Favorite Spots in My Home

I went around with a camera today to find some favorite spaces and objects in my home.

I learned a lot.

Like the fact that there is this one green wall that I cannot stand. It is in my favorite room, and I couldn't even bear the thought of taking a picture of it because it bothered me so much.

But, I really loved the neutrality of the rest of my pretty living room.

This is a very long front room with an office behind the French doors. Currently it is being used as a bedroom.

This is the main bathroom. We call it The Bird Bathroom because there are birds on the shower curtain. It is also a long bathroom.

My workspace in the garage:

And that is all I have for now. I will add more as I clean the house, ha ha, just kidding (no, I'm not).

A Little Boy's Room

If you'd like to know what a 5 year old's room looks like pre-Kindergarten, this is the place to be.

I have sheltered my sweet little boy and tried my hardest to keep grown up boy stuff far, far away.

It wasn't until he turned 5 in January that he started to ask for toys other than Thomas the Train, Lightening McQueen, or Wall-E.

He asked for Star Wars and Angry Birds.

So Star Wars and Angry Birds are what the grandparents gave him. Inside the boxes are his toys, and his room has yet to be updated. He has asked me numerous times to make him a space painting and a Laser Boy portrait (a character he made up himself; it is him geared with a light saber, cape, and mask).

My favorite part of his room: his turquoise dresser (that I found on the curb with a FREE sign. I just spray painted it turquoise and it is one of my favorite furniture pieces in our house), books, painting, and globe.

 This room is supposed to be an office, so it has French doors, high ceilings, and no closet. The no closet issue we can deal with because he is a boy and doesn't have too many items that need to be hung up.

He has the cutest window seat. I took padding and cut it to fit and threw a full sized quilt folded in half on top. Sometimes he likes to sleep there instead of his bed. What's really cute about it is that sometimes Clara will come in here and they will have sleepovers.

Above his window seat there is a dragon and the DIY solar system mobile I made.

And on the left he asked if he could have his watercolor painting framed.

Above his bed is a priceless painting my mom made of him. "It's a good day" is something he always says. She is such a talented artist! If you want to see more of her work you can check out her blog.

Here are two Target bookcases filled with books, boxes, and toys. The bottom two blue boxes contain all of the Thomas the Train sets that I can't bear to donate. Thankfully Clara loves them, so Calvin and Clara will play together. The little nook at the right is where a closet should go if we ever decide to build one.

On top of the bookcases I have his bigger toys. The ceiling is really high. If my husband ever got in the mood to build some shelves there would be some awesome storage space here. My friend has the same house and they actually use this room as an office and playroom and their shelving is IMPRESSIVE. I am jealous. One of the perks of living in a tract home is seeing how your neighbors and friends decorate their house when it is the same floor plan. Isn't it amazing to see all the different things you can do?

On the side of his bookcase I let him tape up odds and ends. To hang his little painting of my mom's bird Cocoa in the desert we used one of those mounting tape hooks. You can buy a pack of them at the Dollar Tree.

 Here you can see that nook that could be a closet. That's where I have stuff tucked away. The painting of the boy and the moon I have as a print in my etsy shop. On the right is his calendar and alphabet chart and above is another awesome painting done by my mom of Thomas the Train and Lightening McQueen.

And that concludes the (clean) room tour of a 5 year old boy. Give it a year and I'm sure it is going to look a lot different!

The Desk all Painted Up

My mom sent over this desk/dresser since she was making room for a new piece of furniture.

It started off as a yellowy wood color, but after sanding it and painting it with Antique White it looks entirely different! I wanted to change the hardware, but the handles are too odd of a size to buy replacements at Lowe's.

Before:

After:

And in our bedroom:

 

And SURPRISE!

I painted it the same blue as our wall inside. I used mod podge as a glaze to protect the paint since my laptop will be residing in here. I'm sure that something like polyurthane would be a better choice, but I just used what I had on hand.

The Laziest Nightstand Makeover

Scene:
Garage Sale

Cast:
Me
Baby Clara
Old lady

(On my way to my mom's, I see a garage sale sign. Follow arrow. Stop at sale. Decide if it's worth taking the baby out of the carseat. Decision: go for it!)

Me: This is nice (looking at nightstand or whatever it is supposed to be)
Old Lady: Yes, it is. I think she wants ten dollars.
Me: Hmmmm.
        Okay, I want it.


Decisions, decisions.

What color should I paint it? I intend for it to be baby Clara's, and after finding knobs at Ross on clearance, I was thinking green. BUT I only want to spray paint because I am ridiculously lazy. None of the colors worked, so I bought two cans of Valspar White gloss spray paint but only used maybe one and a half at the most.

I modge podged K & Comapny scrapbook papers on the inside and then on the back where I didn't want to waste paint.

Voila!!!

She isn't perfect, because once again I am too lazy to sand or prime. Yup, let's call it shabby chic with out the work.

Tools: spray paint, screwdriver, modge podge, scrapbook paper



The back of it. I modge podged scrapbook paper because I didn't want to waste my paint.

The inside is so cute! I can just imagine my little girl using it as a doll house if she wanted to.



Pretty green knobs from Ross

The Turquoise Hutch Love Story

Here's the story:

Once upon a time I wandered into a thrift store. I walked around till I came to the furniture section and behold!

The sweetest little yellow hutch caught my eye.

The crafty yellow glaze and country angel stickers were cute, but not my taste. I opened the doors and it smelled like cinnamon! Its previous owner must have stored her cinnamon sticks in there, because it was then that I knew I had to have it (note: how often do things smell GOOD at a thrift store?)

I bought her for $50 and crammed her into my tiny car. My back end didn't shut all the way and it bounced up and down on the freeway all the way home.

I was nervous the whole way home. When you are married you can easily anticipate your spouse's reaction. It was not going to be good. I was right.

But it made me fall in love with my hutch even more! He eventually accepted it, but now I feel like the hutch and I have a special bond. I understood how beautiful she was even when someone else didn't ;)

Her original intent was to hold (some) of my craft supplies (goodness knows I've got ten hutches to fill with that stuff). When we moved and Calvin didn't have a closet because his room is the office, I let him borrow it. I am sure that when we move again it will have a new home.

I love my spray painted turquoise hutch!

If you love the color, it's Valspar's Mediterranean glossy spray paint. I am addicted to the color. I have spray painted his dresser and star in the same color and it is just the cutest!

Entryway

I got crafty with our entryway by making a few things:

Cabinet thingy:

I spray painted two little cabinets for our entryway. I used a light green with the silk finish. Spray painting is so easy and fun! My mom got me addicted to doing it.

Vase:

The vase is just a veggie can with scrapbook paper (from an Amy Butler paper pack) hot glue gunned on. It is so easy to do and you can make multiples for a stationary set to put your pens in.

Birdhouses:

I picked up three wooden birdhouses for fifty cents each at Michaels. I painted and modge podged them with some scrapbook paper from Paper Crate. I like that it spruces the place up and that it was cheap! :)