My Home: Little Miss J's Pink & Blue Bedroom

Happy Wednesday, friends! Today I am back to share my darling little Miss J's bedroom. Another one of the great features of this house is that all of the bedrooms are really good size. Each of the kids' rooms is in the basement, so they have really tall ceilings in their rooms as well. Each child also has the added bonus of a large walk in closet, which is especially nice to tame all of the toys and clutter that can typically be found in a child's room. 

When we purchased this home, Miss J made it clear that she wanted a pink and blue room. Not just any pink, Hot Pink. She had a twin size hot pink wrought iron bed from PBK that we were going to sell because I decided her new room would look better with a full size bed. Miss J was adamant that her new bed/headboard also be hot pink. I needed to create a room that my 7 year old and I both would love using hot pink and blue. I was up to the challenge! 

The bedroom was painted the same gray as the rest of the house. The walls were also pretty blank and boring. Given the fact that the walls are so tall, I knew I wanted to add some finish work to add some architectural interest and draw the eye upwards. I had my finish carpenter install moulding to create the look of 3 panels on the bed wall. I also had him install 6" crown moulding around the perimeter of the room. My painter then painted all the moulding white and the walls a very pale blue. 

Take a look...

We made the window cornice and added ready made drapes from West Elm. My fabulous Mother in law sewed on the pom pom trim to give the drapery some flair.

You can read more about the DIY window cornice here.

Little Miss J is thrilled with her bedroom and I kinda love it too. 

PS - No matter how hard I try I cannot get the wrinkles out of her rug! Any suggestions?? :)

Hope you are having a great week!

Local Client Project Reveal: Budget Friendly Family Room

Hello there! I hope you have all had a wonderful week! Today I am back with another local client reveal. I know I owe you a follow up post from my basement family room reveal, but I couldn't wait to show you this family room makeover that I recently completed. When I met with my client she explained that she wanted to update and brighten up her family room. That is a common request amongst my clients! We went over her needs and wants for the space and came up with a design plan. The thing I love most about this project is that the design is completely budget friendly. All of the items were bought from big box stores and online. These days there are so many affordable and accessible options for home decor and furniture out there. I loved being able to transform the space using some of these resources. Here is a look at what the space looked like the first time I saw it...

BEFORE:

And here is what it looks like now...

AFTER:

One of the biggest changes to the room was the addition of the board and batten millwork to the television wall. My client's husband is very handy and he installed and painted the wall himself, which saved them quite a bit of money. He did a great job, it turned out fantastic! I also had him paint the blue fireplace wall to match the paint in the rest of the room. The mantle was painted white as well, helping create a cohesive feel to the woodwork in the room. We addressed the awkward fireplace niche by covering it up with a large piece of canvas art. I am not a fan of those niches and I like the clean and simple look the artwork and candles provide. We then replaced all of the furniture and accessories in the room with items purchased from local stores and online on popular retail sites. The family room is now reflective of the young vibrant family who lives in the house! 

I get to get all gussied up and attend a charity gala tonight with my hubs. It's always fun to pull out the LBD and some heels! I hope all of you have a great weekend! 

Guest Posting at House of Turquoise

Hello Friends! I just wanted to pop in and let you know that I am guest posting at the fabulous House of Turquoise blog today. Erin has been taking a few weeks off to enjoy the birth of her son and has asked a few bloggers to guest post during her absence. I was thrilled when she asked me to participate and I, of course, jumped at the opportunity. As you know, I am a huge HOT fan!  I'm sharing one of my favorite client projects, so head on over and check it out! Have a great day!

My New Home: Basement Family Room

Hello Friends! It's been a while! I hope everyone has been doing well and enjoying the summer. My summer has been extremely busy and lots of fun. I loved spending time with my 3 kids swimming, eating ice cream and just having fun. I'm not going to lie though! It feels good to have them back in school and to have our family back on a schedule! 

Having the summer off from lessons and homework also allowed me to undertake a few projects in my own home. One of these was to give our basement family room area a little update/makeover. (If you follow me on Instagram, you've gotten to see little snippets of the space here and there). I've mentioned before that the basement layout was one of the primary selling features of our home. You may remember me saying that my husband and I let out an audible "GASP" the first time we walked down the stairs and saw it. We knew right away that it would be an area in our home that we would all really "live" in. And we do...all the time...especially the kids. All 3 of the kids' bedroom are in the basement and the basement family room is where they spend their time, playing, watching TV, doing homework and more. The most unique feature about our basement is that it has 12 foot ceilings and that it is 100% day lit. These 2 things make it feel like a whole other house, not a basement at all. My hubby and I know it is a space that our family will enjoying spending time in for many years.

All of that being said, since we moved into our house almost a year and a half ago, I had largely left the basement "undecorated." Most of the furniture in it is stuff we've had for years or was formerly used in other areas of our previous home. After I got done designing our main floor great room area, I was itching to do something with the basement. I had to consider 2 major things before getting started on it:

1. Whatever I did had to be kid friendly and appeal to the kids...because they "live" in the space.

2. I had to do it on a VERY small budget. The great room design was fairly pricey and my decorating budget had become pretty much nonexistent.

With those things in mind, I set out to decorate the basement using mostly furniture and accessories that I already owned. I also knew I wanted to add pops of vibrant color in the space. I tend to shy away from bright colors in other areas of my home, but I felt that the basement family room was a great place to do it. I wanted it to look pulled together, but still appeal to my kids. I spent a couple months pulling it all together. I even put my DIY cap on found my inner artist just long enough to paint a large piece of art that hangs over the fireplace. I'm still not sure about it, but my sweet hubby likes it and told me to leave it up. :) There's still a little work to do in this space, but for now, I'm happy with the changes I've made. Take a look... :)

As I mentioned, I used mainly furniture and accessories I already had on hand. I did purchase a few new items, but overall, very little money was spent on the basement. In my next post, I'll highlight some of my reused items and show you were they previously lived in this home or my last. Which reused items can you spy? :)