Guest Post | Heather @ Green Eggs & Goats

 

Hi, I'm Heather! I live on a 3 acre farm in Alabama with my husband and three children. We have 5 goats, 25 chickens, 2 guineas, 2 ducks, a dog, 2 cats and one very spoiled Jersey Cow! I blog about homesteading, homeschooling, design, decorating, and crafting over at Green Eggs & Goats.

 

I have been doing a makeover of my dining room, so I thought I would share with you today about the importance of paying attention to the details when you are fixing up a room.  So often, when we decide to update a room, we only pay attention to the big details like wall color and furniture.  Those things are very important, but it is the small details that make a room look polished, so here is a list to help you think about the small things!

 

You will never "hide" an outlet, but it doesn't have to stick out either!

 

Outlets!  This might be something you never give a second thought to, but you should!  For example, I installed bead-board wallpaper under my chair rail and painted it bright white.  I had cream outlets.  Yes, I could have just changed the covers, but let's face it, white covers and cream outlets don't look that great together.  My husband changed out the outlets for me, and the white on white looks great.  If I wasn't able to change the outlets, it would have been time to change my color scheme!

 

Floors!  In the case of our dining room, we were able to replace the tired blue carpet with some Trafficmaster flooring that we had leftover from another project. It was important to me NOT to have carpet under the table where we eat several meals a day. If new flooring isn't in the budget though, you do need to go ahead and take a good look at what you have.  Does it need a hands and knees scrubbing? Maybe you need to rent a carpet cleaner. Whatever you are working with, do your best to get it as clean as possible and it will make your room look more finished.

 

Caulk!  How do those windows and doors look? Molding? Ceilings? A $4 tube of paintable caulk can go a long way towards making a room look finished or updated. Caulk is easy to apply and probably won't take you more than half an hour unless your room is huge (or very caulk neglected).

 

Windows!  Let's go ahead and remove those fingerprints and doggy nose prints.  Wash at least the inside, but if you can get to the outside, it's probably a good idea to wash those too.

 

These are all the things that had accumulated on my hutch before.
It is just way too much stuff to all make the cut!

 

Accessories!  Let's really think long and hard about our accessories. Is it time to rotate our collection and look at something different for a while? Is it time to pull some things that you don't really love anymore? This is the hardest part for me, but when we go to dress our room, we really need to highlight our favorites and either store, sell or donate the things that we don't love.

 

The hutch is still a work in progress, but I know that "less is more" here.

 

Lighting!  Take a good look at those light fixtures. Do they give off enough light? Do they need to be replaced? If you have a brass chandelier, perhaps you should take it down and spray paint it to give it a new look. At the very least, make sure that all your bulbs work and that they all match each other! Do you have a combination of cool white, warm white and compact fluorescent bulbs? Maybe your fixture has 100 watt bulbs next to 60 watt bulbs. This seems minor, but it can make your whole room just look odd. Pick one to keep and stick with it!

 

I hope this list gives you some things to think about the next time you decide to update a room!  If you liked what you read, please check out my blog at Green Eggs & Goats where I host a weekly Farmhouse Style Blog Hop! I also blog for Grit Magazine.

 

Heather

blog | facebook | pinterest