Bedroom Blues

 First, you need to know that I'm always cold. Even inside with my furnace running.

Second, I'm really bad at blogging. Sorry about that.

Third, I'm also sort of lazy.

I can't excuse my blogging laziness, so instead I'm going to blame the slow progress in my bedroom on my perpetual shivers. Y'all don't understand how hard it is to go outside when it's 10°F (especially to do something as dumb as cutting pieces of trim). This whole winter thing is for the birds, and if someone in San Diego wants to trade houses with me, I will throw in my kids chickens to sweeten the deal.

(pretend this is a roman shade. I know I am.)

To sum up, I'm practically incapable of doing anything productive when it's cold. It is one thing to venture into the freezing temperatures for a pair of boots at 50% off on Black Friday. It is another thing entirely to do anything else during the months of December, January, or February (and November, March, and April if you live in Idaho).

Last week it warmed up to a semi-reasonable temperature and I finally got the casing done. Baseboard, not so much.  Paint, not so much. Baby steps.

You can still see all the progress I've made. I really need to turn those blinds into DIY roman shades, and I've realized over the past week that staring at the box and willing it to happen isn't getting the job done.

I'll keep you posted (about if anything new happens while I stare at the box).

Some honesty (and a bedroom makeover for good measure)

Sometimes, life sucks a little. I'm just being honest. If we can't stop bumps in the road from coming, we just have to hope that they make us better, not bitter; right? I'm going with that. Suffice it to say, the past couple years have been a challenge for me personally... the last couple months, even more so. Maybe I'll share one day, maybe not. I've felt like I lacked any control over my life, and if you know me, you're aware that I'm a fan of the control... there's that darn honesty again.

When faced with the grim, humbling, horrible, awful, no good very bad reality that I didn't have control over a lot of the things in my life, I started to fall back into some old, unhealthy patterns of "pretend-control" that I used to practice. Things involving food. Not good, friends. Not good.

So I decided to stop. This time around I've benefited from being older (oy), wiser, and therefore possessed with the ability to recognize "pretend-control" behaviors a little easier, so hopefully it will be easier to redirect them... into home projects! Of course. 

Believe it or not, I've missed you, and I've missed toiling away in my little house. If I have to control something, it should be the color of my walls and the alarmingly slow speed at which I execute any sort of carpentry project. Measure forty-seven times, cut once (or three times and then go back to the store) - that's what they say!

Right now I've decided to tackle my bedroom. I never really finished it and have been living without baseboard and with lots of plans for several years now. It's time to put an end to all of that silliness. So what did I do? I slapped some paint samples on the wall, duh. That's pretty much my solution to most existential crises.

I've been in love with navy for a long while, and decided to take the plunge. On 1/4 of my bedroom walls (I have commitment issues and/or my bedroom lacks in the natural light department).

I'll spare you the suspense, because I totally already chose one, since I'm used to not blogging anymore and I'm learning how to be zen in making design decisions alone. I chose Benjamin Moore's Hale Navy for its delightful greyed out, deliciously pensive self. And then I painted the other three walls white.

And then I forgot how to clean up for blog photos and left my sock monkey pajamas and half of my earthly possessions at the foot of my bed.

This is where I'm going:

And the next stop, besides replacing all the baseboard and casing that I ripped off this morning, is picking some fabric for some roman shades. I'm thinking something geometric, gray or mushroom maybe? This is what I'm looking at:

(Source: 1, 2, 3)

As always, hit me up if you have any amazing ideas.

It's good to be back! I can't promise quantity... but I'm just happy there are still people out there who read. xoxo

Kitchen Reveal (Oh, hi there.)

I've been absent for a while, and the longer it's been since I last posted, the harder it's been to make myself sit down and write even when I felt the desire. I've been working on projects, even taking photos... but it's been very difficult to find the time or the motivation to start again (an object at rest tends to stay at rest, right?).

I'm going to try, though! One of my favorite things about writing this blog is that I can fit it around my life; I can post when I have time and projects to share, and remain quiet when I don't or when my "real" life demands more attention. I'm going to work on posting a bit more regularly, especially since (a.) that won't be hard when you look at my recent posting history and (b.) it makes me happy! 

So without further ado, some news about my kitchen. We got it done just in time for Christmas, thanks to our contractor friend Joe who was immensely helpful and The Tile Shop which sent me all the gorgeous tile.

Part of me still can't believe it's done because the kitchen has been an ongoing, never ending project for several years. Let's look back:

Now back to today...

Such a change, don't you think?  I'll be back to share some details in a day or two, promise!

Front Room {Reveal}

I'm so excited to share this room! It all happened so quickly with other people doing the board and batten and painting... I have to admit, I could get used to that.

But for now, some pictures. We'll talk later. 

 

 

Squee! After four years, I have a front room!

If You Give a Girl Some New Chairs

Last week I had two new chairs delivered. It was sort of a big deal, and I like to stare at them.

I can't show you anything else in the front room because it's still a wreck but it's my next project! The entire point of this post is to illustrate how something as simple as a delivery of two chairs can set off a chain of events similar to what was described in the classic children's book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."

If you give a girl some new chairs, she'll probably realize that none of the other furniture in the front room works with them. So she'll probably drag her big chair and a half to the living room.

Once the chair and a half is in the living room, she'll quickly find that the entire room needs to be rearranged, and that the white sofa table doesn't fit anymore. So she'll probably ask for help to carry it to the basement play room.

After the table is in the basement, she will decide that the black dresser in the dining room needs to find a new home, too. So she'll move it to her bedroom (where it technically belongs) and marvel at the idea of filling it with clothes. 

Before:

Once the dresser is in the bedroom, there will be a big empty spot in the dining room! So she'll probably relocate some more furniture and go on an impromptu shopping trip for a mirror.

 Now:

And after a day of rearranging, her husband will come home and wonder what on earth happened to his house... and he'll probably question why he gave a girl some new chairs to begin with.

A Girl Can Dream: Built-in Bunks

Kids love a good bunk bed. Do you?

Regular bunk beds can be extremely practical - great for small spaces (like anything in my house) and shared rooms. But most of them leave me wanting more in the fabulousness department -- they can be big and sort of clunky looking. Is it just me? Yes, I built one for my boys and yes, I've made peace with it (sort of). But I can't admit I don't get miniature design pangs when I stare at fabulous bedroom designs sans bunks.

I will tell you though, there is a type of bunk that leaves me weak in the knees (because I'm officially the world's biggest geek who gets jelly joints over cute furniture). What I really want when I escape into my fantasy and renovate a home on the coast in order to become a professional beachcomber... is a room of built-in bunks. Be still my heart. Who can resist a row of beautiful built-in beds? The charming ones with ladders and rustic sconce lighting? And beautiful architectural details? Oh, how I love them. Love them love them, "pass a note across the desk asking them to be my Valentine and to check yes or check no" love them. 

via

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Do these built-in beds stir the same feelings in you? They feel like summer, and adventure, and fun; all are extremely good things in my world. I would love to own a vacation home with a room of bunks - preferably a home with a view like photo #2's, okay? ;)

2012 DIY Home Goals

2012 is going to be my year, baby. I'm so excited for what I've got planned around the house.  I've spent the last couple years being a bit scattered with my plans; there is so much insanely fabulous inspiration out there, and it can get a bit overwhelming at times! 

Looking back to the first home we bought, I can see how much I've learned and how my tastes have developed over the past several years - I have zero design training and have had to learn everything the hard way and make lots of a few mistakes... oh, and I'm sure I'll make plenty more.

The good news is that over the last year, I've been able to make several big decisions about the direction I want to go with my DIY craziness, and figure out my overall "vision" for this house. It's not a rigid plan, but it's a basic set of colors and ideas that I can fall back on and use to stay on course when I get distracted by pretty shiny things... which happens a whole bunch, especially since Pinterest came on the scene. Zoinks.

Hopefully now that I have some real direction, I can start making some real progress. So here's my list of DIY goals for the upcoming year (with the most recent photos, some of which happen to be from Christmas! Forgive the misplaced holiday decorations.)

Exterior

Replace rotting wooden pathway in backyard with pavers
Stain back deck
Break up concrete pad on side of house and begin conversion to side garden
Continue waging war on the evil squirrels


Front Room/Entry

Board and batten
Replace trim around doors
Build decorative leaning ladder
Repaint inside of front door
Create real entry space (bench or table, etc.)


Living Room

 Paint remaining wood paneled wall to match the other three walls
Install baseboard
Convert back door into dutch door
Design and create large scale, fabulous objet d'art

 

Kitchen

 
Demo desk near side entry
Build bench in its place  


Dining Room
 
Paint ceiling above dining table
Replace trim around series of 5 windows
Paint all the trim in room 

Bathroom

 
Install baseboard. (Really gonna do it this year, cross my heart!)
 Paint vanity



Master Bedroom

  Add decorative moulding to walls 
Replace trim around doors and window
Get some decent nightstands in there


Boys' Room

(Ha! The only photo of the boys' room is one from my "real home" post!)  

DIY some cute striped curtains
Build storage or purchase Expedit for toys/books
Make the kids pick up their room


Guest Room

 Find and fix up a chair for the corner
Create a sunburst mirror for above the bed
Build french cleat to hang headboard


Laundry Room

Install beadboard ceiling
Paint walls
Finish building W/D platforms
Paint cabinet
Install new countertop, sink, faucet, etc.
Install new lighting
Paint floor 

Wish me luck! (I've got 12 months, right?)

{Linking up to The Nester's 2012 Home Goals Party! }

Kitchen/Dining Master Plan

This post has been a long time coming, mostly because diagramming the space was an exercise in ridiculousness since I apparently lack skills of a computer floor plan artist. I've been putting this off for month

Here's the situation now, complete with obnoxious walls and crazy colors.

All three of those rooms can be seen in my house tour, if you're wondering what on earth this diagram is referring to. I'll also share more detailed photos in the future.

And here's my master plan:  
(insert trumpet fanfare here)

 

Here are the deets:

• Paint, paint, paint. Living/dining areas will be BM  Edgecomb Gray, kitchen may eventually become BM Revere Pewter for a bit more contrast against the white kitchen cabinets. We'll see. Trim and ceiling panels in the dining room will be painted white, beams will (most likely) be left dark.
• Entrance between dining room and rest of house (that I was too lazy to diagram) will be widened as it is a major traffic flow area.
• Walls between kitchen and both other rooms removed to accommodate an 'L' shaped lower cabinet addition with bar area and stools. (Can't wait to have a more open kitchen!)
• Remove kitchen cabinets near garage entrance and replace with cubbies/benches - Shazam! Instant mudroom.
• Replace entire kitchen with a more fabulous updated version that includes standard sized cabinets... this will be a treat for me.
• Remove bizarre 2.5' wall section (that's in the worst possible place as far as traffic flow goes) between dining and living rooms (see photo below)

What do you think of my master plan? Do you think the trumpet fanfare was a bit much?

How old will my children be when my husband finally allows me to rip into my kitchen - what if they're in college??

Will I ever have a good picture taken of me while singing? How cute is that necklace?

These are just some of the important questions you should be pondering today.