Rug: Before and After

I have a confession to make.
We have lived in our current home for THREE years come March.
And for the past three years we have lived like this:


Yes, that is a towel on the floor.
A towel rug, if you will....
Do you think I could market it?

Yeah, I didn't think so either.

But we have a dog, and a muddy yard, and it always made sense.
And because I waited for the towel rug fad to catch on, and it didn't, I finally decided to spend the money to buy a real rug for the entryways.

We started off with one.
You know, to see how we would like it.

I found a neutral and light colored rug (our doggie has white hair that sticks to everything)....
The rug also claimed to be stain resistant and came with a gripper on the back, so no additional money spent and it won't slide.



Can you believe what a huge difference a rug made in our life?
LOVE IT!
Instant warmth, and instant dirt catcher.




I went back and purchased the same rug for the other two doors in our home.

Have you ever made a simple and obvious change and wondered how you ever lived without it?
I have a million on them.

Dresser Reveal!

I have been admiring our new dresser for nearly a week now.

After my last post, we successfully secured the piece that Monday.

The operation was quite eventful because it involved "repair" of a stubborn drawer before we purchased...which later had to be repaired (really repaired this time) by my husband.

Nonetheless, we decided to just go with the chest for now because our son was not very enthralled with the idea of getting a new dresser. Who would think a 4-year-old would be so stubborn?

Anywho, the big reveal.....

The chest fit perfectly between the windows....

The thing is in EXCELLENT condition, and we plan to keep it as is for now.

We really love it.

So what do you think?

Did we make a great decision?

Or should we have kept our $$$?

Do tell!

Change of Drawers

We are constantly trying to reshape and reorganize our home based on how we live

Although it may take a while to figure out the flow of our life, making a change makes things a LOT easier!

Case and point!

For the past SIX years we have had a child-sized desk in our home.

This desk was quite old....an antique even. 

And not only was it an antique, the desk was passed down from my husband's grandfather.

I used it for my scrapbooking table for a while.

But I have always complained that it was too small. I couldn't spread out my "ideas."

I could barely get my feet to fit underneath, and I am a pretty tiny gal!

This is the only photo I have - and you can't even see what it looked like! 

 

Since moving to Virginia, the desk has been used as a dumping ground for clothes.

After years of debating its real utility, the hubs woke up one morning and said "We HAVE to get rid of this thing!" 

I told him to sit on the decision for a few days to make sure there were no regrets. Letting go of something you have had your whole life is quite difficult. After two weeks, we finally took it to a nearby (awesome) furniture store and "sold" it to them at the cost of a new pair of jeans -for me, not my cheap husband ;)

We have since been looking for a Chest of Drawers...so instead of creating mountains of clothes that do not fit in our dresser, we can actually calm the chaos.

 

I recently came across a site that sells modern furniture with FREE SHIPPING!!!

The CSN site offers an array of furniture, storage options and accessories. 

I have to show you some of the options available in Chests for the bedroom!

What do you think of the Taylor Chest?

 

Then there is the Applewood Chest in Cappuccino!

There are so many wonderful options, that I truly cannot decide which would be the best fit with our bedroom current furniture. 

I do know that I am definately ready for a change of drawers!

Do you have things that you are holding on to that you don't really love?

Do you have places in your home that could be better utilized?

Please share!

House Tour: Boy Room

I have shown you my son's room before! 

But just a peak when making his valance.

Here is his collage of photos...

His room is beside Mere's.

From the hallway, this is what you will see.

His valance, and another cozy rocker...

The room is painted a blue color that came with the house. 

I opted to work with it because even the ceiling was/is the same color blue. 

Please ignore the fact that his letters are a little crooked.

I made the dinosaur print blanket on his bed. 

His bed frame came from craigslist - brand new - $35 dollars. 

A moment of silence for all the Dr. Seuss books that are in print.

Including all the Early and Bright Beginning books.

Tarjay for  his little green lamp (green is his favorite color-I have to accommodate).

The little nightstand is being made over...

The green bucket stores paper bound books so they can sift through the titles.

One evening, Lucas exclaimed that he wanted a green rug to put beside his bed.

Where he got this idea, I will never know....

I cannot express how difficult it is to find a green rug that will please a 3-year-old.

I was about to resort to a bathmat (he prefers a neon green to a crayola green), when we found this at Marshall's.

I wasn't sure about it, because I knew Rich would hate it.

But I liked the character it had - it is a rag rug...it is multi-colored....it is quirky.

I planned to leave it in the store to think about it.

But he cried.

Besides, we all know you can't leave something in a store like Marshall's.

So now it lives next to Lucas' bed.

And now that you have way too much information about a rug, let's talk about the dinosaur...

When we moved in, the whole wall was the color of the dinosaur, with a scoreboard.

I primed over the scoreboard part and painted it the same green color in Meredith's room, Aloe Vera.

It took forever, several coats, and the numbers still show through a little.

I have no idea how the previous owners made it almost 3-D.

After the idea to draw a dinosaur on the wall, we decided to use the existing green for the body color and paint around it. 

Such a great idea!  The lines are much smoother.

You can read about the process here.

We took the green up a bit more and then primed and painted the blue.

You can see the whole process here.

The toys and overflow of books are stored in the corner.

I like this because stuff can move around, while still looking halfway organized.

This dresser belong to my husband as a child.

Don't be fooled, it isn't as big as it looks. 

And even I have trouble opening the drawers. 

The mirror was a $10 buy when a "hotel" in Oklahoma was getting rid of some of its inventory.

And we have a few wall shelves that are in transition from baby to big boy right now...

The measuring chart lives behind his door.

I purchased this for oober cheap at Ross, and I have one in the works for Mere.

 And now that you have seen Lucas' room, I should tell you that it doesn't even look like this anymore.

 He has experienced a major overhaul.

The toddler bed is gone.  I am sorting and rearranging his life. 

You will have to stay tuned for the finished product! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

House Tour: Girly Room

Welcome to my baby girl's room!

We were so wrapped up in moving and meeting our house that I had no idea what her room

would look like when prepping for her arrival.

So it stayed like this for a little while...

Once we were settled,  I knew a few things.

I was in love with this simple and soft white floral bedding.

I did not want her room to be all one color.

I wanted to incorporate all my bunny accessories that I had in my room growing up.

This is what you see standing from the hallway...

We chose a light pink and a light green based on the flowers in her quilt. 

The stripe in the center was taped out first.

My husband did an amazing job. 

We purchased her dresser with mirror, and nightstand in an antique store that I told you about before.

Solid wood.  Super sturdy.  Super simple.  I adore it.

I received this musical carosel for Christmas when I was 6 or 7 years old. 
If you know how old I am, you can figure out how old this is.

Mere received her big pink piggy last Christmas.

The mini white one was on clearance at Michaels for $1 after Valentine's.

The lamp was also a Tarjay clearance find...

Mere's bookcase is one of my favorite things.

Her jewlery hanger is my own creation, with tutorial here.
The pink bear is a bean bag chair.
And the pink rocker is the most comfy seat in the house.

The bunnies on the shelf are all beanie bunnies that were mine growing up.

The Velveteen Rabbit was my own copy.

The other bunny books were gifts to Meredith.

Guess How Much I Love You  is one of my all-time favorites.

We don't read this copy though, we have board book version.

Across from her bookcase lives her lovely toddler-sized bed.

We are convienced that she will be in it for a very long time.

Especially since the massive amount of stuffed animals does not inhibit her sleeping...

(she has a mental inventory of all her animals and knows if one is missing)

Above her bed are the remainder of my bunny collection, and a Peter Cottontail Collection that is at least 21 years old (shh, don't tell my brother, they have his name in them)...

And just for fun, I will show you what it looks like as you walk out...

In case you need a hot pink, character purse, we store those behind her door.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Hopefully, it won't take 10 hours to create my next post so you can see the rest of my home!

House Tour: Multi-Purpose Room

Are you ready to head upstairs with me?

We carried the Dancing Light up the stairwell and into the upstairs hallway.

I have a pile of frames to hang along the stairwell.

I do have these frames hanging on the lefthand side though...

They are random prints - one is a drawing of a Civil War battle that someone gave us.

                                    - one is a panoramic photography of my husband's undergraduate school

                                    - one is the main building of my own undergraduate school

My husband wants to add one of his law school - but I actually took an awesome shot that I plan to blow up and frame for him.....

All the way down the hall, is our "multi-purpose room". 

Right now we are considering making it a child's room - but until then, this is what it looks like!

We have yet to paint.

Here is our guest room portion of the room.

The curtains are a gold, tweedy looking fabric that blackout when closed.  I really do love them - they were in my kitchen in our previous house and I was determined to make them work in our new home somehow.

I was in heaven when I found this duvet cover that would "match".

The bedding is a yellow leaf print from PB.
The dresser is nearly 20 years old.  I grew up with it in my bedroom.

The lamp is a Target clearance - $7!!

*********

Now on to our "office" - which is really the place my husband studies or I sew.

The desk was one of our first furniture purchases as a couple.

It is L-shaped, but can be made smaller.

I would show you upclose photos of wall art, however it is exam time, and I don't want to disturb my hubby's concentration with a flash!

****

And finally is our "workout" space.

We purchased the elliptical during my husband's deployment. 

The prints are Marathon posters, which my husband adores.

You see my husband runs marathons....with a goal of running one in every state....

and his name is actually printed (in very small print) on the Boston poster on the top!

There is a shadow box of all his marathon medals in the room too, but I forgot to photograph them!

Oops! 

I guess that concludes our tour for today! 

House Tour: Dining Room & TV Room

Sorry for the long interruptions of the house tour!

We are back in action!

And to make up for my incapacity to keep up, I am sharing TWO rooms today!

Here is our dining room!

This table we purchased in Virginia and took to Oklahoma with us. 

We adored it. 

But then we had an eat-in kitchen and it worked perfectly. 

The bar table wouldn't have worked as our "kitchen table" in our current home.

And now we love it less...

We dream of having a huge rustic farmhouse table that seats 12 - okay maybe just 8.

But it would fit into our lifestyle perfecly, because our table has suffered many dings and dents from our kiddos.

But that won't work at the moment, so we will stick with what we have...

I recovered our dining chairs. You can read about the process and reason behind it HERE.

This is what they look like now...

We have plans to paint this room this summer.

The paint color is quite dark not something we would pick (it was like this when we moved in).

The color is also flat paint and has many dings and handprints, ect. 

We also plan to paint the builder's beige with something.

We even have thoughts of flipping the colors and putting a color on top and a neutral on the bottom.

The curtains were put in here because they "matched".

They were in our bedroom.

So were the candles...however, they kept setting off the fire alarm.

Which definately isn't a good way to set the mood...

If I am being honest though, our dining room doesn't really look this perfect.

We actually have our old (new) refridgerator in there.

We purchased it before we moved and ended up finding a house that came with its own fridge.

We considered getting rid of it, but that didn't work out for us...

Beside the fridge, I have a kiddie-sized coat rack that I snagged from my mom's house.

I also moved a storage drawer downstairs to store the kids shoes, our doggies leash, Richard's running watch ect.

Oh and I have gotten to where I leave our easel out instead of getting it out everyday...

And we have a basket of balls, a basketball goal and their kitchen living in their right now.

But you would never know that if I didn't tell you ;)

And directly across from the dining room is where we house our TV.

I despise everything about this room.

When we moved in, I wanted a playroom.

Richard wanted a big couch to match our huge, oversized red chair....

He won that battle. 

He picked out the couch. 

He picked out the curtains.

It looks *okay* together....however, I don't feel like it *fits* in with the rest of our home.

We kept the paint color that was already there. 

The windows are jammed right up next to the door frame, so we couldn't make the rods wider than the window....

Don't get me wrong, the couch is soft and comfy. 

House guest prefer to sleep on it than our pull out mattress in the red chair.

The painting was a steal...

The ottoman stores toys.

This little table is an antique from my Grandma that I used in my college dorm.

How cool is that??

This completes our tour of downstairs!

I look forward to showing you the rest!