3 Month Update

I have been very busy, but you wouldn't know it by my lack of posts.  There are many pictures and projects waiting to be shared when I have the time.  For now how about some progress shots on the rooms that have gotten the most work in the last 3 months.

Entryway - 

Guest Room - 

 

Living Room - 

 

Kitchen - 

 

 Master Bedroom - 

Katelyn's Bedroom - 

 

I have tons of stuff yet to share and so many projects still waiting to get done, I can't wait to share it all!

A Pop of Color & A Little Bling

My next goal in the master bedroom was to liven it up a little and do something to the pocket doors to make them a little more bearable (we had to rip out a bunch of pocket doors, which is NOT a simple project, in our first house because they weren't working well and it left us a little bitter toward them).  After seeing this inspiration picture I decided to use some leftover paint from another project to add a bright pop of color.  

It is Overjoy by Sherwin Williams color matched into Behr high-gloss paint, thankfully it was a good match for the yellow in the curtains tablecloths and throw blanket already in the room.  Here is the bright and lovely after...

 

And my favorite view from the hallway.

I also brought in our old headboard from IKEA.  I didn't think it would work anymore because in the last house it just looked too "old", but I think it was because of the other colors we were using.  With this new bright color scheme it looks so much better.

Did you spy the other update I made?  It's a small thing, but I changed out the knobs on the nightstand to these fun His & Hers ones from Hobby Lobby.

While I was at Hobby Lobby I also spotted these 3 knobs in our color scheme and brought home a couple of each to try them out with the intention of going back for more of whichever one I liked best.  But to my surprise I was actually digging the look of all of them together (and so did the hubs - shocking!).  Once the room is more finished I worry that it could look a little busy, but for now it brings some fun color to that side of the room.

I am so excited about it's current look and where it's headed, it is so nice to have a master that I love!

A Cozy Master Bedroom

As promised, the first room to get some love in the new house is the master bedroom.  Now, unfortunately I can't make it into our dream master suite overnight, but I can at least make it feel like a room we want to be in and the major renovations will come as our budget allows (here's hoping for a big tax return next year!).

For starters here is what the room looked like in the listing and on moving day.

As you can see we inherited yellow and red walls which were just not our cup of tea.  We knew from our last house that we loved a dark and moody color on the walls of our bedroom.  We decided on a charcoal color, Rugged Suede by Valspar, which will be a nice, neutral backdrop  if  when we choose to change accent colors down the road.  

A gallon of paint and a couple hours later...

 

  

While I can certainly appreciate a bright and airy room, I am loving how much more cozy and "us" this room is feeling already!

And here is a list of my plans for this room...

• Paint walls a dark gray.
• Do something with the pocket doors, maybe paint a bright color.
• Wall treatment on the wall behind the bed... board and batten, planks?
• Install wood blinds.
• Buy this duvet to add some pattern to the bed.
• DIY a new headboard.
• Find a large rug (natural woven, white & fluffy?) for under the bed.
• Create a seating area at the end of the bed.
• Install TV on the wall and create a gallery wall to help it blend in.
• Change out knobs on dresser and nightstands.
• Find a large mirror to put across from the door to the en suite.
• DIY art for both long walls.
• Paint ceiling white (right now it is a dingy looking ivory color).
• Find bedside lamps, a charging station and other nightstand accessories.
• Install crown molding.
• Revamp the ugly ceiling fan.

 There's a lot to be done, but believe it or not this room is already farther along than any of the other master bedroom's we've had.  Hopefully I can tackle a couple things on the list this weekend ;).

Project Zero

I don't know about you, but sometimes when there is chaos all around me and my to-do list is a mile long I find myself craving a quick project to get me motivated again.  Sooooo, I ignored the pile of boxes in our guest room waiting to be unpacked and decided to give our boring pantry door some life. 

I have found myself pinning a lot of rooms with brightly painted doors and I also love the functionality of a chalkboard in the kitchen, so I combined the two using a tutorial for DIY chalkboard paint on pinterest.  Thankfully I had all the supplies in the garage so it was quick and free!!! 

To make my chalkboard paint I used an old sample of Dignity Blue by Sherwin Williams and a box of non-sanded grout.  You just mix 2 tablespoons of grout for each cup of paint you'll be using.  Make sure you mix really well, you don't want any lumps of grout on your final surface.

Here it is after two coats of paint.

Next I made sure to condition the surface which is a must do, otherwise whatever you write the first time will never fully erase.  To do this you take a piece of chalk (actually it will take several pieces by the time you are done) and rub the side all over the door. Then use an eraser to work the chalk dust into the paint.

 

Now we have an easy place to jot down the things we need to pick up before we close the pantry door and forget all about it.   

And on the exterior a weekly menu to hopefully avoid all the "What's for dinner" questions (oh, who am I kidding, they'll still ask!).

I am in love with our new pantry door!  It is the perfect pop of color for our kitchen and once I paint over the brown walls with something a little lighter and neutral it will look even better (if you look closely you can see my paint swatches in the pictures above).  Now I feel ready to take on another project or 20.

Hello, Home???

These are the pictures from the real estate listing of our soon to be forever home.  Soon I will have some better pictures and an updated house tour with a very long to-do/wish list.

There it is, just oozing with potential.  Can you see it???  I have so many ideas in my mind that I cannot wait to get started.  For now I will be pinning and planning!

Goodbye, House

First let's start with the house we are leaving.  It was a new build that I spent 3 1/2 years trying to take from "builder boring" to something more fitting of our style, while keeping in mind that we would more than likely be moving within 5 years and it had to appeal to potential buyers as well.

I can't find my before pictures, they must be in a box somewhere.  But just picture beige, flat paint on every surface.  Here are the staged pictures that I took after a week of de-cluttering and de-personalizing (taking down all family pictures and taste specific decor).  

The entryway had a bench and wall shelf for our visitors, which I recovered  with a tablecloth from Target and topped with a pillow from IKEA.

This niche was the hardest area for me to decorate in any house that I have lived in!  I think there were 3 different tables, 2 types of mirrors and many different frames in many different layouts.  The final arrangement had my children's old changing table with a few decorative things I hadn't yet packed up.  The mirror was a Home Goods find for only $40 (I've seen them online at fancy stores for much, much more).

The paint color in the entry and living room is Light French Grey from Benjamin Moore. 

Our playroom had a chalkboard accent wall that was great entertainment for the kiddos and two curtain wires from IKEA to hold all the artistic creations that came home from school (or at least some of them... Can you believe how much paper comes home in  backpacks every week?!).  The ceiling is painted the same color as the living room and the walls are Gentle Pasture from Valspar.

The sun light and blue chairs are both from IKEA.  The play table is a Nilo table, it is very sturdy and has held up great.

The living room was huge, so we bought a big sectional that our family could really spread out on movie night (unfortunately it might not fit in the new house).  

The "entertainment center" was a set of modular pieces that we found at Home Depot, it worked really well since we could customize it to go around the corner.

 

We had a pass-through to the kitchen which was really nice in theory, but very hard to decorate around.

We changed out the chandelier over the table for something that was much more modern (and had far less pineapples than the traditional one the house came with).  

The curtains are more Target tablecloths which are the perfect size and come in great patterns.  We added bamboo blinds throughout the main areas to really warm it up.

The paint color in the kitchen/dining room is Perfect Greige from Sherwin Williams and that was really the only change we made in here.  If we were staying in this house I would have loved a transformation, but I just couldn't justify it at this time.

 Our Laundry/Mudroom was the pathway between the garage and kitchen.  This was the smallest room, but probably had the most projects.  The wall color is the same as the living room and I painted the wall cabinet white to brighten it up.  We added the tall cabinet for cleaning supplies and built in shelves with a hanging bar for more storage.  We also built the counter top over the washer/dryer which was one of those wish-we-would-have-done-this-a-long-time-ago projects that really helped the functionality of the room.


On the other side of the room between the 2 doors we put up board and batten with hooks to create a "mudroom".  This little addition is the only thing that kept me sane when all the kid stuff came home after school.  The kids were pretty good at putting their stuff where it belonged before running into the house.

The Master Bedroom really wasn't anything to look at, why is it that we focus our attention on rooms for everyone else, but leave our own bare with no style?  You can bet the Master will be the first room done in the new house, Mama deserves her sanctuary!

The Master bathroom was painted in Bedford Gray by Martha Stewart and we added extra shelving from IKEA in an open spot for more storage.

The older kids ended up sharing a room after their baby sister was born, so I had to find a way to make it gender neutral and fun.  The striped duvets are from Target.  The accent wall is the same color as the playroom and the main walls are Popular Gray by Sherwin Williams.

Our kid/guest bathroom was painted with stripes using Perfect Greige and Popular Gray both by Sherwin Williams, they were definitely my favorite part of the room and even inspired a few of my friends to paint stripes in their own house.  

If we had more time I definitely would've painted the vanity and framed out the mirror, but maybe next time.
 

The baby's room was finished right before we found out we were moving so I had to take all of the decor down.  It was a sad day, but at least I know that I can easily recreate it in the new house.  

The walls are a light peachy pink called Fresco by Olympic.  The ceiling was a mis-tint I found at Lowe's that worked perfectly.  I had a chandelier from the Restore that I painted, but thankfully we hadn't installed it yet so we can take it with us.

 

Our guest room/office/craft room was mostly used as a junk room that you could barely walk into, but this is proof that we did attempt to decorate it at one point. We took off the closet doors and built in a desk with storage.  It worked great and I can't wait to do it again somewhere in the new house!  The closet color is River Mist by Martha Stewart and the wall color is "builder beige" (that's not a technical color name, don't go looking for it).

Our major weakness is landscaping, we definitely have black thumbs, but we tried our best to at least give our yard some kind of appeal.  We put in concrete curbing, planted some plants (of which a few of them lived), added a pathway from the front gate and sectioned off the other side for a play area.  Thankfully our new house is already landscaped (we'll see how much survives) and our realtor/friend is a landscaper so we can turn to him for advice... a lot!

So there is the home we are leaving in all it's glory.  Looking back there were so many projects that we completed, it really makes me wish I would've started documenting it all when we first moved in.  This time I can't wait to have a record of all those big and little accomplishments.