One Project from Every Year of the Blog
Can we do something a little different today?
I was sitting here planning my posts for the week and thinking about how there’s just so much content on the blog from the last almost ten years it’s been around. Can you believe that in January I will have had this blog for an entire decade?!
We’ve come a long (looooong) way in that time, and I thought it might be fun to take a moment to look back on some of the projects from years past. Because sometimes I worry that these old projects might get a little lonely.
So today, we’re going to chat about one project from every year this blog has been live. I thought about saving this for January when we actually hit the 10-year anniversary, but I had the idea now so I’m doing it now! Maybe we’ll do it again then, too – who knows!
Be prepared for some bad photography, some totally different styles from what I’d use now, and lots of creativity!
Here we go!
10 Projects from the Last Decade
2011
This is the first piece of furniture we ever crafted on our own. We were so proud of it, but looking back I can’t help but cringe at some of the choices. The man who wouldn’t let me paint a closet terra cotta because it was too close to Longhorn burnt orange was on board with an, arguably, even MORE burnt orange ottoman?!
We disassembled our old coffee table and used the legs for this piece, and we built the top with some plywood and padding. I remember it being a bit on the, um, thin side in terms of comfort, but we loved that it was the same level as the couch so we could pretty much just scoot it up to the couch and extend our snuggling space.
We used this for about a year and a half until we could afford to replace it with a cushier (store-bought) ottoman, and we loved it dearly. Not my style anymore, but this was definitely the start of us exploring what we liked for our home!
2012
You’ll notice a huge improvement in photography here – that’s because I actually re-shot the photos from this project in 2016 right before we moved. But this project is iconic in Love & Renovations history, so it has to be included!
We built this ginormous chandelier from scratch and to this day it’s probably still one of my favorite projects we’ve ever done. I’ve considered re-creating it for this house (we still have the same table so it feels a little meant to be!) because I miss it dearly!
Over the years I’ve had multiple people re-create this project and it always makes me so excited to see. It looks amazing in pretty much every space, and it’s for sure a room-changer.
2013
HOW TO MAKE BILLY BOOKCASES LOOK BUILT IN
The reading room! At the beginning of 2013 we transformed one of our spare bedrooms into this gorgeous space as part of a design challenge we were participating in, and by the end of the year we had turned it into Jackson’s nursery (he was born in January 2014).
This wall of IKEA bookcases was so, so functional for us for the entire time we lived in this house and I’m still so proud of how they turned out. This is 100% a project we’d re-create again, and I think the dark green walls in here were maybe the first sign that someday it would become a color I’d use every chance I get.
2014
This was a pretty quiet year on the blog because we were new parents and not doing much of anything other than trying to keep a tiny infant alive for the first time.
But, we did manage to replace the carpet downstairs with vinyl plank flooring (it was our first time using it, and you probably know by now it’s our FAVORITE FLOORING EVER).
A few notes about this photo (because, goodness, there’s a lot to dissect here):
- I remember that jute rug leaving behind SO MUCH dust and constantly shedding. I loved the look of it at the time, but I think it would have looked a lot better – and been cozier – with a second rug layered on top.
- Do you see that majestic fiddle leaf fig behind the couch? It’s real! I killed it within a couple of months but man, I forgot I ever had one that big. It’s magical. I’m a much better plant mom these days, promise.
- We had black paned windows before black paned windows were cool – would you believe when we replaced the windows on the back half of the house (never got around to replacing these), we opted for white frameless ones instead? These windows were drafty but they make me swoon a little.
- Click here to see how much this room changed in the two years from this photo until the day we moved. It grew up a lot and turned into a space I’d still be proud to have.
2015
Ahhh this little photo display still makes me so happy!
This was on the back side of our fireplace and it was massive – about 4′ square! I’ve wanted to re-create this in both homes that we’ve lived at after this first one and I think I have a couple of different spots something like this could work here. I loved swapping out the photos throughout the year – my favorite was adding a ton of Christmas photos around the holidays!
Man, I miss this thing. Who knew writing this post would just inspire me to re-create all of my old projects?!
2016
Let’s take it to something really simple for this year – this cute little decorative globe that I made from a Goodwill globe. We didn’t keep this when we moved into our second house because we had to majorly pare down our decorations (in a 1,100 square foot house every inch counts!), but man I wish we still had it. I still get little hearts in my eyes looking at it!
This was a really easy project and if you can manage to track down a cheap secondhand globe (I don’t think it’s quite as easy these days as it used to be), it would be such a cute project for a nursery or kids’ room.
Heck, I’d put this in my living room!
2017
Ohhhh goodness, this post is making me realize how many fun projects we’ve had to let go of over the years!
Corey built this bar cart for the eat-in area in our kitchen, and it was one of the first pieces of furniture he had ever built. I didn’t even write a tutorial on how to build the bar cart itself because at that point I had never so much as touched a power tool and had no concept of how to even write about building a bar cart, much less do it myself.
Who would’ve thought that a mere three years later I’d be building my own shoe cubbies?!
I still think this bar cart is absolutely beautiful, and I’m sad that we had to sell it when we moved. I mean, the stripes on those doors? I can’t. So good. He even made the tapered legs himself using the lathe!
2018
At the end of 2017, we moved into our second house, so we had all new spaces to decorate. We built this DIY bed situation in Jackson’s room and it was such a fun (and functional!) project.
And oh! Look! Another dark green wall!
Apparently the signs have been there all along – I only thought my favorite color to decorate with was blue.
This project was a beast to tackle, but it was so worth all of the effort because all that storage made a major difference in how organized Jackson’s room was, and he really loved this space so much. So did we! We had planned on another built-in bed of some sort in this house, but his room isn’t really conducive to that kind of setup – I’m hoping that in a few years the boys will want to share a room and we can put a bunk bed in Grant’s current room. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
2019
And that brings us to last year. We spent most of last year in our old house, so I figure it only makes sense to pull a project from there. Let’s end it with a bang, shall we?
We completely gutted this tiny hallway bathroom and I loved every inch of it when we were done. We re-tiled the floor and the walls, replaced the vanity, added black bead board, and swapped out every little detail in the room. If I could copy and paste this exact design into the boys’ bathroom in this house, I would!
An interesting note that many of you have pointed out – the tile that we used on the shower wall in here is strikingly similar to the tile in the bathrooms and laundry room at this house! It wasn’t intentional but I do LOVE this tile, so it makes me smile.
And that’s that, my friends! One project from every year this blog has been in existence.
I don’t know if it was as much fun for you to read as it was for me to write, but my goodness, I had a blast with this post! I’d love to hear if you have any favorite projects from the archives!
Hey Amanda,
I hope you guy’s are going to be ok. I’m not sure where you live in comparison to this storm. You’re in my prayers.
Friends
Vicky