Best of the Nest 2012. Furniture Makeovers, Mantel Decorating and Beach Decor.

Goodday my sweets. On the threshold of 2012 I wanted to say goodbye to you all and thank you for being my internet friends. This past week I have done exactly what I do every year after Christmas: absolutely nothing. I go into my Christmas holiday with long lists of things I want to start, do and finish, both fun things and project stuff. And I usually just end up making road trips with my love, playing endless games of cards, napping, reading and dvd-ing.

And looking back at the year and making plans for the new year, that too.

 

 

This end of year thing always puts me in a melancholy mood, and I can’t help thinking about the plans and goals I had and how many of them got realized and how many did not. I can’t help weighing the year behind me and looking about what I really want to leave behind and what I want to take with me.

2012 was in many ways not the best of years. We had personal losses, friends and family going through rough times, health issues and general high stress levels. But we also had lots of love, found new friendships, built our relationship even stronger and are just very lucky and grateful for the life we get to live.

And economical crises or not, 2013 will be what we make of it, and I plan to make it one big rocking year!

As for the blog and my house, 2012 definitely was a mixed year. I started it off very exciting with moving my blog from Blogger to WP myself.  

Looking back at that I can honestly say that I love that decision, I love being in control of every aspect of my blog. It hasn’t been one smooth sailing in some aspects, but it has definitively been worth it.

 

Craft Room Makeover

And then in January I dove into my craft room makeover. I don’t think I even had that on my to do list for 2012 but it somehow just happened and spiraled out of control. Most, if not all of my major makeover projects are part of that craft room.

Starting with my maid’s closet makeover……

 

 

My postal chair……..

 

 

That is standing at my little desk…..

 

 

And I even built some things from scratch for this room.

Like the pallet wood storage unit…..

 

 

And my radiator cover…..

 

 

The whole room has become a true reflection of me, and I love hanging out in there. So hopefully you will see plenty of craft projects next year that I will have created there. 

 

 

 

Craft Room Makeover Reveal

 

More furniture makeovers, can be found on my DIY Page

 

 

 

Light, Simple, Nautical Decorations

 

2012 was definitely a year where I played decorator a lot. There was my mantel makeover month in May, where I used one basic mantel decoration and dressed it up differently four times. 

 

There was a simple white mantel decoration, a natural  mantel with tones of brown, a white and purple mantel, and one with an aqua blue mantel decor ….

 

There was quite a bit of coastal decorating going on too. Like this beach summer vignette on our table….

 

 

My sparkly bottle vignette…..

 

 

My summer mantel…..

 

 

And even my Fall mantel had a bit of a coastal touch……

 

 

And then of course there was my Christmas decorating series. That definitely challenged me, since of course in true procrastinator fashion I  had not prepared for it and ended up doing everything more or less in real time. 

 

 

But the challenge and the pressure brought out the best of me, not to mention that I was doing this series with some awesome fellow bloggers who kept me on my toes. It made me realize I thrive on challenges like this. And maybe I should set myself a few more in 2013. Let me know if you want to play along with that, maybe we can come up with some challenges to do together. 

 

You can find all of my best mantel decorating, table setting, vignette making and Christmas projects on my gallery page.

 

And my past best-off posts are here:

 

Top Projects of 2009	Top Projects of 2010	Top Projects of 2011

 

 

I guess this is enough looking back. Time to start looking ahead. To look at the new year, that is all fresh and untouched and that can become everything we want it to be. 

I wish you all a smooth transition into the new year, let the bottles pop, laugh, dance, and celebrate and leave the past behind you.

 

See you on the other side……