A Fresh Look that is Cozy and Cheap

One of the things I was most excited about upon moving to Little Rock was fixing up an old cute house and making it a cozy home. Two months after my parents bought my 1950's house, Terri Knight came down from Russellville and did a fantastic job finding all new accessories to turn my bare walls and floors into a colorful home. She started me off great with the perfect decorations. After two roommates moved out, a temporary roommate moving in/out this past summer, and two new roommates moving in, my house became the same mess it was when my parents first bought it. It was a hodge podge of furniture and home decor. I knew once things had settled and my last roommate moved in this past November (2013), I wanted to finally make it home again.

I had been babysitting twin girls and their mom, Katie Keenan Rawlings, had the cutest style. I talked to her about helping me find new furniture and decorations once everyone was settled. With babysitting being my only job right now while in pharmacy school, I don't have a whole lot of extra money to pay someone to decorate. We came up with a plan that Katie would fix up my house for one day while I was in class, and I would in return, babysit her girls for free. She did a phenomenal job taking my things and rearranging them to look brand new. The only money I spent was on two pillows for $10 each and some wicker baskets at Target. I couldn't believe she made my house look like a million bucks without having to fork over that kind of money. It also helps when you can raid your parents and grandparents attic for old trinkets. Thanks guys!

Check out these pictures of my house from before and after. If you live in Little Rock and are wanting a new look for the new year, contact me and I will put you in touch with Katie (or if you live in Russellville, Terri Knight is the woman for the job!). I've really enjoyed coming home over the past few months to a warm and inviting place.

Living Room Before

Living room Before. I'm fortunate to have roommates with furniture so I don't have to buy mine all at once!

Living Room After

Living Room After

Living Room After. Notice we replaced my coffee table with the bottom of my roommates kitchen hutch. It makes for a much better TV stand.

 I love the details of this bench! It fits nicely behind my red sofa.

Mission trip collage on the wall pictured above. I found a bunch of old gold frames at my grandma's house and my grandpa spray painted them black for me.

Office Before

Office Before

Office After. This old double sided desk from Funky Junky in Russellville is one of my favorite pieces in my house! I love having it in the center of the room now.

Office After. The shelves have since been organized with cute wicker baskets to get rid of the excess clutter!!

 These shelves are on the other side of the desk in the office. On the other side of the shelves are the stairs down to the basement and garage. Katie helped me change out some frames and decor for a new look.

Kitchen counter Before

Kitchen counter After

Kitchen Cabinet After. Nothing was on top after Brooklyn moved out.

Front Door After. You can see the before in the first few living room pictures.

More Living Room Details. That round table is from the Kappa house before it was torn down.

This is what you see when you first walk in. This chest belonged to my mom's great grandmother. No painting or anything, just bought some new knobs from Hobby Lobby. I'm a sucker for family heirlooms. :)

Morgan

my new obsession: Pinterest

I have successfully found something in.cred.ible. to distract me from studying. Lovely.

If you're not familiar with Pinterest I suggest you read this to it's entirety and soak in the goodness I'm going to tell you about. Pinterest is an application connected to facebook and twitter. How it works is you log in with your account information and begin to look through a mass amount of pictures. These pictures can range from DIY projects, to a good recipe, or even photography of different places in the world. You create boards on your profile and pin the pictures you like to your board. It's the same thing as bookmarking a page from the internet. This enables you to go back and look at all those neat ideas anytime you'd like! It's your own personal scrapbook of fun places, people and things!

If you like to cook you can make a 'Recipes' board and pin pictures of food or recipes of delicious dishes. 
Two bundt cakes stacked on top of each other plus some orange frosting makes for a great Pumpkin Cake!!


Peanut Butter and Jelly Sushi rolls!


Perhaps you are always wanting to travel to different parts of the globe. There are breathtaking photos of different hidden treasures in the world. I'd loveee to be able to float this river in Indonesia.


Maybe you just got engaged and you need some creative wedding ideas. Look no more! You can plan your entire wedding just by pinning pictures.


Maybe you're a new parent (Jill and Trevor) or you're expecting (Stephanie and Mary Elizabeth). You can find so many cute ideas for nursery's and endless ideas of fun things to do with your kids when they are older. 
Put food coloring in water bottles and you have a fun and safe game of bowling. If you put glow sticks in it you will have glow in the dark blowing for night!

  

If you're a fashionista there are pages among pages of complete outfits put together to give you ideas before you hit the mall.

As you can see, the list goes on and on of what you can pin. Now you understand why it's such a distraction. You should definitely check it out and find things that you love!!

Happy Pinning!

Morgan Elizabeth