It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Inspiration Board: Boys' Room

I have been having so much fun putting together ideas for an upcoming house project. I promised my oldest son, who is 5 and very into dinosaurs, that when his baby brother gets big enough for a big boy bed we can work on creating a cool dinosaur room for the two of them. Now there is still a bit of time before we actually put it together (I'm thinking late spring, early summer), but with Christmas coming up, and lots of stuff I've been eyeing going on sales and clearance racks, I've decided to start putting together a plan and picking up things here and there.

My goals for the room are to make it bright, fun, and colorful -- without being too cartoony and babyish. I want something they can grow into. And keep it crisp and neat looking even though I want to throw in a few bright colors and patterns. I am thinking about painting the dark trim in their room white. It's about the last room in the house where the trim hasn't been painted and I think it's a big reason why the room currently feels so dark. And I'm thinking a white beadboard bottom with a rich, chocolate brown on the top half of the walls. I love the dinosaur mural I added to the inspiration below and I plan on incorporating something similar into the room. I love how it ties the browns, oranges, crisp whites, blues, and greens together!


I haven't been able to find any boy comforters I like. The only one that came close was from Kohls and it isn't available anywhere anymore. Of course. And I don't want to pay those outrageous prices for bedding to get something I like so-so. So, I decided to make it myself for a low price.

I found this great site called The Company Store that has all kinds of fun bedding on clearance. I ordered a blue striped sheet and a green striped sheet with a solid orange and a solid brown that I will use for the backings and I am going to sew the boys each a duvet cover. I purchased an Ikea duvet insert for about 12 bucks each on ebay. And I also ordered them each a dinosaur pillowcase from that same site and the dinosaur novelty pillows from Kohls, all of which I hope to have ready to give them for Christmas!

I love Target lamps lately. They have so many fun and colorful choices for a really low price in the Room Essentials line. I picked up the floor lamp for half off today and one of the floor rugs! I'll be sure to share when we get to work on the room! I'm excited to get started and I think they are going to love it!

Painted Wallpaper

An up and coming trend in home decor is definitely painted faux wallpaper. By using stencils or templates, you can get the beautiful look of wallpaper without the cost and hassle of the real stuff. It's a great way to add a subtle or bold pattern, a pop of color, or instant character to a room. When we redid our entryway, I knew I wanted it to have lots of character for being such a little room because it's the first thing people see when they walk in my house. A stenciled medallion pattern was perfect above the beadboard wainscot!

I love the visual interest in medallion patterns, stripes, and quattrefoil -- my newest endeavor! I plan on sharing the before and after tour of my kitchen one day soon. But there has been one wall in my kitchen that I have never really known what to do with. I have had all kinds of things hanging on it, from a decorative piece of fabric, a family calender, a clock, a couple shelves and cupboards, and a mirror, but nothing ever looks right because it's such a big, blank space without any cupboards.

After seeing several great posts around the Internet with a painted trellis pattern, like the ones here and here (which has a free printable template), I knew I had to find a place in my house to try it out and this troublesome wall seemed perfect.

Here's what I started with once I started taking stuff off the wall.

I printed out the template, traced it onto cardboard to make a stencil, and got to work. I mixed the leftover wall color paint with some ultra bright white paint in semi-gloss which gave it a nice sheen to offset it from the satin wall. It catches the light nicely so you can see the pattern very well without it being starkly different. (Tip: Mix the paint in a cool whip container, or another disposable container with a lid, so you can cover and store the extra or even just in between sections/coats!)

I used a pencil to trace the pattern on the wall a section at a time. I made sure the top and bottom was lined up along the trim to help it look level. The template wasn't totally symmetrical, so there were spots that I had to fudge a little, but I found this pattern to be very forgiving. I just did a single line around the pattern, instead of the double line in the posts I shared above, which saved on time, and I was still very happy with the result.

When my hubby came home, he actually thought I went out and bought wallpaper and had put it up while he was at work. Then he looked closer and was like, "You painted that?! It looks just like wallpaper! " Hahaha sweet. :)

Here is what my wall looks like now! I added my fun little coffee cup clock, but I'm still trying to figure out what I want to hang above the coffee bar.

In the meantime I am enjoying my pretty new wall! Cost: zero! Beauty: priceless!

Home Tour: Mudroom/Entryway

When we bought our house 4 1/2 years ago, I could see the potential it had (and still has) to be an inviting, stylish, functional home. Since then, we've been working away at it and have made a lot of cosmetic changes to many of the rooms.

This summer we completed a huge project on the main entrance to our house that was functional as well as cosmetic. We gutted the room, which had rotted paneling, astro-turf carpet, and zero insulation, and turned a messy, ugly mudroom into a pretty, welcoming entryway. We also added a new door to the basement that will allow us to wall off a section where the old door was for a kitchen pantry. That's our next big project! ;)

Here's what the room looked like before/during:

We installed new, bigger windows, a new steel door, new light fixture and added a porch light, insulation, drywall and beadboard, new flooring, hooks and stenciling. Most of the supplies we purchased from Mr. 2nds and got amazing prices - the whole room cost us less than $1000. We also had help from my dad, the master woodworker, making the trim from scratch which saved us a ton of money.

This is what we have now! Hello, beautiful!