The amount of DIY projects my husband and I did on our house in 2014 was minimal compared to other years. If you’ve read my blog long, you might know that we live in a home built in 1856 that we purchased in a dilapidated state, both inside and out, 20 years ago.

In that amount of time, we have worked and worked…..AND WORKED on making it a place we love. We aren’t finished (you never really are, are you?) but with what I would call 80% completion of the goals we initially had, and feeling beyond burned out with all the remodeling mess over the years as well as physical and mental exhaustion, we took it easy last year and tried to spend more time enjoying what we have.

I don’t have a lot of home improvement goals for 2015, because I’m still in the “enjoying” mode. The horrible laundry room with the falling apart plaster ceiling and walls and seriously inadequate surface and storage area will have to wait. But there are a few things I would like to change this year.

Such as:

**Paint the dining room. I loved the pumpkin walls for a while but I want something lighter. In fact, I would like to lighten the feeling in all my rooms one way or another. I’m looking at Benjamin Moore Tranquility but it might have too much blue, or Benjamin Moore Grey Wisp.

**Make the two guest rooms guest-ready. This will be the most costly, both money-wise and time-wise. It will require fresh paint, new carpet or other flooring and new mattresses. I plan to accesorize mostly with things borrowed from other rooms and things I have stored in cabinets for future use. But almost all of that is vintage and I really want to balance it out with some modern accessories too. I have a small budget to work with, so that means I’ll be doing some thrifting and couponing. Of course I can’t thrift shop for the big ticket items. Have you shopped for mattresses lateley? Sheesh!

**Introduce more natural elements into my decor.

I love nature! By using more of it in my decor I hope to give the entire downstairs a more simplified and unified feel. I’ll have to let go of some of the things I have to make room for the new so it won’t feel cluttered. For me, that’s easier said than done since I have carefully culled and curated each item over years of hunting. I’m hoping that by “donating” some of the things I now have downstairs to the guest room cause, it will all balance out.

So those are my 2015 DIY goals for our home. Can we accomplish all this AND build in some R&R? It seems reasonable. Only time will tell. As we get to each item on the list I’ll show you the “before” pictures and promise to keep you updated with our progress.