Projects

This was the summer of projects.  We finished and I am finally sharing the results with you.

Painting our bedroom was the first of our projects.

When we first added the wall paint after painting the ceiling, I wasn't sure I liked it.  It didn't seem to blend.  I was scared and angry because I had picked these two colors off the same color swatch.  If that didn't work for blending colors, then how is anyone who is color-decorated challenged like me going to have any success?

But as it dried and we finished all the walls, it really looked nice.  I love the way the greens set off the white bedding, curtains, and trim.

The next big project was moving children into different bedrooms.  This led to dominoes of other projects, but we persevered and four of the children have new rooms.

First the boys were moved into the basement.

This room has served many purposes over our ten years living in this home.  Now it will serve well our two sons.  Bigger than their room they shared upstairs, they have room for lots of their treasures and space for friends to camp out on the floor.  What you cannot see in this picture are the shelves on the right and the left, and the "closet" behind.  The "closet" is a shelf and rod David arranged to give them a place for their hanging clothes and shoes.  With exposed stud walls and joists, we are trying to convince the boys this is all the rage in loft apartments.

Now that the boys were moved to the basement, Abby was moved into their old room.

We told her she could get a new comforter and cover and pick paint.  It is fun to see her personality and style come out in those two simple things.  A cherry striped comforter cover and bright, bold green walls to match.  Her pink body pillow compliments it all well.  She loves having her own room and is often found sitting on her bed, reading.

With Abby moved to her own room, Ellie at last has a room to call her own.

She, too, was able to pick a new comforter and cover and paint.  When she said she didn't want a comforter cover, I balked.  When she said she wanted two colors, a dark blue and a dark grey, I questioned her reasoning. Now that it is done, it looks fabulous, and I should learn to trust her vision and try new things.  The dark walls contrast well with the white comforter, the maple bedroom suite, the white trim and the lace curtains.

I don't know if you can tell from this picture but the wall behind her bed is the dark grey. The other walls are this lovely deep blue.

We found for her the desk and chair at the thrift store and the mirror at the Ladies' Aid garage sale.  For years Ellie has wanted her own room and a desk.  Finally, she waits no longer.

I ran out of paint when I painted her grey wall. Ugh.  I had not planned on painting the upstairs hallway  at that time, even though I had already picked a grey color I would like.  But since I needed to buy more paint for Ellie's wall, and the grey was in the same family as the grey I had picked, although darker, I decided to just keep painting.

So the last painting project was the hallway.

I am quite happy with the results.

Since our trip to Europe, I had visions of hanging a collage of pictures from our trip on our hallway walls.  For my birthday, the kids gave me money to spend at Snapfish in order to pick the prints I wanted.  For Christmas, David and I decided to simply complete the project.   I picked frames from Kohl's and pictures from all the places we visited.  Choosing which pictures to print and which should be in a bigger size was challenging.  I stood in the aisle at Kohl's for a long time deciding which frames would work best.  Eventually I stopped fretting and just bought them.

I had seen on Pinterest the idea of hanging brown paper, cut to the frame size, onto the wall with painter's tape.  This allows an easy way to see how the pictures will look and to rearrange them rather easily.  It really worked well, and for a long time our walls were decorated with brown paper.

You probably noticed that I still have two of them hanging on the wall. No it is not because I liked it and decided to keep that as part of the decor.  It is because one of the frames I brought home was broke and Kohl's has not had another one in the store.  The other is one that we have yet to find a frame to fit the picture as it is an odd size.

Our projects: painting and pictures.  Come visit and see them in person!