Our Long-Awaited Kitchen Cabinet Install Day!

August 21, 2017August 19, 2017 The Steel Fox HomeLeave a comment

I haven’t gone into much detail about our cabinet situation because my mother taught me that if I don’t have anything nice to say, it’s better to say nothing at all. Yeah… it’s like that. Here is a summary of the situation and then I will move on and never speak of it again.

We chose a large, national chain, ready-to-assemble (RTA) cabinet company. This company is often featured on major home décor and renovation TV shows, so we felt like we were going with a company with a good reputation. In my research, I did see that there were lots of negative reviews regarding their customer service. So I actually prepared myself by lowering my expectations in that department. [READ MORE]

How to use PowerPoint to plan out decorations with no nail hole re-dos!

August 7, 2017August 6, 2017 The Steel Fox HomeLeave a comment

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a visual person. When I get an idea in my head, I really need to “see” it to decide if it is a random stroke of genius or just another brain fart.

My first step is usually to scour Pinterest to see if anyone else has done it. You know what they say… there are no original ideas. But sometimes I’m not able to find anything close enough to ease my mind. So I have to find another way to “test drive” it. [READ MORE]

Farmhouse Dining Room Reveal- Before and After!

July 24, 2017August 7, 2017 The Steel Fox Home3 Comments

“Done-ish.”

That is an official DIY fixer upper term. Sure, on all the TV shows they finish their renovations with everything exactly how they want it. It’s decorated to perfection, they release doves at the grand reveal, and unicorns play harps in the backyard. But I quickly realized what a big difference there is between being a production company with a team of professionals, and being a hubby and wife with big dreams and a paint brush.

I talked about this in my post on how to transition to a new décor style a few weeks ago. In the real world (at least in my real world) things happen slower. Decorating and styling, and even furnishing happens over time. Partly so I can live with each space and get a feel for what I really want where… but mostly because sometimes we have to replenish the ol’ bank account before we can move on to the next project. Just keeping it real here. So this is a reveal of my done-ish dining room. [READ MORE]

The Easiest Coffee Table Makeover Ever

July 17, 2017July 23, 2017 The Steel Fox Home4 Comments

Last week on the blog I talked about my “clean slate” decorating process. Times they are a’ changin’ over at The Steel Fox Home. So as we were transitioning into our fresh new style, there were some causalities. More than a few pieces were given away or donated. But honestly our coffee table took me by surprise. It wasn’t something we had put on our “need-a-new-one-for-the-new-house” list, and I really hadn’t given it any thought. It was a pretty piece, solid wood and in good shape. I had thought in the past about refinishing it, but really never had the motivation. But when we started moving our furniture into the house it just stuck out like a sore thumb. [READ MORE]

5 Tips on How to Transition to a New Décor Style

July 10, 2017July 23, 2017 The Steel Fox Home4 Comments

I shared in my last post about how our renovation progress had stalled waiting on the kitchen cabinets. We were still living at my parents, and after a lot of back and forth had decided to wait until the kitchen was installed to move in. I originally wanted to move in as soon as the floors went down. But my parents and my husband convinced me to be patient and continue to live somewhere where I could actually make a decent meal (to be honest I think my parents were trying to keep granddaughter and granddog as long as they could). Also, with my husband still traveling, I did want to wait until we could spend our first night in the new house all together as a family. But since the rest of the house was pretty much done, it was time to start decorating while we waited. So mini-me and I had a girls decorating night one Friday night.

As far as design style and décor went, we were pretty much starting from scratch. I shared in my post about our big, beautiful reclaimed wood mirror that finding my personal design style was not an easy-peasy process for me. It took a lot of trial and error, and spending a long time living in spaces that I didn’t feel reflected my style at all. But we were treating this new home–our dream home, our forever home–like a blank slate. It was a fresh start. I knew that when I was done decorating this home, it would look nothing like our last one. That was the whole point, and I was more than ok with that.
[READ MORE]

Real Talk on Renovation Status: Moving Things in to a Home We Didn’t Live in

June 26, 2017July 23, 2017 The Steel Fox Home2 Comments

Ok friends… time to get real. It’s been super fun sharing with you all the progress on our renovation thus far. I mean, who doesn’t love a good before and after? And when I show you the culmination of several days or even weeks’ worth of work in one tidy little blog post, it sure makes things feel like they were moving fast. But they weren’t. Remember when I said we would only be staying with my parents for a few weeks until the house was livable? As of my last post, it had been almost 2 months since we closed on the house. [READ MORE]

How to Add Privacy and Texture to Any Window or Door for Less Than $20

June 19, 2017July 23, 2017 The Steel Fox Home2 Comments

Our house is out in the woods… literally. We back up to a state forest. We love the quiet and the privacy. In fact, the location is probably number one on the list of reasons why we decided to take on this fixer upper to begin with. So at first, the front doors didn’t bother me. The front French doors and the back French doors are the exact same door package. There is literally zero privacy to our front doors whatsoever. [READ MORE]