 One essential to every house is having a place where guests can feel comfortable and at home. But making a room to fit that description is a lot harder than it seems. That's why in this blog post, we'll be helping you make the perfect guest room. Theme and NecessitiesThe first thing to keep in mind when making a good guest room is that this is not your room. It is for guests, and as such, should not be filled with personal belongings or other paraphernalia. For example, personal photographs, trophies, awards, or decorations are normally should not be in the room. Try to make sure the closet is empty so that the guest has room for his or her suitcase and clothes. Another important aspect to a guest room is a workspace that includes a chair, an outlet nearby, writing utensils, paper, and a desk. This is vital if the guest needs to work while they are at your house. Always make sure the room has enough privacy and does not have an unsavory aroma. Finally, allow for there to some sort of entertainment in the room, namely a television and some books. These aspects are a great start to ensuring that a guest in your house has a great stay.  ConveniencesNow that you have the essentials covered, let's talk about some conveniences. The first thing you should be sure to include is some extra blankets. Fresh towels that are in plain sight is a must. Put the WiFi and password in the room where it is visible, and you will save yourself and your guest a lot of trouble. Having a mirror in the room itself is a very valuable addition as well. One other thing that you should put in the room is a universal charger so that if they forget their phone charger, no matter what phone they have, a charger will be in there for them. One last convenience is to prepare a basket full of any essential toiletry the guest might need, like shampoo, toothpaste, or a toothbrush. Adding these to your room infinitely increases your hospitality as a host.   Non-Essential Enhancements and LuxuriesThe last additions to your guest room are not essential, but add a lot if you are able to. For example, having a coffee and tea station isn't necessary, but if you do have it, your guest can make coffee or tea whenever they want without having to worry about disturbing you. Candles and coasters really sell the luxurious nature of the room, and putting snacks on or near the nightstand is a really nice touch.  By now, your guest room should be looking stunning and welcoming to all guests who are staying there. If you still aren't sure what it needs, try living in the room for a few nights and adjusting what you see fit, or you can contact us at farmhousefixer.com. We look forward to seeing your new guest bedrooms and what you have done to them! Until next time!
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Instagram Reels is the new way to record and upload media on Instagram. It is a video with a fifteen second time limit where you can broadcast clips with audio and other effects, such as Boomerang. These reels are a great way to broadcast yourself or others. This blog post will help you understand how to properly and effectively use IG reels.
While the style of homes vary greatly, every home has select features in common. A front door, floors, bathroom, bedroom… Heck, some even have all these features in one space! (Shout-out to all my Studio peeps) Another feature all homes have is walls, and that’s what we’re focusing on today. When walking into a room, you may notice one wall enhanced by a contrasting paint color, a unique architectural design, or a functional addition like a built-in desk or bookshelves. While other walls perform the task of closing off a space just as effectively, the “feature wall” is the star of the show! Creating a feature wall can define any room in your home, and there are endless ways to dress them up to match your style. For our purposes, we were looking to transform our massive (to us) Master Bedroom by adding a feature wall behind our bed. We went with a floor-to-ceiling Board & Batten (fancy term for boxes) pattern in a heavy charcoal color, to contrast our light gray walls and carpet. We created a 6-panel design as it was symmetrical, and a happy medium between too cluttered and too spread out. This is a preference thing, so work with what you have and figure out how many panels you prefer.
Theme The fist step in creating a flatly is to choose a theme. A theme is important because you want it to be cohesive. You can choose a theme a number of different ways you can start with one item that really inspires you or a color for example. So in this flatly to the left the theme as Pink since it is getting close to valentines day!
You could also have chosen a theme based on an item. Sometimes the theme will come after you have the anchor pieces so steps one and two are interchangeable! Sometimes you start with an anchor piece and then choose a theme. For example a Rae Dunn mug could be your anchor but the theme could be a number of different things, coffee, Hot chocolate, Valentines, Christmas. The options are numerous!  Welcome to our first Christmas in this fun fixer upper log home! While we are still under construction in many rooms we still have made tremendous progress and are having a wonderfully beautiful Christmas here in the Northwest!
If you came from Dabbling and Decorating welcome. We are sure you enjoyed Ann's amazing home and great tips! Whether you came over from Ann or from Instagram or however you found us we are glad you are here! Grab a cup of hot cocoa and stay awhile! While this home is certainly a different style than we have ever owned we are embracing it and loving every minute of it! Our mudroom is the first room we renovated you can find that link here! Since it was the first update it will also be the first we share here on our holiday decor tour! With a log home we decided to go mostly with traditional Christmas colors this year! And of course what kind of decorator would I be without throwing in some buffalo plaid this year!  A quick DIY update changes this room!Well at least we thought it would be a quick update. This room had indoor outdoor carpet which is typically easy to clean and get smells out of but this one smelled like a wet dog had been living in it ...... maybe because it had! So we ended up ripping up the carpet and it still smelled :(! We ended up replacing all the sub flooring so at least now we know it is good and smell free :)! Happy Nose!
The benches were already installed and so were the hooks. YAY!!! So a quick coat of paint updated those and really brightened the room right up! Bonus the two sides both lift up, for hidden storage! Below is the before picture of what it looked like before we began our DIY project and then after ripping the carpet out and painting. 
If you have ever tried to retrofit a farmhouse sink in an older house you know the troubles that can you can encounter. If you haven't let us warn you - even though it is fairly straightforward; if you are dealing with cabinets that are not exactly level you are in for some work trying to get it level. You have to build supports if your cabinet was not originally used for a farmhouse sink so why not build the supports as levelers also!
My brilliant husband came up with this genius idea on how to easy level it without shims and any one spot can be adjusted easily and quickly to get it level and keep it level! 
We have had a lot of interest in our Guest room Internet sign so we thought we would just do a quick blog post and include it here for you to be able to download! It is always nice to have these documents around your house for guests so they don't have to bother asking for the Internet password - it is already in their room waiting for them! Or you can make a few and put them in various places in your house. We have found they are great in the family room for the babysitters. They have come in handy after the kids go to bed and they want to get on the Internet and not use their data!
Important note before you do any electrical work in your home you should consult an electrician. Always use extra precautions also. Make sure the power is off and use a voltage tester to double check.
After you have consulted with your electrician you are ready to get started! Styling and building your own Industrial wall sconce or lamp is probably easier than you think! We love the look of the pipe lights but weren't sure if we wanted to fork out the money so we decided to build one ourselves first before we bought one. Now we like it more and we can configure them any way we want and the price is great when you do it yourself. So get dreaming up what you want and let's get started!!  We have four full bathrooms in our house and while technically all of them were usable they didn't exactly inspire relaxation or style. They were functional and fantastic for the 1980s but we preferred a more up to date style without breaking the bank because let's face it the whole house is stuck in the 80s! Don't get me wrong we love it; great space great rooms gorgeous fireplaces and breathtaking views so fixing up the decor for all these things we will take it.
Below are some of the ways we saved money on our project and other things to consider. It is so easy to get lost for hours on Pintrest, Instagram, or Houzz; but whatever you use to search for ideas it is important to narrow those ideas down once you have a good idea of your overall desired style and budget. Let's face it we can all drool over some of the wonderful pictures and ideas out there but it is not always a reality so we keep those thoughts in mind as we figure out how to get a similar look on a budget!
We have developed and will share with you our easy and successful process that we developed over the years of fixing up homes. It will help you take control of your project and be successful with the overall desired style and decor whether it is farmhouse, country or anything else the process is the same. 
When you buy a true "Fixer Upper" there are so many projects it can be difficult to prioritize them and to wrap your head around when and how to do each and every one especially when taking budget into account. At first we found ourselves searching supplies and how to complete one DIY project then another and another because we were so excited to complete them all but we were limited on time and money for each of them because the budget is a reality for us like it is most.
While hesitant because of the expense (although decidedly less than a tractor), this CanAm has been a blessing! This winter we have had an incredible amount of snow. With our driveway being over a mile long, my arms are thankful that this awesome machine is doing all the work!
It handled almost all circumstances; however, we did get stuck once because of too much snow so we added the snow tracks. Since adding them we certainly don't have that problem and it has made it twice as fun and twice the beast. We can go anywhere and climb almost anything now. Exploring the property has never been so fun in the snow! In addition to pushing snow it will be a great workhorse for us with animals and gardens. We even used it to haul a new dishwasher to the house when the delivery truck got stuck on the road coming up. We were able to bring it up and get it installed while waiting for someone to pull them out. Living on a farm and a Fixer Upper leaves little time to sit around and wait when delays happen! This is not a sales ad for the unit we just love it and have enjoyed the work and play with it!! |
View from Farmhouse!
View from farmhouse of the Golf Course!
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