Patio Perk Up

It all started with one piece of furniture getting added to the patio mess already at hand. As you can see below (this was about the only “before” shot I could find) the patio was in some need of attention, with bicycles, leftover camping equipment, and rescued living room furniture amongst other things strewn haphazardly about:

After adding the porch swing (thanks mom!) things kind of just got rolling from there. First it was deciding on this arrangement and placement of all the furniture:

Since I was already moving and shaking out there I decided to go ahead and hang up the string lights I already had on hand (bought them on clearance at World Market a couple months ago):

 

Then, you know how sometimes when you update one part of something, the other parts start looking kind of shabby by comparison? Well I had one of those moments and on a whim decided to paint the door:

And add the butterfly door knocker I bought at the Old Home Store over a year ago! :

Things were starting to look pretty good, except for that sad old window covering. Luckily I found one at Lowe’s in the clearance stuff (regular $49, got it for $23 because the package was open and didn’t have any instructions – no biggie) that fit perfectly. And lastly, I added an old crib sheet of Olive’s to the seat cushion of the swing to push the whole ensemble over into the realm of “granny chic” and voila! Things are looking pretty swell out on the patio if I do say so myself :

Thanks for looking!

Den Progress – Furniture Arrangement

Considering how large this space is, it really did take quite a bit of brainstorming on my part before finally coming up with a floor plan that felt right, was multi-functional, intentional and well thoughtout, and of course that I liked.  As I mentioned in this post, I really hadn’t given the den much attention at all in the way of design, or even functionability for that matter, until just a couple of months ago.  I knew that I wanted the room to function as both the designated tv room and as a guest bedroom space (with tv viewing possible from the bed), similar to the setup in the following inspiration photo:

click for source via Pinterest

But before I show-and-tell where we ended up after this big ol’ transformation, I’ll share some of the how-we-got-there moments first.  As part of the aforementioned brainstorming process, the furniture went through a series of configurations (both on paper and actually) to see what felt and looked best.  It went from this:

which I nixed because I couldn’t make that little window and the tv look balanced and it was driving me nuts (sorry, no pic with the tv actually on the dresser).  I even scooted the dresser closer and further away from the back wall and also switched the tv from the right side of the dresser to the left.  Still no dice.  So then I shifted things around yet again and this side of the room sat looking like this for a couple of weeks:

While the other side remained like this:

I actually kind of liked the L-shaped configuration of the couch and tv stand in this set-up.  It left plenty of space for getting our wii gaming on and boasting our own interpretation of any given DWTS dance routine (dude, that Rikki and Derek Psycho tango was off the chain AWESOME!) we felt a likening to.  But I wasn’t so pleased with the placement of the bed.  Even if I swapped it over to the back wall (with the head of the bed against the same wall that the tv/dresser are against) it still just didn’t seem right, and you wouldn’t get a good view of the tv from the bed with the room set-up that way either.  I was in a bit of a floor-plan rut.  Also, the vision of a day bed kept coming to my mind and I was trying to work through how I could have a day bed look with the use of a queen-sized bed. So where do we go when we need some super, get-me-thinking-in-the-right-direction insperado? Yes, onto Pinterest I went and lo and behold I ran into many an inspiring photo of queen-sized beds as day beds.  Here are some of my favorites:

click for source via Pinterest

click for source via Pinterest

And that’s when it hit me… put the long side of the bed against the wall that the couch was currently against, place the sofa back-side to the bed and put the tv/dresser in front of the couch. BAM!  I came up with a floor-plan!  But seeing it is a whole lot easier to grasp than reading about it, so here you go:

I love it!  (Oh and just a little side-note, Olive made the bed all by herself to help out mama get the room picture ready – what a sweet little helper she is).  I actually considered flanking the bed with the two Billy bookcases and putting a wholelotta pillows against the wall between the bookcases to create the whole day-bed look I really liked, but I couldn’t get over the fact that there wouldn’t be a wall behind your head if/when you slept on the bed if I did that, and that’s just weird.  So I created a little bed-alcove of sorts instead by placing a bookcase at the side and foot of the bed.  I think it works.  I also really like how the sofa creates separation, yet you still have an excellent view of the tv from the bed.  And as an added bonus, the bed serves as a perfectly convenient dropping/folding post for the laundry (the laundry room is just a few steps away from the foot of the bed, behind those gray curtains in the picture above).  Still though, I haven’t quite figured out what I’m gonna do with the corner of the room where the Christmas tree currently resides.  I am playing around with the idea of putting the computer there, but I really like the computer centrally located within the house (in the kitchen), so that probably won’t happen.  I don’t know, we’ll see where things end up after the holidays.  But as for now, I am, to say the least, very pleased with the way things are coming along in the den.

Now, just to see how far this room really has come, here is what it looked like in all of it’s bachelor-pad glory before any den-redesigning ever took place:

YIKES!

Yeah, I think it’s a major improvement.  Now onto the details – curtains, decking up the walls, and maybe even a diy diamond tufting project or two in there as well.  I’ll keep ya posted

Thanks for looking!

Things are a Changin’ and a Rearrangin’ (Part 1)

Without getting too personal, I will quickly preface this post by sharing the big change that we’ve been going through during the month of August.  Simply put, although matters such as these are rarely simple, Rob has moved out of the house.

[*GULP*]

Yeah.

This is definitely a positive thing though.  I would rather not get into all the ins-and-outs of what’s going on, but I feel like I should at least address that fact up front, rather than not mention it at all and then have some of you raising your brows in question as to how and why some of the projects that I have lined up will be taking place.  I mean think about it, if all of a sudden you went from living with a partner to living single, there would most likely be some pretty major household revamping going on, and such is the case with us.  So yes, there’s pretty much a whole-house overhaul that’ll be taking place, and yeah, I’m pretty excited about all the new room design ideas churning up in my head – hello new closet, hello office space, and HELLO she-cave!  (Just to name a few).

So without further elucidation, I’d like to share with you all the big “rearranges” that have been brewing up in my head.  Listing all of these to-do’s in this post is really my way of writing out a room-by-room master plan of sorts and most definitely a way for me to keep track of all the thoughts and ideas I have for each of the rooms/spaces in the house.  So this might get pretty wordy and not make a whole lot of sense if you don’t know/can’t visualize every piece of furniture I have in the house to which I will be referring, but this is my vision and I am looking forward to tackling all these projects in the coming weeks and months… and probably year (this is a pretty extensive list of goals):

The Den:

Formerly known as “Rob’s man cave,” which incidentally enough hasn’t had much attention on this blog since this room was Rob’s designated space that he kept pretty much to his liking.  So now that most everything from that room is gone, with the exception of a sofa, coffee table, guest bed (which until just recently was just a spare mattress on the floor – yuck), along with a desk and filing cabinet, I can now turn that space into my designated she-cave/den/guest quarters!  (This room is a converted garage, so it’s a big space.)

Here is what I have on the to-do list:

• Arrange furniture to create separate “zones.”  One for tv viewing, one for guest space, and one for toys/a play area.
• Paint the ginormous space – walls and ceiling (see inspiration photo below).
• Bring in the long dresser from my bedroom to be used as a tv and media console.
• Bring in the curio cabinet from the green room.
• Switch out the yellow sofa with the green one (and put the yellow sofa in the blue room).
• Find a new home within the house for the filing cabinet.  I’m thinking either in the laundry room or entry closet.  Not sure yet.
• Finally get around to hemming and properly hanging the curtains in there!
• Install a curtain divider to define guest area (see inspiration photo below).
• DIY an ottoman.
• DIY decorative sofa pillows.
• Decorate and accessorize.

Of course there is probably an endless amount of to-doing to be done that is not listed above, but these are just the big ones.  Here are a few of my inspiration photos for the space (more can be seen on my Den and Mid-Mod and Eclectic virtual pin-boards via Pinterest):

Curtains as dividers to define and separate the spaces.

This wall color! Sort of a blueish-grayish-green.

This is the overall vibe I'd like the room to have.

The Green Room:

Shamefully so, this room rarely gets any use.  It’s more of a formal sitting area than anything else.  My original intent for the function of this room was to use it as a study.  But nobody ever really ventures over to that side of the house very much (nor do we study much for that matter).  So I have an ingenious idea to move the computer (currently housed in the kitchen) in there, which will definitely bring more foot action in that direction, and to have this room be both the designated homework-doing area and the arts-and-crafts space.

Here’s the plan:

• Move the green couch into the den.
• Move the buffet table into the blue room.
• Paint the walls a more vibrant hue of green (see inspiration photo below).
• Stencil a pattern on the far wall (see inspiration photo below).
• Push the rectangular Expedit shelf against the stenciled wall.
• Possibly add another Expedit shelf or other form of storage for art and craft supplies.
• Move the desks (currently in the blue room) under the window with the square Expedit in between making a wall-to-wall desk area – one side for me and the other for Olive.
• Get a big comfy lounger for the corner by the kitchen doorway.
• Decorate and accessorize!

Inspiration photos for this room (view more on my Pinterest board here):

The vibrant green on these walls was my original vision for the room, but I met Rob in the middle with a more subdued shade of green.

I will tackle stenciling!

Office space with lots of insperado all over the walls.

 The Blue Room:

We call this room “the art room,” but it mainly just stores all the arts-and-crafts “stuff” and keeps it organized.  We typically don’t do projects in there (those usually get done on the kitchen table).  So the plan is to store all the art stuff in the newly redefined green room, and use the blue room as more of a formal sitting and dining room.  The formal dining set (oval table and matching buffet) that my mom handed down to me will be brought into this room along with the yellow/gold sofa that is currently in the den.

The plan:

•  Bring buffet table in and place under front window.
• Bring in the yellow/gold sofa (see inspiration photo below).
• Do some repairs to the oval table that is currently in storage (wood filling, sanding, staining…) and place in the middle of the room.
• Thrift around/ troll Craigslist for some dining room chairs (see inspiration photo below).
• DIY some yellow/gold curtain panels (see inspiration photo below).
• Paint the backs of the built-ins.
• Paint the interior (and exterior) of the front door.
• With the help of a licensed electrician, add a junction box above the dining table for lighting.
• DIY a crazy elaborate chandy.

Inspiration photos (more via Pinterest):

I'd like for the sofa to be flanked by the built-ins and for the room to have an overall formal vibe like in this pic.

Needing to get some chairs for the dining table.

OK, I think this is a good leaving off point.  I still have bulleted lists for my bedroom, the kitchen, bathrooms, and entryway, but those will have to be addressed in Part 2 of this big ol’ whole-house-revamp-2011-2012-apalooza (you get the picture) before this post gets entirely too lengthy.  And just to note, I by no means have any deadlines or expected completion dates for any of these projects.  These are just some of the things that I know I’d like to get done over the next year or so.  I don’t plan on going manic and attempt to finish all this in a weekend or anything.  I’m just writing typing everything down in order to refer back to my lists and keep track of all the progress along the way.

Note: All photos are credited via Pinterest by clicking on each picture.

P.S. Isn’t Pinterest the answer to all your organizational prayers!!! What did we ever do without it!?!

Olive’s Bedroom Progress

My five-year-old baby is far from being an actual baby (or toddler for that matter) anymore.  She is a full-blown preschooler.  I realized this very early on this year when I literally could not pick her up anymore, and… oh yeah… she started liking Justin Beiber… oh yeah.

Upon her undeniable show of growth and change, I also realized that she’ll soon be another 2 or 3 years older and ready to move on to a “big girl” room (sniffle) before I know it.  So my numero uno house related priority for this summer was to get  her “little girl” room in as satisfactory standing for Olive to get maximum use out of it (and for me to hang on to her youth for as long as I possibly can).

It all started back in April, when I did a complete closet overhaul in there and renewed an old dresser for her.  Then in May, I shuffled around some IKEA tables and storage to get a better sense of organization going on.  Most recently, in June and July, I moved her tall bookshelf and mounted shelves to create some overall balance and to make things much more visually pleasing.   After all this shuffling and moving things about, the proverbial dust has settled and her room is now officially ready to view.   So let’s take a little visual trip to bring us up-to-date with how much things have changed in my baby’s little lady’s room.

Here’s where we left off back in May:

The little “zones” created by placing her play kitchen and doll house back-to-back actually addressed the organizational issues in her room quite fantastically, but aside from the room having great function, the form, namely balance, in the room was still terribly off to say the least.  

So we brought in the rest of the IKEA Stuva collection from the blue room to further organize Olive’s toys and her tv area:

And we also centered her tall bookcase on the wall with the two windows in additional to moving the play kitchen to get things looking like this:

A huge improvement I must say.  But it wasn’t until this point that I finally began to get a better understanding of how balance in design can give a room that “done” feeling that is sometimes so very difficult for me to achieve.  I had an “aha moment” so to speak, and came up with the vision and idea to add shelves on either side of the large picture window (more on that here): 

I really love the shelves in there!  A huge improvement further still, but something was still quite amiss.  What, you ask?  Why the huge, messy corner to the left of the tall bookcase that I have intentionally left out of all the above photos:

(Side Note: Can you tell that I color coordinated all the books on the top and bottom shelves of the bookcase?  Well I did, thank you very much.)

So after looking at the two spaces on either side of the bookcase for a few hours, (not continuously of course) it finally dawned on me… switch the play kitchen with the doll stuff and then everything will fit! :

And it did! Famously so!

Now things are starting to really shape up in there!  I also added a picture ledge above the dresser that I plan on using to house stuffed animals and dolls:

So, like I said, things are really starting to shape up in her room.  And I have to admit, I’m sort of proud of all the work I’ve gotten done in there too. 

I’d say this room is about 85% done.  I still need to dec up the walls, along with tackling a few other details in there.  Next on the agenda is to address the crazy art wall next to the bed that is in some major need of attention as well as the quite un-outfitted wall above her dresser (pictured just above) :

 But so far so good.  I’ll now leave you with a few of my favorite little detail shots:

Click here to see the progression of developments that have taken place in her bedroom over the years.

Thanks for looking!

Olive’s Bedroom Progress – Shelfy Business

Upon taking the tall bookcase from the corner of Olive’s room to being centered between two windows (more on that here), I became so much more aware of how simply adding balance to a space can bring everything together in a room in a very visually pleasing way.   So in an attempt to further balance things in my Little Bittle’s room, I decided to flank the large picture window that is centered on the southern facing wall (the wall on the right hand side in the first picture below) with shelves that I snatched up from the entry. 

This is how things were looking in there before adding the shelves:

Just in case you’re wondering what in the heck that green thing is that’s draped over Olive’s bed, that is an interim make-shift canopy that I whipped up real quick after removing the hula hoop canopy that I made for her last year.  (New canopy idea is in the works!)

And this is how it looks with the lovely shelves hanging on either side of the window:

Ahh, balance.

I’m glad I was able to streamline things in there with the use of items that we already had lying around the house yet again  (see how three different rooms in the house got mini-makeovers just by moving around tables that we already owned right here and how I made use of two shelves from different rooms in the house to spiffen up the laundry room right here). 

So after taking the below shelves out of the entryway:

And painting them with two coats of peachy-pink self-mixed paint with assistance from my little-helper of course: 

We ended up with this:

And this:

I love them.

The shelves closest to the side window (pictured just above) are styled up pretty much perfectly to mine and Olive’s liking.  The shelves on the other side (the one’s above her bed) still need some attention in the decorating department – I just threw some things on them for picture taking’s sake.  But all in all, I really feel like they add not only balance but also length to the room surprisingly enough. 

Let’s take another gander from a wide view angle once again (so you don’t have to scroll back up):

I’m definitely pleased with the results of adding these shelves, and also with how her room is coming together in general.  And more importantly, Olive likes it too, so that makes me very happy

Stay tuned for even more Olive’s Room Progress to come!

Thanks for looking!

Entryway Progress Part II

Just another quick little update post on what progress is being made in the entryway.  This is by no means a “final reveal” so that’s why I opted to go on ahead and post pictures that I took with my cell phone even though their quality is quite under par (warning: these pics are B.A.D.)  But they do show what has begun to take shape in the room, so here goes…

As you may already know from checking out our “Entryway” page, (found under the “Nested Spaces” tab) the messy “other side” of the entry was not addressed in Part I of our entryway progress.  So now, here in Part II of this very exciting adventure (you guys get sarcasm, right?) it finally has!  After removing all the junky mess along the wall on the “other side” of the room (you can see more on that here)  I made the executive decision to rearrange not only that side of the room, but the entire room as well.  Check it out:

I’m loving it! [so far]

There are still some things to get finished up in there, like get matching lamp shades, finish painting the areas that I somehow overlooked in between the drawers on the credenza, finish glazing the credenza, clean up and organize the ladder shelf (that’s what all those dresser/credenza drawers are for!), address that ugly paint job on the round table in the center of the room, and deck the walls and further accessorize (oh yeah, and deal with what’s behind that lovely curtained doorway - the junk place we call a closet).  What do you think of the progress so far?  I am super pleased with the outcome of centering the credenza under the window and having the coat rack over there by the closet (where I’ve wanted it to be this whole time, but just couldn’t seem to figure out the placement of everything in this room until now).   Rob told me via text that it is, ” Very impressive.  Highly functional, and visually pleasing.”  I’ll take that

Sneak Peek at What I’ve Been Up to Lately

As usual, I have several overlapping projects happening in unison.  So instead of waiting until everything is “finished” (ha – more like “picture ready”) I will go on ahead and share what has been keeping me busy for the past couple of weeks with an “in progress” post.

So, let’s see, we’ll start where we left off in Olive’s room.  Here is how things were looking in her room after the big dresser and table switcheroo that took place in April and in this post:

In the above photo, her room is actually ten times better than it was before, but is still in, oh, about phase 3  of about 10 phases of “total room completion.”  (Read about her closet overhaul here and dresser renew here.)  A lot more has been done in her room than I am sharing with you now, but like I said, this is just a little sneak peek and blog update so you don’t think I have fallen off the planet (actually, we will be roaming the planet soon, not too far off though… vacation!!!)  Anyway, back to business… let’s zoom in on something that I finally got finished after about 3 years:

Yeah, that bookshelf over there in the corner has had unfinished edges for at least 3 years (I painted it back when we lived in the rent house).  So I decided to get er’ done once and for all. 

First, I pulled everything off the shelf and then gave it a good wipe down:

Then, after deciding that it would fit better and also make her room more balanced by centering it on the wall between the two windows, I removed everything from that wall and then filled in and painted over all the nail holes:

Ahhh, a clean slate… for about 10 minutes.  After the paint on the wall dried, Rob so lovingly helped me move the gigantic bookshelf over.  Then, I got busy painting the edges with a not exactly matching pink “oops” paint that I found for only 3 bucks, can’t beat that! :

Hooray for painted edges (and for finally getting a long-awaited paint project done)!!!

And here it stands in all it’s almost completed glory:

The books on the floor have since been placed on both the top and bottom shelves, and I still want to cover the backs of 2 or 3 of the shelves with wallpaper or scrapbook paper, but that will be a project for, oh, maybe phase 5 or 6 of this whole bedroom overhaul!

Again, I have been working on several more projects in here, which I will share when we get back from vacation, but I just wanted to give you a look-see at what I have been up to.  With that said, I will leave you with a series of photos showing a little sneak-peek at what’s been going on over in the entryway of the house in conjunction with all the aforementioned bedroom progress:

  

So there you have it… a quick look at what’s been keeping me busy – Olive’s bedroom and the entryway overhaul for the most part, with a few other random projects sprinkled in here and there (I glazed a piece of furniture for the very first time!).  And, as always, I will be sure to share every little detail as things progress along the way !

Out With the Old, and In With the … Older (?)

As I mentioned in this post about my spring cleaning consisting mostly of getting rid of unneeded and unwanted clothing items, I also happened to get rid of some unneeded and unwanted furniture items during my spring cleaning purgation fest.  This all kind of happened as a result of my visit to the Salvation Army, the same visit at which I bought my new dresser.  Not only did I buy the new dresser, I bought a new (well new-to-me) sofa as well!!!  And as a matter of fact, it’s the very first sofa I’ve ever bought, so this is kind of a big deal for me.  I went to the Salvation Army in hopes of finding the perfect dresser (which I did) and in doing so I just so happened to find this lovely sofa too:

I know, I know this granny-esque style of sofa is not for everybody, but for me it was love.at.first.sight.  And it was clean!  It smelled good!  The cushions were perfectly intact and comfy! The tag and lining underneath the seat cushions looked as if it had never been used!  It was the perfect shade of green!  And it was only $169.00!  S.O.L.D.  I imagined it going perfectly in the green room… but then I started to think… where would the sofa that is already in the green room go?  Hmmm?  So I went home without actually buying it to think about whether I really needed to buy a sofa or not…

After getting home, I looked at the sofa that we had in the green room (which was furniture of Rob’s from back in his bachelor days) and upon looking at it over and over again, I decided it really needed to go:

Those frumpy cushions on back, yuck!  The worn out seat cushions, eww!  And it had a burn hole right in front and center… yeah it was time to let this thing go… big time!

So, with Rob’s approval, I posted that bad boy on Craigslist!  And you know how it goes when posting things on Craigslist, if you’re gonna post one thing, you might as well post everything else you’ve got, right!?  So I posted the following three items as well:

My trip to the Salvation Army and all these items getting posted on Craigslist took place on a Friday after work, and then first thing the following Saturday morning I went to buy my “new” sofa, which to my delight was marked 25% off!  Hoorray for waiting one more day to buy!

So after first selling the lovely, tufted orange chairs (I really loved them, they were super comfy and very cool, but the color just wasn’t the right shade of orange for the room, so they had to go) for $140, it was like I got the new sofa for free.  Oh how I love thee Craigslist!

And then I let the cradle go for $25, and the also lovely yellow velvet rocker (it had no place to call home in our house, so I decided to let it go) for $80.  Making over $100 from items I just had lying around the house that rarely ever got used.  This made me happy, very happy.  Oh, and as far as the junky old sofa goes, we got a whopping 40 bucks for it after having it listed for 3 weeks, first at $100, then $80, then $60, then finally at it’s selling price of $40 (wop, wop, sorry Rob).

But in the end, doing away with things from around the house that rarely (or sometimes never) get used isn’t always about the money you can recoup, but more so about purging and letting go of them.  There is something so refreshing and rewarding about letting go of unused things, especially large things that take up lots of space!

So there’s the final piece (read about the closet cleaning, dresser renewing, and furniture moving that took place right here, here, and here) to the whole getting rid of things/spring cleaning hullaballoo that went down this past March and April.  Have any of you gotten rid of anything(s) that basically just sit around taking up space in your house, or have you bought or sold anything from Craigslist lately?  Tell me about it

This post is linked up to Vintage Revivals, click the button below to see what other bloggers out there have been thrifting themselves!

Bedroom Progress Part III – The Big Table and Dresser Shift About the House

This is kind of a “behind the scenes” look at what was happening in conjunction with parts I and II of our bedroom progress.  Let’s recap: in part I, we purged clothing and reorganized Olive’s closet, and in part II, I renewed an old dresser that was in my bedroom and moved it into Olive’s room .  Which brings us to the “final” segment of this whole spring-cleaning-turned-clothing-reorg-turned-furniture-shifting project that has so appropriately been named: The Big Table and Dresser Shift About the House! (I’m trying to make this sound as exciting as possible).

As I mentioned in part I, I purchased a tall seven-drawer dresser from the salvation army a few weeks prior to my embarking upon this task-turned-entire-room-overhaul, which was basically the catalyst to this whole endeavor:

new dresser = clothing purgation/reorganization

&

new furniture = the shifting of old furniture throughout the entire house

Let’s take a quick gander at said new-to-me dresser before getting into the nitty-gritty of all the furniture moving that took place:

I L.O.V.E. this piece of furniture!  It’s tall, slender, and already divided into small sections for easy and effective organization.  It even has smaller sections within two of the drawers which I designated for my less-often used jewelry and glasses collection (no need to share what’s in the other five drawers, just your basic unmentionables, use your imagination… err don’t) :

Ahhhh, serenity.

But before things became all cozy and squared away in the dresser department in my bedroom, a succession of table and dresser shift-arounds throughout the rest of the house ensued.  The “table situation” began in Olive’s room when we had family in town for my brother’s wedding back in March.  Three of  said family members were cousins between the ages of 4 and 9, all of whom spent a lot of time tearing everything  apart playing in Olive’s room, resulting in this:

… and this:

Holy cow, whatamess!!!!

So began the plight for containing, controlling, and organizing everything within the confines of this room, which somehow tailspinned into moving furniture, namely tables, throughout the house.

First, I moved Olive’s cubby-table, (part of the IKEA Stuva series) which contained mostly art supplies, from the less-often used blue/art room into her much-more-often used bedroom where it could serve better as a toy separating and containing unit since she obtained an obscene amount of teansey-tiny little toys for her birthday and Christmas this past December:

Sidenote:  WARNING to all new moms - as your child gets bigger, their toys get smaller.

Looking better already!

Next, I made the executive decision to completely remove the round table since she already has a smaller square table in there, and also since she gained some surface space on the cubby-table that was just brought in.  So out from her bedroom and into the entryway it went:

… and:

Much better indeed!  I really like how the round table pairs perfectly with the round rug.  Where did the white table that was in the entryway go, you ask?  Well into my bedroom of course:

 

Still a work in progress, but much better placed in the bedroom than in the entryway nevertheless.

And last but not least, while I was on a roll,  I moved a shelf/table that was doing nothing more than sitting next to the front door in the blue room holding leftover frames (amongst other things) from this wall of frames project into my bedroom as well:

It’s definitely serving a much better purpose in the bedroom than sitting by the front door that we hardly ever use.

Whew!  All that table and dresser shifting about was kind of a task, but so worth it in the end.  It was actually refreshing to make better use of things that we already had in the house, that’s always a bonus!

Now let’s take a side-by-side look-see at how things were before and how they are now in each of these rooms:

Olive’s room before:

And now:

Entryway before:

And now:

My bedroom before:

And now:

Before:

And now:

And finally before:

And now:

Wow, that’s a lot of photo-info thrown at you all at once, but there were quite a few changes that were made and it was much easier to show than tell about them.   And as you may have noticed in the labeling of “in progress” on some of these pics, things are still-a-changing in both the bedrooms. 

Update:  Olive’s bedroom has recieved even further organization since this post, check out all the details on that right here. 

Thanks for looking!

Bedroom Progress Part II – The Desser Renew

Let’s start off from where we left in the Bedroom Progress Part I post, with the dresser that we moved from my bedroom into Olive’s room.  Here’s a before shot to refresh your memory:

That dresser was painted white and green back when I was in college about 10 years ago, so it’s certainly been good to us, but was definitely in need of a little TLC before I could bring myself to move it into Olive’s room (you know, because we want the best for our babies that we love so much).  I’ll go on ahead and show you the big reveal and then follow with some how-I-did-it progress pics.

So here’s how it looks now, sittin’ all pretty:

Just precious!  I’ve been itching to paint dresser hardware ever since I saw a similarly painted one in my sister-in-law’s (hey Terrah, if you’re reading) daughter’s room about a year ago.  Hers is painted white with turquoise hardware and is pretty much the inspiration behind the design for this dresser.

The process was pretty simple.  I just removed all the hardware and the drawers.  Sanded everything down to remove as much of the previous layers of paint that I could, primed, then painted.  I don’t have a true before picture, I sometimes forget about taking one until after I’m already knee-deep into projectdom.  So here’s how things looked after the sanding and priming, with one layer of white paint already slapped on:

You can see primer in the areas that were eventually painted pink, and you may have noticed in the pic of the drawers that one little hardware pull is still intact.  That little bad-boy would not come out!  I think I actually superglued it in there at some point, but one little bump in the road wasn’t going to stop me from gettin’er done!

After painting 3 layers of paint on the dresser and the drawers, it was time to get busy on taping things off so I could spray paint the areas I wanted pink (after everything was thoroughly dry of course):  

After taping of the edges, I then covered all of the larger exposed areas with butcher paper:

By the way, that blue tape that I used was well worth it’s $7 plus price tag.  It promised to create a perfect seal to prevent any paint from leaking in and it delivered on its promise!  It has a different texture than the “plain” blue tape and even the green tape I often use, it was more slick and vinyl-like, kind of like the way a sheer band-aid feels.

Anyhow, moving right along… After taping, papering, and sealing everything off, a-spray-painting I went:

OK, so yea, laying down a drop-cloth might have been a good idea, but I actually kind of don’t mind getting paint on the concrete outside.  It’s kind of my way of showing off my battle-wounds so to speak… yea, I’m a little weird like that.

And finally, I removed all the paper and tape after applying three nice and even layers of spray-paint, put all the hardware back in place, to reveal the most beautiful seems my eyes have ever seen:

I just love it, and Olive does too!  Let’s take one more look at the finished product:

AHHH, there’s something so rewarding about finishing up a little project like this, especially when you’re doing it for a child of your own.  Have any of you been painting any furniture lately?  Moving things around? Spring cleaning? Do tell

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