April 24, 2013

Home Makeover: Bedroom

 
 
Let's see, so far I've posted the kitchen and dining room, right? This bedroom has been done for a while now, but I haven't gotten around to taking pictures. Side Note about these posts: I enjoy decorating. I know some people think it's materialistic, but I beg to differ. For people that love beauty and artsy things, it can be a real joy to make their living space relaxing and pleasing to their eye. I think the materialistic part comes in when you spend time or money you don't have to make that happen, or when you don't take the time to be creative and use what you already have (or can afford). I spent less than $50 on this room and I love it!
 
The bedroom is currently being used as a guest room. All our family live out of town (boo!) so it was important to us to have a place where people could stay (unfortunately it's right next to the girls' room and sound travels a little in a small home!). In the future this room could be turned into a kid's bedroom if we had a third child or if it wasn't working for the girls to share a room.
 
I love the outdoors and gardens so I wanted to make this room feel garden-y. We had to pick and choose which rooms to paint, so we left this one its original color. I would have preferred a lighter, more subtle green, but oh well :) Greens/ivory/white were also the colors of our wedding so my plan was to repurpose some things from that.
 
 
 
Before:
 
 
After:

 
 
I couldn't get the whole room in one picture. This was the best I could do. Like all the rooms in the house, the bedroom is on the smaller side. It's a 12x12 square. The bed and bedding was a wedding gift. It's a beautiful bed but really big. It kind of overpowers the room, but it's super comfortable and there was no justifiable reason to get rid of it, so I tried to keep the rest of the room de-cluttered. I was always taught to put the bed on the wall farthest from the door as you walk in because beds are usually the focal point of the room.
 
 I found this wreath at the Christmas Tree Shop (my favorite secret store).

 
 
It's hard to see what it really looks like but it has all these pretty details:
 
 
 
We hung a white curtain rod and some linen curtains ($20 from Ikea). The garland of flowers was from our old room. I think I got them from Bed Bath and Beyond or something.
 
 

 
Pictures of the girls. These frames were handed down to me from my mother. They once held pictures of our family in them :)
 
 
 
Those floating planters on the left are from Ikea. We had them in our old bathroom holding odds and ends, and I thought they would look nice in the bedroom. I bought a bundle of hydrangea from Hobby Lobby to fill them. The wicker chair is a thrift store find. I recovered it with a $5 piece of fabric from Hobby Lobby. The pillow cover was brought home from our trip to India. The basket was from our wedding- I used it to hold an extra blanket.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
When you open the door there is a little cubby wall to the left where I hung our framed wedding invitation. You can't really see it- how does one take pictures of glass without a glare anyway?
 

 
Lastly, I had these two old windows that were salvaged from a store by my sister-in-law. I hung them with French cleats.
 

 
 
 
Chair fabric: $5
Curtains: $20
Bed and bedding: gift
Wreath: $15
Windows: salvaged
Furniture: already had
Prints: $5
Frames: already had
Hydrangea: $3


“Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
-William Morris

April 23, 2013

My Heart

 
 


(apologies for my horrible singing voice)

April 17, 2013

"Newborn" (or not) pictures

I've never gotten around to having real newborn pictures taken. The girls' pictures have both been taken around three months of age. I kind of like it that way, though. A lot of newborns look the same to me. There's something I like about seeing more of the baby's expressiveness and personality, which really starts to blossom around 3-4 months.

A friend of a friend took these shots. They ended up being family pictures- I think there were more taken of Anna than of Kimberly even :)