Charm's Room Reveal!

At long last, Charm's room is complete...you know, just in time to move him to a twin sized bed:).  I started working on it early last summer, so it really does feel like it's been a never ending project.

Just as a reminder, here is what the room looked like back in July:

And here it is now:

I already posted about most of the major projects like the gutter book shelves, the gallery wall, the desk area, the wave artwork, the pouf, the night stand and the clip board wall art.  In addition, I made the 'headboard' art using a thrift store embroidery hoop, fabric from IKEA and embroidery floss to sew on an 'H'. 

I also made him a duvet cover using a fun green organic cotton fabric that I purchased at Fabric.com.     

I made the curtains using fabric from IKEA.  (It has since been discontinued, but was called Monalis.)  The fabric wasn't cheap at $8/yard = $48 for two panels (not my usually cheapo standards), but I just loved the pattern, because it reminds me of a tree house which reminds me of little boys, which reminds me of Charm.  I also sewed in a liner to keep it nice and dark during day time naps.  The liner was on sale at Joann's 50% and I had a bonus take an additional 25% off sale prices coupon, so it was $15 for 6 yards. 

I updated his chalkboard globe recently with the famous line from Dr. Seuss, "Oh, the places you'll go!".  Fitting that it's written on a globe, no? 

Ta-Da!

What do you think?  Anyone else finish a never ending room as of late?  What a great feeling it is to finally get 'er done.  And now, it's time for me to focus on the next room or two.  Or three.  :)

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Spring is here in Minnesota!!  Don't forget your sunscreen!

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Pantry Post

Here is what our pantry looked like when we moved into our home early last summer:

Imagination time: I don't actually have a picture of this.  Please picture a 4 foot by 6 foot 'room' that is completely empty and has quarter sized holes in the walls where closet shelving supports used to be. 

The pantry was missing something fairly important.  All of the closets in our house were missing the same thing, actually: closet shelves.  (This post explains a bit more about our 'special' home:).)  The custom made California Closets that were in our house at one point were no longer in place when we moved in.  Remember when I posted here about how our foreclosed home has lots of great built in storage?  Well, it didn't have great storage in the pantry and closets to start.

We made do with a metal shelf and cardboard boxes like this for awhile:

And then after patching and painting the holes in the walls, and installing 2 electrical outlets, we contracted a local closet company to install this last summer:

Blurry pictures, but it's all I have of the brand new shelving.  We designed the shelving to have the most storage possible for the space, while at the same time providing counter top space for the small appliances we'd prefer not to keep on our kitchen counters.  We chose a laminate counter top that very closely mimics our granite in the kitchen.  (The edging is different than our granite, however, and if I had to do it all over again I would have matched the ogee edging that's in our kitchen.)

After 8 months, our new pantry ended up looking like this on most days:

So I spent less than $30 total on these supplies and 2 more glass jars like these:

• Chalkboards from Michael's, full price $2.29, but I used a 25% off entire purchase coupon so it was closer to $1.75 each x 4 = $7
• White Plastic Bins from Walmart Clearance: $1.50 each x 3 = $4.50
• Roll of Chalkboard Adhesive Paper: $3 with coupon from Michael's (used in this post too)
• Glass Jars from Walmart: $6.97 each x 2 = $13.94

I made basket labels using the chalkboards and twine (just like I did for Lucky's closet), and I made more jar labels using the adhesive chalkboard paper.

And now our pantry looks like this:

Metal plant holders (IKEA) and woven coffee basket (Home Goods) were owned already and were pulled from other rooms in the house.

We are all loving the new look and we're doing much, much better to keep things organized!  And now, I have more room to stockpile sale grocery goods!

A Whole New Room!

So yesterday, I posted a bit about our garage sale and the room transformation that took place in our sun porch.  As a reminder, here is the room filled with all of our garage sale goods:

Here is the room after all the garage sale items had been removed and placed in our garage:

 

 Still not great.

Here is the room after we did a little more cleaning and organzing.  We removed the sheets from our patio furniture, and now the room is looking much, much better!

We tried a new layout this year.  Last year, we had the couch where these chairs were.  This year, we moved the couch in front of the book shelves for a 'layered' look.  See this post from Emily A. Clark for more about layering furniture.

See where another $2 palm tree would have fit in nicely?  Also, I haven't done anything with the actual bookshelves yet.  The books and decor are completely haphazard at this point.  And I need to get the area rug that works well in this room up from the basement craft area.  Which means I need to go rug shopping for a new rug for the craft area.  Home Goods, here I come!

We actually ate dinner here Sunday night.  Bill and I pulled up ottomans to the end of the table.  It's a nice little kid work and play station too.

The lamp bases are the $3/pair church sale lamps from this post, and the lamp shades were scored at Target on the cheap. (See this post.) The orange-red pillow came with the outdoor furniture set that we purchased at Sam's a few years ago.  The striped pillows are new this year.  They were on sale at Kohl's 55% off for just over $9.  An additional 30% off brought them closer to $6 each and they contributed towards some Kohl's Cash.  (I have a love-hate relationship with Kohl's Cash.  More on that another day.)

I don't have a specific budget for this room, but because it's a room we can only use about 5-6 months out of the year, I'm not going to spend much on it this season.  I love that we have a whole new room to play in now, and so do the kids...even if we need to have a little heater in there and it's mid-May:).

Expecting Company!!

We're so excited to be having company this weekend.  My good friend, Christy, from my undergrad days at UW-Madison is heading west from Madtown to see us.  I figure since I'm planning to spruce up our new basement guest room a bit for her arrival, I might as well post a few pictures of the room while I'm at it. 

Generally speaking, this is the one room in our house that stays nice most of the time.  It is probably my favorite room in the house right now because it's permanently picked up.  (We keep the door to our guest room closed about 99% of the time.)

Here it is:

This is the view as you enter the room straight ahead. 

This is the wall to the right.

This is your view to the left side of the room.

Close-Ups:

This is your view laying on the bed straight ahead....umm, not so much going on there:
 

I have an idea for a project for this space, and I already have the supplies.  Now, I just need to find the time in the day to get it done!  Soon!

Everything in the room (except the striped comforter cover, grey tray, and yellow throw blanket) was in our guest bedroom at our previous home.  I love the grey, white, black and yellow color scheme in there.  It makes me happy!   Is anyone else loving that color combination right now?

Aside from wall art, other to do's for this room include:

• putting a small desk in the room so I can set up a closed door sewing station when guests aren't in town. 
• I don't love the tall, black book shelf placement in the room, so it may have to find a new home or make it's way to Craigslist.  We'll see. 
• Actual window treatments would be nice too...instead of the extra shower curtain tied with twine that we're currently using. 

As with every room in my house, it's a work in progress. 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!