Furniture Dreams
As many of you have seen, we don’t have much furniture in our house and the stuff we do have is mostly O-L-D and boring. We have mattresses on the floor instead of a proper bed. Our office shelving is black plastic garage shelves and our couch has to be covered because the cushions are missing their actual covers. We have limited seating and not enough seating in the kitchen for 5 people (what our family comprises) and the sunroom is devoid of anything (aside from a pile of clothing that doesn’t fit and knick knacks that need to be given away!) Boring! The kids area is the most complete here, but still needs a few things as well.
I have been keeping a list of the furniture items that I find that I think would have a place in our home and I wanted to share. I think it’s fun to see what other people would put in their houses. In fact I think it would be really fun to be a personal shopper and assist people with making their purchases and beautifying their home. Of course, first, I’d like to be my own personal shopper…with an unlimited budget! So, here’s what I would buy to spruce up our house as far as furniture:
First, I would go to Z Gallerie and buy a bedroom suite for our room. I visited the store at Oxmoor Center this summer and fell in love with the Jett Platform bed. I’d get that and the matching dresser and nightstand. Then for the closet that is going to be transformed into a reading nook in our bedroom, I would buy a comfy chair such as this Barrington Chair from JC Penney in the chocolate brown color.
Moving on to the living room, I would first be looking for a sectional couch. We really need seating that can view both the fireplace and television (for movies) without having to strain your neck. I also want to have lots of seating since I host meetings and home parties pretty often and I would like to have friends over more. When people come over they like to have a place to sit down, and while I don’t mind sitting on the floor all the time, I know some people would rather a chair. :) So, I like the Barrington sectional group from JC Penny that matches the chair that would be in the bedroom. I also like this build your own sectional from Pottery Barn that lets you pick exactly what you want. That is the look I’m going for though – inviting and comfortable, but not too overly plush and not so minimalistic that you feel like you’re sitting on boards. Anyway, those two look like what I want. Then in the corner I’d like to have a sleeper chair with a storage ottoman, like this one from JC Penney. I have been eyeing this chair for about 4 years now. Or if that wouldn’t fit well, I would take this Soho chair because I really like it and can’t think of any other place to put it! It only comes in the light blue which would be okay since our living room is khaki and navy, but it wouldn’t be as matchy as I normaly like. So, now that I’ve picked my seating I need some tables! I really want a sofa table, you know the ones that go behind your sofa? But, I could take it or leave it. Since we have several feet of space between the sofa and windows it would be nice to have something there. Either a table for us or a kids play table under the windows. On either side of the windows I currently have mismatched bookshelves that do what they need to, but I have wanted some of the leaning bookshelves for several years like these from Penneys or these from Pottery Barn. A small end table/by the door table would be nice as well, but I don’t currently have one picked out. It would just need to be something simple. The last thing the living room needs is a rug or three. We have a rug now, but it was a $50 rug to hold us over until I could get the one I wanted: The Emma Rug from Pottery Barn. During my search now I found that it is gone. I found a few of the runners and small 3×5 rugs on ebay, but my dream rug is gone! Sad day:( Anyway, I will keep looking and hopefully be able to find it somewhere so that it can live in my house someday…
All Taylor needs in her room is a big girl bed. My personal favorite would be this white daybed with a trundle so she can have friends over to sleep, but really any pretty white bed would do. The rest of her furniture is white so it needs to match:) Kristopher & Kameron will soon be sharing a room and we have decided that they need bunk beds to maximize floor space. We want nice solid wood ones and while these pirate ship themed ones are perfect for the current room plan we’ll probably go with plain ones like these if we can get them! I just rembered that something like this might work too, since basically all they’d need is incorporated into the bed area. If each boy had this the rest of the floor space would be play area…I think. If we do the plain bunk beds the boys would need some toy storage, a book shelf and a matching dresser, although they both have their own dressers now so that isn’t a big deal.
The last two rooms are the sunroom and the office. They are kind of going together in my mind because I am planning to use the sunroom (which also houses the laundry in a side area) for lounging, crafting and a catch all/hang it all up area. Over by the sliding door will be hooks for jackets, backpacks, keys and what I like to call “leaving the house paraphenalia”. There will also possibly be a small shoe rack for a few pairs of boots or outside shoes. Then on the other side of the laundry “closet” I want some kind of tall cabinet/shelf system for many of my crafting supplies. I’ve seen several that I like, but nothing screamed at me yet. Also in this room I would like this desk available at amazon.
And to go with it – my dream chair from Pottery Barn. Kody will probably get to figure out all the office (unless he picks ugly stuff!! haha!), and I already have a desk in there that I like okay. We’ll just need a school desk for the kids that is big enough for more than one child to use. I have the idea in my head of what I want, but haven’t seen it exactly like I like anywhere. I want a big table top with book shelves on either end for their school books. I want them to be able to sit and work comfortably and happily together whether they cooperate with my idea or not it should at least be possible. Also I want a wall cabinet over the desk with art supplies so little hands can’t get them out themselves and color all over the walls. This room divider wants to be in our house too…not sure where though!
Anyway, I could sit and talk about my house decorating ideas and things I want all day. I’m trying to be content, but I just needed to put all this down and get it out of my head. I’m sure the house will slowly turn into what I want, it’s just hard to see some days. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading and browsing! Sorry I took you all over the place!!
Filed under House Remodel, News | Comment (0)Curtains
I finished Taylor’s curtains a couple of weeks ago…just in time for her birthday party:) I bought white tab top curtains and then cut off the bottom to add some patch work that will match her quilt, eventually. I still have to make the quilt. The pictures aren’t very good – don’t know what it was with the lighting, but I couldn’t get a good one. The curtains turned out well though and we finally can close them at night for privacy:)
Kristopher got the same curtains only I didn’t do any add ons for his…yet. I am thinking about adding some pirate fabric to the hem since the theme for the boys room is/will be pirates. We are slowly turning it into a cool pirate room. But we also want to repaint the room a different color, so maybe I should wait to finish the curtains until then.
I’m trying to get ready for a craft fair we are having at our church in a month, but I keep finding things I want to make for myself or my family. It would be so nice to have a couple of days just to myself for crafting. Unfortunately I don’t think that will happen with homeschooling, homekeeping and the million other things I “have” to do! We’ll see how ready I am. Even if I don’t get much done, I already have a box full of handmade things to sell and I can sell Usborne Books since I am a consultant – I do have a fallback thing:) I would love to get a lot more done to sell though. I have so many ideas!
Filed under Creations, News | Comment (0)Taylor’s 4th Birthday
Our little girl, Taylor, turned 4 on the 21st. Her birthday this year was so much more exciting than last year. Last year I came home with Kameron the day before her birthday and while a baby brother is a pretty good present he made it impossible to have an semblance of a party for her. She ended up opening gifts in her jammies and I’m pretty sure we didn’t even have a cake…pretty sad. So, fast forward to this year. We might have had too much fun! On her birthday we went to the doctor…ugh…for a check up. Then we came home and she opened her presents and blew out candles and we did have a cake:) Then on Tuesday she took cupcakes to school and had a little “class party.” And on the 26th we had the joint party for her and Kameron. She invited some little girls for a Princess party, where they made crowns and, you guessed it, ate more cake! I made her a castle cake for her party, and I thought it was cute even if it didn’t entirely look like a castle. She liked it, that’s all that matters! Anyway, the best pictures from all three days are below. Many of the ones I took didn’t turn out well because of faces she made or blurriness or angle. Oh well. Oh, yeah, the first picture of her in the pink outside is terrible because “the sun is in my eyes” :( But I had to put it up here because that was my dress when I was little! It was fun to see her in it and I tried to get some good pictures, but we were trying not to look too silly taking pictures at the doctors office (their landscaping is nice;)) and I forgot to try again at home. Enjoy the pictures and your day!
Filed under Kids, News | Comment (0)The Bitty Boy Turns One
I meant to do this post a couple of weeks ago when he actually turned one, but you know what they say…”better late than never!”
Kameron turned 1 year old on September 17. It was an exciting day for us although he didn’t really have a clue what was going on:) We told him Happy Birthday all day long and his siblings sang to him several times. After Kody came home from work we gave him his presents. He had several, but I just put all of them in a big bag with tissue paper so that it wouldn’t be so hard for him to figure out. He enjoyed pulling things out of the bag, but his favorite thing was the first toy he pulled out. A little jingly thing that rolls back to you when you roll it away. He wouldn’t put it down! After he finished pulling everything out we had his birthday dinner. His favorite vegetable is green beans (not yucky baby food ones, real ones) so I made those and french fries and he had some applesauce and cheerios too. Then I stripped him down for cake. I made cupcakes and we gave him a whole chocolate one. He was so excited about getting to touch it and eat it. The smiles were so beautiful. However he was not so clean by the time he was finished. After a few bites he decided it would be easiest to just lean down and eat it off the highchair and he was really messy. He got to have a bath and then play with his new things a bit before going to bed. I think it was a great birthday, and even if he won’t remember it, I will.
Then on the 26th we had, pretty much, an all day birthday party extravaganza! Taylor had a party in the afternoon (which I will put pictures of on her birthday post) and then we had dinner with our best family friends and Gram & Grandaddy:) It was fun and I made Kameron a monkey cake for his party. He had a bit of a runny nose and wasn’t quite as excited about the cake, but still ate most of one of the ears. He also got to do some tricycle riding with Grandaddy which he thought was great fun!
Thank you to everyone who made Kameron’s first birthday one-derful! Hope you enjoy the pictures!
Filed under Kids, News | Comment (0)