July 18, 2009

• More Thinkin' Goin' On

  Yesterday, I laid down on Rissy's bed after making the new fireplace mantle arrangement and the dining room table's floral arrangement. 

  I can't justify redoing Rissy's room.  Her room was completely redone when we bought this house almost five years ago.  All the other rooms have limped along behind hers (and our master bedroom) and completing them has gone very, VERY slowly.

  RISSY'S ROOM:

  I have an idea for her room that will make it more versatile.  I just need a little paint.
   
  Her bedspread and pillow shams are some designer's name (can't remember the name) from J.C. Penney's store that I purchased in 2002.  It's definitely been used and I've gotten my money's worth from the set.  It's still in decent condition, but sometimes she wants a change. 

  The wall color (periwinkle blue) was chosen to match the bedspread.  Unfortunately, all other bedspreads/comforters  are NOT periwinkle blue; and, the difference is obvious when you try to put anything on the bed with a regular blue color.

  Her room colors are periwinkle blue, dark and light pink, and purple (like in the hydrangea pictures over her bed).

   
  She loves light pink & hot pink, the color of the shag carpet area rug and the bean bag chairs.

  Honestly . . .  she loves ANY shade of pink.  And, also purple.  AND, flowers.  AND . . .birds . . .

                                 
                                              Both wall wreaths have purple and dark pink flowers
                                                            with little birds here and there.

  (bad lighting in this picture - just like yesterday!)
   
  More pink and cream flowers on her dresser & book shelves.  
  The wall pictures have purple & pink flowers: one has flowers by a bridge and the other flowers by a park bench

  She wants to keep everything she has.  She loves the dark wood furniture, all of the flowers and greenery in her room, the different colors in her room . . . .  even the bedspread - but she would like to change it occasionally.

  My idea?

  Paint the bottom 1/3 of the wall white.  Then above that paint a small stripe in a green, and above the green a WIDER stripe in pink.  It would be like a "suggested" chair rail around the room - using the two stripes of color.  It would give her more options when choosing bedding, etc.  AND, the white on the bottom might make the room look a bit bigger with all of the mahogany furniture (she and I both like dark, carved woods).  I usually put the dark paint color on the bottom, so this will be a new "thing" for me to attempt.

  Like I said, her room will have to be last, because there is really nothing wrong with the way it looks now.

  THE GIRLS' ROOM:

  This is the room where I let the ball drop.  It never HAS looked like I wanted it to look.  It started out with dark hunter green walls and white furniture.  The beds (a double and a twin) had white eyelet comforter sets and the curtains matched the wall paper border.  The room has never had everything completed at the same time.  The curtain rod fell down - so it has been without curtains or ANY WINDOW TREATMENT forever.  We replaced the white furniture with walnut dressers (bigger in size, too).  Then, I painted the room a lighter green.  A shade that didn't turn out the way I had envisioned.  Then, we moved the king bed in there - at the same time we moved Rissy to her own room.

  Now it sits STILL incomplete and I am uninspired.  Short of buying new everything and repainting the walls, I am struggling with what to do in here.
    
  I never liked the way the group of four small pictures looked over the bed.  Too dinky in size.  The girls loved the pictures, but the grouping looks all wrong for the room and especially on the huge wall over the bed.

  They have a runner and a larger rug in off-white or beige on each side of their bed.  A rather nondescript and blah color that does nothing for the room.  It's nice to step on when they get out of bed, but that's the only virtue of the beige area rugs!  Beside their pink roses quilt, they have a puffy white eyelet comforter to trade out when they want a change.

  I'm getting ready to order some black out drapes in a beige/off white color.  That means *more* uninteresting stuff will be hanging from the window!
  
  
                                  
  I was thinking of getting another dark wood nightstand for Luci's side of the bed.  You can barely see Annamarie's nightstand, it used to belong to my grandparents.  Anyway, that would put dark wood across the room from the dark dressers and add some depth to that huge wall the bed is on. 

  I saw some inexpensive floor lamps in white online at Wal-Mart.  They were a metal pole and arched with two shades.  The nightstands are tiny and won't hold a decent lamp, so a floor lamp might solve that problem.  They are getting old enough now that they like to read in bed and need a light.
  
  All of the heavy dark wood is on one wall - the two dressers and the walk-in closet door.  That's why nightstands in wood might bring some balance to the room.

  BUT COLOR?????   What do I do about adding some color to the walls?
                             
  I told JoAnn I was thinking of putting some trailing ivy around the dresser mirrors and putting a flower here and there that matches the flowers in the wallpaper border.  It may also be necessary to buy new area rugs for each side of the bed.  That beige is just so . . . well . . . beige!!!

  THE KITCHEN:

  The last project I had a wild hair about is the kitchen wood shelves and little table.  I still have country blue in the kitchen and the table area (our kitchen table is black) has a white shelving unit.

  I'd like to paint the country blue part's of the shelves and table a flat black (my kitchen is slowly transforming into a black, red, & white kitchen).

   

                                         
  You can't change just ONE thing and expect to be done.  That's a fact about redecorating!!!! 

  The blue picture on the wall will have to come down but I have something for that place already in mind.  My grandpa was in the meat packing business for years and SOMEWHERE (it's currently misplaced) I have a black and white picture of him with another man and a piece of meat they were carving up.  I purchased a black frame (like you hang documents in) and now can't find Grandpa's picture ANY WHERE!!!  It's perfect for a kitchen and will look great with my black, white, & red color theme.  I'm just waiting for the photo to show up again.

  Meanwhile, I have to paint this shelving unit black - to match the kitchen table.  I think I can spray paint it black.  And, I should take the light oak tv trays out of there.  We use the tv trays, but not to eat off of.  I have one on my side of the bed, right now, to hold extra stuff.  The trays can easily be kept in the garage if we have access to them.  My aunt bought those tv trays for me in 1995 - a wedding shower gift.  I hate to get rid of them because they are from her.

                                      
   
  As you can see, I already have a lot of black and red stuff on the shelves - including a collection of roosters.  I need to weed out some of my stuff and put most of the candles in a cupboard out of the way and out of sight.

    
  The bottom shelf holds cookbooks.  The next shelf            I have one shelf loaded with candles and 
  up has a basket of cloth napkins I've made and a               a heart basket with a cluster of grapes in
  stack of paper napkins.                                                    a gold bowl  The grapes need to go!

       
  My rooster/chicken collection is prolific and needs to be weeded out a bit.  I have a large rooster bowl and a large tray with a picture of a basket of apples that I'd like to put somewhere in the kitchen. 

  The large black rooster bowl could go on top of the cupboards - where I also need to put my baskets of ivy/plants.
                                         

  I took my silk greenery stuff down to clean it and never replaced it!  That small tray with a rooster could go on the wall rather than leaning on the shelf.

  SO MANY POSSIBILITIES AND SO MUCH JUNK TO WORK WITH!!!!!!!!!!!!

  There you have my many rooms that need a bit of adjusting.  A little paint here, a rearrangement there of lots of nic nac things, and I'll have a whole new look! 

  I just need to do a little bit every couple of days.  It gives me something to look forward to (I like decorating projects and I like making plans for things) and makes me use my brain by trying to use things I already have in a new place or a different way.

  No wonder I'm sleeping so hard at night . . . it's all of that thinkin' I've been doing lately!

  Be Blessed  ~

  • 1:15 pm
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