family room moodboard

I went ahead and put together a mood board for the family room plans.  Here it is!

The paint color (BM's Camouflage - large paint chip) will be going on all the walls.  The complementary color Smoky Ash (smaller paint chip) will be used in another place or two.  I have plans for wide-stripe horizontal curtains flanking the very large set of windows we have in the space.  We also may use some roman bamboo shades, but the jury is still out on that one (we can't do blinds inside the window because of the extensive moulding).


The sofa we have isn't nearly as "traditional" looking as the one on the board, but at some point in the future we hope to purchase new furniture for the family room and move this stuff to the basement.  If that happens, I hope to purchase a sectional in a more neutral tone.  For now, we're using what we have.  The wood floors are definitely a little ways off.  Because we pay cash for everything we do (and are on plan to have our new Highlander paid off in just a few months) we wouldn't be purchasing flooring until we save up the money for it.  But we will eventually be getting it.


The coffee and side tables we have will be used as well - very craftsman in style and rustic.  So, a nice mix of styles in the space.  We've had them for almost 8 or 9 years now, and I've been thinking about refinishing them somehow (I have an idea in mind!) and I know Derrick would love me to refinish existing furniture rather than consider purchasing new.  The slipper chairs would also be a down-the-line purchase with a new sofa, and thus a new furniture arrangement that I already have in mind.


The mirror is one of my favorite parts so far (well, maybe a tie with the curtains!).  It's actually not the one pictures, but similar in style.  NOT similar in color, but there are plans for that!


UPDATE:  The mirror arrived yesterday and I LOVE it!  I may leave it as is for now, knowing I can always change it later.


The blue and yellow work well with the wall color we've chosen.  In fact, the color in the zig zag pillow is probably the closest in shade to a color that the BM site said works very well with the Camouflage, so it's the color I'm leaning towards for the kitchen.....someday.  :-)  And the yellow *could* change to green.  This is just a plan so far, but we'll see how closely I can stick to it.  It's been fun putting it together, but we'll see how it evolves!


How about you?  Have you ever done a mood board or design plan?  How closely did you stick to it?

new family room color is a GO!

The same day I picked up the yellow paint for the basement bookcases I picked up a 2 ounce sample jar of the Camouflage color I've picked for the family room.  I painted it in a few places in the family room (right next to the fireplace, close to the windows, and on a wall opposite the window that receives direct light).  And, unlike the basement bookcase color - I LOVE it!   Love - seriously.

I'll admit - at first glance, it doesn't seem *that* different than what's on the walls.  But, it feels a bit more sophisticated to me (or maybe I'm just so sick of that builder beige), it feels a bit lighter and softer, and I do love the two-tone feel it has to it like Censational Girl mentioned (a tad gray looking in indirect light, more greenish in direct light).


I'm also hugely looking forward to having anything other than flat walls that I can clean with a damp cloth again!


And in other news, I've purchased something for over the fireplace which I'm super excited about! I think it's all coming together and I'm thinking about doing a mood board before we get started.


So, what do you think of the paint color?  Would you like to see a mood board of the future room?

painted bookshelves

Progress?  I chose a coordinating color for the bookshelves, thanks in part to the Benjamin Moore website and the coordinating color choices they provide when you look up a single color.  I entered the blue we used for the basement, and a yellow choice, called Desert Tan is what was provided.  Derrick thought it was too dark, and since he's pretty much giving me full reign of the decorating decisions these days I'm appeasing him where I can.  :-)  So, I found another very similar color called Summer Harvest and bought a quart.

I did the first coat and it was obvious I would need a second.  I painted the second coat and while I like the color and am happy it is done, I will admit.....I don't LOVE the color.  Thoughts?  I'm starting to wonder if maybe a more orange color - such as a pale coral - might be a better choice.  Or, I might just leave it and see how it works once it's all styled.

Decisions, decisions.....

playroom picture frames

We have a bit of a problem in the playroom.  Well, in all fairness it's only a "playroom" problem because that's where I store said items, but I think it's something many parents struggle with.  

Art work overload.  

Yep, being the parent of two kids that go to preschool a few days a week as well as love to do art projects pretty much anywhere, the art projects pile up.  Big time.  I purge as best as I can when they aren't looking (let's be honest, not every thing my kids create is a Picasso) and save the stuff that is really special or unique, but it still piles up like mad.  

I've seen a few ideas on pinterest which I'd like to incorporate sometime down the line.  

From here.

Now, this is shown with photographs, but I've seen this idea of photographing all the artwork and displaying as one large collage.  That also suggests that I have the time to go through all the art work, photograph it and organize them, find a way to have it printed (not that I would go that large), etc.  But it's still something I'm thinking of down the line.  

I also like the idea of, and this is a bit more practical for me, to make a yearly book with the artwork from that year in it (by photographing, but still saving special pieces).    

In the meantime, I still wanted a special way to display their artwork and encourage them to continue making such beautiful pieces. 

I had seen this display on Pinterest and loved it, and thought frames in a bright fun color would be perfect in the playroom.  I especially love the mix of different sizes and frames, but for now, I went the uniform route.  

Enter, IKEA frames.  And enter, picture placement.  

We bought the frames on our last trip to IKEA (it's a good 2.5-3 hours from us) when we were also buying the BESTA bookcases.  I bought 2 of each in four different sizes.  then I traced each size onto paper the kids had on a roll so I could play with hanging the frames that way instead of trying to actually do it with the frames and putting needless holes in the wall.  It worked really well, and this was the placement I settled on, but I think I changed it twice before landing on this one.  

I then got to work, as I didn't want the white frames - I was thinking orange or yellow, and at our last trip to Lowe's I asked Noah and he voted yellow.  Sold!  

I thought maybe I could just paint them since they are wood, after all, but they almost seem to be covered with a plastic-like coating, so had to go the prime route after all (and really, painting these was just a big huge PITA, to be honest).  

After a few coats of primer, I did the yellow (but forgot to take a picture of that part of the process).  

After putting a sawtooth hanger in the back of each frame, I also used those Command poster strips to keep the frames from getting knocked back and forth on the nail.  I hung them all up, secured the strips, and stepped back to enjoy!

I'll reveal with full artwork when I show you the entire playroom, hopefully soon!  I also still might put some cork into the center of each so that we could just use thumbtacks to secure the artwork....still deciding on that one!

So, how about you?  Do you have any clever ways to store/keep/display your children's artwork? 

growing

Seeing as how we're growing, not just as a family, but two kids aged 2 and 5 do some pretty nice growing on their own, we've always wanted a nice way to capture it.  Up until now, it's been on our master bath wall.  And as I've mentioned before, builder beige is very blah, as well as won't wipe down well at all, so the walls look filthy (yes, they painted the bathrooms in flat paint).

So, as much as I love this wall with all the markings of my kids' growth, it is time for it to go.  The bathroom needs to be painted, and I want something that could come with us (if we ever moved, but I don't foresee that at any time in the near to distant future).

So a while back, hubby made a white wooden one, but it had no measurement markings on it or anything.  I offered to add them, but never got around to it.  Truth is, I didn't really like the one he made.  He didn't really care for it either - but we were trying to fix a problem.  We knew where we wanted to put it, but yet it never was hung.  This wall is just off the kitchen and playroom and next to our powder room.  Everytime we go on a family trip, we pick up a memento from our travels.  We picked up this carved piece on a trip to Jamaica.  I have a lizard painted in aboriginal style from Australia. a wooden carved turtle from Mexico, and we have a Koa wooden paddle we bought in Hawaii.

This has been hanging here since we moved in, and I decided to evict it for the growth chart - if we ever got around to finishing it/making a new one.   

Then one day I was cruising around various blogs on the web, and found these gorgeous growth charts from Dear Lillie.  I saw that she sold them, but also saw that she followed the tutorial available on the blog 517 creations to make them, so I went ahead and did the same.  It was SUPER easy to make and came together quickly.  But then it sat waiting for a couple coats of poly for, well, a couple months. Sigh....

It's all done and hanging in the hallway where the Jamaica carving once was, and I absolutely love it.  I started the markings (spaced every inch) at 6" and hung it 6" from the ground.  Only thing left to do is take it into the bathroom to transfer all the old markings, and hopefully I'll get to that sooner rather than later.

What do you think?  Do you have a growth chart like this or similar in your home?  Or do you prefer to do it in a doorway/wall/casing of some kind?

my favorite kitchen gadgets

I have three that jump out at me.  I love them all for their beauty, simplicity and joy they bring to me in the kitchen.


The first is simple.  It's a couple of mugs that my son bought me for Christmas one year (picked them out himself!).  They are bright and cheerful colors, and are the perfect way to start the day with a hot cup of tea, which I do every morning.

cups of hot tea happen every morning.  cinnamon rolls - not so much.

The second gadget(s) are a couple of berry bowls I recently purchased at Anthropologie.  There's a bigger story here though.  First I owned this gorgeous berry bowl:

It was the most gorgeous berry bowl I'd ever seen.  Purchased from a seller on Etsy, it was small and petite, but perfect for rinsing berries and small bowls of grapes, and was used just about daily.  It was a beautiful robin's egg blue, complete with black specks and everything.  And after more than a year of owning it....it was broken by one of my kids, on accident.  After I loved this bowl so much (and before this one broke), I had purchased another green one from a different seller on Etsy.  This one went into daily rotation.  I was seriously crushed over this one, so I wrote to the seller I originally purchased it from, and begged her to make me another.  She suffers from pretty bad arthritis and doesn't make them anymore, but after a few months, she sent me another.  And then - within 2 weeks - it was broken again.  UGH!!!! The green one was broken within a few months of that.  Sigh...


After that, I was done buying one of a kind handmade items only to have them broken within months.  Do NOT get me wrong - I'm all about supporting handmade and filling your home with these lovely things, but in our case, I just can't purchase super functional items like berry bowls and expect my kids to never touch them.  It's just not practical.  So, I replaced them with these two new ones from Anthropologie, knowing that if they get broken, I won't suffer the same heartbreak I did with the others.  :-(  So, a large aqua and small yellow have a new home in my kitchen.

The third item is a gorgeous handmade maple cutting board made by an amazing seller on Etsy, Red Onion Woodworks.  It's thick, and has incredible graining which seems to glisten when well oiled and cared for.  One side is more solid, and that's our "use everyday" side, and the other has a bit of the natural bark side showing, and so we save that as the "serving" and "entertaining" side.

Mine is actually in need of a little TLC, so I just need to do a bit of sanding and another treatment of mineral oil and we're good to go!


What about you - what go-to kitchen gadgets make you smile in your kitchen?  Check out the Kitchen Gadgets Link Up Party over at Censational Girl to hear about lots more!

the never ending list

I have so many irons in the fire right now, and not just in the world of home improvement, that I thought it might be a good time to create a to-do list for myself, at least as far as the house/blog are concerned so that I can start to tackle things in a prioritized order and not lose sight of some things.  I realize you haven't even seen pictures of some of these rooms, but no fear - we'll eventually get to all of them.

from here

Basement Main

• possibly get more bookcases to go floor to ceiling
• paint back of bookcases
• wall treatment around bookcases
• touch up paint
• board and batten
• light fixtures
• arrange furniture
• cover all the boxes

Basement Bath

• build vanity
• get new sink
• purchase/order tile for shower
• decide on the accent tile & floor tile
• install ejector pump
• install toilet
• install sink and faucet
• touch up paint
• hang shower rod and curtain
• get rug and towels

Family Room

• choose new paint color
• fix corner pieces
• paint
• paint back of bookshelves
• re-hang curtain rod
• decide on shades?
• diy new curtains
• new mirror above fireplace
• declutter the bookshelves
• more feng shui furniture placement?
• remove items from tops of bookcases/leave empty or find replacements?

Master Bed/Bath

• choose new paint color
• paint
• update bedding?
• stencil treatment on headboard wall?
• window treatment
• new artwork?
• move furniture around - one dresser to closet, move armoire to corner
• add mirror and chair
• new light fixture

Playroom

• touch up paint
• finish artwork/frames project
• make bench for under window
• cushion for bench and add other textiles
• new light fixture

Kitchen

• paint
• bamboo roman shades for windows in there
• so many other ideas - but these are on backburner for now, right hubby?  :-)

Lilah's Room

• new headboard for queen bed
• eventually possibly build a twin for her room to increase size of room - move queen to spare
• finish diy artwork
• finish ombre dresser (need to repaint drawer fronts)
• paint nightstand
• curtains (I spotted a fabric I love)

Noah's Room

• diy artwork
• curtains?
• some beanbag seating for playroom?

By no means is this list considered complete - I'm sure there are items I already intend that I've forgotten or left off.  But it's a good starting point, especially when we honestly have SO many things going on at once.  

How about you - do you have a similar list for your place or just a nice small list?