A Few of My Favorite Posts

On Wednesday, I shared the most popular posts from 2015, & while they were nice, a few of my favorites slid by without much mention. Here are a few of my personal favorites that didn't quite win the popularity contest this year.

Tween Boy's Bedroom Reveal

My son's room was actually the first makeover I worked on in 2015, but I took a break from it when the One Room Challenge popped up & I decided to make over my daughter's room. I really love the way his room turned out & I think it is a great representation of him. Click on over to see how I gave the room personality & worked in some of Zeke's most treasured possessions.

Curtains, Pillows, & the Letter Z

During Zeke's bedroom makeover, my husband & I worked together to build this Z marquee letter. I really love how it turned out & especially the glow it gives his room at night. Zeke's room only has one window, so adding this unit really brightens up his space.

How to Trim an Arched Window

We have slowly been trimming out all the windows in our home. The last room on the first floor that needed trim had us stumped. We couldn't figure out how to add moulding around the arched window. Amazingly enough the Internet did not have an answer for us, other than basically hiring it out. Fortunately, we figured it out & shared the easy solution with you in the post.

Summer Learning Challenge

My children are proof that keeping up your studies over summer break can prevent the "summer slide" that occurs at the start of each new school year. After participating in the school's math & reading challenge for several years, we created our own last summer, when the school decided to drop the program. I posted about it at the beginning of the summer & am happy to announce that the challenge was successful! The weekend before school started, they were able to open up that sparkly envelope for a fun weekend away. The system was easy to maintain & the mystery prize was motivating for the kids.

Making Special Memories on the Last Day of School

One of the all-time, most popular posts on my blog was written about how we celebrate the last day of school. (You can see that post here.) I find it amazing that without publicizing it at all, it is one of the top three posts I have ever written. Anyway, since that time, we have made some changes to our last day of school fun (we have to keep our kids on their toes!) & I shared about them in the above post. 

If you missed any of these posts, I hope you'll check them out & find some inspiration from them!

Favorite Posts from 2015

Now that 2016 is in full swing, it's time to take a look back & see what posts were most enjoyed in 2015. Without further adieu...

10. Home Tour: The Study

I started out the year with an updated home tour & the study was one of the most liked rooms on the tour. It has been a little over two years since I made this room over & I still love it just as much as I did when I first finished it. It is such a cheerful, happy spot to work!

9. Girl's Bedroom Makeover: The Furnishings

The One Room Challenge is serious motivation for me to get moving on projects, so for the spring challenge, I made over my daughter's room. Many of the posts for her room were among the most popular (as you will see) including one on the inexpensive furnishings I purchased for her room.

8. Girl's Bedroom Makeover: Pictures & Plans

The plans for Eliana's room topped the list of popular posts at number eight. If you want to see how bad her previously cute room had become, you can click on the link!

7. Morning Room Challenge: Painting the Secretary

I painted this oak secretary desk as part of the fall One Room Challenge. I really love the way it looks & am so happy I was able to style it using things I had around the house & a little creativity!

6. Girl's Bedroom Makeover: Free Art

I created a gallery wall of free art for my daughter's bedroom makeover. I used some rocks & shells from her collection, as well as some awesome free printable art I found online. Don't you just love it when talented people share their art for free???

5. Girl's Bedroom Makeover: Paint, Paint, Paint

This is a pretty boring picture, but one of the top five posts from my blog this year (um...does that say something about me?). I loved the color I painted the family room so much that I used it in my daughter's room as well!

4. Morning Room Challenge: The Big Reveal

This room went from drab to fab in the fall & now works with the rest of our main floor. I do see a few changes coming to it in the near future, so I will update pictures when that happens.

3. Home Tour: The Bathrooms

Okay, so this feels like cheating again! For the past three years, this bathroom has made my popular posts. I still really love it, so I don't mind, but I haven't done a thing but take pictures of it since I decorated it in 2013.

2. Girl's Bedroom Makeover: Third Time's a Charm!

It took me three tries to find the perfect shade of pink curtains for my daughter's room & you'll never guess how I achieved it. Well, unless you read the original post!

1. Girl's Bedroom Makeover: The Reveal

Three rooms in our home received makeovers this year, but my daughter's room was the reader favorite. It has already had some slight changes, so it might be time for more pictures. I will just need motivation to iron that duvet cover, so don't plan on it until at least 2017!

So, there you have it! What are your favorites from the list? I would love to hear! I will be back in a few days to share some of my favorite posts from this year. 

One Room Challenge: The Morning Room

Hey there! Remember me? Sorry for the blogging absence, but I'm back! Nothing brings me out of a blogging hiatus like the One Room Challenge!

If you are unfamiliar with the idea, basically, it was dreamed up by Linda from Calling It Home, as a way to motivate herself & others to finish a room in their homes in six weeks time. Every Wednesday, Linda has invited 20 blogging & designing professionals to give updates on their spaces. Then, on Thursday, everyone else can join in the challenge in the form of a link party. This is always just the kick I need to get my spaces in order! Here are the three other spaces I have completed, all thanks to the One Room Challenge:

Shared kids' bathroom before:

 

...and after:

See the reveal here.

 The family room before: 

 

...and 6 weeks later:

See the full reveal here.

My daughter's bedroom before:

 

...and after:

See the reveal here.

You may have noticed from the photos above that my style tends to gravitate towards neutral spaces with pops of cheerful colors & a mix of modern & traditional elements. Almost all of the public spaces on our main floor meet these requirements, with the exception of two- the kitchen & the morning room. We are not quite ready to take on a kitchen renovation, so I have decided to make some changes in the morning room for this challenge. Let's take a look at it's current state:

 

Not 100% awful, but there is only one item in the space I would qualify as modern (the light) & there are NO pops of cheerful colors.

 

Obviously, these are older pictures as evidenced by the family room in the background, & there have been a few slight changes over the year (painted picture frames, new vase for the table, & a new secretary). But, the fact remains, this room needs help.  It really does look like such a sad space in our home with the lack of cheerful pops of color.

So, here are my plans to liven this room up on a seriously tight budget...

The Plans

1. The paint color (Toasted Almond by Olympic) & light will stay the same. Everything else will change in some way.

2. Replace the small "buffet" with a white Ikea Malm dresser.

3. Add trim around the windows. (We are still trying to figure out how to frame an arched window. Any ideas?)

4. Replace the curtains with the ones above, which are neutral, but bring in a fun pattern. (Hopefully I like these because I ordered them over labor day & still haven't opened the box!)

5. Re-finish the table in a darker stain to minimize the "orange-y oak" look.

6. Replace the chairs with two different styles. (I just picked up the side chairs yesterday. They are different than the ones above & are going to need a lot of love!)

7. Give the secretary a makeover in the form of black paint.

8. I still plan on keeping the cake eating pictures, but plan on DIY-ing some food art to fill up more wall space.

9. New lamps & accessories to provide cheerful pops of color.

So, what do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts... and while you're here, be sure to check out my home tour.

Don't forget to snoop on all the other One Room Challenge Guest Participants here!

 

Also sharing here:

Girl’s Bedroom Makeover: Pictures & Plans

Now that my son’s room is nearly finished, I decided to move on to make my daughter’s room more appealing.  It has pretty much been a disaster zone since we moved the full-sized bed out of the nursery & into her room nearly three years ago!  Want proof?



It may not be obvious from the pictures, but the bedding is too small (& ripped & stained), there are only two working light bulbs in that fixture, & her nightstand is overflowing!  It is high time to address this mess!

Here are my plans:



The light fixture, bed, & dresser are staying.  Pretty much everything else is going.  The walls will be painted (probably Cosmic Rays or Honesty by Olympic Paints).  I plan on using a brass headboard I’ve had in the basement for a few years, along with plain white bedding & pillows that will bring in Elie’s favorite color, spring green.  The bed will be flanked with an Ikea Rast dresser (for added storage) & a white parsons desk & lucite chair.  We will add a couple of white shelves above the desk for even more storage.



The windows will be dressed in pink curtains (Ikea Vivan perhaps?) & in the corner between the window & dresser will be a Tullsta chair.  We will test our DIY skills with a peace sign marquee above it.  Her dresser will get a makeover in a happy turquoise color & I may change out the mirror for one that can be hung vertically.



The space between the two doors will be a gallery wall of special treasures & artwork.



And it will all be finished in less than six weeks, thanks to the One Room Challenge Link Party, hosted by Linda from Calling It Home.



This will be my third time participating in the linking party.  I'm hoping to have the same success this time as I did with my kids' bathroom...

and family room.

Be sure to stop back next week for an update.  I hope to get a lot of shopping & painting finished this week!  You can see some of my inspiration as well as sources on my Pinterest board.

Boy’s Bedroom Makeover: The Plans

In 2011, I finished decorating my son’s room.  His favorite color was (& still is) orange, so, I found a comforter that incorporated orange, slathered the walls in orange paint, & gave everything a nautical theme.



It has pretty much looked this way since then, with the exception of a Craigslist dresser we bought in 2013 & the full-sized bed we just passed down to him over Christmas break.  Well, it hasn’t exactly looked as pristine as the photo above!  My boy is a collector.  He has collections of quarters, pennies, rocks, shells, sea glass, cars, silly bands, acorns, rubber ducks…the list goes on.  Every surface top is pretty much covered with his collections or projects. 

Here are my plans for making over this space:



Besides an obvious need for storage & appropriate-sized bedding, I would also like to lighten the walls.  This room is pretty small & only has one window.  A new, lighter shade of paint will not only brighten the space, but also create the feeling of a bigger room. In the next couple of weeks, I plan to remove the chair rail & paint the walls Toasted Almond, by Olympic Paints.  It’s the same color I have in the entry & upstairs hallway of our home.  I haven’t actually painted a sample on the wall yet, so this could change.  We will also trim out the window & probably add a stationary roman shade (aka faux-man shade). 



I am not exactly set on the orientation of the bed.  Zeke would like it to remain as it is in the picture above, but it takes up so much space in his room.  There is enough room to place it against the wall long-ways (like a daybed), but if we do that, I’m not sure what I’ll do about the headboard. 

One thing I am sure of is that it will have a vintage pull-down map hanging above it.  I found a great deal through a local auction site & have one that has been sitting in my closet for two years.  Time to get that baby hanging!  I also know I want to flank the bed with Ikea Rast dressers.  I think these dressers make great nightstands, since they are small, but will add much needed storage.



The layout across from the bed will remain as it is today.  I’m hoping to find an inexpensive, upholstered chair to take the place of the director’s chair in the corner.  We will hang a mirror (or possibly a gallery wall) above the dresser, & add a tray to hold a 5th grade boy essential—deodorant!  Maybe he’ll start using it if we display it???



The desk wall will probably change from the mood board above.  With the bed in the center of the room, having a full-fledged desk will really cramp the space.  If the layout stays this way, we will most-likely build a pull-down desk, with a more comfortable stool below it.  A wall of inexpensive shelves will create a place to store Zeke’s books & many collections.

I cannot wait to get this project started! 

Sharing at the Pretty Preppy Party & Evolution of Style!

My Parents’ Christmas Home Tour: The Main Floor

As I have mentioned several times on the blog, my parents LOVE Christmas.  Growing up, our home was always completely decked out for the holiday, & it looked so pretty it usually stayed up until at least Valentine’s Day (or maybe that was just because it took so long to take down)!  While we visited for Christmas, I decided to take some pictures of their house decorated for the season.  I know it’s crazy of me to be posting these photos now that Christmas is over, but I figured I would forget I had the pictures if I waited until next year.  So, here goes…

The Entry/ Living Room



Above is the view when you walk in the front door.  My parents host a lot of parties throughout the month of December, which is why their large entry is filled with tables & chairs.







The Dining Room







The Sunroom





The Breakfast Nook





I hope you enjoyed the tour!  Sorry for the slightly blurry images.  I’m still trying to learn to use my new camera, so hopefully the picture quality will get better throughout the year!