I’ve rounded up my biggest renovations completed in 2024 and what I hope to accomplish this year!
This is always a fun article to write, because it makes me feel super accomplished after a very lazy Christmas break. 🙂 I’ve taken on a bunch of big projects in the past year and I’m very proud of what I’ve created.
1. Redo the linen closet
Since it’s the season to declutter and organize, let’s start with the closet that has been a huge pain in my ass for years:
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Much better! I added a nice touch to the back wall with some leftover wallpaper. It’s a nice pop of color when you open the door.
2. Master bedroom renovation
The dark gray paint I did for our bedroom years ago was difficult to work with, so I came up with an idea to spice things up:
The thing was, I didn’t want to remove the grass wallpaper I had installed on most of the walls. We still love it and I knew it would be more work to remove it. 😉
After a few more DIY projects (a painted dresser and a DIY TV frame), the makeover was complete:
These changes made a huge difference! This room is brighter and feels fresher now:
The roof may be a project for this year!
3. Brighten up the dining room
Our dining space is another area that was feeling heavy…so I lightened things up a bit. I love the dark blue paint color (called Cyberspace) that I used here:
But the room seemed closed… I knew the light color would open it up.
Painting is the easiest and most affordable way to transform a space! This paint project was worth the time and effort:
4. Build a small bar/kitchenette in the basement
Last year I finally finished a room I built from the floor up:
This was an unfinished spot in our basement that was supposed to be a small kitchen. We thought we would get to this very quickly after moving in years ago, so we didn’t even have carpet installed in that area.
Well, after nearly seven years, it’s finally done! 🙂 I did almost every DIY project in this tiny basement kitchen myself…from the flooring to building the cabinets to tiling the back floor and installing the plumbing, sink, and trash compactor (which I was very proud of!).
5. Decoration painted to match the walls
I painted all the door and window parts with semi-gloss paint and we love the colour-saturated look:
6. Office/library project
Finally, the room I started later in the year that got derailed by the holidays. I started with a light background on the back of my included DIY tools:
I still have a little bit to do here, but it’s pretty close. It looks finished at first glance, which is a win. 😉
Now make your plans for this year!
1. First, I obviously need to complete the office.
Here’s my to-do list!
Mold installation and painting completed. Tie my curtains to enhance them a little. Set up my little printer schedule. I’d like to try getting it down to bare wood to color, but it has a lot of detail so I’ll have to think about it:
2. Bathroom arrangements.
I’ve been wanting to tackle our basement bathroom forever. I planned to break ground on it last year, but then the small kitchen/bar took about three years to complete. 😆
Plan this space:
I would really like to change the floor tiles. It wouldn’t really fit the look I’m planning for this room, but ripping out tiles is a mess and replacing them isn’t fun either. We’ll see what happens… If you change it this will be the first step in this change process. The walls will be dark and moody…which will fit in perfectly with our cozy basement. I have a fun mural planned for the long wall behind the door. I’d like to replace the sink cabinet, perhaps with something freestanding like this vanity unit with brass legs. But man, it’s expensive!! We are using the storage space under our existing dressing table, so if I change it I will need to create storage space somewhere to compensate for that. New thicker baseboards and crown molding finish off this space!
3. Tackle storage areas in our home.
We are so lucky to have so many closets and storage areas in our home! It just bothers me that they don’t work as well as they could.
My number one spot is the corner in the basement where I store home decor items, appliances, candles…things like this:
The first step was a big pushback. I’ve kept a lot of these items for years and I know I might want to use some of them in specific places like the bar shelves in the basement, or in my built-in office. But now most of these projects are finished, so I don’t need/want most of the rest. I put a lot of effort into working on this already and about 60 percent of the stuff in that photo is gone. It feels so good to be mutilated!! I will update more about that soon. I want to put drywall over the insulation – I’m not even sure I’ll tape or mud it over. Just sealing the walls will do wonders here (and keep the insulation from sticking to everything). I want to create permanent shelves instead of plastic units. Deep shelves on the walls will give us more space and easy access.
If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know that all kinds of other projects will be popping up throughout the year! Designing our home is my passion and I appreciate you following along! If you want to stay up to date on what’s going on this year, be sure to subscribe to have my blog posts sent to your inbox.
