It’s been a very busy year here at Blue i Style with more than 120 blog posts and some major accomplishments! I can’t wait to see what 2017 holds… But first, I wanted to take a minute to look back at the most popular posts of 2016, as determined by you, the readers! Today I’ve rounded up the top 10 decorating and DIY posts. You might just find something here that you missed the first time around, or something worth a second look!
The most popular DIY post this year, based on both pageviews and comments, was our metallic garage floor finish. I am happy to report that the garage floor is holding up great and is super easy to clean, even with all the snow and mess we’ve brought in this winter. This floor finish isn’t just for the garage! It also looks great on basement floors, or even in a bedroom or anywhere else that you want a unique and easy to clean look. I’ve got the detailed, step by step, photo tutorial that walks you through the whole process.
I don’t do a lot of furniture makeovers on the blog, but this year I was commissioned by the Denver Home Show to take four pieces of thrift store furniture from drab to fab. My favorite seems to have been your favorite as well! I took a plain oak desk and transformed it to a chic navy and gold beauty with campaign hardware. But the real star is the dry erase desktop, perfect for jotting down notes and making to do lists. In addition to desk makeover tutorial, you can also read how I transformed the desk chair with a simple tutorial for reupholstering a chair cushion.
Ever since we redesigned our master bedroom a couple of years back, I’d been wanting to give our master bathroom a matching makeover. Fortunately the existing bathroom finishes (cabinets, counters, floors, and tub and shower tile) were pretty decent, so we were able to focus our efforts and budget on upgrading the bathroom style of the bathroom, rather than having to tackle a complete reno. The show stopper is definitely the full wall of graphic, black and white cement tile, combined with the new black and white striped light fixtures! But we also made some major upgrades on the other side of the bathroom as well that are worth checking out.
In the master bathroom water closet, I was on a mission to add style and function on a major budget. We added white tile around the lower portion of the space, and then added shelves with art above the toilet. To give the space a high end look without breaking the bank, I found a way to fake the look of marble shelves with a simple IKEA hack.
It seems like kids can find a way to make just about anything dangerous, but some things just to inherently dangerous not to child proof. In our house – that would be the horizontal railing in our second floor hallway, right between our boys’ bedrooms. They are basically like a ladder begging to be climbed. But I found a nearly invisible way to make these railings safe without sacrificing style. Now that is a win-win!
Last summer we completed a backyard expansion project that created more room for the kids to play, and this summer we focused our outdoor efforts more on the style side of things by adding new outdoor accessories and art to make our back patio look and feel like an outdoor living room. The string lights that zig zag above the patio remain one of my all time favorite DIY projects, as well as one of the most popular tutorials on the blog.
After refinishing the garage floor with a metallic coating, we went on to complete an full garage makeover. The goal was to create an organized and functional space, but along the way we also manage to make the garage a whole lot prettier – something I didn’t even realize was possible when we first started out. I revealed the garage makeover back in November, but it has already become on of the most popular posts of the year on the blog. In the coming months, I will be sharing lots of garage organizing tips and tricks, so be sure to keep an eye out for that post.
At the end of 2015, I gave our small laundry closet and adjacent linen closet a light and bright makeover packed with storage and function. I covered the formerly red walls with white, faux brick wallpaper. The wallpaper was one of those DIY projects that I was really intimidated to tackle, but that turned out to be much easier than I expected. This year, I shared a tutorial on how easy it is to install temporary, removable wallpaper, with some lessons I learned along the way.
One of the biggest challenges in designing our outdoor patio space was figuring out how to use the large empty space on the side of our white stucco garage. I’ve always wanted to hang some kind of art there, but could never find outdoor art that fit my style. Finally, I came up with a way to weather-proof a large canvas print of one of my favorite photos from our travels, and I shared a video tutorial to show you just how easy it is to do.
I am excited to see this tutorial round out the top 10 most popular decor and DIY posts on the blog this year, because this was one of the posts that I really hoped would help all of my readers! Over the years, I had received many questions about how I create the mood boards the I use to make design decisions, both for my own home, and when working with clients{did you know you can hire me to decorate or organize your space?!}. The good news is a free and easy to use online program that allows you to create professional looking mood boards without any special graphic design knowledge! I walk you through every step – from grabbing images while shopping online all the way through creating a mood board to help you visualize your next decor project!
None of these posts would be popular without you visiting, reading, commenting, and pinning, so THANK YOU for making 2016 a great year at Blue i Style! I have lots planned for 2017, but I want to make sure that I am providing you with valuable content, so please let me know if there is something specific you’d like to see here. Feel free to leave me a comment, shoot me an email, or share your thoughts with me on social media {Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter}.
I’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up 2016 with a list of the most popular organizing posts of the year – just in time for those New Year’s Resolutions!
