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!

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!

Reupholstery Reveal- From Dowdy Tuffet to Chic Ottoman

Remember this fun little thrift store find?

Well, it has been completely transformed! The original plan was to reupholster it myself with fabric, but after seeing Collin smash graham crackers into the button holes and smush his runny nose into it a time or two, I decided a wipeaple fabric would be best. 

I knew my lack of upholstery skill was no match for vinyl, so I called up a guy whom my friend recommended. He works at an upholstery shop, but also does jobs on the side from home. His pricing was very reasonable and the cost for two yards of marine vinyl was minimal.

I am so happy with the results! The next upholstery project will be one of the two current living room chairs. Still looking for reasonable, utility grade velvet for the chair pictured. Stay tuned!

P.S. If you'd like to see more current shots of our home's interior along with some interior design tips, I recently did an interview over at aannagreer.com, you can check it out here.

Bathroom Progress and New Design Directions

If you've been following for a while, you may remember me first blogging about our upstairs bathroom remodel last summer. Well, it's taken quite a while to get to the point where we are at. That's the reality when your hubby is doing all the work himself. He works 50+ hours a week so it all has to happen on weeknights and weekends and we've often had other things going on. It just takes a little longer when you aren't hiring out the work. 

I am so proud of Nick. He has completely redone all the electrical wiring, installed a ceiling vent fan, redone the plumbing, gutted it down to the studs, re-dry walled the walls and ceiling and put all the prep in place for tiling. I'm sure I'm leaving certain steps out. Did I mention stud? ;) 

I'll post a full montage of photos when we finish, but for now, check out our floor that our friend Lane helped him do last week. I'm loving the 2 inch black hex tile! Super happy about this choice for flooring. Oh and the red stuff is not blood, it's a flexible sealant of sorts called Red Guard.

Over the months, my design ideas for this space have changed a bit. Originally I wanted to use a lot of mint green in this room. Now, I've decided to make citron yellow and a warm, orangey red our primary colors. I've already ordered our shower curtains from West Elm (we'll need two to wrap around the claw foot tub). These are them and I was able to snatch them up while they were on sale:

The walls will be white subway tile up halfway with white paint up the second half. Super light and clean. I'm also planning on using my collection of amber, antique medicine bottles for knick knacks and perhaps a hanging plant in the corner. A black industrial gooseneck light will go over the medicine cabinet which is, by the by, a cool shade of dove gray!

I can't wait to put it all together and have a bathtub to bathe our kiddos in again. Currently Killian gets sink baths and Collin gets showers, which he hates! 

All in good time. Stay tuned for the results!

Cafe Curtains, Peanut Butter Pancakes & a Secret Garden

Hello friends! We had quite the productive weekend over at the house. Little by little we are meeting all the neighbors and they are super sweet. I'm pretty sure, collectively, they've offered to lend us every power tool or lawn instrument we could ever need and volunteered to help us. Can't beat good old Midwestern hospitality!

On Saturday I put up some easy, DIYed cafe curtains over the kitchen sink, made of Pier 1 napkins, a tension rod and Ikea curtain ring clips. It's amazing how something this little makes our kitchen feel so fresh. We won't have our furniture and belongings for another week and Nick doesn't want to start painting projects until we have all of our painting supplies, which are in Atlanta, so the majority of the work we've done this weekend is in the basement and outside. I'm so ready to start decorating and making things more homey!

My super studly husband filled 17 lawn bags of leaves and branches. The yard is looking so much better, but there is still a lot to do. The house was empty for a long time and the previous owner (according to several neighbors) didn't mow the lawn in the entire two years she lived here. Needless to say, it was horribly overrun and everyone's really pleased we are increasing their home values by restoring the curb appeal.

The side patio/courtyard is one of my favorite spots of the house. I can't wait to have it all fixed up! We will have so much fun grilling and entertaining in this sweet space. Here is a shot of Nick rocking a saw. Oh, and it only looks like he's cutting down the branch he's standing on. ;)

Side courtyard entrance:

I took this shot of the whole courtyard back in February, so it's pretty stark looking, but you can see from the shot above of Nick that the redbuds are now in bloom and there is also a beautiful, blossoming pear tree. Just need a partridge! I think we'll plant some Forsythia back here too...

The shrine. Haha!

Spring has sprung in Missouri! The weather was a comfortable 70 degrees this weekend. Please don't be blinded by my glow in the dark legs. Collin got all rosy cheeked and sweaty from all the running around so we pulled off his shirt. He can say "hot" now, but he elongates every vowel, so when you ask him if he's hot he first says, "Um hmm!" and then "Haaaaaaaht!" Not sure he knows what it means, but It's the cutest thing.

On Sunday morning we played hooky from church and went to Colonel's Pancake House. What a step back in time! Their peanut butter pancakes are to.die.for. Can't make this place a habit! Hope you all had a great weekend! 

We Bought a House! It's The Real Deal.

Well, it's now official! On Wednesday we closed on the house and it's finally starting to sink in. Not only do we live in Joplin, we own a house in Joplin. Okay, so it's not just an odd vacation anymore!

Last night we drove to Webb City, a neighboring town, to pick up a super-duper sweet trestle table that I found on Craigslist for $150. It's a ten year old Ethan Allen monstrosity. The thing is solid walnut, quite heavy and has a great worm woody, rustic look to it. Exactly what we had always envisioned having... Something that could withstand wear and tear and look better for it. One of its two leaves was damaged in the tornado, but if I know my handyman husband, he'll have no trouble fixing it. Either way, it's such a big table, there really isn't a need to have both leaves in unless we decide to invite the whole block over for a pilgrim style thanksgiving, which I wouldn't put past us... ;)

Collin telling us he's "soooo big!" Just like the table.

I'll be showing you some of my ideas for the dining room soon. For now, picture sandy taupe walls, a nice big jute rug, a mint green china cabinet and a different light fixture...

Chairs? You say?! Oh yeah, well, we'll figure that out! I am thinking of finding a bunch of random, mismatched chairs at Goodwill and painting them the same color, something like this with a bench on the one side (if you are reading this babe, I am kind of planning on you building us a bench)! 

We drove back from Webb City with the windows down, enjoying a balmy mid sixties night, stopping off pick up some local fare at Babe's Burgers and then on to our new, old house to set up the table! Couldn't help but feel so blessed.

We'll have our furniture sometime around the 15th of April. Looking forward to that, but in the meantime I am also excited we'll have some time to clean, paint and work on projects. 

Happy Good Friday! May you be confronted with the reality of just how good this day truly is, inspite of the darkness, because of what was accomplished for me and for you on the cross.

Please Tell Me If I Am Becoming a Creeper...

This Saturday, Nick was so good to watch Collin all morning so I could have some much needed independence. Any other stay at home moms out there who can relate to how amazingly freeing it feels to do something simple like running to Target without kids? No carseat battles, no trying to figure out what they can play with to keep them entertained long enough in the shopping cart, no unexpected diaper changes in public restrooms. Yeah, it's pretty luxurious, I tell ya. I absolutely love staying home with Collin, but can't help but wish I had truly savored my carefree days a bit more! 

I had the best morning out-- armed with a grande, non-fat Caramel Machiatto, I spent some time getting lost in a local antique mall. Soon you will see my fun finds displayed in our new house. I scored a pair of crosstiched, silhouette cameos of George and Martha Washington, a kitchshy wall plate for my planned wall of plates in the kitchen and for $2 a crumbly, old, hand-painted Kodak finishing sign which I took to Hobby Lobby for framing. I then ran a few errands and stopped off at the library to see what I could find out about our old house.

I met the sweetest old man named John who is in charge of the reference section. Although there was no specific information on the house itself in city records, he did show me how to search through the old city directories which started in 1925 and yielded me a long list of previous owners. In some of the earlier directories the owners' occupations were listed as well.

Turns out, our house was home to the former Assistant to the President and General Manager of Eagle Picher Lead Co., the Secretary Treasurer of R and S Motor Sales Co, and an Episcopal Minister, whom my new friend John knew of from back in the 70's.

I'm hoping to get back to the library some time soon to look through newspaper archives for any of these residents. Now that I have names, I can search the census data and find out the names of their children-- many of them should still be living. How cool would it be to invite some previous residents over for dinner?! Maybe I'm being too much of a creeper here. Please intervene if you think I'm going to far!

Before I left the library, I thumbed through a book on American house styles and while I really don't think our house is a Federal style home, it does seem to have a Federal style door like this one:

See our door here:

Hmm... I feel as if our house has identity issues. Craftsman? American Foursquare? Federal? Maybe if we can meet some of its previous owners, they could give us some insights as to whether or not it was built this way or later altered. The mystery continues!

Saturday night we were invited to a dinner at Nick's boss' house. It was neat to meet the team Nick works with, including their spouses. Collin, of course, was a totally ham. He loves people, like his mamma! What a great group. I look forward to getting to know them better. 

On Sunday we braved the morning weather for church. 'Twas a snowy Palm Sunday in Missouri. I really do hope Easter won't look like this! My brother, who is doing a grad program near Springfield, will be driving out to join us for the day. Fun, fun!

We received word today that we'll more than likely close on the house this Wednesday afternoon! Although our stuff will take a while longer to get here, we'll at least be able to start working on a few projects-- including painting. Lots to look forward to. Stay tuned, dear friends!

Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

I have always been drawn to windows with diamond/crosshatched muntins. There is just something so cozy and cottagey about them. When we get around to replacing the old, non-energy efficient windows in our house, I'd love to keep things contextual and old-timey (I know I use this phrase a lot)! Maybe something like one of these beauties for the kitchen or bathroom windows. I don't even know how much they cost... Probably a lot, but they sure are lovely. 

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And perhaps, if diamond muntins are too much of an expense for windows, we could add it to the kitchen cabinets... A girl can dream!

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