One Room Challenge with Calling it Home: Week One

 

For the next several weeks, I am a participating in the One Room Challenged hosted by Linda on her great blog Calling It Home. Be sure to stop by each Thursday to see how my room progresses.

 

We moved into are smallish (great charm, great location) 1920's house almost 2 years ago. In the rush to get everyone settled in, I just put things into rooms where they would fit. Now that we have lived in the house for awhile, and I have a better feel for how we are using the space, I am slowly organizing and decorating one room at a time. For this One Room Challenge, I wanted to work on the room that currently bothers me the most. I figure this would keep me accountable, and I would get the job done without letting that little thing called life get in the way.

 

I chose the Laundry Room.

 

I HATE doing laundry. And yes, if you really think about it, washing clothes in this modern day and age is not really that hard. But it is just so tedious to me, and there are so many other things I would rather be doing. I decided if I had a pretty room. It might inspire me to not dread it so much.

 

I also wanted a really bold space. Our laundry room is in our basement, so for the most part only the family I see it. I thought this would be the perfect spot to step out of my normal decorating style and really have fun with it. Plus, I live in a boy filled world...2 sons and a husband...even the dog is a boy. I needed at least one room in the house to have a touch of pink!

 

So it was off to find inspiration....

 

Growing up, we would visit the Greenbrier Resort, and I was inspired there by the decorating style of Dorothy Draper (I talk more about her here.) I decided the laundry room would greatly benefit from her bold style.

 

Via



Here is another room by her protégé Carleton Varney. I love the pattern and color combination in this room.

Via

These stripes are the best! This room was designed by Mary McDonald. I always admire her use of color in any room she decorates.

Via

 

 

 



I am in love with this trellis wallpaper. I have to have it for my room.

 

Via

 

 

Are you seeing a theme yet?

 

So I put together an inspiration board of my ideas for what the room will look like.

 

And I wrote out a list to plan my room redo...

 

-Tile floor

-Decorate walls (wallpaper or stencil?)

-Get great fabric to make curtains.

-Organize cleaning supplies.

-Add decoration.

 

Here is the before. The room can only go up from here!

 

 

Be sure to click here to check out the other linking participants.







Add More Organization and Pizzazz

I recently painted two dressers for my bedroom, and I put them on either side of my bed so they double as nightstands. Find all of the how-to on a previous post here.

 After using the dresser for a few days, I decided my clothes were still a bit jumbled and could be better divided. I went to Target and found this for $1.

They are actually shoe storage bins.

 I put three across in the drawer of my dresser...

...and placed similar items in each one, such as socks in one bin, and nightgowns in another.

The pink color of the bins is fun and unexpected, and makes me smile every time I open my drawer. I can now quickly find the clothes I want when I get ready in the morning. The extra storage is such an improvement to the bedroom.

Check out the link up at Calling it Home , I Heart Organizing , Tatertots and Jello, Pursuit of Functional Home, Remodelaholic

Paint Garage-Sell-Find Lamps

When I was a kid I always liked to do the puzzles on the Sunday comics page of my local newspaper. My favorite was the one that compared two pictures, and you had to pick out the differences. So here is that same kind of puzzle. Can you tell the difference between the two pictures? Keep reading for the answer.

I promised in yesterday's post, about painting the green dressers, that I would give more information about the lamps. A few weeks ago, I just happened to drive by a garage sell in my neighborhood, and I saw two lamps sitting at the end of the driveway.

I bought them for a great price, and then immediately took the lamp shades to a local donation/thrift store. They were not my taste at all, and they were HUGE. I wish now I had taken a picture, but they were this big...

The actual lamps had an interesting shape, and I liked the Greek Key design. The brass finish though was very worn, and needed to be painted over. Following this tutorial, I used this spray paint...

And yes, it was primer. The paint finish on the dressers, that the lamps were going to sit on, was so shiny that I actually wanted a more matte finish on the lamps. The primer delivered that, although it did take two coats of paint and a few touch ups.

I am now a convert to spray paint! It was so fast and easy. Why did I ever use a brush before?

Now did you spot the difference in the two pictures? When I put the first lamp I finished on the dresser, I realized why the original lamp shades were so large. The top part of the lamp was very long and threw off the proportions of a normal-size lampshade.

My husband offered to try to fix it. At first, there was some excited talk from him that he might have to use a sledgehammer. I think he was disappointed when he just had to disconnect the wire off of  the top that holds the light bulb, and pull off the long narrow piece of the lamp.

 I was very impressed with how it looked when he finished. This was such a small change, but it was a great improvement to the lamps.

 

Check out the Link up at Kammy's Korner.



and Savvy Southern Syle, Thrifty Décor Chick, and East Coast Creative

Make More Storage in my Bedroom: Dressers as Nightstands

I finally finished a project that I worked on for a couple months now. Actually, I worked on it for a weekend two months ago, then life happened, it sat in my garage for awhile gathering cobwebs, and then I dedicated to dedicate all of this Saturday to getting it done. I am so glad that I carved out the time, because I think it looks great!

This was my inspiration photo. It was in Lonny magazine several months ago. As soon as I saw this picture, I knew it was just the pop of color I needed for my bedroom.

Lonny

At first I thought I would paint the dresser we already had, but that furniture wasn't really working for us in our bedroom anyway. Our master bedroom is on the small side, and a bit of an odd shape...more long and narrow.  When we moved into our house, we weren't able to fit our second large dresser. As a result, most of our clothes were in a small chest of dresser. I felt like I was constantly shoving things back in just to get the drawers to close. I needed more storage.

Then I saw this picture on another blog, Little Green Notebook, and got an idea. We had a small nightstand beside our bed. I realized if we upsized it to an actual dresser it would be a much better use of the space, provide needed storage, and I would still have a place beside my bed to put my book at night.

Little Green Notebook

 

 

Here are a few more inspiration pictures, from other sources, of dressers used as nightstands: 

 

Better Homes and Gardens

 

 

Apartment Therapy

 

HGTV

I did a lot of measuring and a lot of looking. Most of the dressers I found and liked were too big for the small space I was working with. Finally, the Tarva dresser from Ikea was the perfect fit.

I painted it Par Three from Ace Hardware.

I found the drawer pulls on Ebay for about a third of the price of what I was looking at elsewhere.  The person I bought them from also has an Etsy store called Lakeway Candles. They were very helpful and responsive to my order.

So here is the finished dresser.

 

 

I moved about half my clothes into the dresser, and it is working out great. There is a matching dresser on the other side of the bed for my husband's things. The extra storage is such an improvement to the bedroom.

I will tell you all more about the lamps in tomorrow's post.....

Also, check out this link up at the blog Serenity Now, Shabby Nest, Tatertots and Jello, and
Not Just a Housewife, and Remodelaholic