't care. I like it in there! Besides, isn't this an exciting time in the world of home decor... a time of 'rule breaking' and following your little decorating heart?!

Yes, yes it is. Thank goodness!

Obviously, my rule breakin' isn't too extreme... yet... but stick around, it's bound to get crazy!

Anyways, rambling here.

So, our little armoire had found its new home and all was well with the world... but the longer I looked at it... the more it bugged me. 

Not so much the armoire itself, but its color.

*Please excuse the random cardboard wrapping paper thingy, but my house has little ones who love to add their own flair to things ;)

I knew from the beginning that I wanted this new house, our new home, to be filled with light. I wanted to walk in to each room and it feel like a breath of fresh air. I love color, don't get me wrong, but I wanted it in splashes, here and there. I wanted the color in each room to pop when I wanted it to. I wanted our furniture, wall colors, flooring etc to each have character but also serve well as a canvas. So that at any time I could splash colors here and there, and they would really stand out. And once I was tired of those splashes, I could easily change them.

I was really loving the progress of the living room, but the pieces just weren't meshing as well as I'd hoped. Every time I walked into the living room, my eyes were immediately drawn to the armoire. And it wasn't giving me the light, airy feeling I was searching for. 

Time for a makeovah!

I consulted with a couple of family members about my plans to paint the armoire a really light color... white to be exact. My grandmomma was most concerned. She was afraid it would all be 'too light.' I had to admit, I had the same fear... the fear of blandness.

But my heart longed for a change, and caution to the wind, I went for it!

Once more, the before picture, for comparison.

Drum roll, please..............

Ahhhh, there it is! That 'breath of fresh air' feeling I was searching for! 

At last, my vision realized. Coming to life before my eyes. 

My heart soared, birds sang, and this little house wife was finally at peace.

For like, 2 seconds, before realizing my next project for this room.

But boy were those 2 seconds super fulfilling!

This room still has a loooong road ahead of it, but she'll get there... one day at a time, one project at a time...

In the meantime, I'll be here... planning, plotting my next move

:)

-Amanda

And so it begins...

When we moved in to our new house (some time in January?) I was already itching to start creating. 

Something. Anything. 

I just wanted to make something beautiful for our new place. Ya know, kind of put our mark on it, our claim on it!

Since, we hadn't come up with any big plans as of yet, and I'm not one to just jump into a huge 'reno' without really thinking it through (I've got commitment issues when it comes to home decorating) I decided to stick with something smaller. Less damage would be done that way.

While surfing Pinterest, part of my home decor Bible, I had run across so many stunning chalkboards; big chunky chalkboards featuring meaningful (and sometimes super fun) quotes. I was immediately in love with the idea of having a chalkboard a part of our home. And not just some little chalkboard either, I wanted a statement piece!

After getting online and doing a little window shopping, I quickly realized that I did NOT and was NOT going to pay retail price for one of these babies. 

For the chunky/vintage look I wanted, I would have to spend in upwards of $200 for a 'ready made' one. 

Not happenin'

Not for a decorative item that I could just make myself. 

And did.

For around $45.

After a quick trip to Hobby Lobby (or The Lob as it's known around here) I was ready to get started!

Did you know that every other week Hobby Lobby puts their frames on sale for 50% off? 

Well, they do and I snagged one up for one heck of a steal!

Threw a couple of bottles of chalkboard paint into the mix, and a scrap piece of plywood we had hanging around in the garage, and viola. Dunzo!

Now, obviously my lettering needs divine intervention, but that I can work on!

But that chalkboard, well, she's near and dear to my heart. My very first project/craft here in our new home, and she's just beautiful!

......now I just have to figure out where to stick her =/

............

Thanks for reading along!

-Amanda

Oh, hello there!

Hey y'all! I'm so very excited to finally be putting this blog together and showing all of the things my husband and I have been up to lately. But before we get to all of that fun stuff, let me introduce myself and my blog.

 My name is Amanda and I'm a happily married wife and mother of two. I'm a southern girl born and bred in the beautiful state of Tennessee.... and I love DIY decorating. And that leads us to the introduction of this blog :)

No matter what the project is, I love to document everything my husband and I do around our new home. Seeing the transformations, all of the before and afters, just give me the motivation to keep moving forward with new and exciting undertakings. I'm kind of addicted to making this house our home. 

My husband; my precious, patient, hardworking husband is basically the muscle/contractor/calculator/carpenter behind every project. I pretty much just come up with all of the ideas, sketch them out, give them to my husband, and photograph HIS work :)

We make a great team ;)

So please stick around to see what adventure we'll take on next!

-Amanda