Rearranging some Rooms – Cuz We’re Random Like That

About once every 6 months or so I get the itch to rearrange furniture. Sometimes it’s just a little tweak, like moving our bed from one side of the room to the other. And other times, it’s a massive overhaul of multiple rooms, or all rooms…?, throughout our home. I have always been this way. I remember as a 10 year old BEGGING my parents to switch their dining room and living room. They never gave in. I just thought it would be fun to dine in the living room, people! Ah!

So now that I’m a big girl, living in a space of my own, I guess there’s nothing keeping me from doing something wild and crazy like that. And thankfully, my husband doesn’t mind helping me drag our furniture all around every couple months.

Right now we have a large family room (that we’re currently using as an office/family room/playroom) that has a pass-through to the kitchen as well as a large dining room and a large living room on the other side of the house. Since the day we moved in, it has not sat well with us to have two living areas. We just don’t like the redundancy, nor do we have enough furniture to fill two living areas.

We love the living room so much more for relaxing but whenever we entertain (with Dave’s family), everyone typically congregates in the family room because that’s what Dave’s family used to do (when his parents lived here) and since we’ve got a couch and chairs in there, that’s what naturally happens. My theory is that if the comfy furniture was all moved out of the family room and into the living room, guests would be “forced” into the living room.

And my Aunt Connie recently gave us a baby grand piano and I recently scored a large area rug on Rugsusa.com. So all these things factored together, and the other day I was shifting some furniture around and I thought…”Hey, what if I moved the large dining room table into the family room? and then used the formal living / dining rooms as a living / music room?” That would allow us to use the living room for lounging, the current dining room for the new larger piano and some seating (a.k.a. a music room) and the family room as the office/ informal dining room (because quite honestly, we don’t get too formal around here…).

And then I thought about it for a while longer and while sitting here at the computer in our office area inside the family room, I looked over at the built in bookshelves and thought “Man, they would be great as a built-in china cabinet” and considering we don’t have a china cabinet and that’s basically what has held me up from even using our china for the past 5+ years, I think this would be a fabulous idea to move our dining table over here.


Here are a couple inspirational images I’m going with for now:

We have a large window on the west wall of the now family room similar to this. We’d have a great view while dining in front of the window. It would definitely be a sunny cheerful dining area and it’s by far the largest room in the house so it would be terrific for holding large family gatherings like we often do.


I’d love to create an informal vintage industrial feel kind of like these next few photos:

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I could even pull our wicker chairs back in from the mudroom and pair them with our dining table and possibly some new industrial chairs (?).

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I’m not EXACTLY sure how all this is going to shake down. I admit this idea is half-baked. I love it and all, but I recently began doing a lot of in home daycare for family and friends so I feel the need more than ever for a family friendly living area for the kids to play. And someday I plan on homeschooling so I’m not 100% sold on this idea since I have been using the family room more casually and the living/dining rooms as more formal zones. I’m a bit on the fence. But what do you guys think?

Should I go for it? For now I think I should at least give it a try. We can always move the furniture back around again later if we don’t fall in love.

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 25 - DIY Rustic Mudroom Bench

After being inspired by tons and tons of DIY furniture photos on Pinterest and then seeing what Dave built out in the woods a few weeks ago, I urged him to please, pretty please, build us a bench for the mudroom. Finally, he conceded.

The source of our lumber came when his dad hired someone at his place next door to cut up a few fallen oak trees into lumber for a lean-to that he's planning to build. He let Dave grab some extra slab wood with the bark still on and a few rough-cut 2 x 3's and with that, Dave fashioned us a fabulous rustic DIY bench. I am absolutely in love with this thing.

With the pieces of wood that he chose, it looks like they just sliced the tree in half long-ways and unfolded it to make the bench. 

It is held together with some mortise & tenon joints and a few square nails that we purchased from an Amish hardware store in PA a few years ago.

This piece of furniture has a story and I love that most about it. For example, this piece of wood holding the legs together on the left side has a blue streak in it. Phil pointed out that the streak came from a nail that he pounded into that tree 55 years ago when he built a tree house. As the tree grew around that nail, it discolored the wood. The nail is still in it.

Dave thought that story was so neat so when he needed a short piece to brace the legs together, he went back over and dug through a pile of split wood that was still sitting in the yard and picked this particular piece out.

We talked about staining it but I think we've both decided we love it just the way it is.

You just can't buy furniture this special. Seriously. It is the perfect addition to our mudroom.

What do you guys think? Would you love to have one? And isn't my husband a genius?

For the rest of this 31 Day Series, click here.

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 5 - Map Backed Bookcases {In Progress}

I'm keeping it real today. I knew that it would be tough to complete 31 entire Pinterest Projects in just 31 days. And sure, in the perfect world, as I imagined in my mind, I would have spent the entire month of Septemeber doing the projects and taking and uploading photos and then I would only have to do the work of blogging about the projects for the entire month of October. But, this is not the perfect world, and now I'm trying to cram 31 actual projects into 31 actual days and blog about it along the way meanwhile keeping up with all my other responsibilities.

So today was one of those days where I didn't actually get my project done. And as I blog about this at 11:15pm, dirty dishes and clothes still await me in the other room!

For now, I'll share a few {In Progress} photos with you and I hope to show you the final project later this month.

Earlier this evening I posted this image on my Facebook wall:

 

Then I asked my friends to guess what Pinterest Project they thought I might be tackling today - guesses included "photo mat" or "weaving a basket" or "string art".

 

 

 

 

Sorry ladies...good guesses. But actually, I am going to work on this - our built-in bookcases in the family room.

 

 



Ever since we moved in, I have wanted to make them over in some way. I've wanted to do a better job with styling them for sure. I just threw things up there in a functional way when we unpacked, and I haven't really done much since {other than make a whole Pin Board for inspirational photos of Styled Shelves...LOL!}. And I really don't like the heavy oak wood grain that shows on the back behind the books. No idea why but it just bothers me at times.

So now that it's 31 Days of Pinterest Project month, I thought, I HAVE got to do something to these puppies. I'd really love to paint them white or gray and line the backs with fabric or burlap or something. However, the fact remains that we do not own our home, we're renting it; and I have some major heartburn about painting someone else's woodwork. That and painting with a toddler in the house also generally equals disaster. Especially a house that you don't own the carpet in :) So, I thought I ought to pick something that would be a little less permanent.

A few of my pins involved wallpaper backed wooden bookcases:

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And I thought they were pretty cute. But I also didn't know where to find stylish yet inexpensive wallpaper. Nor did I think that was any less permanent than painting the bookcases. So, I was back to the drawing board, er, Pinterest.

And that's when I found this makeover by Melissa on The Inspired Room.

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Map backed wooden bookcases. And the map was just taped to the bookcase! Easily removable. Woohoo! A perfect solution for a renter. And it goes along with the recent trend of decorating with maps, which I love because it is such a green solution and I feel like maps are pretty timeless accessories.

 

Here are just a couple images of other map decor pins I've gathered recently.

 

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So this afternoon when it started raining and I wanted a fun indoor project, I just grabbed the "Removable Double Sided Tape,"

 

 

and I pulled out our old 2009 Atlas from a box of stuff we'd removed from our second vehicle before we sold it last summer - and I had all the supplies I needed!

 

I simply removed all the shelves {and books and other miscellany}, starting only with one third of the entire built-in unit, so as not to cover everysingleflatsurface in our home with junk!! Then I just tore out pages from the Atlas and taped them to the back of the bookcase, overlapping as I saw fit and being sure to include pages of cities and states we'd actually been to. It was really fun and super easy to do. I did this much in about 10 minutes.  

 

 

 

 

 

And then I wondered where my two year old was. . .This is where I found him:

 

 

Yep. Inside one of the upper kitchen cabinets. He was very proud of himself.

 

"Now...how do I get out of here?" he ponders...

 

 

"Hello Mommy!!!"

 

 

"Hmmmm...."

 

 

"That was fun!"

 

"Huh...maybe I don't want to be out yet."

 

"Let's try that again."

 

And you see, folks, why there is never a dull moment in this home!

 

So, anyways, I have only finished about 10-20% of this project. But I have some high hopes of wrapping it up in the next few days, because I'm just not sure how much longer we can live with tables and counters looking like this...

Furthermore, when I finish lining the back of the bookcases with the maps, I'll be able to move onto the fun part - styling the shelves {which I will be sure to share as part of the 31 Days as well}! I just have to keep my eye on the prize!

Speaking of fun parts, I'm also thrilled to announce that tomorrow I'll actually be headed to my sister-in-law's home to work on organizing and making over a couple spaces with her, so I hope to share some details of those projects with you later this month too.

Have a great weekend!

Nate Berkus agrees - the Armoire ROCKS!

Remember how I wrote an entire post back in November praising the versatility of the armoire? I love them because you can use them as a home office, a coat closet when you don't have one, a craft station, or a pantry. Pretty much WHATEVER YOU WANT.

Here's a photo of our old home office setup in the armoire back in Indiana:

And here's an example of how you can use one for an entryway closet:

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Or craft storage:

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Or as a pantry in the kitchen:

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I just love armoires!

So you can probably imagine my excitement when I was watching video clips over on The Nate Berkus Show site, and he made over a standard computer armoire for a guest. I could not wait to see what he did! Here's the video clip from his show. . .you have to see it!

. . .I just love how he points out how great it is that you can just shut the doors on your home office when you keep it in an armoire. And I love how he personalized the piece by lining the insides of the doors with cork to add tons of function and the outside door panels with a vintage print wallpaper to beautify the piece. I love his work. . .

And while we're on the subject, here are a few more inspirational armoires I've seen over on Pinterest lately. All I can say is "WOW". This piece of furniture ROCKS! You can just do SO MUCH with it.

Craft storage:

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Additional storage for clothes and toys in a child's bedroom:

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Ample shoe storage:

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You know, my mom did this in her laundry room over 15 years ago. It was fabulous when my sister and I were living at home and we all 3 combined had so many shoes!!

You can even just use an armoire, like this one with glass doors, for book / trinket displays in a living area:

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Or better yet, why not use it as a place for your childrens' toys and games and craft supplies? I love how they used a towel rod hanging from a shelf for butcher paper for the kids, and added chalkboards to the inside of the door...and used labels on the drawers to identify where toys belong. 

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Anyone made over an armoire lately? What do you use yours for?

Most Versatile Piece of Furniture - The Armoire

You know, I'm beginning to think that armoires are one of the most versatile pieces of furniture in the entire world. They rank right up there with dressers and storage ottomans, but we'll save those for another time. ;)

After moving our office into a computer armoire that we scored for $100 from Craigslist back in August, I just CANNOT stop singing the praises of the armoire.

There's just something so appealing about forcing yourself to contain all the clutter of one aspect of your home inside a nice cute little piece of furniture that you can easily close the door on.

I could have one in every room of the home. You can use them to hide TVs or computers, or you can set up a little craft or sewing station like these gals did:

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Or you can use them for clothes in a bedroom that lacks a closet!

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Or create a stand-in coat closet in an entry way that lacks one...like I mentioned in last week's post.

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Or you can repurpose your armoire as a freestanding pantry for food or dishes in a kitchen that lacks cabinet space.

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And while you're at it, check out this fabulous armoire makeover by Lisa from Recaptured Charm. The before/after is amazing!

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The possibilities with armoires are endless...craft cabinet for the kids, book storage, DVD storage, CD storage, a place to keep files that's much cuter than a metal filing cabinet. You can line the inside with gorgeous wallpaper, fabric, paint it a bright color. You can do anything with this piece of furniture. And they are pretty easy to come by at garage sales, flea markets, Craigslist. Also, as Ange, from The Blooming Hydrangea, pointed out to me once, the fabulous thing is that you can take an armoire with you when you move! ...Can you tell I have moving on the brain? Just one more week. . .

What other pieces of furniture do you find extremely versatile in your home? Have any of you used an armoire for a surprising purpose that I did not mention here?