Finally finished the guest room!!!

Keith and Drew painted the walls a gold color that I chose. I loved it on the swatch, but was pretty nervous about it since it was such an intense color. However, I absolutely love the way it turned out. The iron piece hanging over the bed used to hang over my bed in the Master Bedroom. The twin beds are put together to make a king size bed. I had the beds and headboards in the attic. I got the bedding and wicker tray from T.J. Maxx and the curtains and bedside tables from Marshalls. The desk, bulletin board, black dressers, and blinds, I brought down from the boys' old room. I touched up the dressers with a coat of black paint that I had in the garage. I found the chalkboard at Hobby Lobby (50% off). I got the silver desk lamp, the wooden lamp with the black lamp shade, and the 2 wooden vases (on clearance) at Target. I filled the vases with some styrofoam and moss and wrapped them in burlap ribbon. The sticks with lights in the 2 vases were from Big Lots. The 2 lamps on either side of the bed with burlap shades were from Walmart. We are officially ready for guests!!!

Pulling the guest room together! (Emma's old room)

Trying to pull together the guest room between summer travel and teaching swim lessons. It's a slow process, but having fun doing it. Moving Emma's room upstairs and redoing it and then moving the boys' old room/creating a guest room downstairs has been our summer project. I'll post pics when both rooms are complete. Drew helped Keith paint the room. He also hung the blinds and changed out the fan all by himself!!! Just need to hang the curtains, create a vignette for the tall dresser, and get a flat screen for the long chest of drawers and the room will be complete!

Emma's big girl room is finally done!!!

These pics were taken in the late afternoon. I'll try to take some in the morning or early afternoon when the room has more light. Emma loves her new room. Drew hung the white fan for me today. That was the last finishing touch. We moved her fan from her old room up here and the fan that was in here to the downstairs guest room.

Step 1: Switching Emma's room and the boy's room and making the boys room a guest room!

Whew, what a long weekend! This weekend we moved everything from Emma's closet upstairs to the boy's closet and everything from the boys closet to Emma's old closet. Then we switched all the stuff in their bathrooms. We are making the downstairs bedroom the new guest room, but it will still hold the boys things for whenever they come home. Emma is getting rid of a lot of things she's outgrown and getting a big girl room up stairs. She's excited about having her room upstairs next to Ellie's and a walk-in closet and her own half of the jack and jill bathroom. We also painted the boys old twin beds white and put knobs on them to make them femanine. We primed them and then put 2 coats of white on them. Ellie also cleaned out her closet and got rid of stuff! Next weekend we plan on painting both rooms and moving the furniture...

Lightening up my bedroom for summer with a light colored quilt.

Taken with 2 different camera's... the room color hasn't changed, but the lighting on the camera makes it look so different!

Here's a glimpse of the latest decorating job I'm working on...

I have been terrible about getting before and after pics of the projects I do. I'm trying to build a portfolio, but it's hard to do when I keep forgetting to take pics. Just before Christmas, I was working with a client on her keeping room and family room. Then last month, I helped a client with her office, master bedroom, and bath. We found an incredible deal on window treatments! The hardest thing about interior decorating in a small town is how limited we are on shopping. This client showed me a lamp online that she wanted to order. I told her to check TJ Maxx and Hobby Lobby first. You can almost always find a similar lamp for a quarter of the price. Also, it's easier to return if it doesn't work and there is no shipping fee! She found this at TJ Maxx and it's almost identical to the lamp she originally found online! She originally had this table filled with lots of small frames and 2 candlestick lamps. We replaced the two smaller lamps with the one larger one, decluttered the chest, and pulled the leopard vases from the coffee table. We staggered them using books and added twig lighting for balance. We also moved the chest over to the right a bit which will allow us to move the picture up higher and recenter it. (That's her husband's homework:)

Ellie's Room (before and after)

Ellie's room before...

Ellie decided her bedroom was too pink for her. She told me her favorite color was green and wanted more green in the room. Her old bedroom was SW Green Pear, and I thought SW Charming Pink would be a nice change. I took the green quilt from the foot of the bed and spread it out over the bed so you could see more of the green and then folded the pink comforter down at the end of the bed. She liked it, but still wanted more green. So I went went to Lowes and found a color that matched the quilt perfectly! It's called SW Heart of Palm. I got in in eggshell. Ellie and I enjoyed painting the wall together. It turned out really nice! Ellie loves it!!!

A New Kitchen Table!

Matt and Amy, our new neighbors across the street, offered us their table. After they moved in, they realized their breakfast nook was too small for their old table. I like my black french table that I bought at a tent sale 10 years ago, but at times it felt like a black hole in my kitchen. Also, the finish was waring off and every time we'd sit something on it, it would leave a mark. I wanted the warmth of a wooden table in there, but didn't want to get rid of a perfectly good table. This one is rectangular instead of square and the girls are able to spread out their books when they do homework on it. Amy said, "Are you sure you want it, it's got nicks and dings and it's even colored on. I love it; I think it just adds to it's character. I'll offer my old table to my kids.