If you have been following me on instagram (IF NOT, COME CLICK HERE AND SAY HELLO!) you would have seen the quick, easy and cheap DIY project I just recently tackled. Using this quarantine as a time to redecorate/reorganize my entire household, I decided it was time to address my living room situation. What is currently just this mess of a room, I wanted to clean it up. However, as a stay at home mom on budget, I want to do what I can without spending a fortune.

As I have talked about before, Facebook Marketplace is my go to when it comes to furnishing my home. Yes, while there are some things I will buy brand new, I also try and refurbish what I can. I love little projects like this for multiple reasons but mostly because of how budget friendly and cathartic they can be. Seriously though, if you’re a mama in need of a break and stress relief, pick up a power sander. I promise, it will be just the thing you need to blow off some steam. Better yet, pair that with a glass of wine and you’ll thank me!

Anyway, with this is mind, I found a gorgeous but beat up antique dresser. For just $100, my husband was able to pick it up from a local seller and 2 hours later, we ended up with a beautiful staple for our living room. Seriously, if you can look past the exterior, carve out a little time, and put in a little work, you can end up with amazing results.

So before I walk you through what you’ll need, should you want to try this out yourself, lets do a little before/after.

Before:

After:

Incredible, right?!? Keeping all the original hardware, this piece turned out better than I could have ever imagined. It is perfect to help give our living room a little life!

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Have a piece you want to do this too? Awesome, you can do this with anything you want. Regardless of if it is painted or stained, as long as its made out of wood, you are good to go. Take a look below and I will walk you through it all!

What You’ll Need:

Power Sander: This is the one I use and absolutely love

60 & 220 Grit Sand Paper- They sell ones specifically for your power sander

Water Based Polyurethane : Make sure it is a water-based poly. Especially if you are applying over a lighter piece. If not, you’re piece will yellow and look not so pretty

White Furniture Wax: You can always make you’re own with regular furniture wax and white paint but if you are wanting to skip that step, check out Behr. This stuff works great and is one of my favorites!

Paint brush– This is one I love using for pretty much everything

Clean rags

Getting Started:

1. First thing first, make sure you are working in a clean and open space. Sanding greats a whole lot of dust, which if you aren’t careful, will get over everything. Actually, now that Im thinking about it, make sure yo have a old pair of clothes you can wear and not worry about ruining and then a face mask. Trust me, you don’t want to inhale all that stuff!
2. Time to get on sanding. Take your 60 grit sand paper and go to town. Your goal is to remove as much of the original paint/stain from the piece as possible.
3. Once everything is sanded, its time to poly. Apply a thin coat of the water based poly to your entire piece. Let it dry and then take your 220 grit sand paper and lightly sand until smooth. Clean off the dust and reapply another coat of poly. You can repeat this process as many times as you’d like.
4. Once all the poly has dried and sanding complete, apply wax with a paint brush to dresser.
5. After all areas have been coated with wax, use clean rag to wipe it off.
6. Let cure! Don’t set anything your dresser for 48 hours in order to make sure surface has enough time to set

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And that is it! Seriously, this is the simplest furniture transformation with the biggest reward!

So tell me what, are you waiting for?

When we moved into our house, almost 2 years ago, I knew redoing our kitchen was on the list of future projects. In fact, it was on the very top of that list but after receiving multiple quotes around $70-75k, I just couldn’t find any sense in justifying such a venture. I mean yes, a brand new kitchen would be beautiful I am sure, but with two kids (and hopefully more in the future) I had to stay realistic. Not wanting to take years to save or approach the bank for a hefty loan, I started brainstorming ways to still get our dream kitchen but for a lesser price tag.

After doing a bit of research and crunching some numbers, I was able to become our own project coordinator and achieve this kitchen makeover for a little over $10k. Yes, that may sound like a lot, but when comparing that to $75k, it is a steal! Best of all, we were able to get this entire project done in 3 weeks.

So before I go ahead and break down each part of the project (scroll past pictures for further detail), lets take a walk down memory lane and remind ourselves at to where we began. Shall we?

BEFORE

Can you say yikes? This kitchen was the original, built with our house in 1989. Thankfully though, being that the layout was ideal, we didn’t need to rip down to the studs. Instead, as you will read below, we were able to stick with smaller updates that made a HUGE difference!

After:

The Planning

Whenever I plan out a room in my house, I usually struggle to organize all of my thoughts. Yes, Pinterest helps but it can also be a little overwhelming and doesn’t help me zone in on all the ideas floating in my head. For this reason I like to create a “vision board” and to keep it simple, I stick with Microsoft Word to help that happen. I did this for both my kid’s nurseries and seeing how they turned out (you can find those posts HERE & HERE), I knew it would be the way to go for the kitchen.

Once I found something I liked through Wayfair, Pinterest or other, I took a screen shot and added it into the document. This way I could get a rough idea of how everything wold piece together. While everything in the end may not be exactly as pictured (because a majority of the images are just serving as ideas) they still helped guide my decision process.

The Cabinets

As I mentioned above, while the kitchen was dated looking, it for the most part was still in pretty decent shape. Additionally, I knew that in order for us to afford this project that new cabinets were going to be out of the question. With all this in mind, I decided that we’d keep what we currently had and allocate our money towards having them professionally painted. While this easily could have been an area worth DIYing, I wanted to ensure it was done right. Plus, with two littles, I didn’t know when the heck I’d ever find the time to paint it myself.

As for the existing kitchen island, it absolutely had to go. Not only was it slowly breaking down but that God forsaken electric grill was both an eye sore and waste of space. After spending a little time on Pinterest, I decided to rip it out and try and have a new one built that would match a more rustic/farmhouse style. This is where I thankfully found a local carpenter through Facebook who was able to do this and charged an incredibly affordable price. Oh and best of all, this carpenter also had lots of experience painting cabinets, which he offered to do for a discounted price since we purchased the island. Total win, win!

The Floor

In a perfect world, I would have pristine hardwood floors run through the entirety of my home. However, with kids, dogs and budget to consider, that wasn’t going to be possible for this project. Instead, we decided to go with a beautiful vinyl plank carried by Empire Flooring. Scratch resistant and water proof, this vinyl plank was the perfect fit for our home. In a 1.5 days worth of work, they were able to lay the plank over our existing floors throughout the foyer, kitchen, dining room, powder room and laundry room.

In the sake of being transparent though, I will tell you that this portion of our project was the ONLY one we decided to finance. Empire floors offered fantastic financing options that we decided would be best to take advantage of. This way we could spend our budget in other areas of the kitchen and only be left with a small payment plan, which we are going to pay off next year.

Countertops

Since we only needed to replace the counters for the “L” shape of our kitchen (the new island would have a wood top), I knew we could afford to go with a little nicer of a selection of stone. We looked at various grade of granite and quartz but after stumbling on the one we went with, I fell in love. We decided to go with a beautiful this engineered Quartz. More affordable than a standard quartz slab, an engineered quartz is manmade and offers the same durability. The only cons we were warned about was that it would be less heat resistant so it would be best to avoid placing anything hot on the counter itself. Other than this, you would never know the difference. This was our splurge piece you can say and I have zero regret about it. Everything about it is perfect and was the addition to help achieve that clean/rustic feel I was aiming for.

Lighting

As you will see in our older before photos, the existing light fixtures were very 90’s. Luckily, the old pendant above the dinner table was easy for Keven and I to replace, but when it came to the box light above the island, we needed a professional.

This is when things got a little interesting and we hit our only snag. Once they removed the box light, we saw how there were both scorch marks and water damage. The electricians told us we were lucky the light never caused a fire because it was looking like it could have at any moment. Thank you God for watching over us with that one. As for the water damage, this was likely the result of our crazy ass toddler (thank you Cassidy) deciding to dump water out of her bath the week prior. Regardless, this was the only snag we hit during the entire process and thankfully didn’t cause too much headache.

The Back Splash

For the sake of keeping things clean, simple, and affordable I wanted to stick with a basic white 3×6 subway tile backsplash. Honestly though, while there are so many different options when it comes to kitchen backsplashes, I don’t think you can ever go wrong with subway tiles. Again, this is another area that Facebook helped tremendously, as I was able to find a local handyman who offered to do the job for an incredibly reasonable price. All we needed to do was purchase the materials, which from Lowes, cost us a little under $150 total. Again, this too could totally be done yourself if you are willing to learn BUT since I didn’t have the time or patience, I allocated our budget to cover the install.

The Table

Last but not least, the final part of our transformation was taking our existing kitchen table and stripping that baby down. We bought this amazing solid wood piece a couple of years back on Craigslist and have lived with it looking a bit rough for a while. My guess is the previous owner at one point tried refinishing it because of the stain job (it wasn’t done very well and was more caked on), so I decided to take it down to the natural wood base.

In just a rainy afternoon, I was able to get this entire table stripped, coated in poly, waxed and set back up. Took a little elbow grease but it was way cheaper than going out and buying something new.

And there you have it, our dream kitchen. I am so glad we decided to take this route as opposed to hiring a contractor and doing a complete overhaul. With just a little patience and planning, we were able to get the kitchen of our dreams and best of all, SAVE BIG!

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So what do we think? If you need any links/ referrals, comment below 🙂

For more home project, motherhood stories, crazy shenanigan ands more, come follow along over on instagram. I’d love to share our story with you!

With baby boy coming in 6-7 weeks (unless he decides to come early or hang out late), we have been busy over here preparing and taking advantage of our last few weeks of a family of 3. With that being said, its been a bit since we had the time to sit down and actually do a new date night recipe.

Using Pinterest as my source of inspiration, I stumbled upon an image of this delicious looking pasta & cherry tomato dish. Of course though, it wasn’t linked to anything so I can’t credit the source but I did use it as inspiration and tried to replicate it as best as possible.

Now one of the biggest perks about where we live in NJ is that we have so much access to these amazing farm stands. I know NJ has a wrap for being all Jersey Shore but what you cant forget that we are called the “Garden State” for a reason. We grow some bomb-ass produce, specifically tomatoes, peaches, and corn. By taking advantage of this, I headed 5 minutes down the street and grabbed 2 pints of yellow and red cherry tomatoes and let me tell you, they are out of this world!

So without further adieu, here is the delicious Summer Pasta dish that is perfect to have on a warm summer night.

Summer Pasta

What You’ll Need

• 2 Pints of Cherry Tomatoes (I chose to do 1 pint red and 1 pint yellow)
• Garlic, 6 Cloves minced or 2 TBSP Garlic Paste
• 20 Basil Leaves, chopped (this can be increased based on preference)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes (this too can be increased based on taste preferences)
• 1 Cup Olive Oil
• 1 Cup Parmesan Cheese
• 1 Package of Angel Hair Pasta

What To Do:

• Cut cherry tomatoes into halves or quarters, depending on size
• Combine tomatoes with garlic, basil, salt, pepper, red pepper, and olive oil
• Cover and let marinate at room temperature for AT LEAST 2 hours ( I let mine sit out for 5)
• Once ready to serve, cook pasta according to packaging instructions
• Combine with bowl of cherry tomatoes and add in parmesan cheese
• Eat your face off!

If you’ve been following along, you know how important my hubby and I find our date nights. However, with tight budget and lack of childcare, we make due with what we have and aim to get 1 night, each and every week, dedicated to just us two. We put little one down a bit earlier than usual, set the table, and put our phones aside. The meals aren’t always fancy but they are yummy (and affordable too)!

So with that, lets dive in to this weeks meal: Home Made Pizza. Sticking with one basic and one eccentric pie, we did a cheese pizza and then one with prosciutto and goat cheese. I am going to cover the recipes for both of these but feel free to switch things up and add your own toppings. That’s the best part about this meal: Its easy, quick, affordable and can personalized in any which way. Oh and lets not forget, its oh so tasty!

At Home Pizzas

Cheese Pizza- What You’ll Need

• Frozen pizza dough (I used Papa Sal’s brand, which can be found at ShopRite. If you can find that, I’m sure any other brand would work or you could totally use one of the pre-made crusts from Target)
• 1/4-1/2 cup Marinara Sauce (depends on how saucy you like your pizzas to be)
• 8oz Bag of Shredded Mozzarella
• Dried Basil, Dried Oregano & Garlic Powder (Sprinkle each on top- don’t over due it)

Prosciutto & Goat Cheese Pizza- What You’ll Need

• Frozen pizza dough (I used Papa Sal’s brand, which can be found at ShopRite. If you can find that, Im sure any other brand would work or you could totally use one of the pre-made crusts from Target)
• 1/4-1/2 cup Marinara Sauce (depends on how saucy you like your pizzas to be)
• 2 hand fulls of Fresh Baby Spinach (I’ve in the past have used fresh arugula and it was awesome)
• 2oz Crumbled Goat Cheese
• 3oz Prosciutto ( I personally don’t measure this and instead just add what I think is appropriate)

WHAT TO DO:

• Preheat oven according to dough cooking instructions- For me that was 450 degrees.
• Grease pizza pans with olive oil. Make sure to spread evenly
• If using frozen pizza dough, I find it is easier to manipulate if it was just thawed. About 30 minutes before starting dinner, this is when I set my doughs into a bowl of hot water. It will make the dough a bit watery at first but that will quickly dissipate and allow for you to evenly spread dough over pan.
• Spread desired amount of marinara sauce onto dough
• Add your toppings and don’t be afraid to get creative 🙂

ENJOY!

xoxo, Mary