Evolution of a Room

The "nook" to the right of this picture has gone from (since we moved in Feb 07) this awful, outdated linoleum/painted wallpaper/a million screws in the wall room...


to this crisp, clean slate that has evolved into...

a cheery apple green wannabe office/pantry/eating nook. You can see we were at a loss as to how to use this room. With a tiny cottage that lacks upstairs storage space (a person can get tired of traipsing down to the basement every time they forget one little ingredient), we definitely could use a large pantry. But I hated wasting the cheeriness of it on a pantry and we just hadn't gotten around to building the shelves.

I briefly (6 months or so) used it for an office. I liked that personal space except the window is too high to see out of when sitting at a desk, so I felt closed in a bit.

Then we debated building benches and a narrow table in the nook for our family dining area. It would be nice to get the table and chairs out of the little kitchen, but we can be glad for drop-leaf tables. This space has now evolved into...

a pink princess pad. If you have an aversion to PINK you really might want to divert your eyes now and skip the rest of this post.

Jaeden and Brooklyn were sharing a room up until now. It's time they had their own space.

We let Brooklyn choose the colors. She chose pink and brown. My momma always told me if I painted anything pink, go light 'cause pink is always really pink. She was right! It was a light pink, but maybe not light enough. However, it's fitting in this small space. We can deal with it! And tones of brown will really help to ground all that pink. I'm working on the brown trim in the middle today. It's taking several coats to get it really good. The lights over the windows are tiaras. Very cute! Can you believe we paid more for them than the bedding??? Yay for Target! Their back-to-school/college dorm line was on clearance and the PERFECT colors of pink and brown. We only paid $13 for her comforter, $13 for the sheets. The window hardware was also on clearance. So it was a really inexpensive room redo.

Keith built her bed and the little desk on the side that will be perfect for homework. I still need to paint them. What more does a child need? Boo is messy anyway, so it'll be great to only have to clean this tiny space when the time comes. In fact, I'm glad I took these pics 'cause it's already a bit of a mess!

We had the little pink wicker baskets on hand and have put her clothes in them. Socks/undies in one, shirts in another, etc. Still need to find a sheer curtain to put under the valance.

These frames were made to match the other stuff we found at Target and were on clearance as well for only $1.49 for a package of 2. We picked up some chipboard letters and stickers at Michaels that matched, and I already had the scrapbook paper so we created some very inexpensive artwork for her room. They'll be hung up on the wall above her bed. We had a couple of extra frames, so we put some pictures of her favorite cousins in AZ in one that is now hanging by her bed. Gotta straighten out the papers in the frame - I let Boo help - and wipe off the fingerprints before hanging.

So, did we cure your pink cravings for the day?

Don't forget to check out this post and leave a comment to be entered into the "Giveaway" drawing on October 1st!

Thanks for all the comments that have been left! We won't require you to leave one every time now, we just wanted to see who really does stop by from time to time. It's reassuring to know Mom hasn't made all of the 1,000 hits on our blog! (wink, wink Mom)

We've been staying rather busy lately. Keith is helping his boss remodel for a new restaurant he's opening up (yeah, I know - I thought the boss owned a nursery...but he's also a chef). They were behind schedule so Keith got involved and started cracking the whip with the contractors and helped speed things up a bit. But on the flip side, it's involved a lot of late nights. I'll be glad when they're finally open for business. Maybe we'll have him to ourselves again.

I've been volunteering to run the Student Store at the elementary school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The kids are so funny! What they come up with sometimes... I'm having fun with it. I stayed later and helped the ladies in the office this morning filling in health forms for all the kindergarten and new students. In a couple of weeks, I'll help them do the health screenings. It's been a very fun diversion! The office girls tell me I need to go turn in an application so I can get paid for the stuff I'm doing and they want me to be able to sub when they're gone. We'll see...

Jordan is looking forward to the Homecoming game tomorrow night. He'll be going with a friend of ours who is an Alumnus and went to school there probably over 30 years ago. Jordan seems to still be enjoying his guitar lessons.

Keith and I and the littler munchkins will head up north tomorrow afternoon to see our brother and sis-in-law who are stopping in on their way to who-knows-what state. They're long-haul truckers for those of you who don't already know that little tidbit. So they traverse the US within just a matter of a day or two.

Then after that and the game, we'll come back to pick up Jordan and head out to the Oregon coast for a quick weekend trip to see these awesome people! Can't wait!!! BBQ's on the beach, sandcastle building, kite flying, hiking and whatever else we can come up with....

Happy weekend to everybody!