When I was in college, my parents helped me buy a used Ford escort. It was white and clean and cute and I loved it…for awhile. Then I got used to it. A couple of years later, It was small and dirty and not so cute. I finally decided I would sell it and buy something different. I washed it and detailed it myself in preparation to list it for sale. The next day I decided to drive to the store, but I couldn’t find my car in the campus parking lot. After exhausting all possibilities, I finally discovered that it was the cute little clean white car I had been walking past over and over. I fell in love with that car all over again. I was shocked how much a little elbow grease helped me be content with what I already had.
Recently I have been feeling a similar discontent with my house. It’s not tiny, but 5 children playing tag and strewing their things about can shrink the 1800 square feet we have. The best artwork in it was original crayon, marker and pencil drawings all over the walls. The art was even signed—with fingerprints. I dreamed about moving, but the expense was overwhelming. Instead, I went to the hardware store and bought a $15 gallon of wall paint and $15 of black spray paint. I used a touch of blue wall paint left over from our basement makeover—detailed here: http://groceryshrink.typepad.com/the_grocery_shrink_blog/2009/05/basement-makeover-pictures.html
Looks good! The brown walls really made your fireplace stand out.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful make-overs Angela! They look terrific! You’re so right about clutter. As I read that portion, I visioned my own clutter and will make adjustments soon. But, with children it IS difficult to keep ‘all’ it out of sight :). I actually started this morning on my own kitchen, but now that you have brought it to light; watch out house! Here I come!
Wow, it even makes the carpets look cleaner. GREAT JOB!
lol, love the car story!! I have also fallen in love all over again with some of my things after a quick revamp. I totally agree with Kimberly (above). When there’s kids, it’s really hard to keep things in order all the time. Great job with the revamp in your home. I love the paint choices you made.
Great job….one more thing you could try. Move the black filing cabinet in between the 2 chairs and use as a table….then kind of place the wood chair next to the paino at an angle.
Good job…I like the neutral wall color. Love the firplace , but I think
the furniture placement is to heavy on the one side of your room.
I would move the paino in the place where the sofa is put your two
wooden chairs with the tall table under the window where you have
the cute little short kids chair make this area the music area.
I would try to put your sofa at an angle either in front of the fireplace make a cozy sitting area in front of the fireplace. Or try placing the sofa
on the wall where you have your paino, angle the sofa off the wall
and hide the black file cabinet and the trash can behindthe sofa. I would remove the big brown recliner keep the white chair the foot stool place that maybe where you have the little wood child rocker. love the childrens furniture. Put your
red pillows on the wood chairs to add warmth,and the black pillows on your sofa. You might think about adding some length to your curtains. Maybe you have some extra fabric around the house,your curtains should touch the floor. Add some lamps and kids artwork to the walls. The childrens furniture can be put just about anywhere play around with it. I’m really jealous of your firplace really like the red accents. Take care have fun decorating
Elisa
Elisa,
Thank you for your good ideas! You are totally right about the furniture and we are working to fix it. The room is long and narrow which makes it challenging but it’s big. We’ve since torn off the carpet and have a real mess now :). I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Cann’t wait to see your finished project. Have fun.
Elisa