Home Renovations - Playroom - Progress 2

Progress is still being made on the playroom.  I'm almost done with all of the painting.  I just need to roll the walls one more time and I should be done.  I finished cutting in the other day but ran out of time to roll.  After that, it will be onto the big project which is the built-in.  Between my busyness and my friend's, we haven't found a weekend that works for both of us.  In the meantime, I knocked out a little sewing project and wanted to show you all.  Here are the new shams and throw pillows for the couch - which has also been moved to its new home.  I love the color they add and look forward to finding more places for use of fun fabric in the room.

I bought the fabric from a local store called Premier Fabrics.  They only sell a line of fabric called Premier Prints.  They have TONS to choose from and lots of coordinating choices at a really good price.  I found that they sell Premier Prints on Fabric.com for an even better price and if you spend $35 you get free shipping so it's a steal.  It's hard to tell in this picture but the two outer pillows are red with small polka-dots.  The green pillows have dandelions on them.  The only thing that is unfinished is the larger pillows are going to have 3 buttons each on the ends to "seal" them.  I want a bright green button but haven't found one I love or fits in my budget so I will wait until I find something for a good price and is exactly what I am looking for. 

Home Renovations - Playroom - Progress 1

I have been up to my elbows in paint since my last post (ok, that's a bit exaggerative) but I've made some decent progress on the playroom and thought I'd show you how it's coming.  I know this renovation isn't going to be fast since I can really only work when the kiddos are sleeping and I need to honor any sewing obligations too.  BUT I am pleased at how it is turning out so far.  I have painted at least one coat of the brown on the bead board all the way around the room and have painted two coats on some of the walls.  This is time consuming as it requires a brush to get down in all of the cracks.  I will finish that in the next few days and start the walls.  I'm hoping this weekend is going to be my building weekend for the built-in so I need to get wall "3" prepped and painted.  I went ahead and painted the little bookcase on wall "2" because I wanted to see some COLOR with the brown.  I really like it but I made some painting errors on it.  I should have sanded and primed it first because I know it's going to scrape off as the kids use it so I may be painting it again down the road.  I sold the entertainment center on Craigslist so that is out of the way and adds another 50 buckaroos to the pot.  Cheers for progress...

I'm going to keep the same numbers from the previous post so you can look back at the before and know which wall you are looking at.

 This picture shows the old paint (left) on the bead board with the new chocolate paint (right).

I love the punch the green adds to the brown.  I had the guy at Home Depot color match one of the leaves from the decal that will be going on the wall to get this color.

 Here's a little swatch of the blue that will be going on the walls above the bead board.

Tootles to the old cabinet which is now in the storage room behind that door you see serving a new purpose.  There was some wallpaper that needed removed and check out that wild red!  I like me some red but this color is not very pretty in person and I cannot imagine a room this size painted that color.  Makes my heart start beating fast thinking about it.  I've decided to go with a khaki color on this wall behind the built-in to keep it pretty neutral.  I did a little swatch of the brown and felt it was a little much for the whole wall.  The actual built-in color is still TBD but I'm leaning towards a blue just a shade darker than the other walls and then the part that bumps out for the TV using the pumpkin Orange.  Or the whole thing may be orange.  That still may change :).

Home Renovations - Playroom - Before

Ok, Ok, I know I never did blog about the house like I promised back in the fall although I still hope to do that. Maybe by the anniversary of our purchase date which is March 27?? Anyway, when we bought our house, nothing needed immediate attention but there are certainly areas that I want to put my touch on. I'm a designer by trade so my mind is always swirling with ideas. My wallet is not necessarily swirling with extra green stuff. Jacob and I don't believe in debt (other than a mortgage) so any home projects are always paid with cash which means they sometimes get put on hold. Now that we have been in the house almost a year and I've set aside some Critterbug & Cricket moolah, I'm ready to start tackling a project. The first room on the agenda is our playroom/craft room because we have a serious storage situation in there. After 2 more birthdays and a Christmas, we HAVE to figure out how to store the toys better. They are currently hugging the perimeter of the room in a very unpleasant manner. My current sewing area is no better and I'm embarrassed to even show it. I know it appalls Jacob but I call it "organized chaos." I like to believe that once I have the space "perfect" then I'll be a little more organized.  Right.  As creative as I can be - organization is not one of my strong points - but I desire to improve. All that to say, I thought I'd go ahead and post the before pictures of the playroom and craft room so that I won't get too behind later. It is a big room with LOTS of potential but it may take a little time. If you have any thoughts, share them!

The theme of the room is going to be modern/woodsy.  We live in the woods so I want to respect that but I also want a room where I can just have FUN with some wild colors and unique decor.  What better room than my craft room and the kids' playroom.  Color scheme - light blue walls above bead board, chocolate bead board (think land and sky).  Other prominent colors to be used - ORANGE, lime (ok, that color scares Jacob a little so we'll see) & Cherry.

Not much is going to happen on this wall.  The wall and bead board will be painted and I'll put some pictures up.  Down the road I would LOVE a mantle but that's not a priority.

Left of the beam is going to define the "learning" space as I am calling it.  The bookshelf will stay under the window because it's a perfect fit but I hope to paint it a fun color.  I bought maps of the 7 continents to hang on the wall.  I would like a long rectangle table that could seat 4-6 kids (NO I am not having that many!!) where crafts, puzzles and the like can take place.  To the right of the beam will define the toy nook.  The couch will be up against that wall.

This will be the future toy nook and t.v. watching area.  I'm treating it as its own room defined by the beam above.  The couch will be on the left wall and the wall right of the door will be a built-in for the t.v. and bins, bins and more bins for toys.  I bought 2 adorable decals for this wall from Graphic Spaces on Etsy.  The tree branch will be on the left pointing right and the raccoon will be running along the bead board pointing left.  I'm also going to remove the track lighting that runs parallel to the beam.  So I don't have to mess with patching the ceiling I will just put a swag-type light in it's place and center it in the "nook".

Isn't this stinkin' cute??  The only differences in the one I purchased and this one are that I chose orange birds and a darker green tire swing.  Oh, and it says, "The Cartners".

I really like this fabric and would like to make some large pillows for the very faded and stained Pottery Barn couch that I can't afford to recover.  I'll hopefully find several fabrics to coordinate.  I'm not 100% sold on this one yet but it's in the running.

 This entire wall will be a built-in.  Floor to ceiling and corner to corner.  There will be an assortment of depths and heights for the shelves.  I am in search for fun/unique bins for it.  Lots of color.  The color of the actual built in is still undecided.  The TV and VCR (Yes, I said VCR.  All of our Disney movies are on VHS) will be housed here too.

This area will now house my sewing stuff including my sewing table and my craft table that my father-in-law built for me.  I would like this wall to have my dry erase board and possibly some fabric covered cork boards and a ribbon rack.  I love these prints of puppies on the docks done by a Greenville artist that my parents bought in the 80's.  Unfortunately they still look like they would fit that time period.  I hope to remat and reframe them to give them new life and put them somewhere.  I'm all about recycling!  Dad actually saw this guy at Artisphere this year and he's still selling the same prints.  Ha.

This is just another view of what will be my crafting area.  Not sure what I am going to put on this wall but I am in desperate need of a clock down here.  I would love a huge clock but so far I haven't found "the one".  If you find one, let me know.  It needs to be a decent size (and decent price!).  Anybody need an entertainment center?

I didn't mean for this to turn into a dissertation.  Obviously you can see my excitement...and in the time I just wasted writing this, I could have gotten a coat of paint on the walls :).  More to come later!

Sewing: Table Runner?

I finally got around to sewing a treat for myself and our new (if we've been here 6 months is it still new??) home.  I want to write a whole post about our house even if it is a little late.  Some of you may not know the whole story of why we ended up moving where we did, why we didn't build and why we sold our other property.  I want to make sure I document it though because it's a beautiful story of God's providence and protection and love for our little family.  I'll put it on my to-do list for next week.  How's that?? 

Anyway, Jacob and I love antiques, we love hand-me-downs, we love refurbishing junk and we love hand-crafted pieces (especially James Cartner originals!).  Since this house is one we plan on being in as long as God has us in Memphis we are trying to consciously fill it with furniture we really adore, furniture that means something to us or furniture that has a story.

The first piece I am sharing with you is my mom's old sewing machine table that is now serving as my bedside table.  This table is special because a) it belong to my mother and I want to hold on to her as long as possible and b) it housed the sewing machine (a 1970's Singer) that I learned on about 6 years ago.  When it needed a good (and costly) servicing I decided to upgrade since I knew this was a hobby I would stick with.  Jacob and I refinished the wood when we moved to Memphis and I love the honey color and the simplicity of the form and hardware.

Ok, so I started rambling about the furniture but really this post was to show you my little project that I made for the table.  I have a slight obsession with fabric so when I find something I love, I like to buy a small amount and figure something out to do with it.  Most of my "me" fabric is still waiting to be used since I usually don't have time to make myself anything (wah,wah,wah).  I finally set some other projects aside and treated myself to a little thingy (pretty sure that's an official term) for under my lamp.  Critterbug and Cricket is available to make small, custom, home decor items for you too.  Always looking to expand my repertoire!