I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! This was the first year we stayed home for Christmas and it was wonderful. At the end of the year, I always enjoy looking back and remembering all of the projects I completed. It’s always interesting to see which ones you all liked best too (based on page views, pins, shares, etc.). It’s also a great opportunity for some of my newer readers to be brought up to speed on some past projects that you might have missed. There are a lot of things I’d love to accomplish in our home in the coming year, but for now, let’s take a look back at 2014 in review, including some of my favorite DIY projects.
We moved into our home in late January. It was a foreclosure, and there were a few not so fun things we had to tackle immediately, like waterproofing our basement.
I had just finished making over the boys’ bedroom at our old house right before we moved, so I tried to replicate it to the best of my ability when we moved into this house.
I whitewashed the fireplace and made over the family room pretty quickly after moving in. Since it’s the room we spend the most time in, I wanted to devote my attention to that space early on.
I also started making over the dining room. I’ve changed a few things in here, including the chalkboard vignette, and still plan to add more art to the walls, etc., but it’s livable for now.
I created a fun playroom space for our boys, making over a bookshelf, hanging a gallery wall full of their artwork, and painting a chalkboard wall with frames so that they can create their own “framed art” and change it out regularly.
In the summer, I had lots of fun appearing on HLN Weekend Express sharing a few dorm decor ideas.
I also had a great time speaking at the Haven Conference. I hope to be able to make it again this year, although it will be more challenging with a baby! We will see.
In the fall, we finally got around to staining our deck. I look forward to working more on our outdoor space in the spring. Speaking of our back deck, my husband shared his tutorial for the unconventional way he roasts his own coffee beans out there.
My favorite project of the year of course was our nursery. It’s full of DIY projects, a few of which I still plan on sharing tutorials for. We created a gender neutral space since we didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl. We all know now that it was another precious little boy!
Before Jonah was born, I made over our entryway, and built a bench and coat rack (tutorial coming soon). Then, I gave it a fun holiday makeover.
I also started working a little bit on our front living room, and I plan on doing more in there this coming year too.
I also had fun sharing my Christmas Home Tour since the boys helped me decorate this year.
As for my “most popular” posts according to readers (aka Google Analytics), only one of them is from this past year which I found very interesting.
They are:
1. How to Paint Furniture: A Beginner’s Guide
2. How to Whitewash a Brick Fireplace
3. DIY Wood Nailhead Headboard Tutorial
5. How to Stencil a Rug {on the cheap}
It’s so hard to believe that 2014 is coming to a close. It felt like this year flew by, I guess since we had so many life changes. (New house, new baby.) I have to say THANK YOU so much for reading this blog and following along. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate you, my readers. If you had told me a few years ago that this little blog would turn into an actual “job” and provide an income so that I could contribute financially to my family while also having a creative outlet to keep me sane, I wouldn’t have believed you. This blog is a huge blessing to me and I wouldn’t be able to do it without all of you, so from the bottom of my heart I thank you all. I have loved connecting with so many of you, and I hope to be able to continue to do what I love for many years to come. I’ve enjoyed challenging myself to learn new things and try new projects, and I plan on doing a lot more of that in 2015. And of course I’ll be sharing my adventures (and misadventures) with you along the way.
Have you finished any big home projects this year? What projects are on your to do list for 2015?
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