Before

When I picked colors for this house, this color seemed perfect for what I had in mind. I opened up the paint can with a little bit of fear that maybe I had gone a little too far. I

Before

stuck to my guns. I had a plan. That first day I had cracked open the paint can and started painting. With every visitor that wanted to stop by and see the new house on our first day, I saw the look in their eyes as they commented with “really?” or “repaint it white”. Luckily, I have never lived my life defined by what other people expected of me, and though I was starting to question myself, I knew that they were just unsure because they didn’t see the big picture.

I joked that the color “Carnival in Brazil” was my homage to Tom Brady and the world’s highest paid supermodel. I knew that with the children, (before we even considered the second dog), that a dark couch was going to be my best option. Anything lighter, and it wouldhave been destroyed in a week. I knew that the rest of the furniture was going to be darker in color. With the sun shining in, I saw my vision on the wall.

After

This color was a very prominent one in my wedding bouquet, which I had because it looked like fall foliage and my husband and I are huge fans of fall. I would like to think that it was fitting to choose orange for that reason, this is our home we built together and it made sense when I saw that giant window of mine let the sun take over the walls. I was confident that I was right.

The floor was in surprisingly good condition, considering how awful the shape of the carpet was. It was a long process to pull of the carpet in here, and it took weeks before we finally pulled up all the staples. Don’t worry, my unlucky feet that always find the danger was the victim and not my children.

My office, which isn’t pictured hereis located in this room. It’s a “writer’s area” that is completely covered in bills, various other paperwork I need to have at hand, and Post-it’s

After

that are stuck everywhere. It wasn’t “photogenic” enough to land itself here.

The coffee table was a clearance steal I had to put together from Kmart. The “oriental” rug was from Wal-Mart. The television stand was a hand me down, as was the recliner. Our living room also has the front door located in it, as most do. The living room door is painted with a nicer, lighter color than the living room with a more yellow-orange color and a beautiful “fall” wreath that I keep up just because I love it.

Monday, should be the tween’s room, filthy or not.

Only a few more rooms left when it comes to seeing the transformation of this 1960’s ranch into the LaRochelle abode. We’ll have a fun time getting my oldest son’s room, as he is a tween that does not seem to understand the phrases “Clean your room” and “make your bed”. Even I make my bed everyday. They say it’s the best way to start the day for whatever psychological reason they have concocted. Despite that, it does give a sense of accomplishment doing so, even if that was the only thing I managed to do for most of the morning.

Before

The room was pink. (Bleh.) Not even like a tolerable baby pink. I’m talking like salmon colored meets coral colored meets gag me with a spoon. The carpet was the same nasty 1960’s shag carpet that was located in all the bedrooms. It needed to be gone. And it needed to be gone very soon, because I was not looking at those pink walls any longer. The only thing worse would be if the color was yellow. /shudder.

Before

So the painting immediately began. We had nice brown curtains in our old room that my busy husband has yet to put up, so those were not in the picture. But you can imagine how nice a pair of brown sheers with a black curtain rod would be hanging in that room. The blue, luckily, matched the blue I had in my previous room exactly. And in case you didn’t notice, I love blue and that was going to be the color of the master bedroom. It almost feels very spa like and relaxing in there. The carpet was easily just torn up without any real issue, and again we were lucky to see that the floor was in next to immaculate condition.

The comforter set came with the pillows, and I have owned it for a long time. We purchased it in the clearance section at Bed Bath and Beyond. There’s really not much else to the room. Not pictured is this beautiful Victorian Styled electric “oil” lamp. Also not pictured? The step stool I need to actually get into bed without my husband having a heart attack from watching me climb up. #shortpeopleproblems.

After

The furniture set was one we bought just before we got married from Bob’s Discount Store. They get a bad reputation but that set is still has sturdy and in the same condition as the day we bought it. Well mostly, which led to some very inappropriate jokes that caused my husband to blush.

So that was the easy room. Friday, we will get into that small little kitchen of mine that I adore, even though everyone else thinks I’m crazy.

Alright, so it’s really the bathroom though it would be pretty awesome to have an Iron Throne toilet. It probably won’t be the most comfortable toilet in the world, but it would be pretty cool looking.

Before

The bathroom had grey and black tiles and we were stuck on what color would actually go with that set up. Since I had chosen pretty much ever other paint color in the house, I let the husband decide here.

So with that, all that we really needed to do in here was pull that god awful wall paper down and repaint. Soon we will get up the energy and funds to retile, but until then everything still seems to work out just well. The wallpaper seemed to come off easy until the painting started and we discovered a thin layer of paper that we didn’t notice after pulling off the wallpaper so we needed to make use of that wallpaper removal gel we had bought a huge bottle of only to not need it in the kitchen and dining room. Then, the painting started.

The After

I was in charge of the decor in the whole house, which I was very happy to do. My husband conceded that I was much better at that than he was. So I thought about all the other decor in the house and realized that my husband did not have a room of his own. Then I decided, what better room than the bathroom! The color on the wall inspired me to give it a superhero theme, which the boys absolutely loved. Bed Bath and Beyond had classic comic book artwork on a wooden panel which helped add to the vintage effect. I picked them out and surprised the boys with it. I cannot stress how awesome it was to see their faces when seeing it.