Home Tour

Charm and Character – A House Tour

17 Oct posted by Brittany (aka Pretty Handy Girl)

Today you have been invited to take a house tour at my friend Holly’s home. Holly is a good friend of mine, so luckily I didn’t have to beg too much for her to let us into her home. But, before we go in I want to tell you a little more about her. She wears many hats. She is a wife and mother of two boys first and foremost. But, she also runs Storywood Designs, a furniture refinishing business and Framed by Storywood, her Etsy Shop. She has a wonderful eye for color and design (which is evident in her furniture pieces and home décor.) When I first walked into her home, I knew I could live there and not have to change a thing.

Holly and her husband bought their 1980 home a few years ago. There were plenty of touches from previous owners that she worked with or covered in a creative way. I scanned the real estate flyer (sorry about the quality) to give you an idea what their house looked like when they bought it. The changes they made are phenomenal and yet they didn’t break the bank to do it.

Are you ready for the tour? Wipe your feet and come on it. Do you like the initial on her door?

She sells them in her Etsy shop!

Here we are in the living room, but this is what the room looked like a mere 3 yrs. ago:

And here is the living room today!

I know armoires are starting to go out of style, but this one is gorgeous with the cut out panels! If she ever tries to get rid of it, I’m grabbing it!

They painted the fireplace white and it really brightens up the room. See, I can appreciate a painted white fireplace, even though I repainted ours to look like brick.

I love all her fall décor. Especially the lit pumpkins on the hearth.

Beside the fireplace are sweet built-in cupboards and cabinets with wood countertops. It adds charm to the small niche.

Now we make our way into her kitchen — my favorite room and the most stunning transformation. This was the kitchen before:

Get ready to catch your jaw before it hits the floor.

The pendant light adds lots of warmth and texture to the space.

Adding corbels under the upper cabinets was a genius idea for adding instant charm. I am itching to do the same thing to our kitchen cabinets. When I do, you can be sure I’ll share a tutorial.

Holly and her husband made the kitchen table. The wood was whistling for my attention the entire time I was photographing the kitchen. And with lines like this, how could I help but stare?

By removing many of the upper cabinet doors they made the kitchen feel larger and more airy.

Did you see those little decorative tiles? Would you believe that they had hideous country scenes before. Holly simply painted over the scenes and added a stencil! What a smart idea!

Just in case you wondered (because I definitely wanted to know), the base cabinets got a coat of white sage paint by Olympic. (Holly says that Olympic discontinued the color so Lowe’s had to custom mix it in their kitchen and bath enamel paint.) The top cabinets and walls are painted Benjamin Moore Lancaster White.

Setting out a little lamp adds some warmth to this corner of the kitchen.

The breakfast area has built-in benchs on two sides. The pillows make the space feel cozy.

One of Holly’s frames turned into a chalkboard:

Okay, right this way to the dining room.

I really want to display my blue and white china like she has done on this wall.

Adjacent to the dining room is her sitting room. Here is the before picture of that room:

She and I (well mostly Holly) just repainted the room a very neutral gray. I can’t believe what a big difference it made.

The china cabinet is a recent refinishing project that Holly just completed. The distressing on this piece is perfect!

Check out those layers of paint and glaze. Scrumptious!

And the bowed front and curved glass make this cabinet unique.

Speaking of distressing, here is another one of Holly’s tables that she refinished. This little table would make a perfect breakfast table or just a side table. It is for sale right now!

I’m jealous of her talent. Maybe I can convince her to take me as her understudy.

Thank you Holly and family for letting us tour your home. Your hard work really shows in your beautiful home.

33 Comments
Filed Under: Armoire, Before and After, Benjamin Moore Aura, decor, Destinations, distressing, Door Hardware, Falling in Love with Your Home, faux painting brick, framing, Home Decor, Home Tour, install cabinet knobs, new light fixture, Removing Blinds, removing wallpaper, Tours, Wallpaper removal

From Fishy to Beachy, the Boys’ Bathroom Reveal

17 Aug posted by Brittany (aka Pretty Handy Girl)

When I last showed you my boy’s bathroom, it looked like this:

Nemo and Dory would have enjoyed life living in the kids’ bathroom. But, alas, I was serenaded by a beautiful new mirror (actually a new MirrorMate frame.) And so I set to work helping this bathroom grow up.

Here is that beautiful temptress, Ms. Gramercy Martini. Isn’t she lovely.

With curves and details like that, I had to build board and batten moulding that would match her beauty.

And, what bathroom couldn’t use a sweet spot to display some beautiful flowers? I really like this built in shelf, it was really easy to construct it.

The wall color is Blue Slate by Benjamin Moore. And I used the new bath & spa Aura paint which has a matte finish! I have yet to clean it yet, but I’ll let you know how it does.

These two starfish friends are happy to perch on the 3″ deep moulding ledge. Yes, I expect them to make a suicidal dive one day, but my boys haven’t bothered them yet.

Finding just the “right” shower curtain was a little challenging. I would have loved to put in a floral or feminine curtain, but I have to respect that there are two little men that will be using this bathroom 95% of the time.

I am sooo glad I ditched the hollywood strip light for these beauties:

Just a close up view of the battens where they meet the floor. Now wouldn’t that have looked weird if I had left the baseboard tiles there?

Here is a better view of the vanity, new light fixture and the MirrorMate frame.

I have one more project for the empty wall. I took down the old chrome towel bar, but I have a fantastic idea for a new one. You’ll just have to wait and see what I came up with. In the meantime, the hooks on the door work well for hanging towels up.

So, go ahead let me know what you think! Do you miss the Nemo room? Or are you loving the grown up beach retreat? And am I crazy for making this bathroom look this good for my 5 & 7 year old boys? By the way, Pretty Handsome Son #1 tried to convince me that the bathroom would look better with black and pink stripes! I am seriously going to have to paint his closet like that because he has been asking for the same color scheme for 2 years now!

48 Comments
Filed Under: bathroom, board and batten, Home Tour

Screen Porch Tour

9 Jun posted by Brittany (aka Pretty Handy Girl)

You know the saying about not waiting for your house to be perfect to invite people over? Well, I realized that even though my porch is not 100% complete, I shouldn’t wait to invite y’all over.

I have wanted to spruce up our screened porch for 3 years now. Screen porches like Between Naps on the Porch have beckoned me from afar. I always knew I wanted to do something similar to Susan’s porch.

So, after living here for 4 years, I finally got around to giving the screen porch a much needed makeover.

This is basically a representative “before” picture taken the month before we bought the house.

After we moved in, it stayed the same except we had a white square table and chairs for meals on the porch. Slowly I have been furnishing and decorating the porch with fixtures and accessories like: Ladder Display Shelves, Beachy Coffee Table, Minnow Trap Lights, Bamboo Painted Rug, Dream Big Butterfly Window, and my Garden Bench. My budget for this makeover was next to nothing, which presented a little bit of a challenge.

So, are you ready? Here is a tall glass of sweet tea with lemonade. Please come join me on my porch:

The two side chairs are actually from the table and chairs set. I just dressed them up with IKEA throw pillows. Someday I want to buy some wicker rockers to put in their place.

Remember the disgusting moldy coffee table I saved from the trash? There she is!

My favorite spot on the weekend. My Dad gave me this hammock for my 30th birthday and it is still in good shape after 10 years! Thanks Dad!

My semi-famous ladder display shelves I built from a $15 rickety old ladder.

The minnow trap pendant lights add the perfect amount of light after dark.

Were you wondering where I hung my Dream Big Butterfly window? Here she is:

That chippy little cabinet is the most expensive piece of furniture on the porch! I paid $85 for it at the flea market. It used to be a table, but someone cut off the legs and nailed boards to the sides and added a door to the front.

Such a great spot for catching up on my favorite magazines: Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens and Flea Market Style (the issue Layla and Kevin were recently in.)

Can you believe a neighbor was trying to get rid of this little decorator table? I gladly sprinted over to her house to pick it up. Then I draped a clearance shower curtain from Target over it. Yup,that is a shower curtain!

{Sigh} My favorite flower, blue hydrangeas.

Remember that purple garden bench? Well, she wasn’t weathering the constantly changing weather conditions, so I brought her in the porch and gave her some TLC and a few coats of paint. I just need to sew a cushion for her.

Thank you so much for coming over. I enjoyed our time together. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with a hammock. Zzzzzzz.

72 Comments
Filed Under: Before and After, Home Tour

How We Fell for Our Home

1 Feb posted by Brittany (aka Pretty Handy Girl)

Hooray, February is here. This is the month of love (and chocolate!!! But, I digress.)

I have a funny story to tell you about our home. We actually fell in love with our house before we owned it.

This story starts during a torrential downpour in 2001. We were driving around with our realtor looking at homes in Raleigh. The rainstorm turned ugly and our realtor pulled into the first neighborhood he could find. As he drove carefully down the tree lined streets, we saw a For Sale sign ahead. As we drove closer, we saw a handsome two story home on a hill.

The landscaping was well manicured and there was an adorable little side porch.

Our realtor called the office to find out the details on the home. It turns out that the owners were asking 5K over our maximum search. The interior was equally well cared for, so the next day we put an offer on the house and moved in within 2 months.

We didn’t realize how lucky we were to have found this house on a perfect little cul-de-sac. As the months progressed, we got to know all our neighbors on the street. Each and every one of them were warm and welcoming and oozed southern charm.

As the years went by we welcomed our first son into our house and then a second.

The home office, that we had renovated and installed built-in cabinets and a window seat into, became the nursery.

Feeling the pinch of squeezing all four of us, a dog and a home business into a three bedroom house, we began to look at other homes in the neighborhood, but dreaded having to move away from our location (did I mention how much we love our street?)

None of the other houses lived up to our picky needs (again, loved our street!)

Pretty Handsome Guy and I talked between ourselves about the one house on the street that we would love to live in. It was the charming dutch colonial house across the street.

He said, “Heaven forbid that our neighbors would ever move, but if they did we’d have to buy their house.”

And one day that is exactly what happened. It was such a bittersweet moment because we really adored our neighbors and their children. And we didn’t want them to move away. But, we basically said, “Tell us how much you want for your house.”

Three months later, we literally backed out of our old driveway and straight into our new one! (Sadly we didn’t win the Guiness Book’s shortest move on record.)

Our new home needed some updating and a little TLC, but we still loved it! It fits our style (old, casual, comfortable.)

We have slowly transformed one room at a time to fit our personality and allow us to “love” the inside of our house as much as we love the outside.


Office Before


Office After


Living Room Before


Living Room After


Guest Room Before

Living Room After

This month I’ll be sharing some ideas for turning your house into your dream home. Plus, I have a special giveaway announcement as well. But, you’ll just have to be patient.

I hope you’ll come back for some a-moré.

37 Comments
Filed Under: Falling in Love with Your Home, Home Tour

Camping Themed Boy’s Room

27 Jan posted by Brittany (aka Pretty Handy Girl)

I have been having the best time meeting most of my favorite bloggers at Blissdom.

Dear sweet home & DIY bloggers, y’all really rock!

A few of those rockin’ women bloggers:
Sandra (Sawdust & Paper Scraps), Rhoda (Southern Hospitality), Shaunna (Perfectly Imperfect), Ashley (Pure + Lovely), Erin (Two Story Cottage) and Layla (TheLetteredCottage)

While I am here, I figured you might love a good before and after. Here is my son’s bedroom shortly after we moved into our home.

Pretty boring, huh? Poor guy didn’t even have a bed frame. But, frankly, it let me sleep better at night knowing he wouldn’t roll out of bed.

Two plus years later, we moved beyond the rolling out of bed phase AND something divine happened. I met a “real” mural artist and it was like finding a clone of myself! I promptly hired my clone to help me paint a mural in my son’s room.

A beautiful woodland and mountain theme!

Tom Barber (mural artist in Raleigh, NC) painted most of the background and I painted the animals (because was my illustration specialty.)

I bought some corner rounded shelves at Home Depot and installed them in the corner where Tom painted a big tree.

A perfect spot to curl up with a good book.

The closet is my son’s super secret hideaway.

When you open the door you are met by a tent.

Pretty Handsome Son can either close it up or secure the tent flaps on the sides with the velcro tie backs.

The tree is made from some crepe myrtle branches that we had to trim from our trees out front.

The lantern in the tree was an old oil lantern. I drilled a hole in the bottom and inserted a candelabra light kit. It is the perfect amount of light for him to read stories by.