Old is New Again

As evidenced by my dwindling blog posts, beading has taken a back seat for awhile. After 25 years and much use, our kitchen was begging for a makeover. Dan and I would both put cooking near the top of our favorites list, but we'd been making do with a cooktop that only had two functioning burners for years! We began renovating every square inch of our kitchen in February, and once it was finished, we knew we wanted to dive back in and update the rest of the rooms on the first floor. With our two youngest graduated and moved to new cities and jobs, creating spaces that reflected our new lifestyle was an important factor, but fitting in a place to bead in each space was essential, too!


Replacing our multi-tiered island with a single-level design opened up the room. Lots of windows provide great natural light, which I can supplement with new can lights when needed. My new favorite place to bead!

Office: Organization is a key factor in any room, but for me, an uncluttered office is essential  to getting any work done!  A coat closet off the main hallway serves as a file room, and my tendency to file or recycle whatever hits my desk daily helps keep me humming along and my office neat and tidy.

Living Room: This room had been essentially empty for the last year, since giving our living room furniture to our son for his first apartment. That made repainting easy, and relocating our old family room furniture here turned this space into a cozy and relaxing retreat. In fact, it’s now one of our favorite rooms in the house!

The family room got a much-needed facelift with new seating, a retiled fireplace and neutral-colored walls. That green square on the floor? It marks the place for a black leather ottoman/coffee table/ bead table, due next month. This space is not quite finished, but the remaining tile, paint and carpeting are on Dan’s to-do-list.  It's back to beading for me!