A slight remodel.

BEFORE:  Cramped, dark, cluttered and claustrophobic!

This is the view from the other side of the shutters, in the dining room.


The Change  begins!
Lore and I began by figuring out what was going where and colors.  She graduated from Interior design so it was fun to her ;)
The first day was prepping.  We removed stuff, taped stuff off, wiped down the walls and moved furniture away from the walls.  You don't realize how long that process lasts!
We started by moving the love seat up stairs into the extra "Craft room" to free up some space, which the lovely Risdon's helped us out with that.
Then we started priming the wall.  We had the kids help for just a little bit until we kicked them out.

Next, we painted the wall with white paint.  I needed something to lighten up this space!  We also removed the curtains, which helped a ton!  That alone did wonders!
We also moved the entertainment center over against the wall and removed the shutters that blocked the archway, to open up the space too.

Next was getting stuff back up!  Lore helped me a ton with this part.  We went down into the basement thrift store to find stuff around the house to use.  I wanted the "Simple, modern, cottage chic" Style.  I've come to love "LESS is MORE".

Of course, a BIG THANK YOU to Lore Smart.  She is amazing, talented, upbeat and so patient with me, who was in the midst of feeling gross in my first trimester of pregnancy.  The best part is that she helped motivate me to do this while Joe was out of town for Spring Break, so we got this all done in like 3 days.  So when Joe came home, was was totally shocked!
I LOVE the new changes.  Makes the home environment so much more enjoyable!  And all I really spent on this project was a gallon of white paint.  Everything else, I had :)