♥ Simple and Rustic ♥

Sometimes I think my brain is in overload.  I have plans, ideas, and just everything else that's there waiting to be addressed or brought to life and it really bugs me when I can't get to them.  One of those things has been getting the bedroom we remodeled decorated.  I've collected a few things but being somewhat of a perfectionist about stuff like that and thinking I'd rather wait and do nothing until I have what I want or need, I tend to procrastinate on getting what I do have up or out.

But......I did go ahead and hang the twiggy star wreath over the bed and I have to say that I just love that simple rustic look!  Things are definitely coming together.  Jason made me a pegboard and that old ladder has been painted and we're going to distress it.  So there will be more to come later, but for now........here's how the wreath looks above the bed.....

And I made another stop by the Antique Gallery the other day and came home with these goodies.  I can't wait for Luke to be able to read that book..........I just love old books!  Not sure yet where the jar with the red lid will go.  I have so much red everywhere that it could fit in so many places, so we'll have to see about that.  The basket is going to go in the bedroom most likely.

Anywhere I just had to share a little bit.  :)  Thanks so much for stopping by!  And if I haven't been by to visit much lately, please don't give up on me......I will!

Have a great day!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥ 

♥ Update on Bedroom Makeover ♥

When we start a new project around here, it seems like something always slows us down, but I guess that's pretty much the normal for everyone.  Also, we should have learned by now to only have one project going at a time.  But it seems we haven't learned that lesson yet!  In the midst of this, we have been doing some projects outside as well, or at least starting on them. 

But........the bedroom is painted.  The floors are down.  The trim is stained and back up.  The furniture has been moved into place.

Now it's time for the fun part......decorating!  The furniture was inherited from Jason's dad.  See the brass hardware?  It's getting a makeover.  I also just purchased bedding yesterday.  It was meant to be.  :)  I'll have to tell you more about that when the bedroom is all put together. 

So there's still work to be done, but this part is the part I really enioy!   :)

Have a great weekend! 

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ A Little Progress ♥

Before we got too sick around here, and mostly because of Jason's hard work in one particular day, we made a little progress on the bedroom makeover.

The wallpaper border was tough getting down, in spite of the fabric softener trick.

The entertainment center was torn out.  Jason plans to reuse the wood to make me a cupboard for The Cedar Loft.

Repairs were made to the walls.

The flooring is stacked and awaits us on the sunporch. We got a great deal, so we got enough to do the master bedroom too.  Guess that will be the next room on the makeover list!

Actually, the painting is done, but that will be for another post.  Here you can see what the paint swatch looks like with the laminate flooring.  I took one with the flash and one without.  It's so hard to capture that true color.  It reminds me of a gray/green.

We hoped to be done by now, but then we didn't plan on the flu hitting our house.  I'm happy to have as much done as we do.   Hopefully this weekend, we'll get that flooring done!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing our bedroom remodel adventure!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥    

♥ A New Remodeling Project ♥

We can't ever let things rest for too long, can we? 

We have a small makeover project in the works. 

We've talked about redoing Colt's bedroom for a few months.  We had already decided we would do nothing to it for a year, just in case he wanted to come back and find things as he left them.  :)  He's been living out in his own apartment now for over a year and a half.

When Jason's dad passed away last April, we took one of his bedroom's furniture and Jason's sister took the other.  Since then, it's just been stored in that bedroom with the door closed.  I have done absolutely nothing with that room.  I honestly don't even like to go in there. I miss Colt being there. About the only time we ever go in there is when we're playing hide-n-seek with the kids (we like flashlight hide-n-seek) or when I was wrapping Christmas gifts.

The messy room awaits a makeover.....a glimpse of the furniture. 

So we decided it was time.  We finally picked out a color for the walls.  And the yucky carpet has to come out.  So basically this room will get a makeover of a new wall color, a new floor, and new furniture (new to us anyway).  And then of course, the fun part will come.......the decorating part!

Here's the paint color sample:

The photos didn't really capture the true color.  Here's another photo, but still not like seeing it in person:

Jason already took back the sample of the rustic laminate flooring when he ordered it.  It's called Hickory Praline.  I didn't realize he was taking the sample back or I would have gotten a photo of it first.  Oh well, you'll have to wait until the real thing is here.  :)

The plan is to start this weekend.  Not sure how far will get as we have to tear out a custom built entertainment center, take down border, and get the walls ready for painting.  If we could have it all painted by the time the weekend ends, I'll be one happy gal!  The floor will hopefully follow the next weekend or two after that.

I could probably chronicle our lives by the chapters of home remodeling projects!  We've completely redone several rooms, one project at a time!  I always dread the mess, but love the outcome.  Doing it ourselves is always worth the time and mess in the end, and besides doing it ourselves fits our budget much better.

So here we go again.........  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ We're At It Again ♥

Well I told you yesterday that today I would show you what our little trip to the cabin inspired. And let me just insert here that after working on The Cedar Loft all.summer.long. last year, we decided we needed a break from home improvement projects.  Well, it's been a year.  :)   I think we may have gone a little crazy here, but it’s too late to turn back now!

If you remember when we got the new furniture, I did mention that we wanted to redo the staircase. Redo meaning to remove the carpet from the stairs and replace it with hardwood and paint the risers red and also take down the wallpaper in the foyer and staircase area and paint it. ( I can't believe I ever really liked that wallpaper).  Well while we were gone last week, we discussed coming home and getting started on it. And started we did, only the project keeps growing. Actually, I don't know why I'm so surprised at that, because that's kind of the way it goes when we dive into a project.

Take a good look at the staircase 

I don’t know if you do this, but I was standing there in front of the staircase for the longest, studying it trying to decide what color those walls needed to be.  Originally I thought maybe the color of my dining room would be good. Then I thought no…….too much chopping up of the rooms…..I want it to flow. It just didn’t seem right to me. So then I thought red like the living room. And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I just didn’t think that was right either. It just seemed like too much red. I know….I know......I can’t believe I’m saying that.  :)  But, after standing there staring at it forever, I told Jason, “You know I really want wood. And I want it to be rustic.” So he says, “Well we could put up log siding on the inside.”   Well when I heard could that's all I needed to hear!   I loved that idea!

So on Saturday, we pulled the carpet off the stairs. Then we got to looking at the railing and posts and decided they just weren’t rustic enough to go with the log siding.  I’ve always wanted more straight lines in the staircase anyway and not the spindly posts. And the woods just wouldn't match well together.  So before the day was done, we had torn down the entire staircase. And we’re left with this!

My poor staircase now.  And notice that wallpaper at the top missing.....a certain 4 year old had a hand in that.  I never showed you THAT before, did I?  :) 

And I can’t believe it....... We’re getting ready to start back to school soon.......... I start back teaching piano lessons......... and my entry way looks like this! Plus I have a very active 4 year old that I'm having to keep off those stairs because there are no railings. (He's being very good).  :)

Guess since I didn’t get the logs on the outside (we considered it when we built this one and decided on the cedar because of the expense), I’m going to have a logs inside......or at least some!  I’m kind of excited!  :)

 Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!  :)

Picking Up Where We Left Off....

Last year we started a little remodeling project - our upstairs guest bathroom.  Then, I was waist deep in paperwork for the adoption and all my thoughts were elsewhere but into that project, not to mention the finances involved with the adoption halted anything else planned.

Also last year about this time, I used birthday money to purchase the ceramic tile for the bathroom.  Jason did all the trim work in the distressed deep barn red and we painted the walls a color called Molasses.  Isn't that a yummy sounding color?  That's as far as we got.  As a matter of fact, when we had our homestudy for the adoption, it was just stuck in construction mode. 

Here's where we are right now:

Now, it's time to finish it!  I just had a birthday again (the end of August)....and wouldn't you know it......I always end up spending most of my birthday money on things for decorating my home, more so than personal things.  (I did get a new purse and wallet though).  Anyway, I just purchased this shower curtain that comes with rag ties. 

This is my starting point.  I'm not even exactly sure what direction it will take, but my wheels are turning.  I just knew that I needed a little break from using red in my curtains and shower curtains, so this is a change for me.  I've never used this much black in decorating.  I'm looking forward to using the black and tan. 

Oh, and my mom bought me this stool as part of my birthday gift.  It was also inspiration for the black.  

I'll share it with you as  it all unfolds.  I'm excited to be decorating again! 

As always, I'm very appreciative that you stopped by today!  Have a great day!  :)

~ Tammy ~

Labor of Love for Luke

It seems like we've been remodeling or redecorating since forever. I'm happy to say that Luke's bedroom is finally finished! It's really been a labor of love with Jason building his bed and nightstand and shelves, and us painting and staining it all, then putting it all together and decorating it! It's been fun too!

Anyway, I won't keep you waiting any longer. Here it is:









It's a very small bedroom, only 8 x 12, so it was a little challenging with furniture arrangement. The reason this bedroom is so small is my fault! lol! When we were building our home, I wanted our stairs to turn (and have a landing in the middle), which cut into that bedroom's space, reducing it's size and closet space. Joy endured it for 11 years and it's worked out alright, especially since we have a playroom area upstairs. However, we've wished many times we had just gone ahead and just adjusted the size of our house a few feet while we were building to make it that much longer, and had a bigger bedroom. But it is what it is! :)

Maybe one day he'll realize how special it is to have a bed made by his daddy (which I love by the way).



A little closer look at the headboard. I love the beadboard he used in it.



Jason also made the nightstand, complete with a little drawer of his own and a shelf for his favorite bedtime story books at the bottom too.



And the accents in here had to be red...Luke's favorite color, according to his foster family. These are the letters that Dan of Yesterday Once More so generously made and sent to us for Luke. Thank you so much, Dan! They're perfect for Luke's room and add so much character! The pegboard was repurposed from Joy's previous bedroom, given a coat of red paint.



I bought this dresser used before Colt came home to us. It was a really ugly dark dark color. Jason and I stripped it, and refinished it. It was used in both Colt and Joy's rooms when they were younger. Now Luke gets his turn using it!



Remember the prints I bought? I bought $1.00 unfinished document frames from Dollar Tree and painted them blue to frame the prints.





This one's my favorite print of them all! :)



I wanted no frill shelves...just basic plain straight line shelves, so that's what Jason made. We treated them to a coat (actually three coats) of red paint also. These shelves with fill up with Luke's toys and goodies when he comes home. Until then, we're leaving them as is and waiting to see what "belongs there". :)



I love these little overalls. I saw them over at Barbara's selling blog. It's one way I was able to sneak a little primitive in there...with the dirty distressed blue jean overalls! I thought they were adorable with the homemade sling shot hanging out of the pocket and the patches. It's hanging on a truck plaque that was handed down to us and I repainted it to match his decor. The stop sign over in the corner was a gift from my sister-in-law, Missy, at Christmas time, for Luke. It is actually supposed to be one of those that you use in your garage that starts flashing if you get your car too close to it or brush up against it. We just thought it would be cute in a bedroom done in transportation.



And aren't these just the cutest little things? Colt's girlfriend, Amber, picked these up unfinished at Dollar Tree and brought them over this past Monday. I had fun painting them to go in his room.



This red shelf started off life as a changing table for Joy, with a padding on top. Jason made it too. It used to be white. It was then turned into a shelf later for Joy's room, then given a new coat of red for Luke's room to hold some of those toys.



Oh, and Jason and I tallied up what we spent in here and it was right at $465. That included all the following: Building the bed, building the nightstand, building the shelves, all the bedding, curtains, and lamp, the laminate flooring, the ceiling fan, shoe molding, new white outlet receptacles, the transportation prints and frames, the painted plaques, and all the paint and stain for the walls and furniture.



And just because Jason and I took SO many pictures, I'll leave you with a few more!









Now all we need is our little Luke to complete the room with his personality! :)

A Decorating Detour

Along the decorating path for Luke's room, I've made a little detour.

I couldn't pass up this offer.

A friend of mine from our homeschooling group contacted me after reading my blog and finding out my intentions to do a transportation bedroom for Luke. She had transportation bedding that had belonged to her son that she was selling in excellent condition. We hadn't purchased Luke's yet, but I was a little hesitant at first because I knew I wanted red accents regardless in there and wasn't sure what colors would be in her set. But then she sent me a picture of it, and I loved it! I really really like the fact that it's a quilt! It think it has a sweet toddler boy factor to it....



I couldn't pass up this offer....especially for all that we got.....twin quilt and sham, as well as coordinating dust ruffle, coordinating window curtains, coordinating twin sheet set, a chenille truck pillow,



and an adorable denim lamp.



All of this came to us at a fraction of the price we were going to pay for the other bedding.

We've also decided against a car bed since we took the measurements and figured that it would take over his little bedroom! Luke's future bedroom is truly a little bedroom and that car bed is very bulky! Instead Jason will be making him a twin bed with storage underneath. That design is still in the works, but we're thinking something along this line....

I'm picturing this all coming together too. I've picked up some paint samples at Lowes and was trying to get the perfect blue match for the walls (I'm was thinking chambray/denim blue), but now that I think about it more, I'm thinking possibly even that little shade of green in the quilt. In the link above that shows the bed, there is a green behind the bed that is similiar and I like the colors together. What do you think? Blue or that shade of green? Picture lots of red accents splashed about too.

Joy never liked the idea that I was thinking of using a yellow in Luke's room (with the other bedding set) to begin with, and is now very very happy with the blue or green idea and with this entire bedding set. My transportation prints should all still go very nicely with this set as well (in red frames of course).

I loved the original bedding just as well, but for some reason, Joy never was that crazy about it for Luke. She definitely had an opinion on the matter, but I never liked the ones she liked! When she saw this one, she begged for me to please change my mind and purchase this one. I thought it was super cute too and such a great deal, so thus our little decorating detour.

Now I'm looking forward to getting started. But first things first....we still have to complete Joy's room before we start on Luke's......

My Stepback Cupboard (Take #2)

If you read my earlier post about my stepback cupboard a few days ago, you could probably sense my indecisiveness about the color. I love the cupboard......I mean LOVE it....and I did love the color. The thing bugging me was seeing that color that close to my honey oak cabinets...the tones didn't just thrill me together! They didn't compliment each other. I wish I had gotten a pciture of the cupboard and the cabinets together so you could see. You could kind of tell by the kitchen table chair that is visible in the pictures (it's the same color as the cabinets). However, here's a picture of just the cupboard then:



Here's a picture of the honey oak cabinets:



The only thing visually separating the two is the door opening to the dining room so your eye definitely travels from one to the other. It "bugged" me enough that I wanted to try red! I'm so glad my husband is patient! He was willing to move it back out to the porch and he even gave it most of the first coat of paint. Then the next day, I gave it another coat. I decided to leave the prevoius color on the shelves. We lightly distressed the red and left the lighter shelves distressed a little heavier. So...here's take #2 on the cupboard:







I feel like this color better suits me anyway. And so many of you have expressed interest in showing it all decorated. Unfortunately, it won't be an overnight process, at least not to get it like I want it. I have to collect more prim goodies. I am tempted to "steal" from other rooms, but I just got some of those like I want them and so I'll have to just do a little shopping. It would be nice to just go buy everything I want to go in there, but my budget won't let me (especially after all of the other things we've done in there). But on the bright side, I've won a couple of giveaways and have gotten some goodies to use in there! I've shared some of those with you, but my newest one came in the mail today!

This is the giveaway from Char of The Pickled Pepper Patch. I was so excited to see this come in Monday's mail! Our mail lady honked again and Joy gladly went out and retrieved our package!



I'm positive all of this will be used in my kitchen, but I'm still playing around with everything. (We were out of town this weekend, so nothing was accomplished here at the house.) These cinnamon rolls look SO realistic that my family has been very disappointed to learn that I didn't make real cinnamon rolls for them! I'm telling you somebody is going to pick one of these up and take a bite out of them before it's over with, because they looks so real! I just love everything that I got....everything is just so prim! It actually looks really good on the red cupboard too! :)



And last of all a few of you asked what color the bowl rack was going to be.....well it seems like I'm not getting the color right on the first try here lately, so it may not be the final say-so on it....but I'm thinking black (lightly distressed) right now. It will go on the wall between the pantry door and the back door (which are both red). So maybe I should ask you....what color do YOU think it should be? :)