More Spring Inspiration In My Home

A couple weeks ago I shared a Mini Spring Home Tour, and over the past couple weeks I decided to freshen up my front porch (that was desperately needing it) and my front room/entry area as well! As always, all of my updates are extremely budget friendly… which means they are mostly thrifted finds or things that I make/redo myself. So I hope this offers a little more inspiration for simple but pretty things you can add/change to a home!

For over a year now, we’ve been working on making little changes to the front of our home to give it a little more curb appeal. You can see the before HERE. I first painted my front door and shutters HERE. Then I whitewashed the exterior brick HERE, and added carriage-style hardware to our garage door HERE.

Well, just this week, we added trim around the door, hiding the holes left by our previous owner’s screen door. I painted it with exterior acrylic paint and it makes the door look finished! This update only cost $24 in MDF trim and I installed in just a couple hours. Major bang for your buck, in my opinion.

 I also built that little hanging ladder garden, and will be showing more of that later. The flowers were all bought at Lowe’s and were something like $2 a piece. The planter stand was also bought at Lowe’s, and with some inexpensive tulips and daffodils, it really creates a welcoming feel!

I FINALLY found a pair of Pier 1 wicker chairs on craigslist for a great deal, so I sold my hand-me-down wicker love seat (which paid for the chairs)!

Since adding these cute chairs and repositioning this chippy table, this space is actually being used now! It’s been nice to come out here in the evening (we’ve had a couple of warm days this past week) and chat on the phone with family or just people-watch.

 

The pillows were reused from last year, and the seat cushions were found at HomeGoods.

I found these little potted hydrangeas at Aldi (small grocery store) for only $5! They are my favorite flower and it makes me so happy to see them growing!

 

Speaking of Hydrangeas… I don’t get everything right the first time… I wanted SO bad for the 6 Hydrangeas I planted to thrive in that spot between the two boxwood bushes in front. But alas, they didn’t want to. They barely hung on all last year. St Louis sun is just too hot and dry for them. So, I transplanted them to the back, against the house, where I have another hydrangea bush that is huge and thriving. In their place, I put 2 (and I may add a 3rd) rose bushes. Rose bushes love St Louis full sun, I’ve been told, so I’m hoping for better success with these pretty ladies.

 

One thing I love about living here is how early Spring comes (comparatively-speaking to when I grew up in Alaska and when I went to college in Utah)! Every year, by the end of March, Spring has sprung! I love it!

 

Alright let’s go inside, shall we?

This vintage church pew I painted last year, serves as our entry. Baskets below hold gloves, hats and scarves in the winter and spring, and flip-flops, hats, and beach stuff in the summer. I added a throw from World Market (with coupon), a couple of pillows that were on my front porch last year, and that cute floral pillow from my daughter’s room (which has a complete makeover in the works!).

This shelf with hooks serves as my mantel, but a bit more functional. I added my favorite photo of the temple where Bruno and I were married, some old bottles with faux branches, and a couple spring prints from free printables I found online.

This one I found out about from my friend, Danielle’s, Spring mantel with vintage artwork.

Adjacent to this entry bench, on the wall that gets the best light in this room, is our piano (still awaiting a finish refresh) with the spring herb printables I drew, and the picture frames I built. Tutorial on the frames coming next week!

I’ve showed it before, but, since it is in our front room, it only makes sense to show it with the rest of the room, so you get an idea of the layout!

I love this angle of the room. Walking down the hallway from my room, I see this view every morning and it makes me happy. That china cabinet I found and gave a makeover to last year and I’ve finally gave it a purpose… housing all of my ironstone collection and some faux flowers.

 Excuse me, while I show way too many pictures of my collection! haha

 

 

 The famous green sofa needed something “Spring-y” but not too colorful and I was thrilled when I found this fabric at Joann’s to make some pillow covers!

The fabric is by Robert Allen and is called Spring Mix Aloe, and has a thick linen texture. I love them.

 I bought more of the fabric to recover a pair of Eastlake parlor chairs, the same way I recovered this chair and revealed earlier this week. This desk area isn’t a part of the front room, but I thought I’d show how cute it would look as an office chair!

Back to the green sofa. If you are new here, I only call it famous because I painted it last year and I still love it. It isn’t hard or crunchy… it’s only gotten softer with time and use!

These roses were fresh cut from the rose bushes I planted out front!

The two main makeovers I did last week, specifically for this post, was this coffee table makeover (it used to be all blue… which was pretty, just not right for the space and I kept putting off refinishing it):

…And this trestle end table I built and painted (free plans HERE):

 The finish on the top is one that I am most proud of. It was a lengthly process that included dark walnut stain, classic gray stain, some special walnut mixed with classic gray, white-washing, then dry brushing with white. It is THE PERFECT driftwood finish, in my opinion.

This trestle end table was featured on Ana White’s site yesterday, which is always an honor. She has made such a huge impact on the DIY world, and especially on me! I love to create and build and she encourages those attributes in everyone, making women feel like they, too, belong in a hardware store, buying lumber! 🙂

So that’s it! Hope you enjoyed the rest of my home tour! Come back next week for a dresser makeover, the picture frame tutorial, a rug pad review!