Walmart

03.28.

Fun Shared Girls Room (Reveal)

I have been literally obsessed with finishing the girls’ new room, and honestly it isn’t really finished yet. There are a few things to tweak here and there and paint. There are also a few DIY projects that still need to be done, but don’t worry! I will definitely share them once they have been completed.

The girls’ new room is our old bonus/playroom that never got played in! Doesn’t that irritate you? Well, it DID irritate me! LOL!

What to do?

Answer: MOVE THE GIRLS UP THERE!

I need to back track a little though and let you know why I decided to move the girls upstairs. First, like I said, the room never got used even though we had tons of toys to play with up there. Our home’s lay out is to where the downstairs is our main living space and everything upstairs was considered (for us) bonus. One big bonus room, a bathroom, and another bedroom.

The girls shared one of the downstairs bedrooms and a king bed and were still fighting ALLLLLLLL the time! “She touched me! She looked at me! She FARTED on me! ” You know, the usual stuff.

Then, one day, I just looked at my husband with those ” I have an idea” looks. After I chased him down into the other room and made him listen to me, I told him I thought we should move the girls to the bonus room and maybe their own space would make things better.

So far, so good! I am really happy with how it turned out. A friend of mine said that it reminded her of a cool dorm room.

I knew that if I wanted to make this happen, it was going to have to be on a tight budget. Other than the beds, I didn’t want to have to spend much. I kind of had no way around purchasing the beds. I did, however, go to Walmart to buy the twin beds/box springs which I felt would be the cheapest alternative.(*around $300/each bed) The metal frames were universal ones that I picked up at Sam’s Club. ($38 each)

The hilarious thing is that they are happier with smaller beds. They went from sharing a King, down to a twin bed. I think something can definitely be said though for having your own space……. and not being farted on….. right? Sorry!

I wanted to visually divide the room to allow them to have their “own sides”. I already had these toy shelves in the room and decided to arrange them in a way that they both could have their own things stored on each side. It is basically 4 of the units that I picked up at Walmart for $17 each with fabric containers picked up at Target a while back.

This is one of the projects that still needs tweaking. My idea is to attach them with screws and put molding around the creases with maybe a top to match their desk tops. This way, the piece will look more like one piece, instead of 4.

Next off, the DESKS! I am extremely proud of these desks and I’ll tell you why. They cost me a total of $ 4 . 00 !!!! No, that wasn’t a typo!

Let me explain:

I actually took an old dining table that I had on my back porch (that I wanted to move) and cut it down (since it was a pub table), along with the chairs and attached it to the wall to make their desks. The only thing I had to pay for were the roller casters on the back legs, which I scored at Ollies for $ 4.00.

I had looked and looked on Pinterest for all sorts of ideas. I found some great ones, but they all were going to cost around $300 to $400 to complete, which definitely would have had to wait a while. *Remember the tight budget?

If you look closely, you can see that one end looks like it is coming out of the wall and only has 2 legs.

That is because of this:

I thought I was going to have to buy wood from the store to do this, but instead, we were able to reuse pieces from the original table! SCORE!

To let the girls personalize their own space, I generously gave up a few of my bulletin boards from my office I bought at Homegoods a while back.

This is my youngest daughter’s side.

This is her older sister’s side. I think you can guess which one has “HOARDING” tendencies……. LOL!

Here is a view of the chairs. When we initially cut them down, we didn’t allow for the fact that they all naturally leaned back, so we added the roller casters to the back to level it off. We didn’t want to have to cut two more of the four chairs that were left, in case I come up with more projects…… for my husband to do……. 😉 * He would have preferred to cut them all up and use them for a bonfire, I’m sure. Love you honey!

By now, you have probably noticed in a previous photo that the girls have LOCKERS in their room! This is all because of their cool daddy! While doing a painting project for the local Sheraton hotel in our city, they were getting rid of them!!!!!! There were 6 in total!!!! So, you know what that means…………. they were FREEEEEEE , aside from the paint that we purchased to paint them. They were originally a stale tan color like most lockers are.

You may not be able to tell so well in the pic, but the one in the picture above is a light blue since that is my youngest daughter’s favorite color.

The one in the previous photo further above is a light purple for, you guessed it, our oldest’s favorite color.

The girls and I did a really cool Pinterest DIY project for them. I bought one sheet of mosaic tile backsplash. Then, we pulled individual tiles off and attached peel n stick magnets to them.

Now, the girls can stick things on the lockers since they are magnetic! Lots of fun! They love it!

I love how they are able to express their own style and keep it on their own sides of the room.

There are so many things I love about this room, but one of my favorite things are their headboards.

I was really nervous that what I had envisioned would not come out right, but I am SOOOO happy with it!

Again, I had looked and looked on Pinterest for all kinds of ideas. I found so many great ideas. However, they all involved using a thick plywood for the base, which would have been fine, except I was determined to not have to ask for my husband’s help on this one. He was projected out by this time and I was wanting to do this one on my own.

I would have had to have him cut it and that just wasn’t going to work for me.

I decided instead to buy a very large canvas at AC Moore, which was on sale and went from there. Mom and Dad were visiting the weekend I decided to do it, so I sweet talked Mom into helping me. She was a trooper! I asked her because while I might have wanted to go it alone, it is definitely easier when you have two people tugging and stapling. Thanks MOM!

I will be posting a DIY post on it later.

The one above is my youngest’s. The stripes were actually a result of things not going exactly like I had planned, but then again, they say that some of the best things come from that and I think this turned out better because of it. It also allowed their headboards to be slightly different.

Here is a closer view of it.

Here is a close view of my oldest’s. I kept hers plain without stripes so that she could have, what I considered an older look. By the way, that is a painter’s drop cloth that is on the headboard. 😉 More on that in the DIY post.

AND this is the BEAST that I will be taking on next. The plan is to paint it a dark gray and add a long mirror above it. For this, I will definitely be needing my “painter husband” ‘s help. Once it is done, I will add a tutorial! *Maybe my first video tutorial? What do you think? 😉

Well, there you have it. This is the girl’s room ……… for now.

Anytime I add anything, I will make sure to let you know!

Until next time……

XOXO,

Esther

Sidebar: The bedding was bought at Target.

Turquoise comforter : $27.99 (comforter/sham),

Purple Comforter: $ 24.99 (comforter/sham)

Both Sheet sets: $ 17.99 (flat/fitted/pillow case)

Quilt on purple bedding: Gift from Nana for birthday

Tags: AC Moore, Bonus Room, Bulletin Boards, Canvas, Comforters, Daughters, Decorating, Decorating with Lockers, DIY, DIY Desks, DIY Headboards, DIY Magnets, Dorm Room Look, Free, Girl's Room, Homegoods, Lockers, Mosaic Tile Backsplash, Paint, Pinterest, Playroom, Room Divider, Shared Girls Room, Storage, Target, Toy Shelves, Tween Bedroom, Twin Beds, Walmart

10.04.

Don’t “Be Afraid” of Halloween Decorating

It’s that Ghostly, Ghoulish, Wonderful time of the year again and I can hardly contain myself. I absolutely love Halloween!

Who doesn’t? I mean, it’s like the launch party for a new Album!

Halloween is the kickoff party to the Holiday Season!

I always do a few things around the house. A little here and a little there. Last year, I did a similar post that showed a few of the decorations I did. If you missed that one, you can check it out here.

I reused most of my decorations from last year and added just a few new ones.

It occurred to me after I decorated, that I must REALLY be into skulls.

I contribute that to the 2 weeks that I sat in a room by myself and did nothing else but watch Sons of Anarchy.

skull

(*Enough Said)

Hey! Who is up for a little game? Let’s see how many skulls I used in my decorating…… (ANSWER AT THE END OF THIS POST!)

I love this in the front entry way. This is the “kid’s center” with all their craft supplies and books that they like to read (when I make them).

The cute “Be Afraid” vinyl stickers with bats, I picked up at all places, Kroger’s, for only $4.99 for the entire set.

I already had the other decorations. I picked them all up at Walmart last year.

The Entertainment center has a few surprises too! Again……. more Skulls…..

(Further Away Look)

(Left Side)

Can’t forget the legs of whatever my house “fell” on. Would it be creepy to put some ruby red slippers on the feet? Pretty sure my children would forever be scarred and never be able to watch The Wizard of OZ again. 😉 *I might do it!

My coffee center never looked so festive.

Bats, Spiders and All!

However, I do have to admit that I have been a little slack on the housecleaning as of lately.

I’ll have to work on that.

😉

*By the way, if you guessed 5 Skulls, you got it right!*

Did you miss the one on the tombstone in the entertainment center? I almost did!

XOXO!

Esther

Tags: Bats, Be Afraid, Coffee Center, Decorations, Festive, Halloween, Kroger's, Skulls, Sons of Anarchy, Spiders, Walmart

07.13.

Office Makeover

You know those days when you fly away to an exotic destination and forget the mess that you call an office?

Or better yet…… Snap your fingers and it’s clean, organized, and redecorated?????

Then you ACTUALLY WAKE UP and realize that it was all one mean dream? That you aren’t actually about to board a plane to your dream vacation. That you don’t possess magical powers that allow you to snap your fingers and things just fix themselves. No! The reality is that you have to go through every cluttered box you own and piece by piece, organize it!

BLAH!

Well, luckily……… that’s not how I role.

I love looking at organized stuff and my things may have some rhyme or reason to why they are all grouped in one general location, but I am definitely NOT a self professed organizer.

Oh yes, I have very ambitious thoughts from time to time, but then I get distracted by more important things…… like ice cream and chocolate.

I am, however, VERY happy with the way it turned out!

The lighting was hideous the day I tried to take these pics, thanks to all the rain we have gotten.

It’s not completely finished yet. I still have a few things left to do, but for the most part it’s complete.

I wanted more of an open concept than the one I had before. Before, the desk on the right was in the middle of the office, which really cut off the room visually.

I’m still brainstorming with ideas for that open wall above the desk, but nothing concrete yet. I’ll update once I’ve decided.

Also, as you will notice, my lovely hubby still needs to go and finish painting the baseboards. (I’ll do a post soon on how to build up your baseboards for practically nothing!)

I am notorious for painting my ceilings. It gives the room such a custom look. Plus, when you have high ceilings, the height can make your room seem too empty. Painting your ceilings can either give you the illusion of higher ceilings or lower, depending on the color you choose. Painting the ceiling a neutral tan color in this room, really “cozied” it up for me.

Paint colors:

Benjamin Moore’s At Sea – Walls

Benjamin Moore’s Bleeker Beige – Ceiling

High Gloss White – Trim

On the left side of the room is where all the organizational stuff is. I decided to not have any closed storage. This kept things open for me to just grab when I needed. Instead, I chose to go to Target and Homegoods for all my containers and idea boards.

I found the 3 shelf bookcases at Walmart for only $17 each. When it came to the idea boards on top, I almost splurged on Pottery Barn. The thought of spending over $700 on boards that I was going to hang on the wall, made me sick to my stomach, so instead, I went to my trusty ole’ Homegoods store to see what I could find first. I’m so happy I did! Not only did I find something, in my opinion, prettier……… They were far CHEAPER! I only spent $40 on the big one in the middle, and $20 each for the ones on the sides! Woot! Woot!

I felt like the colors were perfect. Lighter is what I was going for. So, when I start to put my ideas on the board, they will really POP!

I am so happy that most stores in general are really starting to amp up their office storage. All the designs are so nice these days. You can find cute stuff everywhere! AND CHEAP!

I got the brown storage boxes and multi colored file box from Target.

The cream colored baskets (set of 3), grey woven boxes (set of 2) from Homegoods.

The black boxes from Walmart.

Pattern file folders from Office Max.

This table was a MUST have! I could see in my mind what I wanted and how I wanted the office to turn out. I just couldn’t find a white pedestal table to go in the middle…….. that I could ACTUALLY afford!

I found plenty online! But they were all a small fortune and I just didn’t want to spend it.

Then, one night when I was searching Target’s website, I found it! Their new line Threshold, had the perfect one. It was so late and I was literally about to go to bed. So, when I saw that it was only $120, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me! It happened to be on sale because I think it is normally around $150. Plus, if you use your Target red card, which is the Debit card, you get free shipping even if it isn’t supposed to be. Not to mention you get the 5% discount.

I’m in love with it! The great thing is that it is a dining table, so it can double duty as extra eating space if you ever have people over! 🙂

This chandelier was originally meant for the girl’s room at our previous house. I had just bought it when we decided that we were going to sell our home. So, I held onto it hoping that I could find a nice spot for it here. So happy that it worked out for the office. I think it gives it an unexpected chic feel.