prettying up the house

Is “prettying” a word, and if so, did I spell it correctly?

Anyway.  Speaking of cameras and pictures…

this is what I’ve done in my foyer.  I’ve been collecting a variety of stuff to decorate my house with for a couple of years now, and a lot of those items still haven’t been hung or set out.  Seriously, two posts previous when I said I’m a slacker?  I meant it!

So this is where I finally started.  Right inside my front door.  The mail/postcard rack was a clearance find at Pottery Barn last year.  Frames were purchased during one of Michael’s 50% off sales year before last (hence the old prints in them – I need to update those), antique cameras were gifts from my antique-savvy Mom several years ago (there are a lot more I haven’t put out yet!) and the little red table was actually a recent find, 30% off at World Market (I also got a smaller, matching one that is sitting on the opposite side of the front door but I have nothing on it or over it yet).

A little progress in my Finally Decorate the House project! 

chalkboard: the final-after shot

All done!  I endured the 3 day wait, “conditioned” it as the can of paint instructed, and now I’m free to write and draw anything I can I dream up!  Yay for chalkboard paint!  (I actually wrote that on the chalkboard, hehe!)

final color

Welp, painting is done!  There are a few touch-ups that need to be done, but otherwise the bulk of the work is over and I can show a semi-after photo!  (I’ll show a final-after photo when the whole room is done, of course!)

I’ll admit, that dark pink was really overwhelming for me at first.  I walked into her room several times over the course of the day yesterday, looking at the color in different lights, trying to decide if I loved it or hated it.  I think I’m starting to love it.  And once I get all her furniture painted white, I think it will help immensely.  As you can see, it’s pretty cute with the white bookshelf!

Still so much to do, though… paint the crib and dresser, sew some curtains, make or buy wall art (most likely I’ll make most of it, I’ve got a lot of ideas – too many actually, she doesn’t have enough wall space for everything I’d like to do)… but I’m motivated now, so hopefully I can crank it all out quickly.  I’m making it my goal to have it finished by her birthday at the end of April.

Oh, and speaking of making things myself… I quickly painted up a letter “E” for her bedroom door last night in-between feeding the kids dinner and Jason getting home.  I used a purple floral patch from her quilt as inspiration.

(I bought a “J” for Jag’s door too, but he’s decided he wants to paint it himself, so it’s in the works… )

kitty kat’s room – a home decorating project

So the project has begun.  Okay well actually, the project technically started when I got the bright idea to use the yellow trimmed quilt and buy berry pink paint.

BUT, I have put brush to wall and there’s no turning back now!

Here’s my “before” shot.  Please don’t mind the mess, I pushed stuff out of my way and was about to get started when I remembered I needed to take a picture, so I didn’t bother tidying up.

Here is my paint choice.  The lighter pink is just the primer.  That darker pink there is the actual paint color.

And here’s about all I was able to get done last night before Jason and the kids came home from playing at the neighbor’s house.

I fully intend to continue to document the progress.  The good, bad and the ugly.  Okay, hopefully there will be no bad and ugly, just good and pretty!  Anyway, stay tuned!

my poor deprived baby girl

Kat is 19 months old and she’s still sleeping in an off-white painted room with zero decor, nothing on the walls (unless you count the painting Jag did for her on his art paper and hung over her crib) and no window treatments.

I was so tickled to have a girl.  Not to say I wouldn’t have been thrilled to have had another boy.  But the idea of getting to do a pink frilly room made me so happy.  And yet here I’ve done nothing.  I’m so aggravated with myself!

My biggest problem has been my indecisiveness.  I’ve been back and forth with color schemes, styles, etc.  I couldn’t find any bedding sets in stores that I loved.  I tried to buy pieces of this and that to make something myself and of course I never got around to it (story of my life).

She’s still a long way off from a big girl bed, but my mother-in-law made two gorgeous twin-sized quilts for Kat and I decided to choose one and work the style and colors around it so that when we do move her into a twin bed, the rest of the room is ready.  One is very feminine with soft colors and a scalloped edge, and the other is a brighter yellow trimmed quilt with pink, purple, green, etc.  It was a tough decision because I love them both, but I’ve settled on the brighter yellow trimmed quilt.  Kat has such a bright, sunny personality – it fits her. 

So now I’m making the rest of the decisions.  I wan to keep it simple.  I think I’ve decided on a cherry pink for the walls.  It will be dramatic, go well with the pinks in the quilt and I think it will really make the yellow pop.  I want to keep the quilt as the focal point of the bedding, so I’m going with coordinating solids for the bed skirt, sheets and curtains.  Something like the Pottery Barn Kids solid chambray stuff (since they always carry it, I know I can buy a couple of crib pieces now, and then buy the twin-sized sheets in a year or so for the bed).  I’m not sure which solid colors I’ll go with yet, but I just ordered a yellow chamois crib sheet, we’ll see how that looks.

I’ve always imagined white furniture.  We already have a white bookshelf in her room, and we have a pretty dresser that used to belong to her Grandma (the same Grandma who made the quilt) that we planned to paint white and put some pretty new pulls on.  I’m kinda wondering if I should consider another color though, just because of all the white in the background of the quilt.  Then again, the white furniture and the white on the quilt might help balance the darker color on the walls, huh?  Hrmmm…

Anyway, I’m excited to finally have a plan, and I’m excited that it’s going to be easy (so I know it will get done)!  We’re re-doing the shelving in her closet this weekend (we did Jag’s closet two weeks ago, similar to this), I wonder if I can talk Jason into painting too?