Anna's New Room

Project number 4 is complete!  Anna's room probably cost a little more than the boys' rooms but I still managed to makeover her room for around $350.  I didn't need to replace any of her furniture and some odds 'n' ends like the butterflies hanging from her canopy were things I already had on hand and my mom had the pink desk chair at her office.   Anna and I both love how it turned out and I think the purple and bright pink matches her personality so much better.  The room reflects her more now than it before when I made all the decisions about how it would look.  She will enjoy this much more and that makes me very happy!

Before

After

$60 - paint

$25 - butterfly chalkboard

$30 - quilt and sham

$40 - two throw pillows

$18 - sheet set

$60 - new ceiling fan and light

 

 $52 - cubeical

$21 - fabric bins

$15 - canvases and 2 bags of buttons for wall art

$16 - tulle fabric for canopy & fabric to recover hope chest

$18 - curtain rod

$8 - sheer curtains

$22 - rug

  

Cameron's new green and grey bedroom

I finished up my third bedroom project a few weeks ago and I think it's my favorite so far.  The emerald green Cameron chose for his room is his favorite color and it was a fun departure from the blues that the other boys chose.  

 BEFORE

Boring tan walls 

(this picture was taken after I bought his new bedding but he had a lime green comforter and gosh! it sure did clash with that khaki color)

AFTER

I love the grey and green!

The dinosaur wall decal is from Blik and the shelves and the super soft grey blanket and flannel sheets are from Target.

The white stripes on the grey walls are Duct Tape in white and the afghan was handmade by Brian's granny many, many years ago.

Boys' bedrooms - Spiderman room and Baseball room

A couple of months ago Landon and Parker agreed that they wanted to switch rooms.  Parker wanted the larger room and Landon likes the window, of all things, in Parker's old room.  I told them that as long as they were in agreement about the switch that it was fine with me but that they had to get their rooms clean enough to actually do it.  

Well, they got them clean and I got bitten by a crazy redecorating bug.  I figured as long as furniture was being moved that now was as good a time as any to do some painting.  I promised each child, even the ones not switching rooms, that they would all get "new" rooms but that they would have to be patient and give me a whole month per room to get things finished.

I got Landon's finished so quickly that I moved right on to Parker's room and both rooms were moved and redecorated within 3 weeks!  Phew!  Now I need a little breather...

Here are the Before and After pictures-

Oops!  I only had a 35mm lens available for the Before pics so you can barely see any of the room.

Landon's new room before:

 

Landon's new room after:

He went back and forth about between wanting racecars and Spiderman.  I got him to settle on Spiderman since we already had the large sticker.  None of the Spiderman elements in the room are permanent so in a year or two if he gets bored with it then it's easy to switch.  Even the cityscape is just a couple of foam boards I had cut with an exacto knife and stuck on with double sided tape.  My total money spent on this project was less than $100 = $24 (sheets) + $30 (1 gal of paint) + $18 (letters for his name) + $15 (painting supplies).

Parker's new room before:

 

Parker's new room after:

Parker wanted a "baseball room with just a touch of football".  $60 (paint) + $24 (curtains) + $22 (rug) + $7 (red dry-erase board) + $9 (hooks) + $17 (sports pillows) + $18 (red spray paint for bookcase) = $157 total.  Everything else I already had on hand like the shelves, curtain rod and all of his furniture.  Not too shabby.  Two rooms redecorated for $250!

I'm really proud of how they both turned out and it makes me immensely happy that both boys are in love with their new rooms!

Goodbye Grinchy Feelings

 It's been 11 days since my last post.  That's how long we've been at war with The Vomit Bug.  The Bug claimed victims #4 and #5 today from our family of seven.  Needless to say, blogging has not been high on my priority list.  Laundry and holding puke buckets and keeping people hydrated and comfortable have been my life for the last week and a half.

But I have managed to squeeze in some time during naps to take a few pictures of the house so I could link up today to The Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes.  

To be honest, I didn't feel much like decorating this year.   Let me rephrase that.  I didn't feel like decorating very much this year.  I wanted it to be simple.

I wanted to buy some white quilted stockings this year but the kids really wanted their own stockings up so of course that's what I did.  One day, a decade or two from now, their stockings will hang over their own fireplaces and then I can choose some different ones and I will still probably hang up the old ones anyhow. 

I didn't want to move any furniture out of the family room this year and the only other place for the tree was in the dining room.  But I had to move the table around and take out the leaf and hang the pictures on a different wall.  And I've decided I like this arrangement better.

There is a small tree in Anna's room and the boys each got a little tabletop tree for their rooms this year. 

Yesterday, God added his own little touch to the overall look.

I had been feeling kind of Bah-Humbuggish until we went to our church's Christmas program last night.  This year there were no dancing reindeer, no Christmas shoes, no carols and no glitz.  It was all about The Lamb and it restored my Christmas spirit.  Because He came for me.

And He came to live sinlessly and He came to die so that I might live.

 And He has given me wings and He has given me Peace.  And I couldn't ask for anything more. 

 

Before & After - Anna's room

I can check one thing off my To-Do list!

I may have mentioned a time or two that I've been switching the kids' rooms around and painting and such. Well, I'm finally done with Anna's room.  All that I need to get for it is a rug, a clock and a new light fixture.  

Here's what the room looked like 4 weeks ago.  Cameron and Parker shared this room.  It's a very long room over the garage, technically the Bonus Room, but it has it's own full bathroom and large walk-in closet.  All the things an only girl in the family will need for privacy.

 

 

 

 Here's what the room looks like now after many, many days of 

painting and sewing and cleaning and hanging things.

(It's not quite this pink; I hit contrast on the pictures but it's a little lighter than this in real life.)

 

 

 Eventually I will paint this back wall the same shade of pink but I ran out of steam.  I will do that when I'm done decorating the boys' rooms.  So use your sanctified imagination and think pink.

Here's my didn't-feel-like-taking-the-time-to-read-any-instructions slipcover for her chair.  Trust me, even this wonky slipcover is an ENORMOUS improvement over the nasty stained chair underneath.

And here is the sweet, busy, beautiful girl that made all that work worth it.

 Hopefully, in the next 2 weeks I'll have more Before & After pics to show you of the boys' rooms.

Benar-benar kacau!

If my English to Indonesian translation is correct, then that means, "What a mess!"  

This has been my view, more or less, for the last few weeks on end.

My shoulders are on fire!  I have made approximately 8 trips to either Home Depot or Lowe's in the last 3 weeks.   I don't want to know (and neither does Brian) how much money I have spent on paint, painter's tape, roller covers and primer.   I have painted the office a silver-grey and turned it into Parker's room.  I moved Cameron into Anna's old room.  Then I painted it the UGLIEST shade of olive green.   Then I painted over the ugliest olive green with primer and painted it a pretty khaki/tan color.   I moved Anna into the boys' old room and painted it Pink Breeze.  And now, because I'm a crazy person, I am measuring and taping and painting stripes of green, brown, Timeless Rose and the same tan from Cameron's room.  

Ongepotchket!  That's what this is!

(In Yiddish that means: Messed up, slapped together without form, excessively and unesthetically decorated.) 

 Not that fabric, just the whole room in general!  That fabric is GOR-geous!!!

Right now her room looks like le rose camp d'entraînement du cirque caniche (or in English: a pink circus poodle training camp!)

I am trying to take it one thing at a time but I really just want it to be Hecho! (DONE!)

I'm going now.  Going to go take a shower and to scrape my arms, legs and hands with my fingernails ... again... to get this paint off my skin.

Ouch.