Summer Projects Before and After

Its hard to believe its the first day of fall. Summer always flies so quickly and there are always so many things that I want to do and, of course, only get to around half of them. I was looking through a few photos the other day though and was encouraged to remember what some of my little projects looked like in the 'before' moments. I thought I'd share a few of these with you.

BEFORE:  This was our bedroom before I painted it.

You can't really tell from the above pictures, but this is what the walls looked like up close. The previous owners had this done in venetian plaster. Although its lovely as modern art, its not exactly relaxing and it is really hard to decorate with.

AFTER: I simply painted it, bought a crown, and a few drapes to hang up behind the bed.

We also got a new duvet cover from Restoration Hardware. Although I usually like to buy antiques, I do like new fresh bed linens!

We bought two of these wonderful antique lights from a friend who is an antiques dealer and then amazingly found two more at another antique shop. I don't know if they are common, but its pretty difficult to find four working antique sconces like this and we needed four for this room. They may be a little over the top for a bedroom, but we like them :) And we put them in ourselves, which was my first 'electrical' project!

BEFORE: Here is another little project we did. The front of the house had some weird gray patches to it, so we bought some lime paint (good for stucco houses) and painted it


DURING :)


AFTER: Just a little day project, but it made a significant difference to our entry way. We also transplanted the hosta to  another location, as it was getting a little unruly there.


BEFORE: The front of the house also had some really random landscaping in the front and the climbing hydrangea was climbing in a strange way.

AFTER: So we cleaned all this out, cut the hydrangea back so that it can grow properly and put in four nice little boxwoods. We also got some banana plants and put them out front. It makes me feel like I am in the tropics.. and not Vermont!

BEFORE: This is the walkway up to the gazebo. It is nice, but the deer have munched all our rhododendron and the gazebo needed to be painted (although you can't tell from this picture).


AFTER: We had been wanting to put statues here and we randomly drove by this place one day that had these wonderful statues. I also painted the gazebo. I think it makes it really made a big difference.

BEFORE: This was our back patio. The stairs were a mess and the house had those grey blotches.

AFTER: My husband power-washed the stairs, I painted the house, and planted a nice little kitchen garden in pots all around.

BEFORE: We had this open field that didn't really have any purpose.


We decided to put in a tennis court.


And plant a little vineyard. These are the little grape plants when they arrived.

AFTER: We obviously had someone put the court in for us, but we planted the grapes ourselves. The grass is still growing and the grapes are still small... but they are on their way!




And we're really enjoying the court!


Anyway, after quite a full summer, I am looking forward to rest that fall and winter often bring. Time to curl up with my mug of hot apple cider and relax.

Almost...

(just started on this one the other day)
The AFTER to come :)