Small Projects, Big Changes

I’ve been on a tangent lately. I don’t know if it’s spring fever settling in or what, but suddenly, I want to change everything in my house. I’m even starting to think about repainting my whole house a soft gray (gasp!). I must be watching too much Candace Olsen.  I’ve made a promise to myself to use what I already have (if possible) so I’m not buying and storing and not using more things. Nothing in my house is safe from being re-purposed - lamp shades are getting painted, chairs are getting recovered, furniture is being moved around (much to my husband’s dismay), even picture frames and mats are getting a makeover (more on that later this week)!

This weekend was a really fun project: I turned my baby’s nursery into a bonafide “big boy” room. My little guy is obsessed with anything that has wheels so when we changed him over to a real bed, I bought him a set of gorgeous hand pulled tractor prints from elSage Designs to go with his wheel-themed room.  I did keep one dog painting because I was feeling sentimental about the artwork that I’d painted for my first son, now 5 years old, and the little one loves dogs so he was happy too.

Here is a picture of his room before we moved in. Yes, that IS a turkey butt mounted on the wall, and no, we don’t know why. This room was so bad, we removed the carpet that smelled like a dead animal, closed the door for two years and forgot about it. When I got pregnant with #2, we decided to get to work. We gutted the entire room, refinished the floors and renovated it top to bottom. Here is the FIRST After picture.

After I got his room all setup, it became clear to me that he needed a real big boy room. The yellow walls (Anjour Pear by Benjamin Moore) were really bright and cheery, but had too much of a nursery feel. I had elbow surgery in November so I was stuck waiting it out all winter. A few months ago, my 5 year old picked out a gorgeous blue (Benjamin Moore Nantucket Gray) for our laundry room. Then I got hit by the Honeysuckle Pink bug and decided to throw caution to the wind and painted the laundry room bright pink. For the 5 minutes a day I’m in there, I totally love it and because it’s so small, it’ll take me only an hour to repaint when I am sick of it – probably by the end of the summer. Since I’m on my “use it” kick, I hit my enormous stash of unused and left over paint collection before purchasing anything new. As luck (and my wallet) would have it, I already had the perfect color!

I have files and files of pictures from catalogs and magazines of decorating ideas that I want to use someday. Several years ago, I came across an adorable kid’s room in a Pottery Barn catalog. I pulled out the “Jack’s Room” file and there it was – the PERFECT room for Jack. All full of tractors! In just a few short hours, I transformed his darling baby nursery into something a nearly three year old could be proud of – a very big boy room! He had to camp out on his brother’s floor for a couple of nights while I painted but it was worth the hassle when I saw the smile on his face. Man, was he proud!

Have a great room makeover story to share? Post it below or cruise on over to my Facebook page, tell me your story and post your photos on my wall. Know someone who loves high impact, low cost decorating solutions? Share the love by sending them over here!