This might be tricky! Guest Bedroom Redesign.

Hope ya'll are having a great week! I'm so thrilled with the response I had from my last post, "Pulling a Switcheroo". It was really wonderful hearing from old friends and many new! Ya'll were too sweet and I was overwhelmed by all of your thoughtful comments..just wanted to say thank you! I'm glad you liked the switcheroo!!

So now I'm on to the next project, but this one might be tricky. Chris and I just upgraded to a king size bed and we're super excited!

So tell me this..Do you think our lives will drastically change going from a 
queen mattress to king mattress? That's what I'm hearing!

The problem is we bought our mattress bed frame only 2 years ago and I hate to see it go. It was our first big purchase when I worked at Restoration Hardware, and even with my discount, it was still a big purchase for us. Selling it isn't an option. 

We have three bedrooms with one being the office, the other the master, and our guest room. Right now, the guestroom is pretty shabby chic and this bed is so the complete opposite. It's very traditional and masculine.

So here's our queen size bed now...

and here is the room that I have to make it work in...

{My grandmother's dresser drawers I recently painted}

{I've had this piece since high school and it's followed me everywhere I've lived}

{My parents gave me this piece that I repainted about 3 yrs ago..I love the apple green}

{Collage of pictures, mirrors, and art}

{Full size bed}

When we moved in, all of our things that worked no where else in the house, worked in this room. The  color of the room even worked with everything I ended up putting in there. Now what to do?? I also know that this room will end up being a nursery at some point..hoping sooner than later;)

So how will I make this work for us??

This is what I'm thinking..


1. Sell the bed and bed frame. I can part with it. I bought the bed frame on Craigslist a year ago. I really hold no sentimental value on it like the other furniture.

2. Repaint the room a  neutral color for now until we repaint it again for a nursery down the road.

3. I have some extra bedding that's sage green which will work with the brown. Just thought about that, so I can save some money there.

4. What will I do with the apple green drawers? I don't really have another place for it?? Not sure it I can part with that piece. 

5. The other two white pieces will have to work. I can't part with those either. 

6. Going to have to rework the accessories and art in there to make it less feminine and simplify.

7. Room for a crib down the road?? We'll have to cross that bridge when we get there.

8. Spend as little or no money as possible considering our investment in the new mattress and bed frame. (More on that later)



I think for now, I will go with this plan and see where that takes us! Wish me luck! Let me know if you have any other suggestions as to what I should do in there. I am open to anything right now.

Pulling a Switcheroo~ Our Dining & Living Room Before and Afters

I find more and more people now a days are thinking outside the box when it comes to utilizing space in their homes. When it comes to formal living rooms, what purpose does that room really serve? Collects dust, maybe holds a Christmas tree once a year, and typically looks a little stuffy. Most of the time, it's never used in most households out there. If you and your family do use your formal living room, I congratulate you!

When we moved into our home, I had no idea what to do with our living room. It went from being the previous owners main living room that looked like this....

{Previous owners main living room}

To pretty much an empty room that had an identity crisis....

{Slowly adding furnishings}

{Huge focal wall I had no idea what to do with}

{Added the art, but after several months moved it elsewhere that made more sense}

After a year, it was still pretty much empty and had no purpose. It's a fairly large size room with a beautiful window that let's in tons of natural light and I hated to see this waste of space. It wasn't in our budget to run out and buy additional furniture to fill up the space. Ya'll know that I hate to buy pieces just to buy.

After living with it for awhile, a lightbulb went off one day.  I thought to myself..."Why not switch my  living room and dining room around." At first, I thought am I crazy??? 

Here are some  pictures of my dining room before..again the first couple pictures are the previous owners layout. You'll notice we painted the walls a neutral. The orange and blue was a little too much for the eyes. We also removed the marble serving table that was attached to the wall. We moved that outside by our patio table and now makes a great serving table.

{Previous owner's layout}

 How its looked for the last year..

{Our dining room set up after we moved in}

The dining room always felt a little tight. The only reason we used it as a dining room is because the previous owner had hers set up that way and that's where the chandelier was.

As soon as I thought about making the switch, I started moving some furniture around and after I was finished, I absolutely loved how the rooms suddenly felt right !! It was a miraculous transformation that now made total sense.

It's a bigger space and our table centers perfectly with the main window. We added a rug and had the electrician move the dining room chandelier to the "new" dining room. The only thing still missing is my grandmother's grandfather clock, a couple chairs for the head of the table and a picture or two for the wall.



What do ya'll think of now?

I'm loving the new space!! Our buffet we bought from the Salvation Army matches perfectly with our table and chairs and the buffet lamps frame the mirror nicely. No more undesirable wall. I've been eyeing a couple chairs for the head of the table from Restoration Hardware. I think a nice slipcover chair will break up the wood a bit and add some softness.


What do ya'll think? Good choice??

So now your wondering what the "new" living room looks like...


This is now a great space for visiting and acts as an extension of our kitchen. We moved the chandelier that was in our master bedroom into the new living room and replaced it with a ceiling fan. The furniture I had worked great with the chairs. I bought two metal pieces hanging on the wall from Home Goods for $40.00 each. Here was another wall that needed interest and these worked out perfect, plus they didn't cost a fortune. I did buy a wall stencil from Royal Design Studio, but thought it would be too busy. I hung our wedding picture I had in the entry up and called it a day. The coffee table I bought from Salvation Army and ended up painting it black.

It's a wrap and we love how the new space feels. I always think that when you move into a new place,  it's always better to live with the home for awhile and figure out what works and what doesn't work.

We moved into our home in August 2011 and it's finally come together. It was such a fun creative process switching the rooms around and breaking out of the box.

I would love to hear if you also pulled a little switcheroo and changed things up in your home?? Does your dining room act as a home office now or your living room act as the dining room?? Do tell!!

I'd love to hear from you!!

Impulse buying and the aftermath

So we're all guilty of a little impulse buying every now and then, and for me, when it comes to buying decorative accessories for the house, it's only every so often.  If I do, I usually have to have the right spot in mind for it and it really needs to speak to me. I'm not the type of person to buy just to buy, but one day last month, I did just that!! Got to love One King's Lane!!

If you haven't discovered One King's Lane yet, take a look here! It's a great site for finding furniture, bedding, accessories, art, rugs, etc. Some expensive and some inexpensive. I've bought several things from them and I haven't been disappointed yet.

A sale came up that was too good to pass up so I jumped on the opportunity to purchase a few things..just a few things really. The prices and the items were perfect for extra do-dads here and there in my kitchen or wherever. I bought not knowing where I'd put these things, and hoped I'd  be able to make them work somewhere in our home. 

Several weeks later, my order arrived and I was like a kid on Christmas morning! Pretty pathetic I know, but that's one of the great reasons I blog. Because I know so many of you out there are just like me and we can relate to one another!!!

So here are my packages! I was thinking I might have gone a little overboard when I saw these. Quick..open before hubby gets home:) He might think I lost it.. 

My impulse purchases went from "Not sure where these things will go?" to "Ok..don't feel so bad for buying this."

{Cute decorative tins for $22.}

{Found a spot on my kitchen counter..adds a pop of color and a great filler.}

{Distressed pillar I had no idea what to do with, but liked for $12.}

{Looky here..made a great plant stand.}

 {Pretty botanical art set of 4 prints for $29.}

{Before was pretty bare}

 {Added much needed color}

{Looks great and  I can still open my oven}

Luckily, my impulse purchases seemed to work out for me after the fact and I found some great spots to put my new things. It's funny how you can always find a spot for something...Oh no,  If that last sentence isn't a red flag of some kind, I don't know what is.. HA HA

I would love to hear about your latest impulse buy and if it found a nice spot in your home:)

Have a wonderful week and Happy Monday!

Simple Inexpensive Kitchen Upgrade

It's October 1st!! Yeah to cool weather. I definitely need to get my warmer clothes out. Fall and Spring are my favorite times of the year!

I've spent the last month working really hard to finish up a few projects we've had on our "To Do" List around the house. What a difference they've made.

We were blessed to have found our home that was pretty much move in ready for us.  The previous owner had done a lot of work such as tiling, installing new counter tops, and lot's of internal work to the house. Her taste was beautiful and really worked well with our personal style.

That left us with painting, having to buy some new furniture, and little projects here and there. We do have a desire to redo both baths, but not on the top of the list right now. The oriental wallpaper in our guest bath is not something you see everyday and has grown on us:) We'll keep it for awhile longer.

So to the kitchen we go and Lowe's of course. These shutters for me, really dated this kitchen. I love the idea of shutters, but these just didn't work for this window.

{Before with Shutters}

{Before}

{Before}

First thing we wanted to do was remove the shutters. They really didn't serve much of a purpose and took up counter space. Also, they blocked part of the window. We wanted to OPEN IT UP!!

Off to Lowe's I go!! I love options! Lot's of great options at Lowe's in Levolor products.

{Which color to choose..went with Fruitwood}

I am so happy with how it turned out. Really updated the space and opened up the window more so than I thought it would. One of my favorite designers, Candace Olson loves using these natural shades with or without drapery treatments and I've always loved the look. A really beautiful and clean look..also super inexpensive!

{After with new shade}

{Nice and Open}

{AFTER}

So what do ya'll think?? Again, it's an inexpensive look and really easy to install. I thought of doing a valance or possibly cafe style curtains. In the end, I went with the woven shade and so happy with the finished product. It's simple and keeps the main focus on the beautiful view of the backyard!

Have a great week!!