Ann, thanks for that huge compliment. Glad I could inspire you. Lord knows I've gotten lots of inspiration from this board. I gained my courage to paint a ceiling something other than white. I love the affect to show off crown as I did in the foyer and also to bring down a tall ceiling to make a narrow room feel a bit cozier. Here is the guest bath ceiling and walls. Altough that is not a color I would use normally, it matched the background of the toile that I'm putting in that room. It's BM Yorkshire Tan.

Jesemy, fabulous wall.

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It was more of a functional decision than a decorative one, but giving up on a couch and loveseat combination in favor of a sectional was the best thing we did inside this year. We had a great deal of wasted space in our very small living room with the couch and loveseat (furniture arms take up a lot of space!), and the sectional makes much more effective use of the room available.

Also, we did a few things outside I'm very pleased with. We ripped out a couple of dozen overgrown and unsalvageable shrubs, demolished our collapsing garage in favor of a cute little shed, and completely blew our budget to smithereens to get the perfect fence for the back yard instead of just "good enough".

jesemy, BRAVA BRAVA BRAVA (I'm assuming you're a female :))! That's some *masterful* trim cutting and installation! Was there any use of woodfiller or did you really make all those cuts so perfectly?

Congratulations again! I'm inspired now to get the rest of our simple little trim replaced around the house.

johnmari, to you it doesn't seem like much, but from where I'm sitting I see the big changes you've made and of course I just adore your little shed.

jesemy, wow. I love the wainscoting. I just showed my DH before I read the post. I told him I want to do that. He said, "do you know how much work that is, the angles are a nightmare." Hee hee and then I read the post. Good job!

I think every-one's improvements are wonderful. The reason i like this forum so much is the way everyone pays such attention to detail, and everything looks fantastic.

The best decision I made in 2008 was the improvements we made to our family room. We had two very messy shelves over my desk, and it always drove me crazy because I couldn't keep the bookshelves neat. So I designed a secretary and we dove in head first and built it with just a few minor modifications along the way. I was delighted with the outcome. We also had to re-do the top of the TV unit because we bought a bigger TV.

Then we bought a new leather sofa this summer, so we stripped the leather off the old sofa and reupholstered
my hubby's grandfathers chair. We also reupholstered two
other goodwill chairs in the room, that we found this summer. So now I am happy with my family room, which is the room I spend the most time in...There is a lot of stuff in this room, but it's all memorabilia and means a lot to us for various reasons.
Minimalist is not in my vocabulary.

This is the view from my grandma chair, before it was very messy shelves.

My grandma chair that we got at goodwill, We covered it in brown chenille and made a matching footstool.
We also made over the brunch tables in front of the sofa.
I'll be happy if we get half as much done this winter as last winter.

Thank you Jesemy! Love the wall up the stairs - that really looks awesome & so much better than plain. Brutuses, love that you painted the ceiling - I want to do that too if I can ever talk DH into helping. Johnmari, you place looks fabulous! Cliff_and_Joann , your rooms looks so warm & inviting - great decorating job ! thanks all for sharing the inspiration! Bonnie

johnmari, what you've done with that house really sings out that people who love and appreciate it are finally its caretakers. The budget-busting choices will pay for themselves in time, I'm sure. Good onya :)

Mari, I gotta agree....the place is looking great. That fence really does a lot for the overall look of the house. It grounds it on the property, I think.

Love this post & seeing the lovely transformations

Mine was changing my dull, boring laundry area (in basement) to funky, fun, and cheery place

Here is a link that might be useful:

I'm blown away by everyone's wonderful spaces and the work you've all put into them. There is such talent on this forum, and I'm completely out of my league because I'm not the least bit handy and can't even paint. I do like to decorate and arrange furniture and arrange and rearrange paintings. My husband painted the dining room and the front room, which is a soft green.

My best decision this year was to gut our bathroom and redo it. Not only do I love it, but due to financial problems, if it hadn't been done when it was, it would have been another couple years. I am so happy we did it! Oh, next year, I hope to say the same about the master bath. (really needs it.)

WOW! It's been a busy year . . . congratulations to all of you for your great accomplishments. I've loved looking at all the pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Arlene

Hands down - restaining all the hardwood floors on our main floor from golden oak to a dark brown. The dark floors may have seemed "faddish" a couple of years ago but I think the look of them is somehow both traditional and modern. There is also the worry that they are high-maintenance and show more dust but with floors like these, both DH and I actually enjoy vaccuming (crazy, I know!) For me, nothing has given our home as much of a dramatic change as the floors and I am so glad we did it. It's provided the tone for the style of our house and creates the perfect basis for all of the paint, furniture and accessory choices we will be making. I still feel butterflies when I look at them. I LOVE THEM.

jej, you have quite a vibrant and creative imagination. You've turned your laundry room into something really nice. You see I don't have that kind of imagination or creativity and wish I did. That's why I have to live on this board. LOL

Ingid, love your corner fireplace. It's really pretty. Your new paints are also very nice.

redroze I love dark floors. Yours look great.

Thank you, brutuses, bonniee, amysrq and flyleft. Brutuses, it doesn't seem like much to me because it was only three projects, they were just in-your-face ones. "Shoulding" is a nasty habit but I feel like I should have gotten so much more done. (BTW, I adore your bathroom sink and plan to do much the same thing whenever we get around to redoing our butt-ugly bathroom.)

Flyleft, we do expect that the fence will pay for itself over the long term in durability and ease of maintenance. I know many people cringe at the very thought of vinyl fencing, especially for a 108yo house, but it's really the most practical for us and it does look good IRL. Perhaps if the house had its original shingle-and-clapboard siding (or something like it) instead of the vinyl siding I might have gotten more obsessive about the authenticity factor, but I figure it'll probably be a good 20 years before we can even think about a full exterior restoration, if we're even here that long. (No matter what DH might think, this is not the forever house.) Matching that porch lattice is really what cost us, since only a couple of companies make that style - it would have cost half as much had I gone with a more generic fence.

The interior, however... sigh. It's still an unpresentable dump. So much work to do, and I'm stuck in that "can't do A until B is done, can't do B until C is done, etc. etc."! Since I blew so much on the fence project, most of the interior stuff is going to have to wait some more. At least football season is almost over and I'll get DH back on Sunday afternoons for some small "honey-do" things.

My best decorating decision of 2008 got delivered on the 30th.

It's new hand-scraped maple flooring for the living room, dining room, hallway, and master bedroom. It's sitting in boxes in my living room accustomizing itself to the heat/humidity of my house before it gets nailed down.

It will get installed next week, so I don't know if it counts for 2008 or 2009, but I've wanted it for years and I found a great deal, so I dove into my savings and I'm finally doing it. Finally, that hideous carpet will go bye-bye.

I'm SO excited!!!

redroze: Your gorgeous dark wood floors are part of what keeps me firm in my desire to have dark hardwoods. (I'm getting closer to actually getting them - keep your fingers crossed for me...)

Redroze--I love the floors! I have golden oak as well and want to go darker. May I ask what stain you used? Did you do it yourself or hire a floor refinisher? They are so striking!

Thanks everyone for the compliments on the stairs.
Jewel1, I bought a book called Decorating with Architectural Trimwork at Lowe's and put wainscoting in my dining room about 3-4 years ago. During that time, I bought a miter saw and a little brad nailer for about $100 bucks each--that made a big difference. There are mathematical (my geometry is very rusty) formulas provided to figure out the angles, etc. in the book.

Flyleft, believe me, there is wood filler in a lot of those joints! Some would work out perfectly and then the next one would be horrible! Once all the wood was up, I used wood filler where needed and went around the interior and exterior of each of the "boxes" with a thin bead of caulk because there would be gaps due to either uneven walls or curved wood. I spent hours sanding each joint to make sure the finish was super smooth before painting.

Nancy (jesemy is a combination of my daughters' names, Jessica and Emily)

What a wonderful thread! You all have such lovely homes! Our best decision this year is one of the cheapest we've done around here - we redecorated our finished basement. We replaced the then-popular hunter-green-and-beige-with-wallpaper-border-and-beige-berber with this: SW Blonde on the walls, similar colored lush frieze carpet, our tired but comfy family room furniture and my first CL purchase - a pub table and 6 swivel stools for $175! I used to call it the dungeon, but our family has had so much fun downstairs this last month!

Now I'm headed out thrifting to redo our family room. Happy New Year!

Finally hiring a painter to get the hideous (PO's) bathroom painted. The sink change, beadboard, and plaster repair had been done in 2007, and I had been working on painting for months in my limited spare time, and it was only about half-way done. Painter finished it in a day and a half. Voila.

Thank you Brutuses! I definitely think "love" is the right word for describing our feeling towards dark floors. ;-)

Pbrisjar - I'm crossing my fingers for you too!! Post pics if and when you get them.

Jesemy - They are site-finished red oak hardwood. They are a really weird mix - I wouldn't have agreed to mixing two different brand names myself - of Minwax Red Mahogany and Duraseal Ebony. It's mainly the Ebony though, as I kept telling him to add more of it in to the bucket to get it right! I found it weird that he used Red Mahogany as I wanted a greeny/grey brown, not a reddish brown. They turned out great though. Add me to the list of your wainscotting admirers - they are FABULOUS.

Bungalow--please tell me what blue you used. Very pretty!

kitchendetective, it's Ben Moore Van Courtland Blue, one of the historic colors. It's a very gray blue. Hands down my favorite paint color that I've ever used.

I'm a little slow but got my LR painted and changed out the drapes with the help from you guys on the selections!
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

We got a new front door. What a difference! The old door was cheap and ugly. We don't have a foyer, and the door opens into our living room. DH surprised me when he agreed to a door with glass.The new door lets in so much more light. I have some pleated shades ordered because he can't stand for people to be able to see in the house, but I think I can live with them. My next project is a table for under his new flat screen TV.
Happy New Year Everyone,

I started hanging out here on the decorating forum, reading posts and looking at the photos, many photos, started looking at what I liked and why etc. Woke up my decorating gene that had been in hibernation for a long time! So I have been buying a little here and there arranging and rearranging, and just having a blast.

This forum helped me turn my teeny tiny front porch on this old house into an enjoyable summer room! I was inspired to make curtains out of painters canvas from what I read here- Someone I want to say Lynn newmexico? made some for her fab summer kitchen.
I found a loveseat on CL and picked up a vintage shelf free at auction.Painted the furniture and made cushions. Its small but it was wonderful to sit and have coffee even in the rain- I would just close the sides to stay dry and then enjoy the cool rainy breeze.
I have gotten more compliments about my front porch.
It was mild enough one day during Christmas week to sit out there and read. The curtains are put away for winter as are the summery pillows. After Christmas everything will be put away for summer. I admit to covering the chair cushion in Christmas fabric and that I put a Snowman pillow on the green loveseat cushion to make it blend in with the Christmas decor.
Who knows perhaps I will be able to post photos of the inside of my house one day in 2009!

WOW!!! Lots of great re-dos and projects. Brutus, your guest bath is absolutely gorgeous! When did you move in~i've been out of the loop since moving.

For me it was moving into my new house. I'm still working on decorating, and adding a few 'new' pieces of furniture. Normally i'm a thrift store/estate sale/consignment store junkie, but feel a new house deserves a few NEW pieces of furniture. Like cooperbailey, maybe i'll learn how to post pictures. ;o)

Wowza - so many wonderful stories & pics! Brutuses, I LOVE your bath! & johnmari - your stairwell is drop dead gorgeous - great job! jejvtr - your laundry pic is inspirational - seriously; I should print out a copy & hang it at my laundry area, which, in its current state, will NEVER be seen in public lol!

The other pics & stories too - all of it gives me renewed energy & hope - after spending most of the day yesterday in bed, methinks from breathing in too many unventilated poisons while working on the house :( I'm ready to tackle it again today :)

My best decision last year was also a new front door, with glass, letting in more light. It turned into ripping out the wall that created a tiny, DARK "foyer" (if you could call it that) & opening up the LR, which turned into a redoing the entire LR. Definitely more work than I had anticipated, but SO worth it!

Old entry:

New Door - still unfinished, but you get the idea :)

moonkat, the super-duper stairwell was jesemy's, not mine - don't want to take credit for her hard work! Your new front door is VERY cool, so much different from the usual run of entry-doors-with-glass.

lol johnmari I realized that I had goofed when I opened this thread again - there were so many pics I wanted to comment on but my brain couldn't retain it all (I'm still on my morning coffee & not functioning yet) - your house (& fence) are SO wonderful!

& that door, btw, was a $225 CL find - I had been looking for the right door for months.

Of course, it turned into a multiple thousands of dollars project :( Here's part of the reason - the rotten floor underneath the old tile :

Getting a sliding door installed between the kitchen and pantry/laundry room/mudroom. I got a solid oak one and finished it to match my cabinets. It is surface mounted, like a barn door, not a pocket door; I found out about them on these forums. It took a while to find someone who was willing to try installing it, as no one had ever heard of one before. Every time I glide that door closed to hide the messy laundry room IÂm happy. Keeps the kitchen warmer too.

Best decision was to *NOT* decorate our new home (moved in 2 months ago). I'm itching to paint, change hardware, hang some nice drapes, but am waiting until I 'know' the house and our needs better.

Best home improvement decision was to install closet systems in the coat closet and bedroom closets. Loving all the extra space & organization!!

I had several decorating decisions this year but I think the one I love the most is my new chandelier in the dining room. It is just so pretty and now I love entertaining. There is still more to do in the dining/living room but one step at a time.
Thanks to everyone on here for their advice too. My guest room was a big hit and I have updated pictures so will put those in another thread.

Here is my new chandelier.

Hoyamom, it's gorgeous! Details please!

Runninginplace,

Is your LR BM Quiet Moments or 50% Gray Wisp? I got confused in reading your original post and reply to Brutuses.

I think my favorite decision was my leather sectional and drapes in the FR.

Now I just need to get my MBR done and laundry room done and I'll have every room the way I like it - just in time to start over!

It's a Shoenbeck (sp?) Bagatelle - DH and I wanted to replace the builders brass chandelier and we both agreed on this one. We "bonded" putting it together ourselves and hanging it - took us about 3 hours! LOL

Oh, and btw - YOUR wainscotting up the stairs is incredible!! Do you have a landing at the top of the stairs and did you turn the corner with it keeping the boxes straight or tilted? It is breathtaking.

Reno, Love the bathroom!
So many other wonderful decisions made by everyone. The floors, furniture, wainscotting, fence, laundry and door. These are the ones that I can remember since I can't scroll back up. I didn't see anything I didn't like, just can't remember who did what.

My best decorating decision was when I mixed all my old paints with some new and achieved the colours I have been trying for for years. I was able to paint the living room, dining room, kitchen, family room, hallways downstairs, main and upstairs. Three bedrooms and upstairs bathroom. The garage doors, shutters, porch posts, front door and deck.

Linda

I didn't realize how many decorating decisions and mistakes I made in 2008 until I saw this thread. Luckily my mistakes were in the paint department and easy to fix.

These are the ones that stand out for me in 2008.

Installing soapstone countertops in my kitchen.

Hiring someone to stage/arrange a few rooms in my house.

Had an extra set of white slipcovers made for my FR sofas.

All three of my children wanted to have their rooms and bathrooms painted. It was liberating to see and allow them to pick the colors for their rooms. Their color choices reflected their different personalities and was a far cry from what I chose for them when they were much younger.

What a fun and enjoyable thread!

"Is your LR BM Quiet Moments or 50% Gray Wisp? I got confused in reading your original post and reply to Brutuses."

Carole, I'm sorry, I sometimes refer to both colors and I know it is confusing!

The walls are BM Quiet Moments mixed at 50%.

NB: I started out aiming for the Restoration Hardware Silver Sage color, which in BM is Gray Wisp. That was a bit too dark for my taste so I went up the chart a few shades, and then experimented with the Quiet Moments till I hit the right look for what I wanted, which was the 50% mix.

Make more sense now? Hope so :).

Ann

Renofan, you turned your bathroom from dreary to pretty. Good job!

Lynn, I really like all the mahogany in there -- looks great!

Brutuses, oh my, that bathroom is just lovely! I love the tile and the vanity. I am eager to see pics of the rest of your house. Are you living in it now? The tan walls and ceiling and crown moulding are just sumptious.

Johnmari, you didn't show a before and after I don't think, but your house has loads of curb appeal.

Bungalowhouse, oh my yes the new draperies look a lot better. Your bathroom also is a huge improvement, and really, really nice. That's my kind of decorating.

Ingrid, don't sell yourself short. Your dining room is one of the prettier ones I've ever seen. It's very inviting. I'd be thrilled if mine looked that good.

Mimi, I agree, the new mantel is much better.

Paintchips, I love the lamp! Wish I could see the rest of it.

(Cliff and) Joann, I love your decorating style. You built that secretary above the desk yourselves? It's gorgeous. I never would have thought of stripping the leather off your old couch and reusing it -- very clever.

Jej, I remember when you did your laundry... very cheery indeed and I'm sure it makes your time there more pleasant.

Natesgramma, wow what a buy!

Bonnie, that's a truly beautiful bedroom and the paint color looks great.

Jesemy, love the wainscoting. It looks very beautiful. I have thought a lot about doing mine, and you inspire me. How did you figure out the math?

Cooperbailey, what a lovely job you did on your porch! Makes me wish I had one.

Moonkat, I just love your door, and the tile job you did in front of it too. I'm sorry you had such a tough time with it, but now you know it's all structurally sound and nobody got hurt. I've looked on CL for a new front door and never saw one that cute.

Hoyamom, your new chandy is breathtaking!

Hope I didn't miss anybody -- I'm happy for all you talented people and your wonderful accomplishments.

I forgot, I guess my best decorating thing was getting my sofa, chair, and fainting couch rebuilt and re-upholstered.

I think they're going to look a lot better sitting on a new maple floor, though. :-) I guess I'll count that for this year.

This thread is wonderful, isn't it. I absolutely love everyone's hard work and creativity!

Hoyamom, there is a landing at the top of the stairs, so I ended up changing the boxes to mimic the stair shape.

Oceanna, I used a book I bought from Lowes to help figure out the math. I also sketched it out on graph paper and ended up tweaking the measurements a bit until it looked right to me.

Here is the top--I plan on getting a few more hummingbird prints off of eBay to add in this area.

{{!gwi}}

That is incredible Jesemy - I would love to have something like that on my stairs but I bet there aren't many people that can do what you do. Wow!

Hoyamom, you can do it! Just know that it will take 3 times longer than you thought and you will use 30-40% more trim that you originally bought because of all the mistakes you'll make. Mix in a few (ok, alot!) of foul words when you screw up and poof--the stairs will be done!

Seriously, with some planning, patience, and a sense of humor, this can be done by anyone--I'm proof! Start off with an easier project such as a small room and invest in a how to book (there are several at Lowes and HD), a miter saw and a brad nailer--it's way too hard using a backsaw and hammer (tried that when I did the dining room)! You will need a helper with the chair rail as the pieces are so longer, but after that, it can be a one woman job cutting and nailing up the "boxes."

Jesemy, just a quick question- did you get the under peice that you put under your chair rail at Lowe's too as is , or did you buy a flat peice of wood and miter the sides yourself?

How much do I love this forum! I am so needing a new computer as I seem to shut this one down each and every time I try to do a picture! However, until the MacPro comes, here's the decision...we pulled up all the "old lady" carpet in the sizeable living room, bad green marble in the entry, and horrible laminate in the dining room (all picks from the PO)..and put down the brick pavers that go with the kitchen and most of one side of our house...I cannot tell you what a difference it made! I'm so excited! Put the Peacock Blue on the walls in the DR, Toadstone (by Valspar) in the entryway and the ceiling of the DR...new drapes and voila! I now don't absolutely HATE my house! Although it was a pretty intense week and a half, it was so worth it! And big thanks to everyone here for being so inspiring...I live on this board!! Happy New Year, all! And on to the guest room and my DD's room/bathroom.......:)
Kathy

Oceanna, here are a few "befores" from when we bought the house in August 2007 that show the walls-o-green. Everything was so scraggly and unsalvageable that we tore everything out except for the large trees, which we had seriously pruned. You couldn't even SEE the garage from the front, it was so buried in the green stuff. It will have much more curb appeal when we do some replanting but I don't know if we'll get to that this year. Still, it looks much better and cleaner without all that mess.

Unpruned ~100yo maples and PO's idea of a flower garden:

A 15 foot forsythia, quinces, several horrible thorny things and Norway maples (aka invasive pest species) that completely blocked any light on the left side of the house:

The Shrubs That Ate The House... ratty, leggy lilacs and something unidentifiable that looked sort of like serviceberries. We were going to try to save these - the lilacs had been planted by the original owners during WWII - until the invasion of honeysuckle vines that began to attack the porch. Trying to get the vines out of that thicket was a nightmare.

Barb5, I bought all the trim at Lowes. Here is a closeup of the bottom piece with the curvy profile piece on top. I mitered the end of it and cut another piece to slide in to finish off the end after seeing it done on "This Old House." Hope that helps!

Nancy

{{!gwi}}

Nancy, Thanks so much for your pictures. Your chair rail looks terrific and I think really balances the banister on the other side. Thanks for the inspiration!