Best of Driven by Decor 2017

Hi everyone! Did you all enjoy your holidays? We just got home from a week away in North Carolina where we spent Christmas with my parents and my sister and her family eating way too much food, goofing off with the kids (our Escape Room adventure was a highlight), going to the movies (Star Wars), shopping, walking the beach on the one day it wasn’t freezing, and my favorite… lots of time doing nothing at all but hanging out talking or reading. Now that we’re home, the reality of an empty refrigerator, piles of laundry, and Christmas decorations to start taking down is definitely a little shock to my I-really-loved-being-spoiled-all-week-system so I figured the best solution was to avoid it all by cracking open my laptop and throwing together one of my favorite posts of the year – the best of Driven by Decor for 2017! It’s always so fun to look back on everything that happened on the blog throughout the year and see which posts ended up as reader favorites. If you’re new to Driven by Decor, now’s the perfect time to get caught up with the happenings on the blog and if you’re a long-time follower (thank you!), you might just find a post or two to catch up on that you missed along the way. Let’s get right to it…

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Favorite DIY Project

The most popular DIY project of 2017 was one that I procrastinated about doing for years and was then kicking myself for not jumping into sooner because it was so much easier and made so much more of a difference than I expected – painting the tile floor in our hall bathroom:

Previously we had this ugly reddish tile floor that I partially covered up with a rug but still taunted me with its ugliness every time I walked into this bathroom.  It’s been over three months now since I painted it gray and I’m happy to report that its held up beautifully! Other than an initial sharp scrape that happened early on (I think from a stone in someone’s shoe) and was easily repaired, the floor looks just like the day that I painted it and it cleans up surprisingly well with just warm water and a mild cleaner. You can check out the full DIY tile painting post including the horrible “before” pics plus a complete source list for our bathroom {here}.

Favorite Organizing Tips

I LOVE to organize and shared several of my favorite organizing tips and products throughout 2017, including these three that were your favorites. The first is a tip for how to organize/store photos. While I back up everything on a cloud service, I also like to have a secondary backup that’s serves as a quick and easy way to retrieve old photos so I organize all of them by year on USB flash drives. When I need an old photo, it’s super easy to grab the flash drive with the year I need, plug it into my computer, and copy over the images I was looking for. I use {these mixed metal USB flash drives} that include a ring on the end that I thread a key tag like one of {these} through.

The second favorite tip is the way that I organize my jewelry – instead of having jewelry boxes where you have to really hunt to find what you want, I have {this double sided hanging jewelry organizer} that has a clear pocket for each piece of jewelry and allows me to see everything at a glance. And as a bonus, using a hanging organizer instead of a jewelry box frees up quite a bit of space on my dresser. 

And last but not least, of all of the organizational products that I incorporated into my recent hoard closet makeover, {this hanging purse/tote organizer} (on the left in the below pic) was the definite reader favorite! I previously had all of my tote bags shoved in a box that I’d have to pull off the shelf and rummage through to find what I needed and I love this simple solution for keeping them organized and easy to grab. And {this organizer hook} to the right of it has worked beautifully for my wristlets!

A few of the other organizational products I have in my home and love are {this rotating cosmetics organizer}, {this back of the cabinet caddy to hold a hair dryer}, and {this pantry rack} for cookie sheets and cutting boards.

Favorite Decorating Tip

My “Pillows 101” post was the reader favorite decorating tip post of the year! I shared the best size pillow inserts for making your pillows plump and proud, the type of pillow inserts I recommend, tips for arranging them on sofas and sectionals, and a few of my favorite places to find pillows. You can find it all in my Pillows 101 post {here}!

Favorite Room Makeover

I did several little makeovers in 2017 but two of them were biggies and picking just one is kind of like picking your favorite child so they’re both getting a little time to shine! The first was my guest bathroom makeover {here}. I love this one just as much for the functionality that it brought to the space as for the fact that it’s a whole lot prettier now too! Previously, we had a small pedestal sink where there was no place for guests to rest toiletries, no towel or TP holder, and dim lighting. Changing out the vanity & faucet was a total game-changer and the new bathroom accessories and lighting were the icing on top for turning this space around. You can check out the “before” if you missed it to see how dramatically it changed plus see more pics of the new space and a complete source list {here}.

More recently I madeover the “bonus room” that my girls hang out in at the top of our stairs. It was a super fun space to work on because I went a little more colorful and playful than my typical style and it was so rewarding to create a space for my girls that they were so happy about. The “before” of this space was super bland – there was definitely nothing about it that made it an inviting place to hang out. And this is the much more fun and kid-friendly “after”:

I think my favorite part is the gallery wall I created using my girls’ artwork from over the years – I love having some of their old art out of the storage boxes and hanging up where we can all enjoy them. And the adjoining craft room underwent a big transformation too! You can see more pics of the “before” and “after” of our bonus room plus the craft room and a complete source list for both spaces {here}.  

Favorite Home Tour

Seasonal home tours are always some of the most popular posts of the year and for 2017, my summer home tour was your favorite! It was my favorite too – by pure luck we grew the most beautiful peonies in our yard that we’ve ever had! 

If you missed this tour or would like to revisit it, you can catch up on my summer home tour {here}.

Favorite Gardening Tip

Along with pretty peonies, we had the most beautifully colored hydrangeas in our backyard this past summer and after getting tons of questions about them, I shared my best hydrangea tips and tricks including how to make cut blooms last, when to prune them, how to turn some varieties blue or pink, and more. You can check out my tip-filled post about hydrangeas {here}.  

Favorite New Home Accessories

I didn’t make any huge home purchases in 2017 (I think {this daybed} for our bonus room was the biggest) but I did add a lot of new lighting and accessories. Both of my top two home accessories actually came from our guest bathroom makeover – the first is {this brass flush mount light fixture}. It’s nothing fancy but it’s under $80, has a simple, clean design that I love, the size is perfect, and the warm brass finish is beautiful (it also comes in bronze, satin nickel, and brushed nickel if you’re not a brass person!). If you want to see my other favorite flush mount lights, you can check them out {here}. 

And for some reason I’m totally in love with {this black marble tray} I found for the top of the toilet tank (you can also get the same tray in white marble {here}). It keeps things nice and neat looking and can be cleaned really well (unlike a woven tray). It also holds extra rolls of toilet paper perfectly if you don’t have another good spot to keep those in your bathroom. 

Favorite Instagram Posts

And let’s wrap things up by sharing the most-liked Instagram posts of 2017 – there was pretty much a tie between {this Instagram post} of my youngest daughter and her bestie catching a snooze in our living room window seat this spring:  

and {this Instagram post} of Hope lounging in my oldest daughter’s bedroom with her “I’m so freaking bored and can’t wait until my mom is done taking pictures so I can go on a walk” look:   

The common thread here is Hope – she makes any space a little cuter don’t you think? 🙂

I spend a lot of time over on Instagram so if you’re aren’t already following, you can find me on Instagram {here}. I’m going to be sharing a lot of behind the scenes happenings with my upcoming kitchen remodel over on Instagram Stories so now’s a good time to start following along! And if you aren’t already subscribed to get new posts on Driven by Decor by email, now’s the perfect time to do that too! It’s typically only 1-2 emails/week, you can unsubscribe at any time, and you’ll no longer miss posts or miss out on favorite new finds by not catching them before they’re sold out. Subscribing is simple – simple provide your first name (optional) and email address below:

Thank you all so much for following along in 2017! I hope that you enjoy your last few days of the year and have fun ringing in the new one! 2018 has lots of exciting things in store for the blog and I’m so excited to be sharing it all with you – I’ll see you back here in the new year!