September always feels like a start of a new year, I’m perpetually on the school year calendar. And with the “new” year, comes a renewed sense of optimism and mental strength to manage new home projects. These projects range from swapping out bedroom bedding to a couple easy fixes to elevate a laundry room to refreshing a half bath with new fixtures and paint.
I was never a huge fan of this house I bought and wasn’t ready to leave my last house, but with Rob moving to Alabama, I wanted a smaller home more centrally located to make my life easier, and I’m trying to get past my sadness of leaving the last house and make this house more me which I have with a ton of bigger projects in the first year here like building a deck, repainting the entire home, updating the primary bathroom, etc. But now its time to dig in with some smaller projects that make all the difference.
Primary Bedroom Refresh
My bedroom updates all started with the thought that I needed new curtains and after buying and returning two sets, I realized I just need to hang the curtain rods higher and make these ones work (which I have yet to do.) But this curtain project did bring me to Target where I found this striped bedding and the clearance frames above my bed. I love the stripes and simple framed art. Plus, I bought this rug on major clearance which added some depth this room needed.
Everything I’ve done in this room has been on a budget and happy with how everything turned out. I ordered some new decor like a couple faux plants for the main black dresser and also bought an inexpensive cord cover that makes the dresser area look much more polished (you can see this in the photo above.) In a perfect world, I would further personalize this room with maybe a moody wall color and wall molding, just to make it more my comfy bedroom vibe and I’m considering hiring my go-to painter for the job!
This part of my bedroom is to the right of my bed and was previously occupied by an old desk that just collected clothes and garbage and we needed more storage here. The solution? Find a small affordable dresser. I wanted something light to contrast with the rest of the dark furniture but still tie in well and I think the black handles pull it all together. I added this Amazon arch mirror and this cute little frame from Target.
Laundry Room Refresh
This laundry room is far from done, but it’s crazy what an entry rug, laundry pod containers and a wood “countertop” can do for the space. Before, I just had the dryer sheets and laundry pods in their original ugly boxes and containers on top of the washer and dryer. It was messy and looked unfinished. For $100, I found a piece of countertop that I first measured to make sure it would fit perfectly on top and it made all the difference. Then I bought this laundry pod and dryer sheet container set. It’s a farmhouse vibe which isn’t my style, but they’re cute and the price was right.
The before is below!
Half Bath Refresh
This half bath was the biggest project and involved more hands than my own (or I should say, not my hands at all.) My mom tackled the painting, wall patching, removing the old mirror and replacing with the new and replacing the gold toilet paper holder and towel holder. I did patch a couple holes from the old mirror myself and replaced the outlet covers myself with matching gold ones. I bought a small basket with a lid to keep in the corner for extra toilet paper instead of stacking it behind the toilet like I did before. And I added Target wall art for a mini gallery wall. You can shop all the exact items here on my LTK.
Rob replaced the light and I hired a plumber to update the faucet since Rob had some trouble with it. The most expensive part of this project was hiring the plumber for $250 and paint was the next pricy item but it is incredible paint–painted this room with just one coat (Silverado Sage by Magnolia from Ace Hardware.)
Here’s the before! MAJOR upgrade.
