RUG ADDITIONS

Thank you so much for all the kind words on my post last week.  

Not sure how this week slipped by me, but here it is Friday and we have a jam packed, fun filled weekend ahead of us.  My parents are coming in town to visit and to watch the school talent show, several basketball games and a baseball game.  They don't know it yet, but they might even get to babysit while we sneak away for a neighborhood derby party. 

I delivered one last load of items to a home today 

that I've been working on for the past couple of months.  

I'll share some before and afters very soon. 

Since I don't have any work to share this week, 

I thought I'd show you a couple of new rugs I picked up at Bargains and Buyouts last Fall.  

First up, this navy and cream dhurrie rug.  

I was shopping with a friend and we picked up this one, 

which was originally for her daughter's room.

When she got it home, her daughter wasn't a fan, so I bought it from her.  

It works perfectly in the boys' room. 

Technically, it's just one boy's room now.  My older son moved to the bedroom on the third floor so he could have his own space.  However, he waffles back and forth between sleeping with his little brother and sleeping all alone in his own room.  It's kind of sweet.

There was quite a bit of wide open floor space in this room, so the rug helps break it up a bit. 

My memory fails me, but I think I picked this orangey/rust colored dhurrie up the same day.  

It works great in the hallway leading from our bedroom to our bathroom.

The best part, each rug was under $50.  

You can check out some of my other Bargains and Buyouts finds here and here. 

I hope you all have a joyous weekend. 

It's going to be sunny and in the 70s here this weekend and I get to spend it with family and friends.  

Doesn't get much better than that!

BAR CART IN THE BEDROOM

Sorry I fell of the grid again.  I always appreciate when readers email me to make sure I'm okay.  

Just had a case of "too much on my plate".  

We went to Mexico last week for Spring Break.  

Going away for a week and trying to wrap up all the loose ends before leaving makes me a little crazy!

We are home again and back in our routines.  

A grand time was had by all.  I'll share some pictures later this week.  

Now, onto the bar cart in the bedroom.....

 I found this little gem in a thrift shop a few months ago.  It was $7.50.

I snagged it right up.

It's quite imperfect, which is perfect for me. 

I moved it around the house for a while trying to find the best spot for it. 

Turns out the best spot for the bar car happens to be my eleven year old daughter's room.

Oh, and I got this fabulous lamp last week at Goodwill for $3.00. Already had the shade. 

I went in to drop off the leftovers from my tag sale (more on that later too).

When I am within a half mile of a thrift store, I can't help but pop it. 

So clearly it makes sense that I would drop off a ton of stuff I don't need and

then buy more stuff I don't need.  I've got problems, people. 

Clearly this bar cart is not stocked with liquor and glassware. 

 Just a few essentials for a little tween girl - 

a bible,  a devotional, pretty flowers, books, souvenirs, and a picture of friends. 

The perfect spot for an imperfect piece. 

For now, anyway.  Who knows where it will end up.

Did I mention I have problems?

So tell me.  Could you, would you, put a bar cart in your child's room?

HAVE A SEAT

No really, just pick a seat.  

There are plenty to choose from. 

I mentioned in this post that I counted the chairs in our home and came up with 37.  

Now, just to clarify, that does included dining chairs and two child size chairs. 

Here is a look at the "chair situation" in our home. 

We have owned this chair for a long time. 

It was originally dark brown wicker and I painted it with BM Kingsport Gray.

I ordred these two swivel/gliders a couple of years ago. 

They are a bit hit with the kids, since they are similar to a merry-go-round.

Still loving these bentwoods that I recovered recently. 

Here is a shot which includes quite a few chairs. 

I picked up the two floral chairs at a consignment shop. 

They work perfectly in "The Nook".

I have four of these vintage school chairs sprinkled around the house. 

One now resides in the foyer. 

My ghost chair was a steal from Craigslist. 

There is a whole lot of chairs going on in here. 

We have the yard sale wingbacks I had reupholstered, 

the wicker and chrome chairs I found on Craiglist 

and the rattan and chrome chairs I got from an estate sale. 

Mixed together, they make one big happy chair family.

The black Eames chair I found at an outdoor antique show is still residing in the office.

These two beauties, which also came from an estate sale are currently living in the basement. 

I love these chairs, but I still don't have a place for them.  Might have to get rid of them soon.

Moving upstairs, the boys have two red tolix-like chairs in their room. 

They came from Kroger, of all places. 

Another vintage school chair fits right in at my daughter's desk.

This chair was another thrift store find that I painted and had reupholstered. 

Lastly, this thrift store find makeover in our master bedroom.

Full disclosure, there are a few more chairs living in chair/lamp purgatory the basement 

and four more on the third floor. 

I also have quite a few barstools, lamps, frames and art that I need to let go of. 

I'm thinking of having a tag sale soon. 

Not to be confused with a yard/garage sale.  

I've done that before and the last time, I vowed never to do it again. 

If you are local and would be interested in coming to the tag sale, send me an email here.

Date and time TBD. 

Thank you so much for being loyal readers and I hope you have a fabulous weekend.

For some reason, my husband has decided he really wants to take the kids to the circus this weekend. 

I volunteered to stay home and get our taxes together.  The lesser of two evils, in my opinion.

THE TABLE I DIDN'T MEAN TO BUY

Remember when I told you I bought four new chairs for the dining room?

While it was the chairs I was interested in, 

this extremely heavy round butcher block table came with them.

It was a major score.  Just $40 for four Bentwood chairs and the table.

They came from an local online estate sale.

When I went to pick up the chairs, I could't manage to move the table by myself.

The employees working the sale were no help. 

I told them I would come back the next day for the table.

To tell you truth, I was really only interested in the chairs, 

until I saw how substantial and cool the table is.  

I made a return trip the next day with a super strong friend and we managed to get the table home.

It sat in the garage for a few days until I figured out what I wanted to do with it. 

Finally, I decided to use it as a desk in the boys' room.

A cute little chair used to be in this corner.

I thought maybe the chair would come in handy for reading.

Yeah, not so much.

My fourth grader is fining himself with quite a bit of homework this year.

With three kids and a dog in our home, it's often difficult to find a quiet spot to study.

This new space has been working out great.

I wanted to keep it mostly clear of clutter.  I placed a few essentials in a wire tray, like a jar of pencils, some books , my thrifted "Think" sign, a dictionary and a sweet picture of the boys together. 

I picked up these red metal chairs at Kroger for $34.99 each.

Pretty cool when you can buy milk, eggs and stylish chairs at the same store.

The boys definitely don't sit here together to do homework. 

But they do sit here together to play games or listen to music. 

It's kind of cute, for the first five minutes, before the fighting begins.

The cute little chair that was here moved up to the playroom.

Nothing around here lives in the same place long enough to get too comfortable. 

Tell me I'm not the only one who constantly moves things around.

THE ROOM OF A TWEEN

There is a reason I have tons of gray hair.  I won't mention any names, but she's eleven!

This certain eleven year old wanted her room to have a more "grown up" feel to it. 

As this eleven year old's mother, I wanted to make this happen, 

but I also wanted to keep some of the "little girl" elements that I love so much.

So we compromised.  

We got rid of most of the pink, we pulled in some other fun colors and we glammed it up a bit.

Here's how it looks today........

We used art and frames we had on hand to make a small gallery wall next to her bed.

We added a new quilt and shams, some new plaid pillows 

and my old buffalo check duvet cover and shams.

We kept the white iron bed, the sheer white curtains and her favorite doll. 

We moved the art I painted in high school above the dresser.

We gave it a rustic hanging treatment with some twine.

I spray painted a few wire baskets gold.  

This one holds her ever growing collection of rainbow loom bracelets. 

I also gave this thrift store lamp (previously silver) a makeover with some gold spray paint. 

It makes the most perfect reading lamp.

We kept the raspberry chair and the rusty old green stool/side table.

We added a fun purple beaded pillow.

We kept the blue metal shelf and we added the accordion coat rack 

to display her swim, dive and gymnastics medals.

We kept the raspberry desk and added the oversized fabric covered bulletin board.

Despite a few extra gray hairs, I think this is one of the best compromises I have ever made.

In case you're interested in any of the sources for this room:

Quilt:  Sam's Club

Duvet Cover:  Ikea

Curtains:  Ikea

Plaid pillow covers: Etsy

Bed: Pottery Barn Outlet (many years ago)

Purple pillow:  Homegoods

Just about everything else in the room was purchased at thrift stores or antique shops.

This room has gone through several transformations. 

You can read more about that here and here.

Thanks for all the kind words in response to last week's post about my little setback. 

I am feeling great!  Almost back to normal - just can't exercise for two more weeks.

I think I'll milk it while I can.

DESIGNING FOR A TWEEN

Who knew designing a room for an eleven year old would be my biggest challenge to date. 

Fortunately, the eleven year old is my daughter and I can pull rank with her. 

Remember when I talked about making a few changes to her room here?

Let's just say we disagreed on the direction of the design and the whole thing came to a halt.

It went something like this:  

I brought this fabric home, she loved it and then she hated it.  

I brought home a different fabric and she hated it and then she loved it and then she hated it again.

I was trying really hard to let her make the decisions.

But then, we started the backyard project and we put her room on hold for a while.

Since her room had recently be re-decorated, I didn't want to spend much money on it.

And couple that with the fact that tweens change their minds daily.

On a whim one day after school, I walked into her room 

and asked her if she would like to rearrange her furniture.

She happily obliged. 

We ended up rearranging pretty much everything in the room.

We also removed a few things and added a few things we found around the house. 

I even squeezed in a DIY project while she was at school and surprised her when she got home.

I'll show you the rest of the room later this week, but here's a look at the super simple DIY project.

I started with this giant bulletin board I got at Goodwill about a year ago.  I paid $7.00 for it. 

Ugly, right?  It was covered in felt leaves and letters.  I did my best getting it cleaned off.

I bought 2.5 yard of this linen fabric from Hancock Fabrics.

I ironed it cut it just slightly larger than the bulletin board. 

I used spray adhesive to keep it in place.

Lastly, I used this paint trim thingy (the technical term eludes me) 

to press the fabric up underneath the frame.

After about 30 minutes of work, I had this.....

The perfect spot for my daughter to display whatever her little heart desires. 

 Not only does it add a nice place for her to display pictures and quotes, 

but it really helps warm up the room.

 Her design goal: to make her room less little girlish 

My design goal: to make her room warmer (and secretly keep some of the little girl elements).

Case in point....

Stay tuned to see how we came together to accomplish both of these goals.

Speaking of warming things up, I sure wasn't ready to pull out the fleece jackets, hats and gloves yet.

Looks like Fall has finally arrived. 

If you need me, I'll be hibernating until April.