We live in a cookie-cutter home. There I said it.
No, it's not my dream home or neighborhood, but it's a home and a great starter one at that! We pay less owning a home than we payed renting an apartment so I'm not complaining! I'm very thankful, actually.
But one of the down sides of living in this type of home is what I like to call the builder-grade blah syndrome.
You know... the oak cabinets, laminate counter-tops, brass lighting, linoleum flooring, plain mirrors in the bathrooms....I can go on, but I think you get the point: I'm not fond of these features. Not even a little bit.
Sure, one day I would love to find an older home with charm and character in the perfect neighborhood and update it with my family's personality (or build our dream home).
But for now, finding ways to mask and change the builder-grade blah syndrome is how we are turning this house into our home and rocking it with personality!
And we don't spend a fortune making our updates- again, this is NOT my dream home so I'm not pouring in the dough on this one!!
A great example of a quick AND inexpensive update would be this one!
For only $11 we were able to change the look of our guest bathroom mirror!
And...it made a HUGE difference! Check out the before and after:
I think we kicked builder-grade syndrome in the butt with this one, don't you?
And boy, did it feel good!
You can check out this tutorial on framing bathroom mirrors. When we frame our master bathroom's mirror I may do a tutorial of my own but this one snuck by me!
The $11 spent was on the molding trim. We used the same paint we used for this bathroom's cabinets and our master's cabinets! This paint is lasting FOREVER!
And my number 1 tip: paint the back of your trim/molding! It reflects off the mirror! I'm glad I followed this tip or it would not have been too pretty.
If your home also suffers from the builder-grade syndrome, how do you cope? What easy updates made a big difference for you?
Thanks so much for stopping by!
