Charlotte's Playroom

Back in January, I shared posts about our main bathroom updates as well as the latest stage of our laundry room renovation, and I also mentioned that we'd been working hard on creating a playroom for Charlotte. I didn't really mean to wait so long to share pictures, and I'm so excited to share this transformation! We took a room that we loved but never used and turned it into a really practical, fun space for Charlotte that can easily evolve and change as she (and future kids) does.

First, here's the final product:

And here's the room when we first moved in, as a blank beige canvas (with an awkward Captain cameo):

Since this is one of two living rooms in the house and we knew we would use the other one as the TV room, I jumped at the chance to add lots of bookshelves to this room. It was one of the first things we did after moving in: we painted the room and then filled the car with IKEA bookshelves.

The bookshelves made a dramatic impact in the room, and this is what it looked like for the first year and a half:

Yup, that big Maine map was propped up against the couch in two of the pictures. Unfortunately I can't go back in time and retake the pictures (facepalm).

When we acquired my grandparents' dollhouse a year and a half ago, we shifted the furniture around in the room to accommodate it.

Clearly I am a professional blogger with professional photography skills. Since then, some side tables, a coffee table, and a whole lot of whiskey bottles have been added, but other than that this is pretty much how the room has looked. It was a really nice room and everyone always commented on how it was their favorite - mine too! - but we never ever used it. We pictured lots of family time in there in the future, but for now it was pretty much wasted space.

Meanwhile, all of Charlotte's toys and stuff was in the (much smaller) family room. It was okay at first, but her birthday and Christmas happened and the toy inventory grew, and I started to lose my mind a little. We moved the coffee table into the library to open up more floor space, and we even tried moving the toys to the back corner of the room.

But in the end, we had a major light bulb go off around New Year's when we realized that maybe it was time to utilize this huge, nonused room for her toys instead. Once we decided how to shift the furniture around and moved the dollhouse to the nursery, it wasn't too much of a leap to make the playroom come together. A couple toy storage units from IKEA later, this is Charlotte's finished-for-now playroom!

We ended up splitting the room into two unequal halves: the playroom side and the library side, using the couch and the toy storage as the room dividers. It was a gamble, positioning the couch facing away from the playroom, but so far it's worked well. I can sit on the couch and still see her well enough while she's playing, although not as well as if it was facing her obviously.

Here are some closer shots of the playroom side:

We decided to go with IKEA's TROFAST storage system. I was really attracted to the plastic bins rather than cloth ones, and I also loved the look of them. After I organized all of Charlotte's toys, I labeled the bins with washi tape and a sharpie because I knew that if I spent a lot of money on fancy sticker labels, she would tear them off and I'd get upset. Turns out that was a good call, because I think only one or two washi tape labels still survive. But it's also okay because very few toys are in their original bins, anyway. ;)

We also got this tent from IKEA, and it was one of Charlotte's Christmas presents. We stuck some throw pillows and blankets inside, and she's taken a while to warm up to it but every once in a while she does crawl in and play for a while. I'm hoping over time, as she gets a little older, she will enjoy it more.

By far the coolest thing in the room: this activity board my parents built for Charlotte for Christmas. He took a cheap, plastic-filled Pinterest idea and turned it into this amazing piece of art that she absolutely loves. She plays with it constantly, and when she sees bouncy doorstoppers at other people's houses she sits and plays with them every time. It's so cool to see her figure out all the knobs, wheels, doors, and locks.

The fireplace hearth is a nice little natural bench for mommies to sit on while babies play, so I threw a couple cheap seat cushions on there. We have since added a white rubber corner guard all the way around the hearth (and the family room hearth), so have no fear.

The blanket hanging on the wall above the activity board is from Modern Burlap, and it's simply hung on the wall with tacks. They offer several scripture blankets and I couldn't decide which one I wanted, so I handed the phone to JT and he picked this one. We love having it hang in the playroom and in such a central part of the house, and we think it adds such a fun element to the room. 

The giraffe pillow pet was one of Charlotte's birthday presents for us and is one of her favorite things she owns; I thought it was a cute little play on an animal rug in here. The sheepskin rug is from, you guessed it, IKEA. It was kind of an unexpected investment but it's the coolest little rug ever. 

The other half of the room is simple but comfortable as a little adult retreat. I've used it countless times while Charlotte naps or after she goes to bed to read and to write, surrounded by my beautiful bookshelves and removed from everything in this private little pocket of the house. 

We love how this room has turned out, and we can't wait to see how it will grow and evolve as Charlotte's needs grow and evolve. I'm already plotting the next addition of a kids table and art station...

Catching up on book reviews

Hey friends. It's been approximately one million years and 5 books since I've updated you all on what I've read. Some of that was unintentional (finished a couple at once and just forgot to update the blog) and some of it, I'll confess, was intentional ("eh...I'll wait till I have more and just do a big post"). At any rate, I'm back. Here's some very brief thoughts about what I've been reading.

taken from Goodreads.com

I really loved Gayle Forman's original two-part story, If I Stay and Where She Went. Like, really really loved them. So I always kind of had this two-part story, Just One Day and Just One Year, at the back of my mind. Here's the short version of my opinions about this first book: I hated the first 30%, enjoyed the next 50ish%, and then grumbled and rolled my eyes dramatically throughout the last 20%. My sister was visiting me for a long weekend while I read it and I would update her on all the obnoxious, teenagery things that I was reading. She left to go back home before I finished and I called her and left a ten minute voicemail telling her the end in great detail. Her response? "As soon as I heard how it ended I thought 'Oh crap, now she has to read the second one.'" YUP. Gayle, darn you and your cliffhangers. So, yeah. It was fine. Whatever. But I have to read the second one now.

taken from Goodreads.com

I have listened to Shauna on the Relevant podcast for years but really hadn't read much of her stuff until recently. I read Cold Tangerines last year and now I've finished Bittersweet...Bread & Wine will be read soon and JT and I are working our way through Savor together. I've already preordered her new book, Present over Perfect, though, and cannot wait. That being said: I really really love her books and love the depth at which she writes and the things that she's willing to explore and wrestle with...but I also have found that in both this one and Cold Tangerines, there's always a moment about 75% through where I just kind of get bored. Maybe I feel like she's already reached that point where she's said what she needs to say and she's just kind of repeating herself. Regardless of that, I really did love this book. A lot of the subject matter really hit close to home; she spends much of the book describing the pain and emotional journey she and her husband went on in the wake of a miscarriage. I obviously cried a lot of tears over this book as I was forced to remember our own similar journey and recovery. She covers some really hard subject matter with a whole lot of beauty, grace, and encouragement.

taken from Goodreads.com

So you remember Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events from back in the day? There were 13 books that were made into a movie and is now being made into a Netflix television show? Well my brother and I LOVED that series - and read a lot of them together, taking turns reading aloud - and we now officially love this series. It's a prequel to the Series of Unfortunate Events, explaining Lemony's childhood and how he ends up in a position where he's writing about the Baudelaire family. I'd actually already read this one about 4 years ago when it came out, but then time and life got away from me and I'd never read the rest. They're all out now - there are only 4 in this series, which is much easier to handle than 13 - and they're ridiculously easy and quick reads. Also, they're HILARIOUS. So so so funny. I highly recommend them.

taken from Goodreads.com

I read this one because it felt like everyone was reading it, and everyone was loving it. I'm not sure how much I really loved it, to be honest. I liked it a lot, and I fully appreciated the master storytelling and the beautiful writing. Beautiful. But I also didn't miss it when I wasn't reading. I wanted to finish it, but I didn't have this burning desire to see it through. I just kind of liked it, that's all. That being said, it is a really and truly beautiful story with complex and beautiful characters and a fresh perspective on a time in history that is so thoroughly covered in so many ways.

taken from Goodreads.com

Guys, I LOVED this book. I have now read all of Rainbow's work (not counting her brand new book that I have no interest in), and every one of her books I've liked so much more than the last. I kind of liked parts of Fangirl, I liked Eleanor & Park a lot, I loved Landline, and I LOVED Attachments. Very quirky and realistic characters living in a pre-Y2K world where the rules of the internet are fuzzy at best? So. Good. I laughed (a whole lot, sometimes out loud), and I cried. And I super duper loved these characters. Rainbow's gift is dialogue, which I appreciate because I feel like I suck at it. Read this one. All the gold stars and thumbs up.

Master Bedroom Makeover (Part 1)

Hey friends! We've been making some really huge changes around the house over the last few months, and the latest have been taking place in the master bedroom. Before we go to the bedroom though, I want to show you a couple shots of the family room. Because one of the big changes was that we got new carpet! (Insert one thousand balloons and confetti poppers.) There are only two rooms with carpet in our house - the family room and the master bedroom, and that's because both rooms were additions and therefore don't have the same original hardwood flooring as the rest of the house. The carpet was brand new when we moved in, but it was also the WORLD'S WORST, builder grade carpet that stretched and pulled and stained and wore down to nothing. It's been less than three years since we moved in, and the carpet looked like it was fifteen years old. Yes, we had three dogs for two and a half of those three years and we have since added a toddler. But seriously. So we decided to bite the bullet and change it.

Those are the two carpet samples we chose, sitting on top of the existing carpet (stains and pulls not pictured). After much debate and votes from family members, we decided to put the tan in the family room and the grey in our bedroom. I loved the grey the most for both rooms, but we were afraid it would stain too much in such a high traffic room. And it was such a good idea, since the tan looks amazing in the family room. But first, I have to show you what our subfloor looks like:

Has anything screamed 1980 decorating more than that floor? Amazing. But okay, here are the after pictures in the family room:

Please ignore Hart of Dixie playing on the television. I can't stop watching it.

The tan carpet fits the room perfectly, and it's so beautiful. So soft, such amazing quality, and so so so much better than the cruddy stuff we had.

We also installed some new glass doors on the fireplace, and a new hearth rug to protect the new carpet. Both add so much to the room. We're so happy with how it's all turned out.

Now. The master bedroom.

When we moved in, this is what it looked like:

A couple months later we painted the walls and hung some pictures. 

And I will be honest, I hated that paint color while I was actually painting it. Really, really hated it. It was so far from what I was going for. In person, it was even brighter and more like a boy's nursery than it's showing in the pictures. I made a huge mistake, though, and decided to move the furniture back and live with the color for a few days to see if it grew on me. And the problem then was that when a few days passed and I still hated it, the furniture was already back and it's a huge pain to move it and paint again. That bed is heavy. And so are the two dressers. So we just kind of said that one day when we replace some of the furniture we'll paint. But here we are two and a half years later and it still hadn't happened, because we also haven't changed any furniture. And I've just been quietly hating it.

Here's some more pictures of the room, as it has been up until last week (with a brief cameo from Charlotte):

Oh look...Hart of Dixie on the television. #reallife

Aside from the paint color, there were several other things I wasn't super in love with in the room.

• the curtains. We had chosen them in haste a couple years ago when JT was about to start working midnights and we needed blackout curtains. We didn't do a lot of research; all I knew was that I wanted a burlap color. We saw these at Walmart (probably really cheap) and grabbed them, as well as the curtain rods. These particular curtain rods were the kind that snap into place in between the molding around your window, rather than having to be drilled into the wall. It sounds nice...until you realize that there is absolutely no hanging high and wide with them. Plus the curtains were basically solids they were so thick. You literally couldn't pull them back off the window. We hung some hooks to hold them back a little, but they still ended up covering a large portion of the windows (and the windows are not that big to begin with). 
• I liked the things we had hung on the wall (almost entirely maps and pictures from our honeymoon in Maine) but felt like it looked like we kind of stopped halfway through decorating. The things we had hung were in awkward places and the blank spaces were equally awkward. There wasn't much intentionality there. 
• That bed is just not my favorite. Actually, all the furniture is not my favorite. I'm not really much of a matching bedroom set kind of girl - and thanks to three and a half years of being married to me, JT isn't a matching bedroom set kind of boy anymore - but it's the bedroom set he had when we got married and there wasn't much point in getting rid of perfectly good furniture. He doesn't have a strong emotional tie to it, so we've always talked about getting rid of it at some point. In the meantime, though, the bed is probably my least favorite of the set. I can't quite put my finger on why, other than that it just doesn't feel welcoming to me. 
• I have always really wanted a big comfy chair in our room. It's not the biggest master bedroom in the world but it should fit a chair fairly comfortably. I did move that IKEA chair back to our room a couple weeks ago and it's nice to have even though it it's the long term plan or design I had in mind. 
• I cannot stand that dumb boob light. Our house has them in every room and at every light fixture and I can't even describe to you how badly I want to replace them all. It's on the list, it's just an expensive task on the list and it therefore hasn't happened in any room yet. But I definitely want that to go in this room too. 

Basically, I wanted our room to be comfortable, relaxing, and peaceful. I didn't want the paint screaming at me or the furniture to feel like it doesn't belong in my house. And honestly, that's somewhat easier said than done sometimes. I've been brainstorming for a long time, though, about what I want to happen in our room far off in the future when we get to tackle it, and these were some of the ideas I had:

•  I knew I wanted a darker blueish-grey for the walls. I had been shooting for a blue-grey the first time around and had missed the grey completely, and this time I didn't want to mess it up. So I went to the experts and stole the paint color right off their walls: Young House Love, thank you for Benjamin Moore's Black Pepper. We literally stole your master bedroom paint color. Great minds, and all that.
•  Lots of neutrals to balance the darker wall color. That meant beiges and whites and greys on the bed, with lots of pillows to add to the comfortable and welcoming feel. 
• A new white dresser to replace the one currently under the television. I had originally thought I'd want to thrift one and paint it, but after looking at a couple I realized that we are adults, and it's okay for us to put our clothes in something new. With drawers that aren't decaying and have a hard time sliding open. So I shifted my attention to this dresser from IKEA instead. 
• New curtains and new curtain rods, for the love of windows. I wanted either beige or white, preferably letting some sun in to make the room seem more light and airy, but we'd have to take into consideration JT's occasional night shift work. I also definitely wanted to hang the new curtains high and wide, maximizing the windows' full potential rather than blocking them like we had been. 
• A more intentional and purposeful layout on the walls. Whether we kept it simple or went gallery wall crazy, I wanted to make sure it wasn't just haphazardly thrown together without thought again. 
• Sweet, wonderful Joanna Gaines has gotten to me in a big way. I really wanted to incorporate faux shiplap somehow, somewhere. 
• A new light fixture...something in this family. 
• One day we plan to upgrade to a king mattress, and when that happens we will obviously need a new bed. In a perfect world, I'd love a beige tufted upholstered headboard. Swoon. But JT hates upholstered headboards very very much, and I suppose he gets a say since it's his bed too. So I'm not entirely sure what kind of bed I'll want when the time comes, but I do know it's not going to be like the one we have.
• Pops of yellow, preferably mustard. (A huge barn down the road from my house is painted dark blue with mustard yellow doors and I am smitten.) 

This was all long down the road, until we started talking about carpet. When we pulled the trigger on that one, it was all a logical spiral into a full blown bedroom makeover. Replacing carpet meant moving furniture, which means I leaped with my whole body at the opportunity to paint the walls. So we moved the furniture a couple days before our carpet appointment, and I painted over the course of two nights.

Here's the somewhat crappy quality panoramic shots of both sides of the room:

Other than the paint change - which, contrary to before, I loved from the moment I started painting - and the new carpet, we changed a little bit of bedding, the curtains, a lamp, and I switched out the IKEA chair for my famous map chair. We also took the bed apart and left ourselves with only the bed frame, which was such an unexpected and wonderful bonus.

Here's some better, more up close detail shots.

And just like that, we have a whole new room. Now that we've made these incredibly huge changes, we've really only got a couple left to make.

• We're going to get that white dresser from IKEA at some point, which will pop so much against the dark walls. I can't wait. 
• We're going to snag this chair from IKEA while we're there for the dresser. I loved the idea of using the map chair - half because it has that pop of yellow I wanted and half because we already owned it and therefore wouldn't have to buy a new one - but I don't think it will work in this room for a number of reasons. It's just not that comfortable, for one. For another, it's way too formal for this room. I sat in bed last night staring at the room for about ten minutes, trying to figure out what wasn't working. I think it's the chair. The chair is formal and rigid, which isn't the comfortable, casual, inviting feel I was shooting for. I think the new one will work much better. 
• We're going to replace the light fixture...someday. Not sure when or whether it will be the exact one I linked to or not, but time will tell. 
• We're going to shiplap the wall behind the bed! CAN.NOT.WAIT. The plan is to leave it as rough wood and not paint it, to bring in some warmth. 
• We really need to paint the ceiling and add crown molding (the guy we bought the house from who flipped it literally forgot to put the molding up in our room - every other room in the house including our closet has crown molding, but our room doesn't). 
• We need to hang things on the wall, obviously. But I'm not rushing into it. You might notice that there isn't even anything on the dressers and nightstands. We're taking our time with bringing the clutter and pictures and maps and frames back into the room. Like I said, I want it to be intentional and actually look good this time. 

So there it is! It will evolve and get tweaked, I'm sure, and not only in the ways I just outlined. But now that I've shared all that with you...I have three questions for you. I need your advice, friends.

First, What do I do about this hallway leading to our room, and our bathroom?

The bathroom is the blue color that our room used to be, and the hallway hasn't ever been touched. Should I paint them to match the bedroom? Paint just one of them? Which one? JT and I have talked about painting our hallway the same color as the main hallway someday, so should I wait for that and do that and paint the bathroom to match the bedroom? Help.

Also, Rosie's spikey collar is already scratching the wall behind the dog bed (I know. Infuriating.). Any suggestions for what to do about this? My only thought is to use the shiplap as wainscoting all the way around the bottom of the room instead of doing the whole wall behind our bed. That way her collar would scratch the wood but who cares? Thoughts? Any other ideas?

One last thing, we only bought three curtain panels because we only used three before. But the previous curtains were so thick, two wouldn't work with our awkward, small window next to the bed. After hanging these last night, though, I feel like it looks silly without two curtain panels, and JT doesn't mind it and is worried it will be smushed behind his nightstand. Thoughts?  Add another panel? I just don't want it to look like we forgot to hang one, you know? I feel a little bit like that's what it looks like, but I also think JT has a point about the nightstand.

Alright friends. That's it: our living room update/bedroom makeover/advice seeking. Until next time!

Finding inspiration

I'm sure a lot of you know this about me, but I've always wanted to be a writer. An author, actually. I tried writing a book a couple years ago and got pretty far, but just couldn't quite figure out the ending. And some of the middle. I'm really proud of most of what I wrote, but overall it just didn't ever feel right - didn't feel like enough - and then Charlotte was born and I put that dream away for a little bit. I always knew I would try again a different time, but to be completely honest, I wasn't really sure what else I had to write about. I have a deeply embedded dream to be a writer, but not a lot of ideas for what I want to actually write. And that has really messed with my confidence. What kind of writer doesn't have anything to say?

In the last couple weeks, though, I've felt that nudge again. So many writers that I follow and admire have been blogging and Instagramming about how if you've ever wanted to write, it's time to do it. They've been pushing and encouraging and being that voice in my head reminding me that there will always be excuses. There will always be other things. That image I have always clung to of a nice, quiet office with a view of the woods and a cup of coffee and lots of natural light and no distractions or obligations just probably won't ever exist (I mean, parts of it will, but not that last part). There will always be a kid, husband, or dog who needs me. And a meal that needs to be cooked. And a house that needs to be cleaned. And laundry that needs to be put away. Those things aren't the enemies (duh), they're just life. It's my full time job, and I don't want that to change. I do want to figure out how to incorporate writing into that full time job, though.

I might never write a great American novel. I might never get published, and I might never be a household name. But maybe I will. Or maybe I will one day get to say that I've done one of those things and just get published. (I say "just," but that would be the most awesome thing of all.) This is something that I have always wanted, and always felt a pull towards, and that's important. That matters.

So...I'm writing again. I've gotten a flood of ideas and have spent a lot of time jotting down every thought that pops into my head (once, I literally jumped off the treadmill to write because I had too many ideas to wait till my workout was done), and I'm working on organizing them into coherent plans. Which ideas will work together for a single book? Which ones can be built upon to form their own books? I'm not sure what will really come out of all the lists and thoughts, but I do know that I have a new book started. I'm really excited about all my notes, and I'm diving in. Because, to quote Finding Forrester, "a writer writes," right?