Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Moving things around

I haven't done a single "Waistline Wednesday" this pregnancy, but things have just been crazy! I am quickly approaching my due date and as such we gotta get ready for this new little girl!

As usual, I can never just say "hey let's do this" and do it. I have to think of all the possibilities and weigh them as if the consequences are permanent or have any real eternal value. I mean, some things do, but not when it comes to decorating the house. I'll spare you all the back and forth, but in the end we decided to move Maggie from the toddler bed to a twin bed. We already have the headboard that matches the bedroom set so it just made sense.

Before- a real shot at how messy they were that day. Below, taking
the toddler bed down and out, then cleaning up
 
 She looks so little in this big 'ol bed! Maggie was sooo excited about her princess big girl bed! She insisted on having Rapunzel bedding. Then we found these at Target, several princesses, which is fine, so long as Rapunzel is one of them :). I just love my little girl!
Jake is moving in with Will-- this is something we planned before we even knew about baby #4 because Will really wanted to share with Jake. He just had to get old enough. I'd prefer to wait a couple more months until Jake is 2 and in my mind ready to graduate from the crib, but it is what it is. So Jake will get the toddler bed and baby girl will move into Jake's room- it's the smallest and nursery-sized. If that's a real thing. I don't love how the boys' room looks. It's too crowded and none of the furniture matches. Eventually we'll get a bunk bed and matching bedroom set, but it's not in the budget right now. So I'll just have to grin and bear it. :)
We moved everything around multiple times, but this was the best solution we found. At least for now. We'll have more space once we get the bunk beds. I'm going to re-arrange and/or update the decor too. Bring in some more of Jake so it's not just Will's room. Just gotta find the time. :)

Monday, July 21, 2014

My Craft Room

I'm hesitant to post about this because it's not quite done yet, but projects this large tend to be completed in stages, so there's no telling how long it will take. In fact, we were supposed to start last summer, so there ya go.

I finally converted our dining room into an official craft space back in Birmingham, but we had to take it down a couple months later to put our house on the market. Upon moving to Nashville, I decided to use our master closet as my craft room. Now, don't start feeling sorry for me that my husband has an entire bedroom for his office and I only get a closet. This closet is huge! I'm not really a fashionista, so I couldn't imagine filling this entire thing. It lends plenty of space for an office and what really sealed the deal is there's a window, so it's much more room-like. I have all sorts of plans, but for now I'm writing about the desk because that's the first and most important detail to get this room ready for crafting.

Last year I decided this Ana White corner desk would be perfect for me! I also really want this craft table, but there's just not the room in here. Maybe one day when a kid moves out. :) Anyway, it didn't happen last year so when my birthday rolled around again, it's the only thing I told hubs I wanted. I saved up Christmas and birthday money to buy the supplies and his gift was the actual labor of building the desk.

The first three pieces cut! This was the bulk of the cutting 
and with it the desk is already taking shape!
 Hubs workin' hard...at least this was an excuse to use power tools, right? :)
 Will helping. He fell in love with the measuring tape and went around
measuring everything he could find, it was cute
 structural supports being added
 both boys came out to help :)
 Once the building was complete, I got to work painting, here it is
with the first coat after wood conditioner!
I found a couple filing cabinets at Goodwill for $7 to use as the base instead of building our own, or building cabinets underneath from the original plans. With the desk well underway, I got to work spray painting the filing cabinets in between painting the desk.
 Then came the big day when we moved the desk upstairs! Before 
all this, I went through and did some major de-cluttering of the space
 All put together! And with a cute little accessory to boot :)
Since the highly coveted craft table could not be used in this space, I decided to use my old computer desk as my sewing table. It doesn't offer the room to have a cutting/crafting area and a sewing area like the craft table would, but it's rare I'm cutting and sewing at the same time. Or doing either of those while I'm crafting either, so I'll just have to rotate out.
 Before & After. I debated awhile on what colors to do everything. Initially, I wanted both the desk and sewing table to be white since all my craft storage is. Then I had a brief moment where I considered doing the desk two tone- white table top, filing cabinets black or aqua. In the end, I decided to keep the desk one color to match my storage and give the sewing table a little pop by painting it aqua. I really like how it turned out!! Stay tuned for more pics as I continue to make progress in my "little" craft room! :)