Patience is A Virtue. . .

Early in my marriage when I was inexperienced and poor, I tended to buy furniture based on need and a desire to have it NOW.  If the couch I wanted was too expensive, I just bought something cheaper.  I didn't search to find it somewhere else cheaper. I didn't wait and save my pennies so I could buy it later. I just found something that would work.

Then I looked around my house and decided I didn't really like what I had.  It didn't feel like it represented my style. . . if I even knew what that was.  I have recently come to the conclusion that if you have something functional in place you are less likely to go out seeking something new.  Why go looking for the perfect sofa if you have one in good shape doing the job?  It seems less justifiable.  

So when our springer spaniel snacked on our furniture last fall I got rid of the ruined sofa and table and chairs in my family room and kitchen.  I found a table I loved right away, but Rob and I couldn't agree on family room furniture.  This time I wasn't willing to just buy something that would do the job, and neither of us really wanted to spend the amount of money it would cost to get my first or even second choice sofa and club chairs. So I moved my living room furniture into my family room and lived with an empty living room. . . until this month.

My patience paid off!  We found nearly the same sofa for half the price--1/3 the Restoration Hardware sofa! And it came with the five pillows shown in the picture.  I love a good rolled English arm sofa (and a turned leg).  Rob argued it wouldn't be comfortable, and with only a picture to go on with the other two stores, I wasn't making progress convincing him, but once he sat in this beauty he agreed that it was, indeed, quite comfy.  It has down/feather filled cushions and a really deep seat--great for the two of us being 6'2" and 5'10".  

Here is the Restoration Hardware sofa:

The Pottery Barn sofa:

The RC Willey sofa (Mine):

AND we found a sofa table and a coffee table for a good deal.  A nearly identical table set can be purchased at Ballard Designs, but they cost more! I count that a double score.  Plus mine was made from reclaimed wood out of a factory.  

Ballard table:

And I got some great accessories:  the mounted driftwood on the sofa table. . .

And this lovely three teared tray, which I love everything about, even the little bun feet underneath it.  

Now I just need to find those two leather club chairs and another upholstered chair to finish the seating. . . 

But in the meantime, I am ignoring the rain pouring down outside, washing all the lovely blossoms off the trees.  I am bringing a little spring inside.  I may have to fill my house with cut flowers to appease my annoyance with the dreary weather around here!  

**All furniture and accessories mentioned in this post were purchased at RC Willey**

Going BOLD. . . and Making it Personal

How do you start planning a room? Where do you seek inspiration?  I often like to find some fabric and jump off from there.  With Signe's room we did have a picture of an inspiration room that got us going, but I knew I would need one fun fabric to plan the rest of the room around.  I was having a hard time finding one for some reason--I think because Signe had picked this raspberry red color that she had set her heart on.  It wasn't really pink, it wasn't really red--but it WAS really hard to find fabrics to coordinate with.

Then I stumbled across this really cool website, Spoonflower.com, that seemed to have endless fun and funky fabrics.  After searching all over the site for well over an hour one night I suddenly realized something. . . you can design your own fabric on Spoonflower.  How cool is that!?  You can draw your pattern and scan it, or design it in photoshop or another design program and upload it.  Then you can choose a scale and repeat pattern, and choose from one of seven kinds of fabric to have it printed on.  This might be sounding like an ad--it's not, I am just all kinds of excited with the idea of making my own fabric patterns.  I think this might be the beginning of a long relationship! 

So I set to work drawing up something.  I didn't think too much about how the pictures looked--I was too excited to order something and see how it turned out.  But none-the-less, I like how it turned out.  Here is my scanned drawing:

and here is a snapshot of the fabric:

I plan to use this fabric as a roman shade on her window.

Once it arrived I made a trip down to Fabric Depot--a HUGE fabric store down in Portland.  And despite the overwhelming amount of options there, I couldn't find any coordinating fabrics that were the perfect shade of raspberry.  I very nearly scratched my fabric and picked a different feature fabric--I had one all picked out.  But Rob (who was nice enough to go with me, despite his aversion to fabric stores), convinced me to stick with my fabric.  So we ditched the raspberry and went with red, which still worked great.  I'm liking it.  Here is a little spread of the general idea I am working with:

What do you think?  

There will be lots of white.  Her duvet cover and one of the two shams I plan to make will be mostly white.  And I have almost decided to paint her current twin headboards white (since Hannah insists on sleeping in Signe's room I have decided to stick with the two twin beds instead of finding a full sized Jenny Lind bed, as I originally planned).

Her dark green dresser and side table, however, may be going turquoise.  Because even though their current green color is very similar to the vine part of the feature fabric, I think we need a little more boldness.  We are taking a departure from the current warm and subtle hues, so we might as well do it BIG, right?

Mixing Things Up!

I have survived the energy sucking, motivation killing, head cold that has been plaguing our household.  Actually, I was feeling much more energetic last Thursday and spent the better part of the day cleaning and organizing my house.  Then Friday morning dawned and I awoke with the intent to get back to work--I had plans, and lists, mind you.  But then, while making beds after the kids caught the bus, epiphany struck.

I suddenly wondered why the heck Signe's room was THE smallest room in the house--with her two twin beds and more clothing than any seven year old will probably wear before outgrowing them (not to mention her sister refuses to sleep in her own room, and so sleeps in the extra bed and contributes to the massive mess . . . in the room at the top of the stairs, visible from the entry way).

So my plans and lists went out the window while I proceeded to shift rooms counter clockwise: Signe's room became Hannah's room (after all, her bed is a full, her furniture and bedding is lovely, and she never spends any time in there--it's really a glorified dressing room),

Before

After - Much work is still needed

Hannah's room became the guest room (or at least it WILL be the guest room--right now it is my temporary work room. I need a craft room. My sewing stuff keeps roaming around the house! I decided to paint the bed before I set it back up.),

Before

After - Clearly not an improvement!

and the guest room became Signe's room (and essentially Hannah's room too).

Before

After

 The guest room (now Signe's room) was the largest of the three rooms and rarely got used.  And it only took me three and a half years to come to this conclusion.

So now I have some painting to do and some lighting to address, not to mention curtains and wall decor.  But it all got me thinking about painting pretty much all the furniture in these rooms and making/buying new bedding.

I have a thing for white linens (bet you're surprised!) All my towels and sheets and a lot of our other bedding are white--except Signe's room.  But she wants to redo her room with lots of white and accents in bolder colors.  So I have been toying with ideas.

The girls produced this lovely artwork, which I decided to put in the frames which previously displayed pictures of green things--moss, ferns, ivy--when it was the guest room:

Signe has requested I use bold colors from the pictures here and there in the room.  So I have been trying out bedding ideas.  I made a couple pillows inspired by some I saw at Pottery Barn (though here they are on Hannah's bed). . .

But I wonder if I need to incorporate color with a ribbon or something--maybe make the ties on the end colored.

 Or maybe I don't need color here, but rather in the other bedding, like the inspiration picture:

I think I will paint the headboards, the dresser and night stand, and the desk I bought at Goodwill (which is not yet in the room).

Oh, and bring her chandelier in from her previous room--I bought a new one for Hannah's new room.

Whew! That was--and will be--a LOT of work.  Stay tuned for more progress!

Fresh Starts and Fresh ideas. . .

Happy New Year!  A little late, but heartfelt none-the-less.  I have a confession to make.  My husband has been home on vacation since December 19th. . . the last day I posted.  AND he doesn't go back to work until next week.  When I am trying to work he comes in with an impish grin and says, "Let's go. . ." where doesn't matter--he makes it all sound so fun, even if it is only, "Let's go make homemade bread!" or "Let's go clean the kitchen together."  SO, when I should be saying, "I need to work."  what my mouth actually says is, "Okay!"

See my dilemma?  When we both work together we get things DONE.  But when we both are together doing separate things. . . we get things done, just not the things we should be doing!

Today I am getting back to work, really.  Though, I might try to squeeze in one more house project this week.  But I will take you along and show what we are up to.  I think you might like it.

Just to make it harder to focus, I have gotten the bug to redo my daughter's bedroom.  It hasn't been done since we moved here over three years ago.  I did it up beautifully in Utah when we lived there.  When she was a baby it looked like this:

Then when she got her big girl bed we redid the whole thing to look like this:

Then we moved.  And her stuff made the room look fine, though I didn't paint--even the curtains came with the house.

(I did snatch the chandelier from the old house though--it was a baby gift from my neighborhood friends.)

But the other day Signe saw this picture and decided her room needed a makeover:

(Country Living)

I think since her sister has an antique iron bed in her room I will not do iron.  I am leaning towards a Jenny Lind style bed but all the ones I am seeing are on ebay for fabulous prices but mainly on the east coast and largely local pick-up only.  The search will continue.  It will be sad to take out her twin beds.  We made those when she was two for the whopping cost of $35 each.

While I was browsing the Goodwill the other day I came across this table:

When I was looking it over I spied a big ugly spider on the under side and my husband refused to kill it for me.  So I called over a friendly employee and informed her I was interest in the table, but no so much the spider--and it's two egg sack nests!  So she in turn called over another employee--a boy--who put on a glove and hauled the spider off--ALIVE!  Eww.  I know the idea of saving the spider is nice and all, but if he put it outside in the 25 degree weather. . . but back to the table.

I think I want to paint it and put it in Signe's new room on one side of the bed with a cute little chair.  I also picked up this great frame for not much and the painting itself is on a board rather than canvas.  That will make painting chalkboard paint right over it a snap.  Don't you think that would be cute above the made over desk?

I get so excited when inspiration strikes and I just want to go at it.  But my room make-overs are never quick, unfortunately.  I will keep you posted on the progress, slow though it may be.

In the meantime, I need to revamp the etsy shop and restock the store. . . unless Rob pops down here to ask if I want to go running or something--because as awful as that sounds, he has convinced me to do it the last three days in a row!

Wish me luck--and focus!