Upstairs Projects - check 'em off!

Last night I was going through our list and was so excited to see that we are over halfway there.  We won't meet our deadline and we have added a few projects to the list but it feels good.  It is always nice when you can check a few items off that nagging list of projects.

Today I am sharing 4 more projects that we finished upstairs.  Upstairs at our house consists of 3 bedrooms, the playroom and a bathroom.  These projects were focused on the bedrooms.

{ Project #12 }

Move daughter's clothes to her room {DONE}

In our last house, we had my daughter's dresser inside her closet and it was awesome.  However our closets are slightly smaller here and the dresser drawers wouldn't open since the doors are in the way.  Ultimately we would like to put a whole closet system in both of the kids closets.  But, alas, that is a down the road project.

This was a pretty quick one - just involved moving some furniture.  We traded out my daughter's clothes dresser which had been in the guest room with the smaller dresser from her room that was originally used as a baby changing table.

Before:  In the guest room

After:  In my daughters room - notice the pink!

Since my daughter is now almost 7 she has the responsibility of getting herself dressed in the morning.  Additionally, I call on her to put her own clothes away (well, when I am not having a "only I can do it right" moment).  To assist her in finding what she needs and of course, to add some girly fun, I made drawer labels in Picnik and had them printed on photo paper so they are nice and durable.

I simply taped them on and it has worked great.  My girly girl loved the flowers and touch of pink!  Project is done and the added bonus of having a happy little girl!

{ Project #15 }

Window treatments for my daughter's room {DONE}

We completed awesome window treatments for my son last year and I love them.  My daughter has been bugging for curtains too.  I searched and searched and finally found a fabric I liked in a price I could afford. 

The bright pink zebra print was the perfect color pink (and at $2.50 a yard I couldn't resist).  As an added bonus, JoAnn's had small plastic grommets (just like the ones I used in my son's room) on clearance for under $3 a set which is about 75% off!  Yay!

 

I love how they turned out.  It definitely brings a nice pop of color.  I will share more about this project next week but for now, it is DONE! 

{ Project #16 }

Finish the grommets on my son's curtains {DONE}

As mentioned above, I made curtains for my son's room last year and they are great.  We used these great snap together grommets.  They are really cool but can be quite stubborn to snap together.  I was so excited to see the curtains up, I left a couple of the grommets off that I couldn't get to snap into place. 

Well, it was time to finish this project once and for all.  I pulled down the curtains and tried again to no avail.  Since the header is 3 layers of this heavy canvas fabric it was too thick.  It finally dawned on me, if I trim away a bit of the middle layer, I could snap the grommets together much easier.  Bingo, it worked.  Why I didn't think of that sooner I don't know. 

I still just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the red striped curtains.

{ Project #22 }

Redo lamp for guest bedroom {DONE}

This has got to be the easiest project, but of course, it took for ever.  I guess the motivation that I wanted a new bedside table in the guest room before my Mom came to visit (and this LIST) was enough motivation to get it done.

Off to the store we headed to buy a simple shade for the lamp my husband found at Goodwill store on 50% Saturday.  After cleaning up the base, we decided not to spray paint it at this point.

I love the rectangular shape of this shade and how it frames the space above the bedside table.  I have an idea to embellish the shade using gross grain ribbon like this one at Target.

I love how clean and crisp it looks.  Of course, I would also love to do this for some new shades in the living room too so I guess we will see.

Four more project checked off the list.  Next up, we are heading outside to the garages to share a few projects.

Magnetic Board Updates

Every kid should have a bulletin board to keep all those cherished memories.  You know the ones - the photos with friends, the movie ticket stubs, special notes, pictures from magazines, invitations, etc.  I will admit, I had many a picture from the latest issue of Teen Beat hanging in my room. 

When we were working on the desks for the kids rooms, I knew that we needed to give them each a bulletin board.  I love some of the cork board updates I have seen, HOWEVER I didn't feel that my 4 and 6 year old needed to have push pins in their room.  I had visions of ME stepping on them amongst the other toys and "stuff" on the floor.  A magnet board was the perfect solution.  We picked up a couple of simple boards at Ikea.  Perfect for the kids rooms.

Of course, plain does not cut it with kids.  This project we were able to get the kids involved.  I picked up some pink and green polka dot decals at The Dollar Tree for my daughters project and we simply used green painters tape for my sons board.  They helped put them on which helped them both take ownership of their projects.

Both projects were completed in under 30 minutes and gave the rooms immediate impact!

Have you used a simple item like tape to add immediate impact to an otherwise plain object?

Linked Up With...

House of Hepworths

The Frugal Girls
Chic on a Shoestring
Naptime Crafters
Funky Junk Interiors
Tatertots and Jello
I Heart Naptime
Under the Table and Dreaming
Little Rays of Sunshine
Ask Anna
Savvy Home A to Z
Skip to My Lou
Sugar Bee Crafts
Tip Junkie
Polly Want A Crafter
Todays Creative Blog
Funky Polkadot Giraffe
Blue Cricket Designs
Sugar and Dots
Sweet Peas and Bumblebees
Crystal and Co.
Not JUST a Housewife

The Perfect Little Desk

Dilema #1: 
There is this awkward space to the left of our fireplace that most likely was designed to house a bookshelf to hold the components to your home theater system.  We have neither currently so it is just an odd looking space.

Dilema #2: 
Our kids are forever wanting to play on the computer.  However our desktop computer sits in the office at the front of the house.  We don't want the kids in there playing without being able to keep an eye on them.  So I have been contemplating how and where we could move the computer into the main room without it becoming a focal point (read: messy catchall area).  I love that we have the office space that can house my craft supplies and our home office "stuff".  Reality right now - the office is a storage room where boxes, papers and "stuff" goes to hide because the room has doors!

YIKES!!!

Solution:
The other day I stopped in to my favorite Goodwill store and found the PERFECT FIT!  There amongst the small furniture and other oversized items was a small, Mission style desk that I was convinced would fit into that awkward alcove to the left of our fireplace.  It Did!!!!  I also found a great, simple white chair to go witht he desk. And the the perfect spot to tuck away the computer for the kids was found.

Of course, a birch wood desk and a white chair do not quite go with the warm wood and earth tones in our home.  So I headed to the store, picked up a few cans of satin finish dark brown spray paint and got to work.  I originally thought I would put a glaze over the paint to give it some character but we actually love how it came out so no glaze was necessary.  I did, however finish the top with 3 layers of polyeurothane to further help protect the surface from the inevitable wear and tear it will receive from 2 young kids.

I want to wait a few more days for the finish to fully cure before we put the computer on the desk but I couldn't wait to share this with you.  The kids are so excited to have the computer out here in the main room and to be able to play their games.  This project has gotten me revved up to finish the two student desks I picked up last fall at this awesome flea market that one of the local churches holds.  These desks need a bit more "love" before they are ready for paint but I hope to finish them up this month.  They will love having their very own work spaces in their rooms.

Linked up with:

Tatertots and Jello

I ♥ Naptime

Under the Table and Dreaming

Skip to my Lou

Polly Want a Crafter

Get Your Craft On

Miss Mustard Seed

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

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Map Inspired!

I love to travel - WE love to travel.  I have been so inspired by the many wonderful map projects I have seen recently and realized I had the perfect room to put this idea to work.  We have a small powder room on our first floor that I have struggled with an idea for some decor in this room.

BEFORE - When we bought the house

Please ignore the open cabinet and toilet lid being open!

Step 1 - Paint & New Mirror

When we moved in, this room was beige, just like the rest of the house.  We found a gallon of Martha Stewart paint in a soft, earthy blue on the Oops! cart at Home Depot.  It was perfect.  I also found an awesome mirror at one of the grocery stores for a meer $8.99 which was the perfect replacement for the builder grade frameless mirror.  As a bonus, the finish on it matches the light fixture in this small bathroom. 

We decided to remove the large towel bar since we really only needed a hand towel in this small powder room. This left a big, open wall. With lots of cabinetry and storage in this room (which is awesome by the way), there is also a large counter that seems somewhat bare. This bathroom sits under the steps so it has an odd shape to it as well.

I made some $2 apothecary jars using candlesticks and vases from the dollar store and thrift stores.  I filled those with some homemade decor balls using beans, twine and spray paint.  I found this great little tray at Goodwill and spray-painted it with an oil rubbed bronze finish.

Before                                               After

Found this globe at a thrift store.  The base and frame were kind of a cheap tin so I pulled it apart.  I then grabbed my trusty ORB spray paint and it turned out phenominal.

I headed to the web and found some great maps that I simply enlarged and printed out on my home computer and framed them up.  They are great and I love how they reflect in the mirror.  The colors were perfect with the blue walls.

Next time I am at the used book store (we have an AWESOME one here) I will trade for some travel books to set under the globe!

I love our new travel inspired powder room.

Now I Know My ABCs...

I am absolutely giddy about sharing this project as I have wanted to do this ever since I saw the alphabet wall posts here, here and here.  So the end of January and early February, I began collecting my letters.  My goal was to complete this project while my Mom was visiting but of course I decided to broke my wrist instead.  Last week, while waiting for customers to come to our yard sale, I began decorating some of my letters. A few of the letters still need to be embellished but I just had to share because I absolutely love it!

I absolutely love the kids playroom.  The upstairs at our house is essentially four bedrooms and a bathroom.  My concern when we were painting up there is that it would look like a rainbow with different colors in every room - and by colors I mean bright colors.  Our daughter's room is bright pink and green while our son's  room is denim blue and brick red.  We decided to use the green from S's room and the blue from Z's room to paint the playroom.  In the kids rooms we have accent walls but we decided to try a stripe in the play room and it turned out awesome.  There is a 2' stripe of green at the top and bottom with 4' stripe through the middle.

This project was so much fun and I wish I could do it again as I have so many ideas for items to use in lieu of letters like O, T, U, C, Q and others.  But alas, the project is done and it turned out awesome.  The entire project was under $40 as many of the letters were $1 or less and the embellishing of them was craft paint and scrapbook paper that I already had on hand.

A few of my favorite's were...

In honor of our hometown team - University of Arizona - Go Cats.

I made this one by finding an A on-line, blowing it up, printing it out, tracing it on red, white & blue felt, cutting them out and gluing them together.  I used the stiff felt for the blue so that the letter had some rigidity.

Man on the Moon Letter C!

The letter C was a really ugly moon decoration I found at The Dollar Tree.  I simply painted it yellow to give it a "cheese" look.  I like that you can tell that it is a moon but can also see that it is a C.

Crayola Crayon E

The playroom is definitely home to the crayon crowd at our house - although, crayons, markers and the like are not allowed upstairs unless an adult is present hee hee!

Spring is Here!

Spring is shortlived in Arizona, but those handful of days when the weather is not too hot, not too cold are glorious.  The last couple of weeks have been Spring for sure and we are loving it.  The signs of spring are everywhere...

The kids and I have enjoyed watching a momma dove sitting on these 2 eggs nestled on a palm frond on our pool fence the past week or so.  I tried to get a photo of the momma but she flew away when I got too close.

When my Mom was here she did a couple of gardening projects with the kids which they have loved.  They planted lettuce, zinnias, marigolds and four o'clocks.  The lettuce and zinia's sprouted right away.  The others are coming although I am not certain if we have a marigold growing or a week.  Time will tell.  They also planted some marigold plants out front and it is fun to see a touch of color by the front door.  So far, we have done a great job of remembering to water them everyday.  We are actually thinking we should plant some more lettuce as it will be fun to have a salad with lettuce from our own back yard.



Today we decided to throw together a quick Target Dollar Spot Spring decoration using some of the great things they have right now.  I love these larger metal pails (lets just say, I have bought more than a dollar's worth).  Simple project, styrofoam in the pail, trimmed the sticks of a couple of the bird houses, pushed in a few of the planter picks and covered with moss.  Oh, and the blue Easter M&M was a touch offered up by my daugher.  It is a great centerpiece on our table.

Staircase Photo Gallery

When you put your house on the market, every realtor suggests that you remove all of your family photos and personal items so that potential buyers can envision themselves in the space, rather than looking at your things and your life.  No personality.  No warmth.

Well, we have lived in our new home for 3 months now and there are still no family pictures around.  We are ready to put our family and memories into our home again.  The problem has been where? how? A big reason for the delay is that our main living area/great room does not have much for wall space.  One wall is mostly window, one is the fireplace/media wall, one is the kitchen/dining area and one is the staircase wall.

The large wall going up the stairwell was the obvious choice.  I love the photo galleries I have seen in countless magazines, homes and blogs.  The gallery approach allows us to fill a space and create a statement by grouping a variety of our favorite photos in one space.  A great place for the eye to land.  The stairwell family photo wall is an obvious choice as it leads to the most private space of a home - the bedrooms.

The Process
I looked at alot of pictures of photo galleries and instantly pulled out all of the photos and frames we used in our old house and started to lay them out on the floor.  We sprinkled in a couple of sconces and other items to mix it up.  We have picked up alot of frames in various sizes from Costco so they are similar in color and style.

I was so excited and scared - that was alot of photos, alot of holes in the wall, what if we don't like it once it is up.  This could go very wrong.  So, I grabbed a stack of newspaper out of the recycle bin and started to cut out pieces of paper the size of each of the frames.  I then taped them up on the wall.  I played with it a bit more and figured, we would live with it for a while and see what we think.  Well, my husband didn't like it, he thought it was too busy.  I think I kind of agreed with him but didn't want to be wrong - don't you just hate when the man of the house is right!  hee hee!  So I pulled out all of the smaller frames, the extras and did some rearranging. I like it so much better.

** Before you judge my photo taking and design capabilities - the photo was taken by my 4yr old son - I forgot to take them before I started hanging pictures.  The boy also added his own "flare" to the newspaper pattern by re-taping some of the cut-outs that I had removed after the first attempt at placement - hence the mish-mash of paper along the bottom. **

Focusing on the larger frames and using a less is more approach was much better.  Not quite as scared to put those holes in the wall. 

After living with the newspaper for a few days, I decided to go for it and hung the pictures today.  I love it!  so nice to see the smiling faces of my kids.

Now I just need a new family photo for the frame on the top left and a picture of my husband and I for the frame with the blue scrapbook paper in it.  So excited to have another wall finished.

Split Peas!

Last week I was perusing my favorite blogs and fell in love with the decor balls that Allison over at House of Hepworths made using split peas.  I love, love, loved the green and just knew that I had to do something with this fabulous idea.  Since Valentines day is Monday, I also knew that I was going to have to take down my conversations cones and replace this wonderful display with something.  So, after a trip to the Dollar Tree and Fry's Food - here is what we have.

INSPIRATION:

BEFORE:

DURING:

(Yes, every project begins with Diet Coke!)

AFTER

I found that awesome plaster medallion at Goodwill a while back for $2.99, isn't it lovely.  Yesterday when my Mom and I were working on another project for my walls (maybe next week it will be done), I came across the medallion and the easel and they were a match made in heaven.  I love our new hearth decor.

While I had the hotglue gun out, I whipped up a split pea decor ball and another larger ball out of some twine.  I grabbed a pinto bean decor ball I made before Christmas and added them into this awesome little tray that I found at Family Dollar for $3.00.  I am late to the Decor Ball craze but I am in love with them right now.



Welcome!

My February house goal is to begin to get things on our walls.  We have lived in our house since November and all of the walls (except for in the kids rooms) are blank.  At Christmas I hung up this awesome card holder on the little wall between the entry hall and the steps.  It was the perfect place for this simple, long metal picture/card holder that I found at Pier One a couple of years ago for $10.  Last week I took down the Christmas Cards but left the holder.  I decided I wanted to leave it in this spot and find a way to use it year round.

So tonight I pulled out my scrapbook paper and stickers and created some cute cards spelling out WELCOME.  I love how it turned out.  I am going to print a few pictures to add above and below.  I think it will be fun to change this out seasonally. 

I will have to come up with something for Easter!  I guess this is another project that is to be continued...

Welcome Guests!

We are very excited that our forever house has a designated "guest room".  No longer do we need to kick our son out of his room when family or friends come to visit.  This weekend my Mom is coming to visit us for a month!  We are very excited to have this time with Mom and Grandma and wanted her room to be extra comfortable and welcoming.

My husband and I have seen many articles regarding how to make a guest room extra special for visitors and have taken inspiration from them.  If you are interested, there are some great tips here, here, here and here.  Here is what we have created.

The Palette
We went with a soft, beachy palette in our guest room.  The walls are painted with a soft greenish beige that just so happens to be a $5 gallon of "oops" paint from Lowe's.  (When we moved in we painted EVERY wall in our new home and we found some awesome paint bargains in the "oops" bin at both Lowe's and Home Depot.  We used these paints in the guest room, laundry room, downstairs powder room and our garages.  If you are willing to take a little risk you will be amazed at what you can save.)  We are going with pale green, blue, beige and white in this room and it looks fantastic.  Very relaxing and calm - I am certain our guests will enjoy their time in this room.  The artwork in the room is simple with the paint chip wall art that I shared with you last week and a coffee filter wreath that was really simple and inexpensive to make with a wreath from the Dollar Tree and a package of inexpensive white coffee filters.

The Linens

We have included my old queen size bed with the headboard that my dear father made for me when I moved to Chicago many years ago.  I purchased some soft, crisp white sheets and used a pale blue comforter on the bed giving it an airy quality.  I love how the soft blue works with the pale green walls.  I have also included a special afghan that my Mom made for me many years ago in case our guests are a bit chilly.  Fluffy white towels again give a feeling of a luxurious hotel.  Much of what we read encouraged the use of white linens as they give everyone a feeling of freshness.  You can't hide anything with white linens.

The Essentials
We have included a basket with some essentials for our guests.  When you stay at a hotel, they always provide you with soap, shampoo and lotion.  We took this a step further and included everything a guest may need during their stay.  I placed a bottle of water and a glass on a small tray by the bed.  I also included a fuzzy robe on the back of the door.  The door also has a hook so that our guests can hang their towels after they are used.

A Retreat
It was important to us that our guest room felt like a retreat to our visitors.  We included a comfortable rocking chair (that we used to rock our kids when they were babies).  We also placed a small television in the room, a great book and a few magazines on the nightstand.  When our guests are looking for a little quiet time (with 2 young children in our house, quiet is not a term that get used often) they can find comfort and peace in their guest quarters.  I have an idea to create a writing desk next to the bed so that our guests can set up their computer to check emails or do a little work if necessary.  I saw a great idea how to create a simple desk like this sawhorse desk using two old stools (here) and will do this when I find the right stools at the right price of course.

The Space
We are blessed to have nice size bedrooms and therefore have given our guests a beautiful room to spread out and enjoy.  I have added a full size mirror behind the door and cleared the closet so that our guests can hang clothes and feel at home.  I also hope to find a used luggage rack to allow our guests a place to prop their suitcase during their visit (rather than just having it on the floor).

This room is a work in progress but we are very excited to have my Mom come and stay this month.  I know that she will enjoy our Arizona temps after enduring the bitter cold of the Midwest the past couple of months. This will be her first visit to Arizona in the past several years and the first without my Dad (who we miss dearly).

To my family and friends, we are taking reservations.  We look forward to having you come and stay with us!