bookcase shuffle

The family room bookcase before:

And now after:

Meanwhile, all the books, pictures, etc were transferred to the basement shelves (which have finally been installed).  Nothing is permanent, because I now need to go through everything and get things better organized, displayed, etc.  And the painting of the family room will resume this week, so we'll get to see the two new colors together, instead of the one new color (bookcase) and the one old color (beige).  

upstairs hallway: before

Short post today, but just a couple of pics of the upstairs hallway before it was painted, so you can see how filthy the walls were.  Four little hands touch these walls every.single.time they go up and down these stairs.  I've scrubbed them, and while the dirt would come off, the flat paint the builder used was so cheap it would always still look "greasy".  As opposed to the trimwork, done in a nice glossy sheen, which wipes right clean.  Sigh....

The upside is that it's DONE though!  So happy!  

Back with after pictures soon!

room by room: family room

Now that progress has started on the family room, it certainly seems fitting that I would show you what the room looks like *before* we make too much progress.  I'm putting it all out there - the room is clean (well, clean enough...) but I'm keepin' it real - so yes, you'll see my messy bookshelves and all. :-)

Here is the back fireplace wall - looking into the room from the kitchen/eat in area.   

Main fireplace wall.  Plans for new mirror above fireplace (we've had that print for a long time.  I love it, but it's time for something new). 

Built-ins for television and components.  Need to remove pots above (can you say dusty?) because they don't fit the space at all (came with us from Arizona), and there are more plans for the built-ins.

Built-in bookshelves.  Plans for these similar to the television built-ins.

This is the view of the room looking towards the front of the house/foyer.  If you look closely, you can see the new paint job extending down from the upstairs hallway, and the hallway patch job for repairs.  :-)

Room facing the back of the house (west) and the large windows.  The mirror will come down and get moved, and there will be new curtains.  There will also be a new furniture layout, and possibly refinish the end/coffee/console tables.

So there you go!  Next up are some *before* pics of the upstairs hallway before we painted it.  I swear my kids touch the wall every single time they climb up or down those stairs.  So they were filthy!  Keepin' it real....keepin' it real....  

Stay tuned!

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?