The Playroom Must Go!: Week 2

 

Welcome back to Week 2 of the One Room Challenge, hosted by the Calling It Home blog. Quick recap from Week 1: I'm re-imagining our small downstairs playroom/sometime guest room  into primarily a guestroom, while still keeping the kid's computer area and games in the space. Here's a Before:

Confession: I haven't done much at all with the playroom in the last week. Not unless you count my little internal shudder that happens each time I glance inside.  But I do have a tiny bit of progress to show you from the previous week.

I'm at the not-fun stage, where I'm organizing and de-cluttering and making messy piles of "stay," "donate," and "figure out WTH to do with this thing." And piles don't look very pretty or glamourous, either in person or on my blog.

Well.  Part of this mess you see on the floor here:

 is due to the fact that I've successfully purged out the pressboard "rustic" wardrobe from Ikea. This piece is leaving, and it's just about ready for me to create a listing on Craigslist and bid it farewell.

Empty wardrobe:

I haven't been as productive in purging out the desk sitting beside the wardrobe. The desk drawers are chock full of both my things and kids' stuff. It's actually my own stuff that's harder to figure out (most of the kid's stuff can be chucked).

So that's where things stand as of this week.  But enough of ugly Before.  Let's see the vibe and direction I have planned for the room.

I like this small room below, especially because the lay-out mimics that of my own space. (Except it's still bigger than my tiny room.)

Design by Erika Ward, via My Colortopia. 

I plan on painting the large wall where the wardrobe/desk area is now a similar dark color. I'm picturing a nice true navy blue though, not the blue above that tilts a good bit toward violet.

And I also plan on placing the bed in the same location as above. (I don't know yet whether I'll try for some kind of faux-headboard, or just use some art above the bed.)

In this little recessed nook where the bed is now:

I plan on putting a console desk for the computer monitor. It's not very wide though (just as wide as a queen bed, in fact) but I hope to find something white and clean-lined, similar to this one from Ikea:

This is the Besta Burs desk, which is 70" wide and therefore won't fit in the nook. But you get the idea of what I'm after here.  (I could also put the desk on the wall where the Expedite system is now, swap that into the nook area, and flip it up to use vertically.)

Here are a few other shots of a room that I really love. It's a lounging area for a teen girl, but mostly I just love the clean white with pops of intense color, and the fun vibe:

Photo of K. Mathiesen Brown's design via House of Turquoise

 Photo of K. Mathiesen Brown's design via House of Turquoise

 Photo of K. Mathiesen Brown's design via House of Turquoise

(All of the above 4 inspiration rooms can be found on my Pinterest board, "Tween Room Ideas." )

Obviously, with a navy blue wall, my guestroom isn't going to be as white and bright. It's the overall playful vibe that's my inspiration.  (And the other walls are going to be re-painted in a brighter, semi-gloss white, to replace both the flat white paint & the pastel green walls.)  In keeping with the inspiration rooms, here are a couple of fun pillows that I've already purchased for the bed:

 The sequins on the "Famous" pillow are just printed on, which I love: no picking off sequins by bored little hands.  And the shiny patent-orange pillow is just fun, and I think it'll  pop like crazy against the navy wall. (And both were bought at HomeGoods.)

So that's my vision, and you've seen the reality...now it's my job to make it all come together.  Back next week to hopefully show some further progress! Thanks for coming by.

The Play Room Must Go!

And so we find ourselves yet again in my guest room-slash-playroom. That room that rarely houses guests, and rarely gets "played" in by my kids (unless you count Minecraft, on the computer).

I first wrote about cleaning it up, here in this post.

Above is what it looked like all freshly purged of (that round) of kids toys, back when we still used the small orange Ikea futon for guests.

And then I showed you how we removed the aging futon and put our too-soft for the master bedroom, but fine-for-guests mattress into the room, earlier this year in this post.

Which as you can see, hogs up most of the space in this small room. (Although we did finally get the box springs up off the floor with some bed rails.)

We have 4 bedrooms upstairs in our house, which works perfectly for us: the master, one for the girl, one for the boy, and an office for the Husband, who works from home and is a bit of a mad-scientist/techie geek (i.e., his office is a mess of computers and parts and wires and mother boards and isn't fit for guest traffic).

And then we have this funny little angled room downstairs, right by the front door, and one of the first things you see when you come into our home.

I've been to other houses in our neighborhood with our same floor plan, and the builder had intended for this to be an open "den" small office area.  The wall that you see below, with the map, is usually opened up as a great big open window, often with plantation shutters.

But the family who lived here before us had more kids, and so they closed up the open window (in a rather rough job) to use this as their eldest girl's bedroom. They also framed out the doorway and installed double-doors, as again the original intent was for this "den" area to be open. 

People!! I am so OVER this room, and the way is does, or does NOT function in my house. 

I am taking on the challenge of emptying out most of the toys and furniture, and restoring it to function primarily as a guest room. I'll continue to store some games and books in the Expedit system, but I no longer see it as a "play room." I'm keeping the kids computer in here, too, as this is where they play Minecraft and noodle on the shared computer -- but its not where they do homework.

And I wanna get all this  done by the end of the month, which is why I'm joining up with the blog "Calling It Home's"  One Room Challenge Linking Party during the month of October.

Here's what I'm getting rid of:

 Both of these big pieces, the Ikea "rustic" wardrobe, and the Ikea "secretary" type desk, are going.  The wardrobe is full of games and craft supplies, with a rail to hang guest's clothes.  The desk drawers (there are 4) are full of memories and journals and innumerable broken pens, receipts and ticket stubs.

This wall o' fun also needs to get dealt with: 

Lily has agreed to sell her Fisher Price dollhouse, so that's going, too. 

I'm also changing out the pale green paint and most of the artwork. I would LOVE to explore the idea of bashing out that faux-window seat. It has a bullnose lip, is too narrow to actually serve as a window seat, and is totally useless, except to look "decorative." And eat up precious space.

In the meantime, if you're new here from the link party, I'd hate for you to think my whole house is also just as cluttered and awkward and uninspired. So here's a recent DIY project I completed with the Malm dresser in our entryway:

 Yay for Overlays! Yay for gold spray paint!

Come back week, and I'll share my inspiration photos of what I'd like the new guest room to feel like, plus a couple of fun pillows that I've already bought for the bed.  
 In the meantime, it's cleaning and purging over here (oh, and Halloween decor for the rest of the house.)

The fun never ends.

Hello, Monday {Hit Refresh}

Hola! It's the last Monday of the month, and though it's hard to believe, by this time next week I'll be all done with this intense month and its challenges.  Next Saturday, my Odyssey of the Mind team will compete in their Regional competition in Palm Springs.  Unless they place in the top 2 or 3 for their category (which would take nothing short of a miracle)  we'll be DONE. ALL DONE.

You know when your kids drive you bazonkers and you can barely refrain from knocking their sweet heads together in frustration? Yeah. That's been my life for the last two months, two or three times a week, except with only 1 of my own kids, and three other little beasties darlings.

Anyway. Being done with this long chapter of the school year (we've been meeting since early September) makes me feel like hitting the "Refresh" button on life in general, and my house and garden in particular.  Spring is on the way.

Hello (goodbye) Ugly Fixture:

So I have these builder-grade ceiling-mount lights all over my house.  We've lived here almost 9 years, and I haven't changed out a single one. But the far one directly over my desk has burned out a couple of bulbs, and the Husband says the wiring is a total mess & fire hazard and needs to be replaced.  It's been non-functioning for the whole month.

Yesterday we went to Ikea (what was that I said about wanting to knock my kids' noggins together in frustration?) and picked out a new fixture. I hope I like it; but certainly it can't look any worse. I think we have something like 8 of these darn fixtures throughout the house. Replacing them all at once would be pricey. (But worth it.)

Hello, Garden

These hardy purple daisy-like bushes are the only thing blooming in my backyard right now. They soldier on, despite the hard-packed dirt that passes for soil in the flowerbed.  I really need to give some attention to this section of our yard.  For all my good ideas for the interior, I have a really hard time imagining what to do with our outdoor spaces.

Hello, Garden (?)

For instance, take this little rectangle of dirt. I believe the former owners used this as some sort of pitching/practice mound for their son.  Again, in the almost 9 years since we've owned our house, I haven't figured out what to do with it.  A few years ago, the Husband threw a date seed in the dirt, and lo! Now we have a date palm.  A couple years back, I laid out an outdoor rug and a plastic Adirondack chair (this area gets shady in the late afternoon), but that didn't last. Ideally, I'd like to plant a small vegetable garden out here.  Tucker, my burgeoning vegetarian, would love it! But again, I have zero idea on how to begin.

Hello, Outdoor Seating

On the other hand, I know precisely what I'd like to do with our outdoor table: clean it up & sell it! And buy a new, comfortable sectional that we would actually sit on and enjoy.  For all our great weather, we rarely eat outside. For one, our area gets a lot of flies in the summer, and two...we'll we're just lazy and don't think about it.  But a sectional with a couple side tables and a small firepit? Yeah. I think we'd be out here a lot more.

So that's just some of the ways I want to hit the "Refresh" button around here and get ready for spring & summer.  (And I didn't even get to the front porch.)  So many idea...so little moola.  I'll just have to get creative.

Speaking of which, wish me luck for next Saturday! Odyssey is all about being creative and thinking outside the box. Which, given the talents of the kids on my team, should be a no-brainer. And yet.... 

Linking up with Lisa Leonard for Hello, Mondays.

My Forever Home

Source: tumblr.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Confession: I have a split-personality disorder.

At least when it comes to home design & decor. One side of my brain loves bright, intense colors and lots of contrast and contemporary lines. Think Jonathan Adler, mid-century furniture, starburst mirrors, and Palm Springs and Palm Beach: turquoise and orange? Bring it on. 

But the other side of my brain gravitates hard toward old and shabby (but not shabby-chic, per se.) I don't believe in reincarnation, yet some essential part of me is nostalgic for a life lived before this one, of aprons and pie safes and peeling floral wallpaper.

Source: crumpledenvelope.tumblr.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Maybe it was just all those years of reading the Little House books, of pretending that my long Lanz nightgown was Laura's calico dress.

This is the description I wrote on "My Forever Home" board over on Pinterest:
A farmhouse with a screen door out to the laundry line in the backyard. The sound of a freight train in the night. Honeybees drowsing in the roses, a ceiling fan spinning slow. Daisies in a coffee can, pie cooling on the windowsill. 

Yes.

Source: theinspiredroom.net via Kelly on Pinterest

A screen door that creaks and slams. A backyard larger than our current rectangular postage stamp. A backyard with trees. With shade. With a hammock? Oh, I'm killing myself.

Source: simplyseleta.com via Kelly on Pinterest

A kitchen sink, where my view is not the stucco wall of my neighbor's house, barely 10 feet away.

Source: everythingfab.com via Kelly on Pinterest

A place where I, or my children, could hop on a bike and ride beside wildflowers, or  a seasonal little stream, or ride into town for an ice cream. Where you could lean your bike against a tree and just stare up into the branches for a spell.


It's one of my oldest and fondest dreams, my Forever Home. Says the girl who lived in  4 rental houses before she was 12, and spent her adolescence in an apartment.  

Source: missgracieshouse.blogspot.com via Kelly on Pinterest

It's good to have dreams.  You can visit My Forever Home board on Pinterest and see a lot more of the same. Sometimes I just sit and look at it and dream my leafy, shabby, creaky-floored dreams.

Pasadena House Lust

Lust and envy are ugly, bottom-feeder emotions, but on a beautiful Sunday morning walk through tony South Pasadena I was wallowing in them both.

Oh, pretty Pasadena. Oh, pretty pretty million-dollar houses. (Two million, five, ten million, easy.)

It reminded me of a funny, quick memoir I read a couple years back: Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House, by Meghan Daum.

 As someone who grew up in rental houses and apartments, who moved several times before the age of 12 (and some of those moves meant crashing in my grandparents' spare bedrooms), I understand house lust very well. It's a primal thing with me.  The white picket fence goes way beyond metaphor.

Anyway. Let's take a stroll, shall we? As I wrote yesterday, we stayed at the Bissel House, and the homes here are north and west of that location near Orange Grove Blvd. in South Pasadena -- an area appropriately nicknamed "Millionaire's Row." Go figure.

Loved this low slung modern house -- with great succulent landscaping.

I suppose one must give the gate code to the staff, too?

We actually got to tour through this home, which was open for an estate sale. It was old, old, old and falling apart, but lord it was cool to walk through. There were elaborate fireplaces in almost every room:

One of my favorites, I think because of that big wide porch:

I would totally "settle" for this more modest ranch, too:

My favorite older-house style is Monterey Colonial, and here's an example. I can totally picture myself up there with a coffee and good book on the upper balcony, smelling the orange blossoms....

We agreed this would make for an awesome Halloween house:

Sigh. So there you have it. Since we live in a cookie cutter housing development, with an HOA ensuring that all the homes stay within the same tones of beige, I think what I lust after most, even more than the awesome house, is simply a charming, walkable neighborhood.

(And the awesome old house.)  Oh, life would be perfect.  I understand that my house lust is a spiralling sinkhole, and it's the same as my favorite bumper sticker quote: "No Matter Where You Go, There You Are." Yeah, I get that. Still.

Oh, Pasadena!

Big Ikea Plans

On Sunday, we did some epic shopping. Mostly window-shopping, but how often do you tackle Ikea, The Container Store and an outdoor mall in one afternoon?  At least we stopped in between for some lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, but I was good and didn't order any actual cheesecake. But I was sorely tempted, and in retrospect, should have just went for it.  

I'm excited because we bought two pieces of Ikea furniture that will hopefully solve the issues with two of the problematic areas of my house: the entryway, and my master bedroom.

For a refresher, here's my entryway wall as it looked around this time last year:

And here's what its looked like since February, when I took down the shelves:

The husband has since patched up & re-painted over all the holes, but you get the idea. I have a short little Lack table sitting there currently, serving as a landing place for sunglasses and mail, etc.

Yesterday at Ikea, I bought a small white Malm dresser for the space.  I know, another piece of Ikea in my house (rolls eyes). But.  But, I purposely bought a Malm, because I'm really excited to try some Overlays designs on it.  I'm not sure yet if I'll paint the Overlays or not (and what color?), but they are definitely going to happen.

Some ideas, from one of my Pinterest boards:

Source: myoverlays.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Source: myoverlays.com via Kelly on Pinterest

And here's a gold-painted version:

Source: myoverlays.com via Kelly on Pinterest

(I'm very interested in finding out how 2 of the above Malm's pictured appear to have legs. Maybe they left off the bottom board during assembly? Must investigate, because it looks great.)

And then, also inspired by my Pinterest boards, we bought the Vittsjo shelving unit, for the Great Wall of Greyness in my bedroom:

i'm really excited to buy some brass spray paint and turn the flat, black metal unit into this:

Source: littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Between the Malm and the Vittsjo unit, there will be a lot of surfaces for me to style and dress up all purty-like.  I'm itching to get to these projects.  Updates soon!