Decor, DIY and my Dog
Nailed it or Failed it ChallengeRecently I did another fun challenge! This one is called the Nailed it or failed it challenge. The idea is to pick a decor piece that you would like to have in your home, and recreate it (or dupe it) for less. And then at the end, we ask our audience if we nailed it or failed it. Sound like fun? [Read more…]
Decoupage Terra Cotta Pots with Mod Podge and wrapping paper. Make a beautiful plant pot for outdoors. Make it for yourself, or it makes a great gift! [Read more…]
Are you ready for another alcohol ink project? This is a very beautiful way to use alcohol ink on glass, and it’s soooooo easy, I almost don’t need to even write this post! But I’ll walk you through it just the same. 🙂 [Read more…]
Finally! I made it across the finish line of my DIY condo renovation project – Wohoo! From a project management perspective, I blew my timeline. I originally thought I could pull this reno off by Feb 28th, but that date came and went. and then March slipped by…Well, It’s May , but the condo is listed 🙂 – win!
It was fun. Here is a quick reprisal of what I accomplished. This was a very inexpensive condo renovation. As you can see from the before and after photos. it doesn’t take a lot of money to make a big difference. And this is no TV show reno. Just a real person, doing a real reno, on a budget, with a whole lot of DIY tossed in.
If you want to check out the whole process. Here are all the posts, in backwards order. Be warned they are from early in my blogging career, and the pictures are less than fabulous.
This was the largest part of the DIY condo reno project. Here is the starting point. Note the pink counter tops, mint green walls, crappy vinyl floors and peeling cabinet doors.
Before the reno, looking a little worse for wear
That’s better! Less pink and mint, more grey and white
The counters were painted with Krylon Stone Texture Finish Spray Paint and coated and sealed with Envirotex lite epoxy
A fresh coat of paint on the walls: Behr Graceful Grey, my FAVOURITE paint colour. New laminate floors: Shaded Oak. I tiled the backsplash
In the living room, we didn’t do much renovating. Mostly just cleaning. Shampoo the carpets, wash the windows, scrub the blinds. freshen up the trim paint. And mostly de-cluttering and staging. Clean and tidy is key when selling. And with regard to bang for your buck, cleaning is about the best bang you can get…next to painting. If you don’t believe me just check out the difference in the Master Bedroom below.
Crappy before shot, but you can’t go back and re take them once they are done. That’s Angus in the basket, drooling and furring things up.
I hate to show you just how gross the carpets were. But this attests to the power of just running a steam cleaner over the carpets. lt’s kind of like using an eraser!!! Look how amazing the carpets came back, and I thought they might have to be replaced!
The living room had way too much furniture for the space. We rented a U-pak storage container, and started hauling stuff out. There was just too much in the room. Less is more. We didn’t even paint the living room, with the exception of one wall, which had some patched areas on it. If you have too much stuff in your condo or house, it will look like it’s not big enough to potential buyers. Do all of that decluttering and tossing NOW. Not after you move. For the stuff that you want to keep but that is making your space look small. Rent a portable storage container, haul you stuff out to it, and when you move, they will deliver it to your new home. Brilliant!
So much brighter, lighter and more spacious. Sage is helping as usual.
Tidy and clean
The Bathroom and Den were also just a matter of cleaning, de-cluttering and staging. These are not the big selling features of my DIY condo reno. And I won’t include them here.
We upgraded the existing laminate floors which ran through the entry way and into the dining area. Previously, it was the beech variety and was dirty, chipped and showing gaps. We used the same Shaded Oak flooring that we did in the kitchen. For the dining room, I added a new area rug under the table, and cleaned and staged.
Before: messy, dirty and cluttered
How much better is this?
If you want to see how I did the counters click here. The Master Bedroom is my ‘piece de resistance’ of my DIY condo reno. I’m super happy with how this turned out.
Go here: Master Bedroom Reveal for my full Master bedroom post and to see how I pulled this look together. You can grab the bedding here
My budget for this project was between $2000 – 3000. I spent just over $2200 for this whole renovation. Pretty cheap really. The value added was in the tens of thousands. We listed this on a Thursday and it was sold by following Tuesday for $22k over asking!
You don’t need to spend a ton of money to make good money. Just use your money wisely. And anything that you can do yourself is money saved. Here is where the budget went for my DIY condo reno:
A lot of the item that I used to stage Greg’s condo were from my condo. So you can always borrow things to stage the place for your photos, when you are listing. In this case there was only about 5 days that the property was listed.
Thanks so much for stopping by my DIY condo reno! I hope you have found some inspiration to reno your own place, and put that profit in YOUR pocket, for your next place. Do the pieces that you feel you can do well yourself. Painting, cleaning and de-cluttering don’t require a lot of special skills, and make a huge difference!
Now that the condo is sold!!! the next step is packing and getting my place ready to sell. And SHOPPING for our new home!!!!! Where I know there will be MORE PROJECTS….ya think??
Note: This post contains affiliate links. You don’t pay more, I just may make a small commission. See here for my full disclosure page. Thanks for helping us pay the blog bills 🙂
Make some beautiful candle holders cheaply and easilyI have a lot of glassware cluttering up my craft room. So, I’m going to show you how you can make a few different versions of candle holders or hurricane lamps, easily and cheaply using dollar store supplies and thrift store finds.
I have an artificial tree, which I love. But it doesn’t smell like a fresh-cut tree. In the past I have used. Scentsicles. I like them. but I wanted that REAL TREE SMELL without the imperfection of a real tree:) So, I bought a fresh cut wreath from my local grocery store.
I bought mine, but you could make it using a wire frame
Next step is to pretty it up a little. I wanted to match it up to my tree, which I decorated all in blue this year.
I bought a couple of boxes of balls at dollarama, in blue and silver. It’s super easy to add these to your wreath. I already had a huge jar of zap straps
To add the ornaments to the wreath, just pass the zap strap through the hasp on the ornament
Fasten the ends of the strap
Then fasten it around a branch
Continue to space the balls around the wreath, until; you are satisfied.
I also added some ribbon. This is wired edge ribbon. I had this piece leftover from a few years ago 🙂 Just tuck the edge in and bend it as you go into folds. Tuck the ribbon under the boughs
Here it is done up
Just a couple of bucks worth of dollar store swag to make this little green wreath look beautiful. If you are way more motivated than I am you can go out and gather your own greenery and then you just need a wire frame
Now I have that Christmas tree smell despite the fact that I have an artificial tree AND I have a pretty Christmas wreath on my wall.
Thanks for stopping by and Merry Christmas!
