Office to Guest Bedroom, Part 1: The Closet

In the process of making the guest bedroom the baby's room, we had to deal with the office. Since we were consolidating the two rooms, these were the priorities:

1. Closet space and a dresser for Wes. Our bedroom has a single closet. It's just not happening.

2. A place for guests to sleep. We have family and friends out of town so this is essential.

3. A smaller desk area. We made a skirted desk not long ago, but there wasn't room to keep it and bring in the bed. Admittedly, the desk didn't get much use, but we still needed a dedicated bill-paying station and a spot for our laptop (other than the dining room table).


First up was the closet. Wes has been using it, so it got a good clean-out, a fresh paint job, and a better arrangement to accommodate some of the things that were in the desk and elsewhere in the room.

We swapped a small, low dresser for the one that was in the guest bedroom. The small dresser is finding a new home at my sister's house.


The closet needed doors, and since we put the dresser in front of it, there wasn't really space for anything but a curtain. I made a simple one out of a drop cloth from Lowe's ($9.48) and a tension rod from Target ($3). I still haven't mastered my sewing machine so I just used iron-on hem tape.

On the wall that used to host the small dresser (the larger one couldn't go there with the bed in the room), I finally hung the warbler prints I've had for a few months. The frames are simple ones from Target ($16.99 each) that I painted with leftover trim paint (Bennington Gray by Benjamin Moore).

Inspired by: Green and Yellow

I'm usually a neutral girl, but lately the combination of green and yellow, in various forms, has been catching my eye.





Photos: Cote Maison via Oh Happy Day, Veranda, via Simply Seleta (I think), via Little Big House, Lynn Karlin Photo.

Day 1147's pretty

It's actually kind of dark and rainy here today, and I think we finally broke our streak of 90-degree days yesterday (the streak was 45 days long, in case you are wondering!). I kind of hate to be using the f-word already, but this quiet, foggy morning is making me ready for, you know, that other season. So I'll be indoors today (it is still 89 degrees, after all) wrapping up a few things to share with you next week!

Happy Weekend!

Photo via suziebeezie.

Check us out on MyHomeIdeas.com!

We are delighted to be featured on MyHomeIdeas.com in the Blogger Bookmarks series!


Check us out here, where I dish about paint colors I've had my eye on, the candle scent I can't live without, and the chore I despise! Big, big thanks to my friends at MyHomeIdeas!

Summer Break is Over

I didn't intentionally take a summer break from the blog, but I may as well have! Now that I am back from a week on the beautiful Gulf Coast (not a drop of oil in sight!) I feel like it's back to school time, and thus, time for a better routine, which will again include blogging.


But my break wasn't all fun and games. One afternoon I walked outside to find a huge tree had fallen through our fence in the backyard. The tree was dead and it only took out one section of the fence, so after a day with the chainsaw and leftover boards (and lots of water deliveries from me), Wes had the backyard as good as new.


We've also been busy making room for baby. I'm a few days shy of the half-way point and starting to feel like it's time to see some progress. I've gotten three of our five closets cleaned out, and we rearranged and got rid of some furniture this weekend. And, of course, we've added some, like this flea-mall high chair, which I've added to my needs-a-paint-job list. More to come on these projects!

The Truth About Open Shelves

I see more and more kitchens with open shelves in place of upper cabinets, and every time I post one, I get e-mails and comments asking about their practicality. Here is what two bloggers, who have each chosen shelves instead of cabinets, have to say.



Trina, A Country Farmhouse: "We're quite happy with our decision to do open shelving rather than upper cabinets. We really like the ease of reaching for our everyday plates, glasses, mugs, and bowls but more than that, we really like the look of them. I think the open shelving allows for so many possibilities decorating-wise. This blank canvas allows us to create a different feel to the kitchen based on the season and/or our mood. The open shelves also make our small kitchen feel so much more open and spacious!"

I just adore Trina's kitchen. She has such a great eye for finding beautiful things, and better than that she actually uses all of them! So inspiring.


Lauren, Pure Style Home: "I LOVE my open shelving in the kitchen. They're so practical: I can see everything at a glance, grab it quickly, and emptying the dishwasher is so much easier. Guests feel at home because they can help themselves. People always ask me about dust and it's not really an issue for us because we use almost all of what's up there on a daily basis. For those occasional pieces that we don't use regularly, I just wash them off before use and it's really no big deal. I'm an open shelf convert and won't be going back."

I also love what Lauren and her handy husband Dave did in their kitchen. Rather than a total remodel, they put in new floors (which were also put down in adjoining rooms), painted the bottom cabinets, pulled down the upper cabinets, and put up beaded board and installed shelves. What was a dark and suburban builder-basic kitchen is now bright, beautiful and - best of all - personal.


I think the moral of this story is that if you love the look, go for it! Even if you aren't ready/willing to forgo upper cabinets completely, try taking the doors off a few of them and painting inside (I did that recently and love it).

Photos: via The City Sage, Trina, Lauren, and Cote de Texas.