His Spot

Our Guest Bedroom Needs Work

Remember this frightening picture I posted a few weeks ago?

I'm happy to say that our guest room no longer looks like this. Whew! This was the leftover after cleaning out the office turned nursery. All that junk had to go somewhere, right? Over the past week we spent some time clearing and cleaning out this room. Our motivator was when we got one of these guys in the mail:

About every 4-6 weeks we get a notice of either the Veteran or Purple Heart truck coming through our neighborhood to pick up donations. The past two times we really took advantage and got rid of about a dozen boxes full of junk. This time around, we didn't have as much, but I still had no problem finding a good amount of things to donate. It's the best feeling. Not only to purge the crap that you've held on for way too long just in case you find a place to use it, but it's even more satisfying to donate rather than just toss it with the weekly trash pickup.

Now it wouldn't be a proper room introduction if I didn't give you a few shots of what the room looked like before we moved in. So take a look:

For the past few weeks the room looked better, but still a mish-mosh of everything.

In addition to getting rid of the small housewares/clothes, we decided to remove some of the larger furniture pieces that we just put in the guest room because we had no other place to put them. The white armoire was a Target piece that I had when I lived with my parents almost 10 years ago. It wasn't always white, but I repainted it after moving into this house to better match the guest room. In it's place? We finally put together the Malm dresser that had been sitting in our dining room for over a month.

After the great clean-out/furniture swap, the guest room is looking better today. The daybed still needs to be brought to Goodwill, we just need to borrow my dad's truck to do so. 

Like I said, it still needs work. So, what do I have planned for this room? For now I'm going to keep the bold color on the walls, rather than paint over with a neutral color like I did here,

and here,

and here. 

We are going to purchase two of these Lindved side tables (only $19.99!) for nightstands on either side of the bed. 

Because there is only one window and no light fixture in the ceiling, proper lighting is a huge problem in the guest room. While I plan to put lamps on both of the night stands, I also want to put a set of three large mirrors on the huge blank wall to the left of the bed.

I'm hoping that they will open the room and help it to feel less narrow as well as reflect some of the natural light that comes in through the window to help brighten up the space. Because I plan to put three of them, I wanted to pick a simple mirror to repeat on the wall. Something like this Stave mirror ($29.99) that comes with a basic, thin frame. The question is, which color?

The mirror above the TV stand will obviously go and the Audrey pictures may relocate above each nightstand for a balanced look around the bed. I'm not sure what to do with the wicker chair. I may need to replace it with a bench or smaller chair. Something for our guests to put their belongings on, but a little more appealing to the eye.

We have an IKEA trip planned for this weekend to pick up lots of goodies for the nursery. I plan to keep my eyes peeled for some guest room ideas while we are there. 

Nursery Repainted

Friday night was spent touching up the trim in the nursery and by Saturday morning the paint was complete. Although the difference may not look as drastic in pictures as it does in person, I couldn't be happier with the change. 

The paint color we used was Martha Stewart's Sharkey Gray - the same color used in both the dining room and in the upstairs hallway. Funny enough, it's also the color that I used to create my header for this blog. Can you tell that I love this neutral shade?

Just to remind you how the paint was before, here are two before pictures of the original beige color. 

Bear with me, I know I'm changing from a neutral wall, to a neutral wall. But, here is the room Saturday morning after two fresh coats of Sharkey Gray:

Can you tell the difference? I looks so much better and more finished with the new shade. I honestly couldn't be more satisfied. I love how it looks against the white trim and doors.

I have made a few definite decisions with regards to the rest of the room. I don't want to tell too much until after some of the projects are completed (especially since I'm a rookie and I accept that things may not turn out as good as I plan). But as a teaser, here are some of the paint swatches I grabbed this weekend to try out:

If you pay close enough attention you may be able to figure it out. 

Until then, stay tuned!

Not Always Picture Perfect

1 dog bath

+ 2 flea treatments

equals couch on lockdown for a few days.

Laundry Room Shelves

Our laundry room is one project that I've only been working on little by little. It's not really a priority room to finish for us because, let's face it, Jordan and I are really the only ones who see the room. It's located on the second floor of our house, so it doesn't second as a mud-room and it isn't the type of laundry room that guests regularly see or walk through when they enter our house.

The door in the far corner (between the guest bath and nursery) is the laundry room.

Over the past few weeks I've begun to slowly make minor changes in an attempt to spruce up the room a bit. It still needs quite a bit more work, but there is certainly progress.

Here are a few before shots.

As you can see, our laundry room is very small. Barely enough room to fit a rug, washer and dryer. The cut out above is around the corner to your right when you walk in the door. The previous owners added those custom shelves for storage. We removed the bottom shelf and put a laundry sorter in it's place. This makes doing laundry a ton easier when the clothes are already sorted for you. I don't exactly remember when I took these pictures but it must have been after I had cleaned the house. Those laundry bins are never that empty!

One of the first changes I wanted to make was to add shelving above the washer and dryer. We had so many cleaning supplies that they were scattered about the house between all the bathrooms, the laundry room, the kitchen and even the hall closet (which is now Jordan's closet). I wanted to keep all of our cleaning supplies in two places. Upstairs in the laundry room, and downstairs under the kitchen sink. In order to do this, we needed to add more storage.

During my IKEA trip a while back I picked up the EKBY Hemnes shelf with coordinating EKBY Bjarnum metal brackets. Jordan hung that shelf above the washer and dryer and we used it to house all our laundry supplies. It still needs a little work, but it's much better. For one thing, I'd like to find a more attractive way to store the dryer sheets rather than stacking the boxes. Maybe my leftover parsley herb crate?

I love the grey-brown color of the shelf. IKEA came out with that shade a while back and I've been itching to buy a piece of furniture in that color. What attracted me most to the shelf was the of metal brackets used to mount it on the wall. I figure the laundry room is a great place for the more "industrial" that these brackets give the space. 

I also wanted to do something with the already existing shelves above the laundry bin. Since we need the storage, it was important to keep the shelving, especially since we already removed one of them. Covering the shelves in contact paper seemed a cheap and easy makeover that would do just the trick. I've never really been a fan of the faux wood or marble contact paper. And most of the patterns seem tacky and not at all the style I was looking for. Then I came across this beauty at Home Depot:

Contact paper that gives your shelving a stainless steel look. Since I love the metal on the brackets so much, I thought this would be the perfect solution to cover the shelves in the laundry room, too. So less than $10.00 later and about 20 minutes of my time, the shelves went from this:

to this:

I love them! 

Because the shelves were custom made and painted in a few coats of white paint, the minor imperfections you see are due to the shape and finish of the wood. But they are hardly noticeable unless you are studying the shelves up close. 

Keeping up with the metal trend I unintentionally started, I purchased this ironing board storage unit about a year ago. 

We finally decided to hang it up a few weeks ago and even though it promises to work with both 'Y' and 'T' shaped ironing boards, our little 'Y' shaped board won't fit. 

Ugh. Since I've long tossed the receipt and packaging, we will most likely be on the hunt for an inexpensive replacement ironing board. I still like the storage unit and it would be great to get the ironing board off the floor.

There are a number of other little changes I'd still like to do with the laundry room. The black outlets and switches need to be switched to white. I'd also like to find a better way to organize the laundry accessories on the Hemnes shelf. The walls could use a little bit of decor, too. I do have a decent amount of stainless steel contact paper left to play around with somewhere else. I've thought about covering the wooden clothes hanger mounted on the wall, although I'm not sure yet how I'd tackle the hooks. 

Ok, I'm rambled on enough. Time to put that laundry room to use and wash our sheets.