Home and Garden

If you saw my previous post about our home redo, we are fully revamping two rooms in our apartment: our daughter’s room and the living room. We are working on them simultaneously so I decided to split up the redo posts into the two rooms. Given that we want my daughter’s room finished by the end of this year, hers is the focus at the moment.

So right now I am in the very beginning stages. I (heartbreakingly) tore off her nursery border of wallpaper, then spackled and painted all the walls to their new color (which is White on White by Glidden in case you wanted to know). Her walls are completely bare which makes her room look really empty, but she doesn’t seem to mind! Next up is the furniture painting.

Firstly, the dresser.

This dresser was my mother’s. She’s had it since she was about seventeen and living in Alaska. I love it. I love it’s look, it’s wood stain, all of it. However, it no longer goes with my daughter’s room. So with her permission I’m stripping it down to repaint it. I will also probably update the drawer pulls, though I may just paint them too – we’ll have to see.

Waiting to be stripped! . . .That sounded far more awkward than I intended. . .

The second major thing right now is this chair.

I know it’s ugly. I know it’s ripping. But it is THE MOST COMFORTABLE recliner I’ve ever sat it. No joke. Plus, it’s fully reclines so you can lay down in it. And since it’s huge, it’s basically like having a recliner/twin bed. I could not have lived without this chair when my daughter was an infant. I hate rocking chairs – they make me super nauseous ever since I hit my adult years. But this chair was so perfect for nursing, or snuggling when she was sick, or those rough teething nights (which we were lucky enough to only have one or two of!). You may be getting that I love this chair.

That being said, it’s freaking giant. It takes up a huge amount of space in her room, and she doesn’t need it in there anymore. But I’m not at the point where I can bring myself to get rid of it’s ugly, ripped self so we are cramming it into our master bedroom until I can find a spot it fits! Both the hubs and I agreed that until we are done having children we are not getting rid of the chair (he loves it as much as I do).

Those are my current projects! I’m also hoping to get a few wall art pieces finished this week for her room. More posts about it in the coming weeks!

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Despite me being rather creative and art inclined, I am an absolute disaster when it comes to interior design/home decoration. I think my main problem is that I like many different things from many different styles of decor, and end up with a mish-mashed wreck of design, as opposed to a nice cohesive look. I can never narrow down just one theme; I always want to mix and match. And while some people can flawlessly get away with that, I am most certainly NOT one of those people. So as usual, to get started, I’ve made lists. And there will certainly be more.

Our long term project is the living room. The color it’s painted was absolutely not my choice (a dark burgundy/maroon; it came with the apartment) and while I do like it because it’s unique and a nice color, it’s too much for the whole room and I want a change. It has been five years of this color and I’m done! As for furniture, nothing in our living room matches. When we first moved in together we were both quite tight on money so furnishing became way more about budget than looks. We have almost every kind of wood finish you can imagine from white pines to cherry to cedar. Needless to say, it needs some serious cohesion. So I’m REALLY going to try and stick to a nice simplistic color scheme, and we’ll go from there. This year, we’re really only focusing on the painting. We’re saving purchasing furniture and whatnot ’til after the holidays, mainly to accommodate our (rather modest) budget.

Some photo shelves, with the aforementioned burgundy/maroon paint I can no longer stand.

As for decor, I bounced back and forth for awhile on whether I wanted the sole focus to be family, or incorporate other things as well. My hubs and I are rather geeky – we both enjoy a lot of video games, TV shows, and board games that are generally considered a bit geekish, but it’s a big part of who we are and one of the big things we share together. Both of us enjoy collecting things having to do with our fandoms, and we’ve amassed a decent amount of items I like having on display. Since the living room is where both the TV, computer, and our game systems are it’s also an appropriate place for them. So after discussing it with the Mr. we both decided we want to keep that stuff in the living room, along with the family oriented things (photos, etc.). Now the big question. . .can I find a balance successfully??? Let’s hope so. . .

Some of our nerdy collectibles. Note the shelves do not match the shelves in the previous picture. . .like I said think all the woods in our living room are different colors!

This years big project will be our daughter’s room. She will be three in December, and her room hasn’t been updated since she was born! It’s definitely time to turn her nursery into a ‘big girl’ room. We’re getting her a twin bed and ditching the crib. She’s been using it as a toddler bed (aka no sides) since she was about 20 months old, but it’s time for a real big girl bed now! Her walls are going to be white (already bought the paint even). For me and my lack of decorating skills, I find it easier to have neutral walls to decorate around. Plus as she starts getting her own tastes, we won’t have to repaint the room when she’s ready to pick out her own decor. Her current room is pictured below.

Toddler converted crib. She sleeps on the big teddy – got him for Christmas and she absolutely loves him! She has named him ‘Big Bear’ and has to sleep on him.

Play area – dolls, toys, blocks, etc

And her reading area.

I’ve ordered her an awesome custom quilt from D. Rix Creations – I can not WAIT to get it in a couple months! I always wanted my child to grow up with a special blanket that was made just for them, and Danielle does absolutely beautiful work. Plus, it’s supporting an indie biz which, as you know, I love to do! A lot of her wall decor is going to come from indie shops too.

Fabric for her new quilt – I just love it!

I’ll also be painting/making some decor for her too. I think we’re sticking with lavender as the main accent color of the room. Basically I’m basing it all around the quilt colors. So I’d like to make her some wall art that brings those colors out. The plan is to have the walls done in advance, but everything else will be a surprise. The night before her third birthday party she’s going to have a sleep over at Mimi’s house, and when she gets home she’ll have a whole new room! There will certainly be more posts about the room makeovers as I keep going. . .expect lots of ranting and raving about disasters I will undoubtedly run into!

Any advice for redoing rooms, especially for a beginner with terrible design skills?? I’d take any and all.

Until next time,

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