comfortable

ha.

I had to do one.

Especially after reading some of these.

There are some funny folk out there.

So, we painted the master bedroom. For the record, I only test swatched ONE color... not twelve. We painted the bedroom the same color as the kitchen. Sherwin William's "Balanced Beige" in flat. Don't let the name fool you... it's not beige. It's greige.



It's exactly what I wanted in there. No questioning my choice. No second guessing. I think, friends, I am finally at a place where I feel comfortable... even confident in my own style. For those who have been reading for a while, you know I spent quite a lot of time thinking through and trying to define my style those first couple of years in this house. But, we've hit a groove now. And I don't need to think nearly as hard any more or be as concerned about making a "wrong" choice.



I keep a decorating journal of sorts. It's horribly unorganized... very free-flowing. I sketch in it, glue things in it, write thoughts, ideas, feelings. Entire magazine pages are wedged in it. Falling out. Right-brained.

The other night, I was looking back at older entries. It's interesting to see what sorts of things have been constants all along and what ideas and trends have already phased out. Encouraging, too, as I see all I've worked through about myself and our home. Before I put the journal away, I came across an entry from last October. Part of it summarizes the sense I was trying to describe earlier of just being comfortable...

"I feel like I'm growing confident in what I find beautiful, happy, comforting. I don't feel compelled to make seemingly incongruent components make sense. I'm okay with just letting them be what they are. They make me smile. Make me remember. Make me hope..."

I have more ideas and inspiration right now than I have time or money to make reality. But, things are happening. And it's to the point that it's really fun... less work... less deliberation.

That's a nice place to be.

House Tour 2012: Master Bedroom and Baby's Nook

Oh, man, guys. I'm just really laying it out there this week. My soul is laid bare. My very unfinished rooms are on all the internets.

WHY AM I DOING THIS???

Other bloggers wait until they have some awesome room to share, and then they show you the nasty "before" and an immediately gratifying "after" and all is right with the world. I haven't seen a lot of posts like the ones I'm putting out there this week.

"Here... let me show you... my completely blah room! And my chaotic design-failures! This room may stay this way for YEARS!"

It's amazing to me that anyone's still reading at this point, really. Deb, you're a rockstar for the gracious comments! I know it's because your sweet heart couldn't stand to see me with half a dozen goose egg posts at the end of the week. Thank you!

Partly, I'm posting my very unfinished house tour this week, because I want it documented. I want to look back and see how far we've come. But, also, I'm partly posting these rooms because I think this sort of thing is helpful. We all think other people bust out fully remodeled and decorated homes in a 60 minute time slot, and wonder what on earth is wrong when we can't manage to complete a single room in 6 months! In real life, we have to make decisions. Decisions based on priorities. And that, friends, means that things don't become pretty in the blink of an eye. And rooms stay undone for quite a while. Hard as that pill is to swallow at times... it's real.

My sarcasm is just me being silly. And me saving face. Making sure you know that I know this ain't perdy. A little prideful of me, really. Still struggling with that whole sinful nature thing.

Well, let's just get on with it. House Tour 2012. (I know I will be glad I did this. I know I will).

This is my master bedroom. I shared it less than two month ago here, when the crib arrived.



C'mon in!









Okay, now turning around. That black door is the door you came through in the first photo...



Sam's side.



My side.

Ha.





And this is Baby's little nook. I just couldn't stand not having a little nursery to decorate for her... this is just simple, but I really like it. It's feminine and cheerful and sweet. It's something.



I made the cribskirt from the same chenille blanket I used to make the living room throw. I bought it from Etsy as a cutter... I've gotten my money out of it!



The L is just a canvas painted in chalkboard paint. The font was pretty heavily inspired by (copied from?) Anthropologie's monogrammed mugs.



The crocheted blanket was made by a friend years ago for our second oldest, Shug. Baby is our third girl to use it.



The sheet is from Target. The wall with the L is the only wall painted at this point. The color is Sherwin Williams' "Balanced Beige". It's also in our kitchen.



She likes it.

So, there! I had something pretty to share after all! What do you know?

Get ready, though, because the master bathroom is coming up this afternoon.

Not so nice.

goal-oriented

We're almost 2 months away from the anniversary of our first house project. It will have been three years. Three years! That's incredible to me. It's also motivating. We've had a very laid back year in house terms, as Baby and an eventful (is that the best word?) pregnancy took center stage. Now, I'm feeling like I would really like to get a few items marked off the list here at the end of our third full year. Or our Year In Review is going to be a very short post.

I remember back in college, learning about the difference between goal-oriented and goal-driven people. I've spent plenty of time being goal-driven. But, this is a stage where that's just maddening. Making a detailed list... being driven to complete that list... I learned years ago that it makes for a bunch of miserable little people and a miserable mommy. I can't mother well, wife well, and have a bunch of bulleted items that I absolutely must accomplish in a specified amount of time. I get bonkers. However, goal-oriented? Goal-oriented I can do. It means I'm very aware of what I hope to get done... probably far less in a far longer period of time than my goal-driven self would prefer... but, even with adjusted expectations, I realize it doesn't really need to happen. There is no must beyond caring for my family and, as second priority, my basic home tasks. I would like to get to the lists. I hope to get to the lists. I'm oriented that direction, but my loving Father may have different assignments for me that day. Being goal-oriented instead of driven is a good thing for me.

Even though I want to get a bunch done before the middle of March and even though I know circumstances are not likely to be in favor of that happening, it is nice to see some progress quickly with little changes that don't take much time. (Doesn't it seem like it's either time or money? If you have lots of time, you can do things inexpensively... but if you spend some dough, you can do things in just a short time?)

One little change that took next to no time at all, but took some cash, was purchasing Baby's crib. It arrived this weekend, and, at 5 months old, she graduated out of her bassinet! Just under the weight limit for that thing :)



I had to rearrange the master bedroom a bit. We're borrowing the chair from Bedroom 3 while Baby is sleeping in here because it's a rocker. I needed it to be on the other side of the room to make sure there was enough space for a crib.



It's not going to make the cover of Better Homes & Gardens or anything, but our master bedroom is getting better. Enlarging the windows was the best thing I think we could've possibly done. It's made such a difference. The sun has agreed to shine this week, too, so you know that's a HUGE DEAL!



I needed to put the crib in the corner where the chair had been... vacuumed all of the baseboard edges. Don't you love to do that? To get out the long, angled attachment and vacuum where the baseboard meets the floor. Seriously. It makes my day.



The color of the chair looks vintagey when it's in bedroom 3. In this room, though, it just looked mustardy brown. Not attractive. I embraced my inner college student and threw a blanket over it. And propped some IKEA storaged boxes (waiting to go back into the Bedroom 4 closet) beside it for a table. Very dorm room chic, don't you think?



My grandmother made that quilt as a young woman. I believe she made it with my great-grandmother. Judging from the fabrics... probably in the 30s. Instant happy.



A crib and a quilt. And the feel of the whole room is changed. It's not ideal to have Baby in here for a long time... we like to have the master bedroom to ourselves generally speaking ;) But, I don't mind having her in here with us. I don't know if it's the sunshine or what, but I like the room much, much more after this weekend. Obviously, the crib still needs a few things. She has brother's crib sheets, for one. I have a plan for a skirt...



it's on the list!

House Tour: Master Bedroom (Before Pics)

When I posted yesterday about rearranging the bed in our master bedroom, I was surprised to see that I hadn't yet posted anything under a "master bedroom" label. Haven't I shared our master bedroom before pics, yet? I guess not! So, in the interest of making everyone else feel better about the stylishness of their own bedrooms, here's ours :)

It's a pretty good sized room. Not huge, buy not tiny, either. I'd say it's big enough to be comfortable without really being too large. The best thing about this room from the get-go was the window looking out at the woods. Now that it's nearly twice as large, it's really a great feature.

I know, our bedding is bizarre :) It's really wrong-side up even. We bought this comforter years ago as a temprary solution right after we graduated from a full-sized bed to a queen. We didn't use it for a long while, then the way things worked out after the move, it wound up getting pulled back out and we're using it for the time being. Those pillows were originally sofa pillows - everything is pretty much hodge podge on this bed right now.

I'm hiding nothing here, people. Every corner of bare, neglected space is now out in the open for you all to see. This is pretty much the way it's looked for the past year. Hopefully, hopefully, we'll be moving on to the first layer in here before too long.

These photos were taken at the end of November '09, so - actually - they aren't really 100% before photos. There's a new door, for instance. Painted black :) Still loving the black doors; although, you do have to pay extra careful attention when going to check on a fussing toddler in the middle of the night. Black doors look a lot like open doors in the dark.

Ouch.

Pretty ceiling fan and all :) There you have 'em! Our master bedroom before pics! Since these photos were taken, we've enlarged both windows and we've also hung white curtains - those chages have made a pretty big difference. The natural light literally doubled in this room. Yay for natural light! Next up in here will be the trim and painting... and maybe I'll sneak some new bedding into the mix just for kicks.

The Number One Thing to Make a Blah Room More Pleasant

And get this... it's free!

It's not glamorous, though...

and it does take some time...

(check out our vacuum - I think I'll start calling it The Relic)

but, it can transform a room in nothin' flat :)

It's a massive cleaning day, of course.

Remember that master bedroom dilemma I mentioned earlier this month? This is it. Our window was encroaching on the headboard before we had treatments, but after the curtains went up, it was really looking "off". I am a symmetry girl, and this headboard/window arrangement wasn't going to fly. So, we moved the bed and the headboard is now against the opposite wall. There's something about moving furniture that makes me want to clean like a maniac. I get some sort of weird deep-cleaning adrenaline going. See? Even the sheets were stripped off. Had to wash everything, you know :) Anyone else identifying here?

And vacuum, and dust every little thing.

Does random stuff pile up in your bedroom, too? We've always used our bed to fold the laundry. No more! It's been getting folded on the girls' full-sized bed for the last few weeks. I think there is at least less piling up than there was before :) Our bedroom was so squeaky clean after this! The new windows had already made a big difference, and the white curtains added a lot, but getting it (almost) clutter-free made just as much of an impact and didn't cost a thing. Even with the old trim still in there, the hodge-podgey bedding, and absolutely nothing hanging on the walls - the room is actually pleasant to be in now. Makes me excited about how it will be when all of those things have been done, too!

We can't all have everything just so all the time, but it is nice to have our room as a place of relative order and rest. Nevermind the army men and legos in the living room! :)