Tyson's Room

I just wanted to pop in quickly and share some pictures of Tyson's room.  

A few weeks ago, he said he really wanted his own room.  I told him if he wanted to move downstairs, then he could have the cottage.  The cottage is a small room located right at the bottom of the stairs in our basement.  There are no windows, so it's not technically a bedroom.  A few years ago, I turned it into a playroom for the kids.  I set it up like a small house (which is how it got it's name "the cottage").  It had a kitchen, a dining room, and a bedroom for Peyton's dolls.  The kids still played in it some, but for the most part, they had grown out of it.  Anyway, Tyson liked the idea of moving into the cottage, so we moved all of the toys out and moved Tyson's furniture in. 

He needed a few things like a nightstand, some storage, and a desk.

I was about to buy him a World Market nightstand online, but then found last year's model on Craigslist for much cheaper.  I was so excited.  We had to make a trip a little ways out of town, but I didn't mind. 

When we went to pick it up, we just happened to be right near the Outlets, so we made a quick stop in the Restoration Hardware outlet and found a giant furry beanbag on sale.  We scooped it up and brought it home to make a cozy place for him to read and hang out.  This has become the new favorite spot in the house.

I blew up some pictures of him and his friends for his walls.  This was super cheap at Staples. 

And then we found a desk at World Market that fit perfectly in this nook. It was on sale, plus I had a coupon!!  I really tried to make choices with the future in mind.  I'm hoping this desk will still work well for him and fit him when he's in high school. 

Ikea had a set of lockers that worked great for storing some of his baskets of toys.  Originally, the lockers were bright blue, but we decided they would look better if I spray painted them Gun Metal gray. And we brought the pipe shelves down from his room upstairs. 

So now everyone has their own room, which has been so nice.  It gives them much needed space to spread out when they start to get on each other's nerves.  I think it's also good for Tyson to finally be able to call something "his own".  He's shared a room since he was three, so I'm happy for him to finally have his own space. 

And Hudson is happy because now he has his own room too! 

After moving Tyson downstairs, we ended up deciding to switch Hudson and Peyton's rooms, so it's been a busy few weeks of trying to get everyone moved into their new rooms.  I've patched a lot of holes and re-painted quite a few walls. I'm thankful to finally feel like everyone is mostly settled now.

Here's a peek of Hudson enjoying his new room. 

(Sorry - the quality of these pictures is not great.  Since Tyson's room has no windows, I had to turn the overhead lights on and the lighting in his room is pretty awful.  Plus, I just snapped quick pictures with my cellphone.)

Around the House

Hope you all had a nice Memorial Day weekend!
 
Tim and I just celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary earlier this week.  I'm so thankful for our thirteen years together and for all the ways God has worked in us and in our marriage to always hold us together.  We have been blessed!

Tim took a day off from work last week when the kids were in school and we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  It was nice.  We don't go on date nights very often, but while we were sitting there eating, we decided that lunch dates while the kids are in school work pretty great for us.  It's nice to be in a stage of life where that's an option.

Well, I got a little off track because originally this blog was going to be about the little things we've done around the house.  So let's forget all this sentimental anniversary gush and get back to house stuff!

About a month ago, I decided to give our closet a makeover.  It all started with a trip to Ikea, where I picked up several packs of wooden hangers.  After getting home and getting ready to take all of our clothes out to re-hang them, I thought I might as well de-clutter and paint while I had everything out.  It just made sense.  I knew if I didn't do it then, then most likely I would never get around to doing it.  And I had visions dancing in my head of a calm, clean, minimalist closet space and I wanted to see if I could make that happen in real life.  I got most of it done in that one afternoon, so it wasn't a big job, but it sure made a big difference.  Our closet doesn't have a door (we took it off years ago to make things simpler) so we see straight into the closet from our bed and since I am such a visual person, I appreciate the new view.

Afterwards, it looked like this

And kind of surprisingly, a month later, it still looks basically the same.  I've found that when I spend the time to really clean out and organize a space in a way that works for us and looks pleasing to my eyes, it helps motivate me to keep it that way. 

On to the next project… I was inspired by a picture on Pinterest to create a pot garden to cheer up our back deck.  I had a few old terra cotta pots sitting around and then we found several more listed cheaply on Craigslist that already had an aged patina.  We planted daisies, dahlias, tomatoes, a rose bush, and a few other things.  I also have a small herb garden growing out there.  I don't have the best green thumb, but maybe I can keep these growing for a while.  The hardest thing for me is remembering and taking the time to go out there to water them because the hot sun dries them out so fast and then all my flowers start wilting. 

A few weeks ago, a friend and I went to an open house in our neighborhood.  I just love walking through houses.  Sometimes I think I should be a realtor just so I can visit lots of homes. Ha! Anyway, this particular house was the same ranch style as our house, so it was especially interesting to me to see how the owners arranged their furniture and what additions they've done to their house.  I've always struggled with the layout of our basement.  Because of all the entrances and exits, doors, and windows, it's not an easy room to work with.  But after visiting the open house, it gave me an idea to try out in our home.  Later that afternoon, I got Tim to help me move things around.  It's definitely much cozier with the couch closer to the fireplace.  The rest of the room feels slightly unfinished to me, but maybe it will just take a few little touches and some time to get used to it.

Have I showed you guys my grey Annie Sloan chalk painted piano yet?  I can't remember.  It used to be turquoise, but I re-painted it grey a while back because I've moved out of the turquoise phase.  And then a few weeks ago, I decided the top of the piano needed a little freshening up for summer so I switched it all up.  Right now, I'm loving splashes of pink and gold with lots of white, gray and a little bit of black. 

Which brings me to my pink peonies!  I think I mentioned in my last blog that I've been patiently waiting for them to bloom.  All my neighbors peonies had been blooming for weeks before mine barely had buds on them.  Every day, I would walk around my yard and check them for progress.  Well, finally last week, mine all started blooming.  I enjoyed going out each day, looking for opening blooms, cutting them and bringing them inside to enjoy.  

I was pretty excited about how many I got this year.  

I had enough to fill a big jar on the kitchen table.

And another smaller jar in the living room.  I love the white peonies too!  And look… more pink, gold, white, gray and black.  I think it's becoming a thing around here. 

I can't wait to see how many I get next year!  

A Spring Makeover: The Outdoor Edition

Although Spring has been so slow in coming this year (and extremely rainy), the slightly warmer days have inspired me to get outside (when it's not raining) and give the exterior of our house a little bit of extra love.  Our front porch, as well as our flower beds were looking quite sad and dismal after the long winter and they both needed some freshening up.

Before:

The first thing we did was buy a few ferns to add to the front porch.  And with the help of a new doormat, our porch felt a lot more welcoming afterwards.  It's amazing what a little bit of greenery can do.

I also decided to dig up everything in the flower bed to the right of the door and completely start from scratch.  I hated the overgrown bushes and my daffodils were past their prime and resembled weeds.  I removed the Hostas and re-planted them in other places. 

Before picture:

In the middle of the process of deciding what to plant in the empty flower bed, I decided the bed was too large and overwhelming, so I moved the edgers in a few feet giving me a smaller space to work with.  I kept it simple with one Hosta, three Boxwoods and two Peonies.  Boxwoods are classic and they will stay green year round.  And Peonies are my absolute favorite flower.  I've been adding one or two new Peony plants every year to the flower beds around our house and now I have six.  Most of them are still so young that I don't get many buds, but a few of them have quite a few buds on them this year, so I'm excited.  I can't wait to cut them and bring them inside to enjoy.  I also re-planted my Daffodil bulbs so they will hopefully come back next Spring.

For Mother's Day, Tim made and hung flower boxes for me.  So far, I've filled them with Impatiens and Ivy.  I'm hoping they grow and fill out until my boxes are overflowing with flowers and greenery.

I ended up painting the front door black (it was white).

As much as I love white everything, black doors are classy.

I found a sweet little Gardenia bush at Trader Joes and brought it home.  My mom had a Gardenia bush when I was growing up and I can still remember stopping to smell it when I was outside playing and bringing a few flowers inside to enjoy. 

Here's an after picture.

I feel like it's quite the improvement from where we started, but I can't stop thinking about painting the brick white. 

Here's an idea of what that could look like.  

(found here)

It looks so charming, doesn't it?

Tim is not quite on board with this idea though, so we'll see if we actually ever do it.  

Do any of you have a painted brick house?  I would love to hear about it if you do.  Did you paint it yourself or have someone else paint it for you?  Do you love it, hate it, or regret it?  Does it require much upkeep or re-painting?

Painting the faux fireplace

Apparently, I can't go very long without painting or rearranging something in my house.  It's my creative outlet.  So even if every room in my house looks finished and put together, I just start getting this impulse to switch something up after a while.  

You may remember that about a year ago, I took down our faux fireplace and put a desk up here in its place.   

(See picture below)

Well, I liked the desk and it looked good there, but I just kept having this urge to paint the faux fireplace black.  I ignored it for weeks until finally I just had to do it and see what it looked like.  As much as me and the color white have a thing, surprisingly I am also falling in love with black.  Black makes such a statement.  And I've read that every room needs something black in it to ground it. 

So after painting the fireplace, I fell back in love with it.  And now, the desk has moved downstairs to the basement room and my fireplace is back upstairs, front and center.  

We also finally switched out the light fixture in here.  Since this room was originally intended to be a dining room, it had a chandelier hanging in it when we moved in.  And three years later, Tim was still hitting his head on it every time he forgot to duck when he walked through.  I just had the hardest time finding a flush mount light that I liked, so I stayed stuck with that ugly chandelier for way too long.  But finally, I settled on this light from Lowes.  It's simple and classy.  And bonus, it was fairly cheap.  We have this same light hanging in our foyer now too.  Eventually we plan to switch out all the out-dated flush mounts downstairs with this one. 

I hung our House of Belonging sign over the mantle, cut some fresh limbs from our tree outside, and stuck them in a vase.  This was a simple way to brighten it up and add a hint of Spring inside.  There is nothing like plants that liven up a room.

And I placed some birch logs on a basket to make it feel a little bit more like a real fireplace.

Do you ever get the urge to switch things up just for fun too?