Blog Party: Before & Afters

Rhoda over at Southern Hospitality is hosting a blog party. This one is all about your best Before & Afters of 2008, and if you know me, I love me a good Before & After! Here's my Top 4:

1. The Kitchen. First up is the biggest project we undertook in 2008. Yes, I know you're probably tired of looking at all the kitchen pictures, but indulge me one more time :) We took the galley kitchen from a drab and dreary 1950's space to a swanky and sparkly bistro look.

Before:

And After:

You can see more pics of the renovation here, here, and here.

2. The Dining Room. So technically, we started on this room in November 2007, but we didn't finish it off, curtains and all, until April 2008 so I'm going to count it ;) In this room, we broke out the new power tools and made the wainscotting as our first DIY project in the house. We got wallpaper and shutters installed to bring the room to life.

Before (with the previous owner's furnishings):

And After:

3. The Deck. This one is still a "work in progress". We built the banquettes this summer and got some cushions made. Hopefully, this summer we'll finish off the space by painting all the woodwork in white, adding railing details, a 'haint' blue ceiling, some drop pendant lights, and breezy gauzy curtains.

Before:

And After:

4. The Office. This room was Boring with a capital B! No architectural features, an off-center window to contend with, and no storage space. A trip to Ikea took care of that. Here's what we came up with.


Before:



And After:



To see the transformation of these rooms, and other spaces in our house, just click on the Label Cloud on the left. I'm off now to go check out all the other bloggers at the party. There is so much inspiration out there!!