I thought I'd post this quick entry with some show and tell of one of our recent DIY projects. My little family moved to Florida about a month ago, and we're currently renting a house. It's a cute little abode that's great for the 3 of us, and has everything we wanted in a house. It has a fireplace, 2 car garage, fenced in back yard, covered back porch, laundry room, eat-in kitchen and seperate dining room, and great closet spaces. I also love having dual vanities in the master bathroom, because now I have twice the counter space on which to scatter my makeup and hair products. :) The best part though? Florida living is cheap. We couldn't touch an apartment in Pennsylvania for the price of our rental house here. And we're 10 minutes from white sand, electric blue and green water beaches! Have I mentioned I like living here?
We went from buying a major fixer-upper in Pennsylvania (which is still sitting patiently on the market), to living in someone else's house that we're not allowed to make any changes to (but we sort of do anyway). For a couple of DIY-ers, it can be frustrating to feel like we can't fully make the place our own. But we've discovered some tips and tricks to help us give our rental some personal touches.
I'll start with the lighting. This little beauty was in the formal dining room, which is directly connected to the living room. It just screams 1993.
We decided we wanted to turn the formal dining room into an extension of the living room, mostly because I didn't want our huge TV anywhere near our beautiful fireplace, and because we have no use for a formal dining room in addition to the eat-in kitchen with just the 3 of us living here. So the plan was to create a sitting/conversation area around the fireplace, and then in the dining room, put the TV and entertainment stuff and another couch. The only thing that was keeping the TV area from looking legit, was the darkened glass and brass light fixture dangling down in the middle of the room. You can't replace rental lighting... or can you?? Yes! You sort of can!
We headed to Lowe's and grabbed a drum lamp shade in a nuetral cream color. Josh got out the drill and removed the ugly glass encloser around the light... it was starting to look better already. He then took about 5" worth of chain off, and then attached the lamp shade. Obviously we kept the glass shade and the extra chain links in storage to put back when the day comes for us to move out. But for the time that we are living here, we can totally live with this new and improved light fixture!
So that's that. I'll post pictures of our other projects a little later.
We went from buying a major fixer-upper in Pennsylvania (which is still sitting patiently on the market), to living in someone else's house that we're not allowed to make any changes to (but we sort of do anyway). For a couple of DIY-ers, it can be frustrating to feel like we can't fully make the place our own. But we've discovered some tips and tricks to help us give our rental some personal touches.
I'll start with the lighting. This little beauty was in the formal dining room, which is directly connected to the living room. It just screams 1993.
We decided we wanted to turn the formal dining room into an extension of the living room, mostly because I didn't want our huge TV anywhere near our beautiful fireplace, and because we have no use for a formal dining room in addition to the eat-in kitchen with just the 3 of us living here. So the plan was to create a sitting/conversation area around the fireplace, and then in the dining room, put the TV and entertainment stuff and another couch. The only thing that was keeping the TV area from looking legit, was the darkened glass and brass light fixture dangling down in the middle of the room. You can't replace rental lighting... or can you?? Yes! You sort of can!
We headed to Lowe's and grabbed a drum lamp shade in a nuetral cream color. Josh got out the drill and removed the ugly glass encloser around the light... it was starting to look better already. He then took about 5" worth of chain off, and then attached the lamp shade. Obviously we kept the glass shade and the extra chain links in storage to put back when the day comes for us to move out. But for the time that we are living here, we can totally live with this new and improved light fixture!
So that's that. I'll post pictures of our other projects a little later.
If I were the homeowner with you living in my home, I would be completely excited to have you update my house at your own expense. You really do a great job.
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