Lynette's room

It is high time I showed you some of the fun we've been having with our new house. I've been dreaming of decorating my own home for years now- there just seemed little point in trying to do to much before now since we kept moving apartments and couldn't ever paint...not to mention we had no income to spend on anything that wasn't absolutely necessary. So this whole process has really been as educational as it has been fun. The number one room I've been wanting to fix was the kids' rooms. As you know, beggars can't be choosers, so their room has always been a collage of anything and everything we had available to make things work. Sure I tried to spruce things up a bit every now and then, but it never looked like more than what it really was- a room full of hand-me-downs. To see just how far we've coming I'm going to show you my greatest embarassment- the room my kids stayed in while we were in Chicago. Keep in mind, our apartment was itty bitty and we were just trying to survive. So without further ado...the kids' room.

Lynette's bed, squashed between toys and book. Trev's crib. And..uh...*shudder* the closet. We had virtually no storage place in this hole of an apartment, so everything we had was shoved into the closets, under beds, behind couches...everywhere you could imagine.

After leaving this place, this room would later be split into 4 different rooms in our new house. The girl's room, the boy's room, a toy room, and a storage room. I only went in this place if I absolutely had to, it was so depressing to me. Even when clean it still felt so....dirty.

Lynette's room on the day we moved in. Cute and spacious with a color combo that Michael loved and I absolutely detested. I'm sorry, but I just can't handle pink and purple- it makes me want to barf. I think I might need psychological counseling about my unwarranted feelings about the color, but what can ya do? I know its Lynette's room and all and she would have been happy with it, but ya know what? Its my house. I clean it, I work in it...and after years of "making do" I wanted to enjoy it. So that pink had to come down.

So after looking EVERYWHERE for a decent bedspread that wasn't pink we finally settled with this one. Its brighter than my dream girl room (I was thinking maybe red, black, and white...like ladybugs, but I seriously couldn't find anything in my price range). My cousin helped out a ton on this. We painted and kinda freaked out when I saw how BRIGHT the yellow was (the picture really doesn't do it justice), but decided it was okay and we could work with it. Like the stripes? I borrowed the idea from Thrifty Decor Chick. Michael did the strips all by himself- not too bad, eh?

More stripes.

The finished product. I made some wall hangings- they're not perfect, and little too "homemade" for my taste, but they work.

Our reading nook. The blocks spell out "storytime" I kinda like them- made them myself. And that rocking chair? That used to be Michael's when he was a kid. We've painted it, and I think I'd like to repaint it red/orange to match the bedspread and make it pop. Thoughts?

The curtains- also homemade. When I was a kid my mom used to make us sew something every summer before we could buy new school clothes. I really don't enjoy sewing too much- especially when I was young- but I'm grateful to her. She kept saying "Girls, one day you're going to have to make your own curtains." She was right.

This still needs some work. Those are diaper boxes that were painted. I think I'm going to cover them with canvas one of these days. The Christ picture really doesn't go with the room- but it'll stick until I find something better. I was pretty happy with how the name turned out, though.

Cute, huh? Some of the letters were painted, others had scrapbook paper modgepodged onto it. I know they looked cramed, they're actually staggered back and forth- it looks better in person.

The closet corner.

Better shot of the flower frames.

So that's what I've got so far. What do you think? I am open to suggestions. Not too bad for my first room, though, huh? And Lynette loves it, by the way.