Slowly, but Surely

We've been in our house now for 16 months this week.  And many, many months ago I promised some updated pictures of the work we've done around here.  The house isn't old, 11 to be exact, but it was done floor to ceiling in the same awful beige color (the same beige pictured below).  That is, with the exception of a neon orange bathroom.  We've slowly turned it into our own space by updating parts of the kitchen and bathrooms (a slow, expensive process) and by giving our home some color.

  

On our old blog, I showed some before and after pictures of Amelia's room, but never got any further.  I am going to try to do better.  Seeing the progress through before and after pictures makes me realize how far we've come instead of feeling frustrated with all there is left to do.

We have an odd sort of room in the front of our home that is connected to our family room. These are the only pictures I have that can qualify as "before" pics.  (Gotta love the laundry basket turned toy box look).

For a childless family, I could envision floor to ceiling bookcases and a super comfy reading chair.  And maybe a small desk.  A coffee machine and small fridge.  But, alas, we have a child.  So, after trying the room our as a catch all for stray toys and furniture, we gave in and decided to try it out as a playroom instead.

Check out what we've done so far!  

It is the first room you see when entering our house, so it is important to me for it to be organized chaos, instead of just regular chaos.  And slowly, it is becoming that way.  I still have lots and lots of plans for this room and am looking forward to carrying them out! (I am putting up pics now because I am quite sure that the room won't be 100% finished until the day we put it on the market years from now).

In case you missed the bulletin boards on the wall, here's a close-up.  These boards are incredible because they are not only bulletin boards, but  they are magnetic too!  Amelia likes to look at the picture and say, "Barack Obama is laughing!".  And then, she laughs too.  Those magnetic circles, from one of my favorite stores--IKEA, hold all kinds of things for us like hair bows, rubber bands, paper clips, etc. (Anyone else notice Mr. Obama's recurrent appearance on this blog site?  What gives?)

Jason, being the awesome dad that he is, decided to paint some pictures to liven up the playroom a bit.  He is hoping to complete 12 altogether, 5 are finished so far (the 5th is the bunny on top of the taller shelf).  He got the idea from a magazine and has recreated them with stunning accuracy.

These inexpensive shelves from Target have worked well for us.  I just read the other day about putting a picture on toy bins so your child knows which toy goes where.  I am planning on doing that sometime in the next 6 years or so.  I think it will help a lot!

I am hoping to post some other rooms in the house soon, stay tuned!