2023 Project Wish List

Last year was the first full calendar year we lived in our home and it was a busy one! We built a fire pit area in our backyard, almost finished painting every room in our house and began hanging up artwork and furnishing spaces throughout our home. I applied wallpaper in three different spaces. We started fixing up the powder bathroom by learning how to use some power tools. We set up a guest bedroom so friends could visit. But because I don’t consider a single room finished yet (although is any room ever done?), I have accumulated a 2023 project wish list with more plans and projects I would like to tackle this year.

While I realize we’re already three weeks into the year and I may be a little late typing this up, my hope is that later in December of this year, I can look back at this post and evaluate the year’s achievements against these ambitious goals. I’m challenging myself to make this list as realistic as possible by sorting my wish list projects as follows:

1. Planned Projects for 2023

2. Projects I’d Like to Do in 2023

3. Projects I Want to Do But Probably Won’t Get to in 2023.

I’ve already made substantial progress this year, so I am hoping this bathroom can be wrapped up soon! All that is left is painting the interior side of the door, hanging up artwork, switching out the faucet for a brass one to match and accessorizing. I’m deciding to hold on replacing the floor tile; however, I may try painting it to look like slate. Who knows, maybe faux stone painting will become my thing – for those of you that were here for my faux marble table, you know what I’m talking about.

My Instagram followers voted for a primary bedroom makeover, so that’s what I will give them! As you can see I’ve already made a few updates to this space including paint, a faux grasscloth wallpaper accent wall, a new upholstered bed frame (fabric color is basketweave slub ivory) and artwork from Lennon Made. However, my plans for this room are ambitious, so I was hesitant to even include it as part of the planned project list…especially considering my typical timeline (which I have no shame about btw). In addition to adding a rug, matching nightstands, lamps and for gods sake switching out this boob light for pretty chandelier – I am hoping to add texture and visual interest with a ceiling treatment and wall moulding for the three remaining walls.

This one speaks for itself.

We brightened up this hallway with paint and a nice rug runner, but it’s still quite bleh. I would love to leverage my newly acquired miter saw and nail gun skills to apply more wall moulding here. With a new light fixture (per # 3), artwork and moulding, I think this could be a light lift (famous last words) with big impact.

While the dark green color we painted Sam’s office is dramatic and perfectly masculine, it can make the space feel quite dark when the sun moves to the other side of the house. Unfortunately this is also the only room in the house that has no overhead light fixture. Then I made the mistake of purchasing a “downlight” floor lamp, which I love aesthetically, but it’s simply not functional when this room desperately needs ambient lighting. You live and you learn! The fix is to hire an electrician to install wiring for an overhead fixture and to replace the floor lamp. In addition to lighting, I would also love to make this space feel cozier with long floating shelves, cool artwork and a new rug (Sam recently spilled his entire glass of berry smoothie on it lol and it was too small anyways).

This space needs artwork. Am I a broken record yet? We spend most of our time in here so I want to prioritize getting it spruced up. I have big plans for this room (see projects I want to do but probably won’t get to), but for now I think window treatments, artwork and switching this rectangle coffee table for a square one will suffice for 2023.

Ah yet another space I have big plans for in my head. Alas, I will focus this year on making it more functional for our purposes. For starters I would like to finalize a vision and desired color palette, I’ve been struggling. Then, we could use a coffee table and some end tables. I would also love some window treatments so I feel less like I live in a fishbowl. Finally I’ve been going back and forth on lime-washing the fireplace. I actually did buy the supplies, but there’s no going back so I want to be 1000% sure.

This blank wall directly behind our kitchen island is begging for something cool right?! The previous owners had a GIANT chalkboard on this wall, but I painted over it in the hopes of creating something a little more sophisticated. I’m picturing vertical paneling, a large piece of art and sconces on either side. I’ve also spent over a year re-thinking this paint color as it’s not what I originally pictured so I may be re-doing it this year – more to come on that!

Last but not least, we would really like to add landscape lighting around our property. Particularly to highlight this gorgeous willow tree in our backyard that made me fall in love with our home before it was even ours.

• This will be either very costly to hire or time consuming to DIY. With limited time and resources, it’s difficult to imagine we’ll accomplish this in 2023.

• Our house is almost 50 years old and so are some of the windows…it’s drafty.

• Unfortunately our driveway is in bad shape and if we want to sell our house one day we will need to re-do it.

• The sunniest section around our pool is currently filled with large rocks, which I assume previous owners used as a gardening area with planters, however we would love to build a patio someday instead.

• The previous owners left us two bookcases that fit perfectly on either side of the working fireplace in our living room. I would love to make the bookcases look like built-ins by building bases and tops to take them floor to ceiling seamlessly. It’s an ambitious project that I need to amp-up my DIY skills for, which is why this project sits in the “someday” category for now.

• Honestly I’m not sure we’ll ever get to this project, but I have a vision for the main wall as you enter our den. Currently we have an electric fireplace in this room that functionally helps heat this colder space in the winter. As I have seen other DIY-ers do on Instagram, I would LOVE to build a plaster fireplace with an electric insert and built-ins or floating shelves on either side. With the vaulted ceilings in this room and the symmetry of this wall with the cased opening into this room, I think it would be a showstopper!

I hope you are excited to follow this year’s DIY journey and that its projects inspire you to take on similar adventures in your own spaces. You can follow me on Instagram to see each stage of these projects intimately. You can also stay tuned for tell-alls and how-tos along the way here on the blog!

What’s on your 2023 project wish list? Comment below!