What was just right for me in 2017 and any year for that fact is not listening to what designers (not all, don't get your undies in a bunch) and what TV design shows say. If I did I would have a snow storm kitchen, noisy open concept, high maintenance hardwood floors. tile with grout that needs constant scrubbing, electrocution on chandeliers hanging over bath tubs, uninspiring white painted brick fireplace. beat up used wood slapped up on any surface, and the list can go on. A home should reflect the home owner not a cookie cutter home the everyone and their mother has. When we moved in 3 years ago my son hated the house "It isn't you" I redid every room, some major changes and some minor. Now it is my home, it has my personalty, not void of personalty that is mostly shown now a days.

For me it was purchasing a new area rug for our DR and runner for the front hallway. Love them.

Anne I love your craines. Unfortunately you have the same nasty view from you window that I have. Snow, yuk. Lol

i didnt make a single trip to HomeGoods.

I redid the front hall. Replaced a shelf with coat pegs with a wall mounted console and coats go on the inside of the closet door on pegs instead. Hated seeing the clutter of coats hanging in the hall since forever and now they are out of sight at last. Version #4 and it is a keeper.

Vintage wallcovering installed.

Finally got rid of a statue that my son secretly brought into my house that had been left in his house by a friend who moved out of the country.

After a two year major reno on the main level, I did absolutely nothing for 2017. Just enjoyed what we now have.

I learned to not take advice.

I learned that art is therapy. Just not neccessarily cheaper lol

Bought a nice media console to replace our old, semi-tacky ikea one. Pulls the living room together so much more nicely.

I’ve lived here in one of the great art meccas of our country, Northern New Mexico, for many years now. And, I’ve collected art this entire time as well. Beautiful, original art. Not for investment, though, but only what I loved. And, because this is an art mecca, at much more reasonable prices than most would pay elsewhere. This year, though, I’ve felt it was time to start downsizing. We’ve had paintings stacked behind doors and hung everywhere. It was time to let go. Whatever our adult children didn’t want, I donated to worthy causes. To my children’s former high school, too, for art to hang in the halls and offices. It was initially very emotionally painful to let them go, but very freeing once they were gone. Less clutter, too. We still have a lot of art on our walls, but the stacks behind doors are gone, brightening other new homes now. It was a good move.

My best decision was to get rid of stuff that is filling cabinets and closets but has no meaning to me or our children. It is so freeing. It is interesting that this clean-out has not affected the visible areas of the house, but somehow it seems cleaner to me. This is a long process, but is nice to be able to hand over some of our nicer or sentimental pieces now, rather than when my daughters are too old to enjoy them, and to pass along surplus kitchen and linens to those less fortunate or starting out.

We finally got the L-shaped banquette that was planned for our dining area. It fills in the corner and is so comfortable I can sit there for hours. It was custom made and the process was a huge PITA, and took way too long, but the result is perfect. Then we were able to finalize the dimensions of the big slab table that goes with it. The vision is complete! I can barely remember the Office Depot folding table and cheap patio chairs we had to use in the interim...

Transformed a bedroom from "kid" to guest room. Actually I cleaned out, rearranged three rooms so they can accommodate the grown ups that come back to visit them!!

david, you have an amazing space!

Finished our family room. I am very proud to display my art there..

Yep! My whole House! I designed the exterior and interiors as well as the detached garageport, decking, layout of pool and spa, and landscaping. We’re three weeks away from move!

Hi Emily,

Fun question!

Our best was to use a beautiful dark grey paint as an accent color, and not go all crazy with permanent fixtures that is grey.

It's just paint.

Small-scale: I finally found the perfect piece of art for a blank spot in our living room, plus a bench for our hard-to-fit entryway.

Large-scale: We expanded our patio in the backyard and added a seating wall. I absolutely love how it turned out.

So last year we finished our powder room, it was a gut job, had been a standard builder grade room. We had this beautiful, blue glass sink and black fixtures. Well, our glass sink spontaneously exploded last August (I've shown that picture and told the story here on houzz) and the sink manufacturer went above their original warranty and offered us a new stone sink because I refused to have another glass sink with the potential to explode next to my head again. We got the new sink from them (after several months because it was back ordered) and the black faucet just didn't look right anymore, plus the reach wasn't quite right anymore so we searched high and low for a faucet we liked that would work. (In hindsight we realized we should have originally had the faucet come out of the wall, but we were stuck with our original design because we didn't want to remake the vanity and the holes were already cut.) Soooooo.... we ordered this German faucet... and the measurements weren't quite what we had originally expected. It was a lot shorter than we thought it was going to be and it wasn't working AT ALL with the height of the vessel sink. But we liked the faucet otherwise and hubby didn't want to deal with returning the faucet and trying to search again for one that would work. So he put his engineer cap back on and got a bright idea! He bought a block of walnut and asked his brother to use his lathe to turn the block of walnut into a riser for the faucet so that it would work for our sink! (My hubby does a lot of excellent wood working, but he doesn't turn things on a lathe)
I'm THRILLED with how it turned out!!! I coated the walnut riser in Waterlox like I'd done for the rest of the walnut in that powder room and now we have a faucet that certainly doesn't look like anyone else's and it solved a problem too!
We may re-use the black faucet in another bathroom update we will eventually do, or we may sell it down the road, we haven't decided yet.

Yikes...did they give a reason why it may have exploded skmom? I can't imagine that it was from a temp change from the faucet.

The best decision is always to buy a beautiful area rug! (hint, hint)

Pennydesign,
No, they didn't really give a reason except to say that it happens occasionally. In our research we discovered that if the tempered glass isn't annealed (cooled down) properly during the manufacturing process that can sometimes cause the glass to eventually break. Another glass expert said there's a chemical that sometimes finds its way out, resulting in the glass breaking. The manufacturers tend to want to put the blame on the installer, but we had had the sink installed for well over a year, with the recommended drain, in the recommended manner, and had zero problems until it blew.
We filed a complaint with... oh, I forget... consumer protection or something or other, and we had an investigator come out just a few weeks ago to talk with us and inspect the broken pieces of the glass. We had also gone to a local news station about it in an attempt to educate others about the potential, and they ran a story.
It broke mostly like tempered glass is expected to break... into rounded pebble like glass. It was the "explosion" part that surprised us because not only did we find glass some 30 feet away from the sink, but I'd had the unfortunate experience to be standing with my head about 12-18 inches away from it when it happened (bending over replacing the trash bag) so I was peppered with bloody impact marks from the glass. Not because the glass was sharp, but because the glass was traveling so fast and it tried to imbed itself into my skin wherever it was exposed. Fortunately, I only had very minor injuries, but that's because as I was bent over my hair covered the side of my face and none of the glass hit my face, or more importantly, my eyes.

We've had tempered glass explode prior to that (think oven doors) but it was always due to either an impact, or heat (self cleaning cycles). We didn't hit (or even touch!) the sink, and there were no temperature changes when it happened, it wasn't even being used at the time. Apparently, it happens sometimes. There are other cases of it on the internet. We wished we had known that before we bought it.

I moved a couple paintings from where they'd been since we moved in. It made a huge difference!

I love the new spots and they make way more sense.

Sometimes, you need fresh eyes.

Finally wallpapered over the plain white sliding doors of a cupboard I have hated for over 20 years. I had previously had bursts of inspiration such as painting them or replacing them but just never got around to it. After seeing ideas on Houzz I took the plunge I bought a roll of wallpaper for $70 and it looks wonderful. Much cheaper than buying new doors and the wallpaper (little birds in birch trees) really brightens the room. One of those things you think 'why didn't I do this sooner?'.

I would also like to wish everyone on Houzz a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

My island top

I painted and stenciled the tile on my bathroom floor. Despite reading here that it won't last, it will look horrible in no time, etc, etc, etc. I LOVE it. Not one regret and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Following for 2018 inspiration! Great post!