The Beginning of the Before & Afters

When I started this blog, I fully intended to share more interior design/DIY stuff, but I really haven't followed through with that promise.  Life happens and sometimes it's easier to sit back and just look at all the beautiful images on blogs and Pinterest rather than do and share my own.  I figure my house won't be as pristine or my craft projects as creative or my photos as perfect.  But part of the purpose of starting this blog was to motivate me to do more around my house.  The other day I saw this posted over at the Nester and it hit home...

via

So I decided there was no time like the present to start sharing the before and afters of our house.  We purchased our home, our first, almost 3 years ago.  We got right to work, painting EVERYTHING.  Then, we kind of stopped.  Is everything "done" - no.  (I mean, really, are our homes ever really FINISHED???)  But the pictures you see here are what it looked like when we moved in and what it looks like today (well, a couple days ago when I took the pictures).  I decided I will separate it into several posts and discuss my future goals for each space.  Hopefully, that will be a little motivation to get something done (what is it they say about writing down your goals?)  Oh, and be prepared for some pet photo bombs.  It's very difficult to get a photo without one of the 3 in it!

First up...

Foyer/Stairway BEFORE:

Foyer/Stairway AFTER:

As you can see the previous owners liked really dark brown paint.  I felt it made the stairway feel like a cave.  We (i.e. the painter - I was not teetering on stairs) painted over it with Behr Chocolate Froth, a basic neutral pale khaki.  I also painted the railing dark brown.  I'm still contemplating black, but Cameron likes the brown better since the front door is dark brown stained wooded.  I really like our gallery wall, but it needs some updating - I haven't changed it since we moved in - and I'd  like to add in some other art pieces/decor besides just photos.  We also changed out the light fixture, which I talked about here.

That's it for today, but stay tuned for the next set of before/afters!