makeover monday

Here's a post my husband wrote yesterday....and I'm just stealing it for my blog! I'll insert my comments/additions in blue!

So, Kelly and I have been beginning to think about the nursery for Baby Barb (we find out Monday if it’s little boy Barb or little girl Barb), {we want to know your guesses} and once we find out the baby’s gender, I’m sure nursery prep will kick into overdrive.  The room we are going to use as the nursery is on the main level with our bedroom, but has been our guest room up til now.  We have an upstairs bedroom that we had been using for craft room, sewing room, storage, etc.  It needed a little freshening up before we moved the stuff up there to make it the new guest room, so that was part of my weekend project this last weekend. Here is a picture of the space when we moved in:

It was pretty white … and dingy/dirty white at that, but we didn’t do anything to it initially just so we could get things settled in the main living areas.  This is how it was being used since we moved in:

So, Kelly and I are usually land on the pretty conservative side when it comes to picking colors.  For the downstairs in the house we wanted to go with a tan/beige-ish color … and finally landed on a color called “ashen” which actually reads grey on the walls in some lighting, and more tan in others.  We looked at a lot of different color chips, it took us a while to make that decision, and we love it.  For upstairs though, it was kind of a whim.  {We're talking just stopping by Lowe's and picking out a color in less than 5 minutes- with no research or looking online for ideas- this is huge!} We were in Lowe’s, looked at paint, Kelly looked at one of the “inspiration pamphlets” they have there and said, “what about this”:

And this is where we are so far … still not sure what to put on the walls as far as art or anything, and haven’t picked out window coverings, but that will come … I’d say we are ready for guests.

The pine trunk at the end of the bed is from Kelly’s family. It was something that she received from her grandparents old house. {My great-grandpa King built it and it was in my grandparents house as long as I can remember} I’m still working on painting an old dresser I’ve had since I was a kid to eventually put in here. We bought the old fruit crates for $10 each and the chair in the corner for $12 (all of the other similar chairs we found were in such worse shape, like you couldn’t sit on them, and cost $10-20 more) at an antique store in Cape. We turned the crates on their ends to use as side tables with a shelf, and we painted and re-upholstered the chair … I didn’t get any before pictures before I painted in white (it was just finished wood, and looked pretty rough) but it had this seat on it (which I know someone will probably love, and wonder why we covered it, never fear, I didn’t ruin or get rid of the original fabric):

 

We think it has turned out great so far.  Looking forward to hosting any and all guests in the future! I repainted the rest of the upstairs as well, and we’re working on getting it organized to still have a seating area and space for all of the sewing/crafting stuff … so maybe that’s a future post.

-E

Here are some close up pictures of the crates and lamp.  Eric didn't mention that we got the lamp base at Goodwill for $9.  It was brand new from Target (tag still attached) but was missing the switch (Lowe's called it an 'on/off adapter').  So $3.50 later, we have a brand-new working lamp!  It had been a bronze color, and also got spray-painted white to brighten it's life a little.

Eric has also helped update our home for spring summer/whatever it is around here.  He is the real crafter.  I just come up with ideas or show him things I like, and he implements!  It really works out well- because he gets to put his creative juices to work and I always like the end results! 

Here are a couple of pictures of our updated dining room corner shelves:

And here are some pictures of the updated mantle- in much lighter/brighter colors than the past few months!

Well that's all of the DIY around here for now.  Eric is still working on the dresser- so I'm sure we'll have some updated pictures once it gets added to the room.  He also has ideas for what to do in the landing area at the top of the stairs- especially now that we have lost our storage room!  And don't forget....we want to hear your predictions on Baby Barb!  (And I know....I haven't put any preggo pictures up- so maybe those will come soon too).