I'm all makin' all these mood boards

I love Polyvore. Lately I've been trying to put together some mood boards for the basement to help me plan my purchasing of furniture and accents. I'm going to wait until the basement is a little more finished before actually buying anything large, but I like to have a plan.

So here's what I'm thinking the family room will end up like:

{HERE's the picture on my Polyvore account, which sources all the items.}

 I don't plan on using the exact items I put in the mood board, most are just there to give me a general idea. I'd rather have a couch that was a little lighter and curtains that aren't so floral-y. I do love that floor lamp, though. And that end table and ottoman.

{Polyvore link HERE.}

When I was asking Mim about what she wanted for her new big girl room downstairs, she kept saying pink and rainbow (which are her current favorite colors) and I thought, why not? Why not let her decide on that stuff for herself? The walls (which I finished painting last night) are a very pale pink and I've already bought those curtains from Urban Outfitters. They're super bright and happy and just seem perfect for Mim. 

{Polyvore link HERE.}

This one is probably the farthest away from being a reality. It's my plan for the room that the girls share right now. Once Eleanor's in there alone I hope I'll be able to get it painted and get some of these things going. I have some floral vintage sheets that I've collected and I want to make some quilts and accessories for her room from them. I already have the curtains and that little elephant bank. I want to DIY that lovely little side table. Also, as a bonus, if we have a boy next (I'm not pregnant, but we do plan on having more kids) we can keep the wall color the same, remove the florals, and add navy blue. Right?!

Anyway, I love mood boards right now. I'm working on one right now for our master bedroom and who knows if that will even happen.

Before you paint...

I'm no pro, but I did learn a few things when choosing colors and painting our main floor before we moved in 4 years ago. To be exact, I learned 2 things.

*Never get a gallon of paint based on how the paint chip looks on your wall. It's not a big enough area to really get an idea of what it would be like if the whole room was painted that way. Narrow your paint chips down that way, but I'd say take the final 3 and then buy tester pots and paint an area a couple feet square on several walls. 

*Look at the sample painted areas several times a day (and at night), in different kinds of light. My lovely neutral tan that I picked for my kitchen 4 years ago turned out to be gross pinkish brown under the incandescent lights at night. Boo.

I also picked up another tip this round of painting. Actually, it's better than a painting tip. It was a painting epiphany. It was while I was priming the basement. I was all like, "Priming isn't so bad. I just do everything the same! No cutting in, no worrying about marking up what I've already painted." It was necessary to give myself little pep talks while priming because it got sooooooo tedious. Anyway, it was then that the epiphany hit. I realized that if I did the closet ceilings the same color as the walls, I WOULDN'T HAVE TO CUT IN. Best painting tip ever. Maybe it's one that everyone knows, but not me. The closet ceilings in the rooms upstairs are a nice crisp white. Blerg.

As you can kind of see in these pictures, the inside of the closet is all the same. I didn't save myself a TON of work cutting in, but I'm super slow at it and it makes me tense, so any little bit I didn't have to do was a triumph.

{This color is 50% Silver Drop by Behr.}

{This color is 50% Angel Blush, also by Behr. It took me a few tries to find a pink that was sufficiently warm as well as super pale, but I'm so pleased with it now that it's coming together.}

Bonus tip: Getting only a percentage of the color added (like 50% in both the rooms above) always seems to work better for me than getting the same exact color that's on the chip. Once the color is on the walls and reflecting the same color from everywhere, it always feels more intense than it was on the chip. So I cut the color in half and then when it's all over the place, it feels like I thought it would feel when I was just looking at the chip.

So anyway. Like I said, I'm no expert and maybe everyone is all like, "Duh. Those aren't tips, those are common sense." Maybe there's some novice painter out there that will get something from them, so the haters can just shut it.

Thanks for reading!

The little list

I think my favorite blog out there is Young House Love. Every so often they have a "Dude, get on that" post about something small that they just haven't gotten around to. That's what the little list is for me. I have the giant list, which is stuff like finish painting the basement, prime and paint trim for the basement, paint Mim's big girl bed before the basement is finished, paint or stain this awesome trunk (my latest DI find) before the basement is finished (because otherwise I will have to wait until spring so I can do it outside). Here's the trunk:

 Mint green, right? And they didn't even do a good job of painting it that crappy color. I was interested when I saw it, since I've been looking for something trunk-ish for quite some time. So I opened up on its terible creaky hinges and VOILA!

Beautiful cedar chest. I asked my friend to babysit it for me while I went and found an employee to put a sold sign on it. She's a good friend and she literally sat on it until I came back with someone. Good thing, too, since there were about 3 old ladies and one young lady hovering about. Anyway, that's big list stuff.

This post is about little list stuff that I just need to get done. All those tiny finishing touches that just haven't made it yet. 

Here's one that makes me crazy every time I notice it. Last summer I took off the curtains and the super old and crummy curtain rods in my bedroom. I need to sand, patch and repaint four of these little areas and I just haven't done it. I also need to put up a new curtain rod and hang new curtains (which I why I took the old ones off in the first place), but I'm taking baby steps.

Another master bedroom mistake here. Nothing above our bed but one little ol' hook. I had some crewel art up there, but it's getting a new home. We need a headboard, I think. And probably some new bedding. And something above the bed that I actually like for more than 2 seconds.

I have been meaning to paint this little desk since my firstborn was a baby (she's almost 4 now). That's how long ago I took the hardware off. I even have the paint!

Well, my bathroom redo got derailed by basementing, which I'm fine with. Because now the more I think about it, the more I don't want to repaint this vanity (that I peeled all that white plastic-y stuff off of). I want to get rid of it. I think a pedestal sink or maybe even just a wall mounted sink would be much better for the size of this tiny bathroom, and now that we'll have another in the basement, storage won't *quite* be as much of an issue.

{How's this for keepin' it real? It's looked like this since September, I think.}

 I need to rearrange all my plates and things on this open shelving (that I created here). I also still want to paint my cupboards white, but that's definitely on the giant list.

Another area, this one in the living room, from old curtains being removed that needs some love. I even sanded, patched, and sanded these ones so the only thing I need to do is paint. I would probably take 10 minutes, and yet it has remained undone for almost a year.

Curtains for this window. Also getting the Legos off the top of the piano. When the basement gets finished.

So, there's at least some of my little list items. Some of them might qualify for the giant list (like getting a new bathroom sink), but right now almost all these other little projects feel like they're on hold while we finish up the basement. (We're close, by the way.) I'm glad I posted them- maybe having them up here will be a good reminder. One thing's for sure, if I do get to them I'll definitely post about it again, because it will be that exciting for me.

Oh Christmas tree

I was cleaning out the basement and I came across 2 styrofoam cones that I got at a yard sale this summer. I think it was a quarter for the both of them. Anyway, hooray! There are tons of cute ideas all over on other blogs and Pinterest about different ways to decorate these things up, but in the end I didn't follow any tutorials and just did my own thing.

 I wrapped the cone up in strips I tore off one of the old sheets in my fabric stash, then hot glued different kinds of lace in rings all the way up. So easy. the stand is just a little 2x2 scrap that was laying around. I think I might try to white wash or possibly use a vinegar stain to age the wood, but for now it's fine.

This lil' guy is smaller than the first. I had a scrap of some faux-patchwork fabric that was just enough to cover the whole tree (my backup plan was to use various Christmas or Christmas colored prints to fill in any gaps). Then I added some ric rac and some tassels (which are really just acting as a placeholder for pom pom trim) and called it good.

My decorating taste has been undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts lately. I've always been a fan of some kinds of old fashioned and vintage stuff, but right now I'm all sorts of into it. Maybe it's just Christmas. I was definitely bored of my lots of metallics and garland thing I usually do, so this year I went completely the opposite direction. I'm going for a fun vibe, I suppose. here's what I mean:

Possibly even borderline kitschy? That big Santa definitely is (it belonged to my husband's grandma and my guy just loved it when he was a kid, so we ended up with it).
I beg pardon for how unbalanced this is right now; I was just kind of throwing things up there. I do plan on moving the paper chain and then adding more garland across the top. Maybe a string of big bulb Christmas lights. If I get around to it, I'll probably change up the art that's there, too.

So, my motif this year is fun, colorful, vintage Christmas. Anybody else out there have a theme they stick to? This is my first year actually thinking it through enough to actually put a name to it.

More thrift store stuff

Technically, these are from a consignment shop, but it's all pretty much the same, right?
My mother-in-law called me last Saturday morning to tell me that a consignment shop in my hometown was having a 55% off sale, so away I went.

 

Tons of awesome children's books. I plan on using these in my daughter's new basement room (which might be getting ahead of myself, since it's only partially framed right now) as some functional decor. The companion library ones are really cool- they're one book on the front, then you turn them over and upside down and they're a different book!

 These were my favorite find. There were a ton more there, but I only picked ones that were in pretty much perfect shape. Because of these, I've totally been in a Christmas mood. I wanted to get the tree out and decorate, but my husband said no. So I put them all in a jar on the mantle so I could still look at them, and so Mike won't accuse me of pushing the season (because he does not notice jars of stuff on the mantle).

Another awesome scarf. I think that makes my final count 4 for this summer. It was kind of sad to bring it home and immediately put it away with the other summery stuff, but the hat rack is currently overtaken by fall/winter scarves (post coming soon).

I think I got about a dozen doilies for about 3 dollars? I have a pinspired project in mind for these that will be lovely.

I scored some other awesome deals, including some vintage floral ribbon that I just die for and a brooch that's going to be part of a necklace sometime in the future.

Happy Veteran's Day (yesterday)!