A Room for Playing

You may remember the office I showed you not too long ago.  Well, it's life as an office was short lived because in reality, we're not office people.  We don't need an office, we don't want to sit in an office, so we decided to get rid of the office....

Now it is a........

PLAYROOM!

Since all the bedrooms are upstairs and the toys were starting to overflow in the living room, the office was the perfect room to create a kid space.

I told Justin about my idea and he rolled his eyes.  You see, I'm changing things... all the time...  I can't help it.  I get bored with things and need to switch it up.  So he reluctantly agreed to me changing it when I told him I would do it all for free.  I promised to use only things I have and that I wouldn't buy anything.  

This made the whole process pretty easy since everything I needed I had on hand.

The bookshelves used to live in Cru's room. I loved them there but I thought they would be better utilized in the playroom, especially when he get's older and wants to read more throughout the day. The chest is an old (beautiful) chest from Japan that a great uncle brought home from WWII.  I threw in all my old dress up clothes and costumes thinking that maybe in a few years they would all get used again by little ones. :]

The couch is the same one that was in here while this room was an office.  I put a quilt that was made for Cru on the back of the couch and threw on some brighter throw pillows I had on hand for some color.  The curtain panels were given to me a long time ago.  I only had two panels so I cut each one in half and hemmed them up to create four panels.  It worked out perfect and now the room is so much brighter than before!

One of the great things about this room is how central it is.  Whether the adults are gathering inside or outside, the kids are close by and can be seen.  I really love how this room came together!

When it came to storage for this space I knew I wanted an IKEA Expedit shelf for toys.  In my promise not to spend any money I asked my sister-in-law if she wanted to do a furniture swap!  I gave her the two bookshelves that used to reside in this room in exchange for this one and it was a win-win!  My shelves fit her decor better and hers mine! 

I also did another photo wall...  Justin told me it makes no sense but that was kind of the point.  I wanted it to be random and just full of kid-like things.  The needle point of the black lab is cool because of our Abu and Ace.  I've had that for a while and paired it with cru's 20-week foot prints, a map of the US, a vintage Disneyland attraction poster, a Walt Disney quote, some knitted shoes and a couple other random things.  

We don't have a ton of toys, but I know they will accumulate in the coming months and I am so happy that we have a space to put them as they come.

My plan for this wall is create a space to display homemade art.  I'm not sure exactly how yet but that is my plan!

I feel like this room came together perfectly! The best part is that it didn't cost a dime! These are my favorite kind of makeovers. Many times furniture pieces find new life just when moved into another space! 

Time to host a play date!

Paint it On!

Three years ago it was my wonderful idea to paint the house an olive green...

I don't like it. The grass is green, the plants are green and the house was green.  I had nightmares about green...

This summer we decided to add some color! I turned to Pinterest for some color inspiration and out of the millions of choices there are, charcoal gray got me all excited!  I think it such a great neutral but adds a modern flare to whatever you put it on!  It's not the most exciting color choice but I knew I was going to pair it with a bright color on our screen door.

We decided to go with a light butter yellow for the screen door. I looked at both the house and screen door paint canister to catch the paint colors but they aren't on there! So sorry I can't share those with you. 

Anywho, I love how the screen door turned out.  I'm still startled by the brightness when I pull in the driveway but it's very fresh looking and has a cheerier presence.  Another change we made was to move the house numbers from the right of the door to the bottom of the screen door.  The black numbers are a great contrast to the light yellow and I think it makes the numbers stand out more. The yellow on the door matches the center of the mums I recently planted for the fall season!  It's the little things... :]

I also made a quick DIY fall wreath for our door.  I used a wreath form from the dollar store and some ribbon and festive fall garland I had on hand.  It turned out simple yet cute and I like how the orange looks with the yellow and gray of the house!  Once I add some pumpkins and a cute yard sign I'm making, it will all come together!

Down the road we have plans to extend the entry and add some more curb appeal but until then I am very happy with this!   I also have to shout out to the hubs for working so hard on this! You rock babe!

It's Fall Y'all!

And I am super excited for it!  Don't get me wrong I love me some summer but by the end of it I am ready for hibernation.  We are usually really busy so I love a quiet September and October before the holiday season and basketball start. 

I spent some time (nap time) yesterday putting up my fall decor.  Every year I do it a little differently and I'm liking how it's looking this year!  

Here are the shelves in our dining room.  I took everything off of them and started over with all things fall. 

If you follow me on IG you probably saw that I posted my first stab at some chalkboard art.  I browsed Pinterest and copied some art I found from there and put it on my chalkboard in the kitchen...

This fall colored table runner was given to us as wedding gift and it is perfect for the fall season!

I am obviously very thankful with all my 'give thanks' signs... I want to change up the one that is in the dining room to say something else, I'm still figuring it out.

I have a bunch of fallish garlands that I dispersed around the house and I tried to display all my decor that feels like fall.

I still would like to get some gourds, scented pine cones and a couple of fall candles to finish it all off.  I am so ready for this festive time of year so BRING IT ON!  

Are y'all ready for fall?

Our Backyard

For a while, our backyard looked like this...

It has definitely been a work in progress for the past couple years but this summer we finally got somethings completed.  Three major projects we finished have completely transformed the way our yard looks.  The painted house, patio and back deck have made our yard go from boring to waaaayyyy better!

The gray paint really makes the house pop where the green blended into the grass and trees.  The deck really makes the french doors the focal point of the back yard, and the patio really sets the tone of the space by creating a hangout area where before it was all grass.  I failed to plant anything in my pots because it got too late in the season, but next year I hope to have lots of color in them.

The gray really makes the windows stand out too. We obviously need a new roof.  We are hoping to do that next spring/summer.

Here are some detail patio shots...

The eating area...

The deck.  We wanted to create long steps to double as extra seating for people.  We didn't want to make the deck big because from the top landing you can see right into our neighbors yard so wanted to keep the patio and entertaining spaces on a lower level for more privacy.

BBQ.  We plan to build a nice built in outdoor kitchen area along the edge of the basement stairs you can see behind the BBQ.  It will double as a guard for that scary edge.  (don't worry mama friends, we will build a temporary fence till then)...

On this wall we have plans to build a pallet bar to place drinks or whatever else.   You can never have enough serving surfaces!

Another plan we discussed is running the patio all the way over to the dog run. 

The dog run is still awesome. We love having this space to put the pups if people are over or when we're gone during the day.  They have access to the garage too so they can be warm and dry.  We built them an elevated pallet area to lounge (see left end of dog run).  We used all scrap wood and I wanted to build this so that they weren't laying in their own poo poo.  They like to sunbathe so it gives them a potty free area to hang.

The elevated flower beds are a new addition as well.  We haven't landscaped (obviously) but I want it all year round green and I will just plant a few perennials to add some color.

We're going to add gravel along the side of the house where the scaffolding is in this picture and all along the fence line between the fence and grass.  We also need to stain the fence but that will all have to wait until next year...

Until then we have a great hangout space for us and the pups and whoever wants to join us!  We had a great summer with lots of outdoor projects but I'm ready for fall and to hibernate.

We have a few little projects around the house we'll do but I mostly want to organized, sell and donate all the stuff we have in our basement and garage.  Until all that I feel very accomplished in our summer projects and am so thankful for a husband that works sooooo hard!

Stairway Stories

For the past three years we have lived here, our stairway has looked like this.  I painted it "vanilla milkshake" last year but let it sit idle while we tackled other projects around the house.

 I really love the character of our stairway.  The light was left from the previous owner(s) and is what I believe to be the original fixture of the house.  I love the light.  I also love the ledge that is there. It is great for setting up my Christmas village, setting up seasonal decor and adds a little voom to the space.

That was the life of our stair way pre-carpet install.  Once the carpet was in I thought about how I wanted to decorate this area.  I knew I wanted something different but something that I really loved since I would be walking this way numerous times in a day. 

The idea that made most sense to me was another photo wall! I had a collection of black frames that I wanted to use.  I knew the black would be an awesome contrast to the "vanilla milkshake" walls so I decided to give new life to the existing fixture and spray it black as well as the stair rails.

A lot of people have asked me how I go about hanging a photo wall.  There are a few steps involved in my method and I think it's a pretty low stress way to get a bunch of frames onto the walls.

Step 1:  I take two measuring tapes one to measure the height and one to measure the width of the space you are using.  Lock the measuring tapes to those dimensions and place on a surface such as the floor to decide your layout.

Step 2:  Lay the frames out into whatever pattern is desired.  Space them out to fill the area and be sure to mix bigger frames with smaller ones.  Another thing I do is to leave the pattern random.  I don't like the stress of having to use a level and making sure two frames are exactly symmetrical.  I just go for the scattered look. My main rule is to start with the biggest sized frame in the center and work around it, that way your wall is always centered and allows you to create a "full" look without having too big of spaces between the frames.

Step 3: Grab a friend or in my case, husband, to help you transfer your frames from the floor to the wall.   In this instance, we took a board from our scaffolding set and set one edge on the photo wall ledge while the other rested at the top of the stairs.  This made it so much easier to hang the higher frames.  After he was on the ledge and ready, I would hand him a frame and tell him where to hang it.  As we added more frames, I just eyeballed the spacing.  Eyeballing works for some, doesn't work for others but it's the method I find easiest for me and so far has worked for the frame we've hung.

Here is what our photo wall ended as.  There is still space around the tops and sides to throw in some more frames.  This is where my "start with the center" rule worked perfect because the frames are all centered in this space but I have the ability to add more and still have it look balanced.

Most recently, I found a few more frames and added to the bottom. (see right photo).  Still looks balanced.  I could get away with adding more frames to either the top or bottom but if I wanted to add more to the sides, I would need to add to both to keep the balance,

I also threw in my vintage camera collection and printed a quote I found online.

When deciding on what photos to hang here, I knew I wanted something that made me happy and that is my family, but I wanted to jazz it up a bit, make it a little more interesting then your basic yearly family photos.  So I decided to go vintage and do all old photos from the 50's, 60's and 70's.  I wanted pictures of my parent's youth and grandparents honey moon phase.  The past year I was assigned with the task of digitizing my maternal and paternal grandparents' photo slides so I had access to some great photos.

Here is one of my maternal grandmother, uncles and my mom in the stroller at Disneyland in the late 60's...

This one is of my paternal grandfather (at the podium) with Senator Kennedy and Jackie...

and here are my dad and uncle scoutin it up.

I still have quite a few empty frames but am waiting on some photos to come in from Justin's side and I have a few more I need to print off. 

I adore this wall with my whole heart.  It tells a little bit of my story, where I came from and the story of those who have raised me and shaped me into the person I am. Every time I walk up the stairs I smile.  

What makes you smile?