guests welcome (#17)

It gives me great, great pleasure to say that we are done with remodels.  Done.  Finished.  No more.  I love a good remodel as much as the next person but they are always inconvenient, especially now that we are a family of there (plus two dogs).

Our town puts on a tour of homes every Christmas to benefit a local family or charity.  There are usually four to five homes on the tour.  It's always lots of fun to see how different people decorate and to get to be a little nosey.

This year, we were asked to be on the tour.  I said no but after a family dropped out, I decided that there is no time like the present which brought us to our final remodel.  The guest room.

This is actually the second time our guest room as been remodeled.  When I first moved in, Daniel let me paint and we put down new carpet.  It is amazing to see how your style transforms over the year.  I don't know what I was smoking when I chose tar heel blue but it was definitely not fitting in with our decor.  Working with Jennifer has also given me confidence in my style and I decided to tackle the decorating alone.  It's really scary especially when you know half the town will be judging it.

We decided to keep the remodel simple since we didn't have much time.  We painted the walls a shade of white which meant we had to repaint the trim because the old color looked a little yellow.  We covered holes and really just tidied up.

The biggest job really was decorating.  I decided to go light and bright.  I chose a color palette of blues and greens since they were already being used in other rooms.  But my starting point really was my maps.  If you read my blog, it's obvious that we love to travel.  I had the idea to get maps of all the places we had travelled and to frame them.  I found maps that fit our color scheme and took it from there.

What's even more surprising is that I did the decorating on a budget.  Let me say that again.  I stuck to a budget.  My sister-in-law found the bed frame on clearance at World Market.  I bought the side tables from One Kings Lane and the lamps were on sale at Kirklands.  The credenza was a scratch and dent that I got half off but you can't even see the scratches.  The frames were on sale at Hobby Lobby and I painted them using paint that we already had.  I felt so thrifty!  I did get the bedding from Pottery Barn so that was a little expensive but you can't have it all.

So without further ado, here is our new guest room!

The bed and maps of France, NYC, Spain, Italy, and Paris

The credenza and a map of London (I have two more maps for this wall)

The view from the door

Since the tour of homes is Christmas-centric, I decided to do two trees.  We collect ornaments from our travels (if we can find one) and I thought a travel tree would be perfect in a room full of maps.

The travel tree

That is our room!  I love it and am so proud of it.  You would think I made a world-altering discovery.  I am really that proud and often find myself just standing in the room checking out my hard work.  Our guest room is officially open to the public!

The big nursery reveal

The nursery is finally done!  And by done I mean I still need a few accessory-type items and to print pictures, but for the most part we are done.  For those that don't remember, here is what the nuresry looked like before.

I put a lot of thought into what I wanted the nursery to look like.  Since working with my friend Jennifer, I have started to really enjoy interior design.  Pinterest definitely helps but there is not a lot out there as far as boy nurseries.

I am not a theme type of gal.  I also knew that I didn't want anything to babyish.  I wanted a room that would grow with Beckett and items that we could reuse when we have another child.  Jennifer called it a sophisticated nursery and I totally agree.

We went back and forth about color scheme a lot.  At first I wanted to incorporate black houndstooth and thought maybe we should do red and black.  Eventually we settled on navy, red, and gray.  Jennifer was able to find a blue houndstooth, so that made me very happy.  I also love all things British so the new color scheme meant that I could incorporate Union Jacks and all things Britannia.

So without further ado, here is the finished product.  It was definitely a labor of love.

We wanted a daybed for when my sister and other family comes to visit.  I also thought it would be nice if we ever had a reason to sleep in the nursery.  Finding a white non-iron daybed is a job in itself but this will be Beckett's bed when he outgrows his crib.  We had euros the made and added embellishment to the brown pillows.  My sister-in-law found the union jack print I knew we had to have it.

The changing table was originally a bookshelf.  We just added new shelves and reinforced them.  We had wanted to do wallpaper on the back wall but were unable to find any we liked so we used the fabric we had leftover from making panels.  The pennant was a decoration from my shower as was the diaper cake.  We decided to use the bottom shelf to store diapers and wipes which has been very handy.  I am still in love with the tiered organizer we keep all of our diaper change necessities in.  It gets a lot of use all day every day.

The "B" and pom poms are also from my shower.  We had the best shower hostesses and are so thankful that they bought decorations that we could use in the nursery.

The crib is the first piece I bought for the nursery.  I knew I wanted white iron.  I have heard lots of stories about babies teething and chewing on wooden cribs and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something that would be ruined.  I also wanted to buy a crib that could be used in future nurseries.

Jennifer designed the bedding and it is perfect.  I searched just about every website I could find but there was no bedding for a boy that I liked.  It was either too feminine, too childish, or went with a theme.  Her design went with the color scheme and I think it is classic.  

We bought a wingback glider for feedings and book reading.  It is navy but we figure it can be reupholstered if we ever have a girl.  The legs also come off so it turns into a standard wingback chair.  It was important to me that we were able to reuse all of the big ticket items.

Accessorizing the bookshelf has been a difficult task.  There is so much that I want to put on it but we only have a limited amount of space.  I wanted Marley and Jack to be in the room but I didn't want it to be in the form of a picture.  I also need artwork so I had silhouettes made of them.  The double decker is a piggy bank and the airplane is a vintage replica.

And last but not least, Beckett's closet.  The boy has lots of clothes.

That is the nursery.  We love it and it has actually stayed pretty organized.  I hope it was the worth the wait!

Here we go again

It's about to be the start of a new year and what better way to start it than with another remodel.  That's right, folks.  We are doing another room remodel.

This time our energy will be focused on our laundry room.  We bought a new front-load washing machine and dryer as our anniversary gift to one another and we thought it was a little crazy to put them in our laundry room when it was in such desperate need of a facelift.

Every house has that one room where junk is stored and where you just can't bring yourself to face.  That is our laundry room.  It is bad.  Real bad.  It looks a lot like what the rest of our house looked like before we started systematically remodeling room by room.  It's an embarrassment and you can see it through the glass door in the kitchen, so it is also a constant eyesore.

That ends tomorrow.  We are putting down new flooring, retexturing, painting, fixing the trim, and changing out lights.  Our hope is to be done in a week.  We have to be done in a week.  We have an infant that loves to spit up and I do laundry at least every other day, so I don't know if we can make it longer than a week.

Here is a glance at some before pictures so you can get a feel for how bad it is.

Old bifold doors and paneling 

The old washer and dryer

Awful threadbare carpet and trim

Perhaps the worst light fixture ever

The good news is this that this room and one other stand in between me and my goal of finishing all our  remodels before I turn 30.  Then we get to paint the outside.  It never ends.

Christmas at the Browns

It's Christmas Eve so I thought I would share some pictures of our decorations from this year.  I am a slow and steady type of gal when it comes to most things.  It took me about two weeks to get all of our decorations up and will probably take longer to take them down.  I also try to buy a few new decorations each year.  As much fun as Christmas decorations are, who wants to spend thousands of dollars on items you'll only have out for a month or so?  Not I.

I decided to display our Christmas cards in a new, Pinterest-inspired way this year.  I love getting Christmas cards and thankfully we get a lot.  I decided to hang ribbon and clothespin the cards to our kitchen cabinets.  I love how it turned out.  It's so fun to come into the kitchen and see all of our friends and family's faces!  After Christmas I plan on making a card album like I did with last year's cards.

Our new decoration for the kitchen was a Christmas-inspired floral arrangement that I commissioned.  Okay, I had it made but I have always wanted to commission something and it sounds fancier than saying I went to a local shop and had them throw it together. 

The family room is decorated the same as last year with garlands on the table and console.  I bought a painting of Santa Claus last year but I was never brave enough to face Hobby Lobby so it didn't get put out.  My goal for post-Christmas sale shopping is to find Christmas china.  I don't want anything too cute or too traditional so I have had a hard time.  Hopefully this year is the year that I succeed.

We decorated the living room a lot like last year as well.  The tree is different because I did it myself.  I am super proud of how it turned out.  It was my first year decorating my tree on my own because my friend Jennifer had a newborn.  We added a driftwood nativity.  A good, traditional nativity is also on my wishlist.  I would love a hand-carved one.  Maybe a Christmas market cruise is in order?  A final idea I stole from Pinterest was doing initials instead of gift tags.  I love a monogram in any form so I liked bringing that into our decor.  

Our tree at night

So that is our home this year.  I am so excited to see how it evolves over the years.  I have a feeling that next year's decor will be much more child-friendly since Beckett should be up and moving.  

Merry Christmas Eve from the Browns!

Getting organized

Before Beckett arrived, I went on an organization kick.  If it didn't move, it was organized.  The nursery was obviously my main focus.  I thought that if I could get it organized exactly how I wanted, it would be a huge help once he was here.

Well, we are almost two months in and I am so thankful that I put so much time and effort into organizing Beckett's belongings.  Everything is still organized and it has made life much easier.

Here are some of the ways I organized, maybe you will get a few ideas that you can use in your home. (Side note:  I am painting two picture frames and then the nursery will be done.  I will hopefully post pictures next week.  Finally.)

Everything in the closet is either hanging or in fabric bins.  The hanging clothes are organized by size dividers.  The bins are all labeled with hanging tags that I made.  I even went as far as to make separate bins for each size category of clothing.  Is anyone else as excited about organization as I am?  Probably not.

Even his dividers are preppy

Fabric bins that hold all his stuff

The hanging tags

His changing table was inspired by Pinterest.  I bought a tiered basket and put everything he could possibly need when being changed.  The bottom tier has diapers, hand sanitizer, changing pad covers, and diaper cream.  The middle tier has clothes because he likes to surprise by peeing while being changed.  Not really the type of surprise that I want, but I get it every couple of days.  Finally, the top tier has toys because he is much better behaved when he is distracted.

Diaper change basket

My final nursery-related stroke of organizing genius was the medicine cabinet.  It may or may not have been Pinterest inspired as well.  I am obsessed with these Sterlite containers and have found hundreds of places to use them.  I organized all our medicine in six different categories and labeled them.

The medicine cabinet

A closer look

So that is a glimpse into my OCD.  It really has helped in the middle of the night when Beckett is screaming because he wants to eat.  Hopefully my next post will be the completed nursery.  I'm super proud of it and can't wait to share!

What's old is new

I have had a certain nursery project on my to-do list for months.  It was a special project because it meant a lot to my husband.  When Daniel was little, his family's house caught on fire and they lost almost everything they owned.  For this reason we have pretty much nothing that was his when he was growing up.

A few months ago we were at his parents and his mom mentioned that she had a rocking chair that had belonged to him.  When she asked if we wanted it, I did not even hesitate.  We brought it home and it has been sitting in our spare room ever since.

Where we started

Now I am not the craftiest person, but I have been getting better thanks to Pinterest.  The rocking chair was a little worn and the finish didn't really go with my vision for the nursery.  Thanks to my deep love for Pinterest, I was feeling empowered and decided that I could easily sand and paint the chair to match our nursery decor.

After a coat of spray paint (Don't worry, I wore a mask)

After months of avoiding the project, it was finally completed this weekend.  I have to say that I am very proud of myself.  I think it turned out perfectly and Baby Brown has little something of his dad's in his room which I know means a lot to Daniel.

The finished product (and a sneak peek of the nursery)

Progress at last

I am ecstatic to report that we have made some real progress in the nursery.  I am not going to lie, the crib in our living room is getting old.

Here are a couple before pictures.

The closet area

This is where the glider and side table will go

The bookcase that we will be using as a changing table

Daniel got the ball rolling my pulling down all of the ceiling and pulling up all of the flooring.  Since we are raising ceilings and adding carpet, these were the first two things that needed to be done and they happen to be our contractor's least favorite things to do.

No more dropped ceilings 

And no more laminate

Our contractor started his part on Wednesday.  He added drywall to the new ceilings and then mudded and taped.  Yesterday he put up texture and today is painting day.  I am not going to lie, I am nervous about the paint.  It's a color we have used before but I fear it is going to look more brown than gray.  There are few things I dislike more than painting and I have a feeling that if the paint isn't right, I will end up doing just that.

Drywall

Mud, tape, and texture

The bookcase progress

That is where we stand right now.  Our hope is to get some of the trim up before we leave for Houston next week.  When we get home all that should be left is finishing up the trim and laying carpet.  I am more than ready to begin moving things into the nursery and am anxiously awaiting ordering the closet system.

I started a list with what we have to left to buy and it is a little longer than I expected.  My only hope is that we continue the forward momentum and get the room done before my parents visit next month.