Designer's Dilemma

Okay, so you know how designers can make decisions all day long when working with clients and are completely confident in those decisions but when it comes to our own homes we can be unsure, wishy-washy, and indecisive about making the right choice???  Well, that's where my head is right now, sort of.

We are still knee deep in the big re-arrange half the rooms in the house project and I've started to turn my focus to the new guest room.  It's a tiny little room but it could be a real jewel-box.  I've started collecting my thoughts (pinning away) trying to find some inspiration.

Way back in April, before we decided to move everything around I had been playing with the idea of working on the existing guest room. Here's a reminder of what I had been thinking about:

Navy and white is a classic combination.  I still like where this is going but I feel like it needs a little something to keep it from being so serious.  Also, did I mention that the room is tiny?  There will only be room for the bed and bedside tables.  I definitely want an upholstered bed, maybe with wings....maybe even DIY???  That sounds like I might need to bring in the big guns.  I'm going to need to call in my Mama.  She can do anything. What do you think Mama?  Can we do it?

I do know that I want it to be shades of blue (and a little teal) with green and maybe a little orange thrown in.  Here are a few things that have been inspiring me lately.

This picture from Lonny has inspired me tremendously.  Love the neutral wall with that tealish blue bed.  I also love the panel detail of the wall, which I had thought about for the guest room in it's old location (now the music room.)  

Source: lonnymag.com via Aimee on Pinterest

 Here's another room from Lonny that makes me excited in 10 different ways.  It's traditional with a twist which is how I would define my personal style.  Love the overall neutral-ness of the room with pops of color.  Also, those large format photographs and stacks of books rock!

Source: highstreetmarket.blogspot.com via Aimee on Pinterest

These colors together are so beautiful together.

Source: decorpad.com via Aimee on Pinterest

Maybe what this room needs is a Teester!  Too much??

Source: havenandhome.blogspot.com via Aimee on Pinterest

Though not a bedroom, these are the colors I want (well, at least today)

Source: stylebyemilyhenderson.com via Aimee on Pinterest

I guess I need to go fabric shopping to really kick this project into gear.  It's time to make a commitment.

 

  

Moving: working on a room to work in

As you may recall, in an effort to make our home more functional for us, the Husband and I have been working on a plan to re-arrange half the rooms in our house (you can get the details here.)  We still have a lot of work to do but I thought it was time for an update.  I'll start with the new office.

 Here's a peak at the room from the hall when it was still partially the music room.  The Husband's workbench was still assembled and the picture of Louis was still hanging on the wall.

Things were still being boxed up and instruments were still being carried down stairs.  The drop leaf table had just been added to the room to function as our temporary desk.
The next task was to give everything a nice coat of fresh white paint.  But first I had to remove glue spots from the ceiling where stars had once been stuck by the previous owners.  Here's an up close few of what I was working with:

After a little google search I came up with a couple of remedies that I thought I would try.  First up, Goo Gone.  That stuff takes off anything sticky.....or maybe not.  Next, Murphy's Oil Soap.  Even with a lot of elbow grease it still wasn't working.  I had  also read something about heating a putty knife with a hair dryer and scraping it off.  I wasn't quite up for that so I decided to try a few more things.  Magic Eraser came next and failed like the rest.  Then I called in the big guns, I called my Mom!  She is amazing and knows how to solve problems so after some discussion about my options I finally decided to try acetone (nail polish remover).  Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!  It actually worked.  It also took the paint off but that was okay because I would be repainting too.  It worked best when I used a cotton ball - just like I was removing polish from my toes.  I was so happy!!  Now, we could really start painting.

  
We also finished up the hall which was WAY overdue.  It's a soft gray (Gliddon Ruffled Feathers) like the living room and stairs.  In our family the Husband is the roller and I'm the trimmer/cutter-inner.  It makes for quicker work when you know your job. 

I thought a lot about what shade of white to paint the office.  (I know that sounds ridiculous.) I wanted it to be white because I work with color all the time and it's so nice to be surrounded by something clean and neutral that isn't competing with the project at hand.  I also wanted white because the room has lots of angles and weird ceilings.  It's nice to have everything painted out so that everything looks less cluttered.  Benjamin Moore's White Dove (OC-17) is my all-time favorite go-to white but it was a lot easier just to send the Husband around the corner to the Home Depot to pick up a few gallons.  I could have had them color match it for me but in the end we were lured by a name, Martha Stewart's Popcorn (in honor of my in-law's dog).  It turned out to be a really great clean white.

 

We then assembled the giant stack of boxes that became our new Epedit shelving.  I can't tell you how excited this made me.  This is when the room really started to look like our new office. 

Here's a little tease.  Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what it looks like!

We're Moving!

 Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles via Blueprint Bliss

Well, sort of....Several weeks ago the Husband and I were talking about the house which led to a conversation about our dream house.   But talking about the future "perfect" house let us talk about ways we could achieve some of those goals with the home that we already have. Though it's not perfect, the house we have now is ours and I don't think we'll be going anywhere any time soon.  After a lot of thought I came up with a plan to rearrange half the rooms in the house (I even drew up plans because I'm that kind of dork!) and spent the next couple of weeks trying not to overwhelm my Sweet Husband with all the work that lay before us. 

Check out this graphic I made to help demonstrate the plan:

We are moving the music room downstairs so that the Husband doesn't have to lug his bass up and down the stairs on an almost daily basis when he has a gig.  The rarely used guest room is moving into our tiny shared office because something that is only used 2 or 3 times a year should not be taking up that much real estate.  And finally, the office is moving upstairs into the old music room spot for more space and happily more sunlight (yay!) 
The other brilliant part of this plan is that these rooms hadn't really ever been finished, meaning that we hadn't already spent a lot of time and money to make them functional as well as fashionable.  As I have mentioned on many occasions here on the blog, I wanted to install shelving in the office and have somehow managed to do that for more than a year now.  I had even taken the step of buying shelf brackets last month but I just couldn't seem to finish the job.  Now I know that I was just waiting for the perfect plan to come along! 
We'll be living in a bit of chaos for awhile but I'm really excited about how everything is working out.