Before and After: From Extra Large Master to Kid Bedroom/Playroom Combo

When we moved into our house, almost two years ago, we encountered lots of interesting paint colors, light fixtures and fans. This is the master bedroom in its original (or how we found it) state. It's an incredibly large room, roughly the same size as our living room. Things we loved about having it as a master were the fireplace, wrap around windows and large, double closet (something rare in a one hundred year old home). There were, however, drawbacks to keeping this as the master.

We mostly just sleep in our bedroom. All hanging-out occurs downstairs. It didn't make sense to have such a large chunk of the house for that sole purpose. Our basement is not finished, therefore, when we have our small group on Wednesday nights, there isn't a rec room for all ten kids to play in.

So, we decided to swap rooms with Collin and convert this room into a kids' bedroom/ playroom. Killian will eventually move in here with Collin and, heck, if we wanted to have eight kids, there would almost be enough room to line beds up on every wall, ala Annie or Madeline orphanage! ;)

Anyway, we moved Collin into the big room and, over time, have slowly brightened things up and made it kid-friendly. One of the first things that had to go was the garrish, poorly-painted red on the walls. Nick and his dad tackled this project after Christmas. We went with the same color we had in our Marietta, Ga living room-- Spring Melt by Martha Stewart. It's the perfect, pale minty-aqua-greeny-blue. So soothing and calming! Exactly what that room needed!

I apologize for the grainy iPhone pics! Someday I hope to properly photograph each room of our house, but until then, you get the picture!

I designed the 20x30" "Adventure Awaits" banner from a public domain Ansel Adams photograph of the Grand Tetons. If you are interested in something similar with a custom quote and a similar nature scene or more feminine, floral look. Let me know! I'm planning on listing these in my shop for $199. If it's not there, just convo me and I can make you a custom listing.

You'll see our trusty $5, 70's explosion reading chair is still a fixture! At some point in the future, I'll probably have it recovered, but in the mean time, it's still comfy and kitschy! The rug is a favorite from Ikea, our friend Mary snagged us the vintage chairs from a soon-to-be dumpster pile at the school where she works.

Nick made the chalkboard from a piece of sheet metal, framed it and painted it with chalkboard paint. It's fun to have the magnetic element and I worry less with the old fireplace covered! We aren't big fans of TV's in bedrooms, but it's worked out really nicely to have this one in here for when the brood of ten kiddos at small group start getting antsy and our sweet 10 and 12 year old baby sitters need to change up the activity. 

So, that's that! The boys love playing in here. We love having this space for kids and it just makes more functional sense for our way of life! Someday, if we sell the house, we'll stage it as a master bedroom again. In the meantime, we don't miss having it for ourselves and our livable house space just got a whole lot bigger!

Another Chair Transformation, Before and After

A few weeks back I shared about this chair makeover, mentioning there was another on the way. Well, friends. Here it is! The decision to use some of the solid orange fabric remnants left over from the first chair for the buttons was a total last minute decision and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I'm a sucker for ticking stripe fabric and I love de-skirting cool chairs to show off their hidden, leggy beauty!

A Fall Mantel

Autumnal greetings, friends!

I've had a great deal of fun this past week, decorating our mantel for fall. I'm not a huge seasonal decorator-- except for Christmas, that is. I do, however, like to change up our mantel from time to time and the changing of seasons is as good a reason as ever! 

I teamed up with some excellent sponsors to really give our fireplace some pizzazz. One of my new favorite lines on Etsy is The Bee's Knees Shoppe. Amy made the charming felt arrow banner and the yarn pom pom flowers. If you are needing some festive bursts of color in your home, check her shop out! It's just over the top adorable.

Then, there is a new feathered friend on my mantel, made by Sheila of Clay Origins. I was able to pick from a multitude of colors for my hootie owl. Very fun! I'm also really loving this geometric planter in her shop.

My gold on black "In the House of God Forever" print is from Anchor and Ink Calligraphy. I just love this portion of Psalm 23 and every time I look at it, Jon Foreman's House of God Forever song comes to mind. 

So, in the spirit of all the goodness and mercy God has for you, take a listen and let Truth wash over your soul:

Chair Makeover Before and After

I snagged this chair a few years back at an Atlanta thrift store for less than $10. It was missing a back chushion and so horribly soft that when you sat down on it you needed assistance to get out, but I loved the lines of this sturdy, mid-century construction and saw potential. I had been saving up for a while to have it recovered, along with another chair, and we picked it up from our upholsterer friend, Doug, last week. It has a new seat cushion, a new back cushion, the skirt was removed and I found some cheap wooden legs to replace the chair's not-so-awesome original legs.

I stumbled upon the dreamy dahlia fabric on Ebay for $8.99 a yard. It normally runs at closer to $35 a yard. It looked really familiar to me and I couldn't place where I had seen it before. Oh yeah, it is the same fabric used on the Anthropologie Naive Tropical Astrid Chair which was originally $1298, marked down to $799 and then discontinued. In total, I paid less than a fifth of that price for a brand "new" chair! Happy dance, happy dance, happy dance! 

 So yeah, I love sipping my coffee and reading in our new chair and maybe you think it's loud and crazy, which it kind of is, but it my eyes it's happy and fun and just the right pop I was looking to add to our eclectic living room.

The side table is a fun, marble-topped piece we bought a while back from some friends for $30. It was primed white and we decided to keep it white since the color looked good against the tan marble. Nick painted it in a gloss white and now it's basically our chair's new BFF. Anything smaller/less substantial would have been dwarfed, anything louder would have competed with the busy chair. I'm pleased these two pieces work so well together.

Yay for cozy living room vignettes! Stay tuned for my second chair's transformation!

The Long-Awaited Bathroom Reveal!

Friends, family, countrymen we have a complete bathroom! It's been a long, exciting, sometimes tiring process and we are finally done. My husband is truly the most handy and clever man on the planet. He started this project having never remodeled a bathroom, never ripped a room down to the studs, never re-wired a room to this extent, never having replaced plumbing and never having tiled! My contributions were the overall vision for the space along with internet scouring and thrift store/ antique mall visits, so while this is kind of a team effort, he did the lion share of the work and I am ever so grateful!

Let's take a little journey down memory lane...  Please read on, there will be more photos of the completed space at the end.

At first glance, the bathroom wasn't awful. Upon closer inspection, the floors were stick on tile, the walls a stamped particle board of sorts that was meant to look like tile, and the plumbing was in bad shape (no sink and awful pipes). There was no ceiling fan, you couldn't open the window and the wall plaster was cracked. Definitely seemed like a good first room to remodel!

While classic, the mirror was rusty and the wiring was scary. There was a revolving panel of sorts that was above where the sink should have been. I think it was originally to hold a cup and toothbrushes, but it had since corroded and was kind of a waste of space.

Below are some shots of the process.

We encountered all kinds of fun treasures under the floorboards and in the attic floor when Nick was doing the electrical work.

My favorite day ever was when we had a crew of guys swap out the existing tub for the claw foot we found of Craigslist! In it's original state it was a dingy, dirty white. We painted the exterior a charcoal grey and re-glazed the inside of the tub.

So, back to the completed space. Feast your eyes on the finished project! 

Ah, it's so nice to have it all done.

Here I am, taking a selfie with my shelfie!

Thanks for listening to us talk about his for ever and ever! Woohoo!

Addendum-

Wow! Getting featured on Apartment Therapy was the stuff of dreams! Never did I anticipate so much traffic on this little old blog. I'm so flattered to have received such great feedback and compliments! Some people thought the bathroom wasn't matchy-matchy enough, was too eclectic or not sleek enough. I get it. Not everyone will like our style, but we designed the bathroom to suit our tastes, while honoring the house's past, and are thrilled with the outcome! To those who were lamenting the loss of some of the pre-existing elements I'll say this- We put a lot of thought into keeping things and working with what we had. We are huge proponents of historic preservation and decided, from the start, that if we had to make replacements, we'd make sure to stay contextual with the style of the house. That being said, the built-in tub was not original to the house (most likely installed in the 40's) and it was not in good shape, so we found a claw foot from the era the house was built in, the mirror, as mentioned above, was a rusty safety hazard and the shutters were from the 70's and also in bad shape. Hopefully that gives you some more insight into our choices. Thanks again for all the love!

More Bathroom Progress!

Hey friends,

We're getting closer and closer on the upstairs bathroom remodel. The tile is done, it has been grouted, sealed and caulked and Nick has hooked up the tub, toilet and sink, so it's almost all finished. I am so grateful to finally be able to use this hallway bathroom. There is no longer a claw foot tub or a toilet in our bedroom, we don't have to tiptoe through a sleeping baby's room in the middle of the night to get a drink of water or go to the bathroom, we don't have to brush our teeth downstairs off the kitchen anymore and we can finally bathe our little guys in a tub! Huzzah!

What's left to do-

*Finish last bit of mudding and paint the walls a serene white

*Install the metal shower halo where the shower spout will come out of and the shower curtains will be hung

*Reattach and repaint the window and door frames

*Construct a threshold for the floor between the tile and hardwoods

*Repaint and reinstall the vent cover

*Reglaze the inside of the tub in a nice clean white to match the rest of the fixtures

*Install medicine cabinet and light fixture above sink

*Install towel racks

*Install open shelving above toilet

*Decorate!

I'm so proud of Nick and all he's done without having to hire any work out. He's just plugged along in the midst of 50+ hour work weeks, being an awesome, available daddy, playing on worship team, volunteering at church and taking care of numerous other household tasks. He's just so amazing!

Stay tuned for more updates!