Law Students

Decorating Bug

By Anonymous

So, it's been a few days. I've mostly recovered from my strep throat bug, though after a long day of work on Friday I was afraid I'd reverted back to my Tuesday state of health, but a morning of sleeping in revived me and now I've come down with a decorating bug.

I decorate in spurts. My house is done for the most part. I bought this picture for the kitchen eating area a few months ago and I'm still in love with it:

It was a clearance aisle impulse buy and the perfect addition of color and style to make my downstairs relatively complete. We also finished the playroom with the much delayed 1st birthday gift of a toy box from JP's parents.

It fits under the window like it was custom made and blends in well with his craigslist train table and storage shelves I found at Target. I love this room- love its look, location, and role in keeping plastic crap out of my living room. I don't think it will ever be a dining room- our kitchen eating area can seat 12 when the table is extended so I'd imagine we'll always entertain in there. Someday if we no longer need the space for trains and play kitchens I'll make it a music room, I've always wanted to learn to play the piano.

The study is done, courtesy of a gallon of "burnt copper" paint, Ikea Billy shelves, Ikea desk, Target filing cabinets, and a lot of late nights, toiling after work and cursing my idea of painting all the trim dark brown.

(the orange doesn't look nearly that bright in person)

I'm quite pleased with the final product. It's been so nice to finally put our books and photo albums on shelves and have a retreat for night and weekend work.

Our master bedroom is still a work in progress. I've been slowly purchasing new linens, towels, and accessories- every time I get a 20% Bed Bath & Beyond coupon in the mail I add one more item to our hall closet. I hope the day that I complete my shopping will be the day we can afford a matching furniture set (right now it's a compilation of family donations and craigslist finds)- only then will the dreams in my head be fully realized. That's at least a year away and for once I don't mind going slow. My plans have evolved with each purchase and I'm quite excited to see where I end up.

Today's focus was Landon's "big boy" room. The room he's in now will stay the nursery for as long as it's needed- it's at the top of the stairs and separate from the other upstairs bedrooms (our master is downstairs). His future room has a beautiful view of the backyard and is right across from the bathroom, which should come in handy for potty training. This room has also evolved since I started thinking about it when we moved in. At first I fell in love with this quilt, but then I found an adorable "transportation" sheet set for $10 and a $20 reversible navy/khaki comforter at Ross and decided I could no longer justify the price of the quilt. Landon adores the sheets and carries the package all around the house exclaiming "BUS!" - he even slept with it a few nights last week. Today I found a set of navy, yellow, red, and khaki striped panel curtains at Wal-Mart (their home goods have come a long way) and these truck holdbacks. I also found a transportation "road rug" to put between the two twin beds at Wal-Mart and these prints on eBay to frame along the wall. I'm so excited about his room, it just needs a few more finishing touching- shelves and some sort of toy storage- and it's done.

And speaking of Landon, here's a picture of his 1 year portraits.

I thought he looked so much older when he took them, but now I can see how much baby was still left- and how little there is now. The next step away from babyhood and towards his leaving me for college (tear) is moving out of his crib, and that's where I have a question. When do they do that? Right now he's quite happy with his crib and its cage-like qualities come in handy on the nights he flips out at bedtime. He yells and shakes the sides and then curls up and goes to sleep after about 30 seconds, I doubt he'd fall asleep that fast in a bed he could get out of. We're not in any rush, there's no Landon 2.0 waiting in the wings for the crib, but Landon has a track record of needing some serious nudges at each step of development and I'm wondering how that transition went for everyone else.

For now I'm going to get back to scouring the internets for the perfect piece of (inexpensive, matching) furniture to fit under the window and between the beds to serve as a nightstand and toy storage. It's the only thing that will cure this bug.

Full post as published by Lag Liv on April 25, 2009 (boomark / email).