Teenaged Girl's Bedroom in Scandinavian Design

It has been several months since we redesigned my teenaged daughter's bedroom for her birthday, but I wanted to share how lovely it turned out. It's difficult to get into her room and photograph these days, as she is now homeschooled and spends an enormous amount of time in her room, and more specifically on her bed! If you've been following me for any time now, you may remember that we re-did her bedroom a few years ago! She is now a full fledge teenager and has very specific design ideas and so for her 14th birthday, I told her we could redecorate her room. It has been FIVE years and she's a lot different at 14 then she was at 9 years old! Here is what her room looked like before:

Family Room Update: Counter Intuitive

Last week, I share the family room update to our fireplace. Just using paint, it made a huge difference! This week, I did more updating in there. Years ago I painted all the built in cabinetry. The fireplace sits between cabinets built by someone back in the 60s. It's great having them, and I painted them white many years ago. But, the tops of them kept getting chipped up. 

Family Room Update: Fireplace Makeover

Recently, I was looking at my family room and ready to do a few updates in there. We moved into our house over 11 years ago and it was one of the first rooms that I painted. So, I felt like it was time to do something our hideous fireplace. We fixed the fireplace about 6 or 7 years ago so that it could function. This room was turned into a Rumpus Room back in the 1960s, and later enclosed. So, the fireplace had a rotisserie in it - that I've since taken out, of course! 

Outdoor Bar Cart Makeover

It mustn't be just me, because I see the bar cart is getting to be quite popular lately - like they were 40 or 50 years ago! I really wanted to find a bar cart, but wanted a vintage one that I could update and make over. We hunted all over the place, looking in thrift store after consignment store after antique store looking for something that would work. I found all kinds of bar carts - metal, plastic, big, small, short, tall. But, I had one in my mind and couldn't get that one out of my head!

Updated Master Bedroom Wallpaper

I was given products from Sherwin-Williams and Walls Republic to complete this project! 

It's the season of projects for me now, at least I've got that drive to get lots done right now. I doubt I'll ever be done with projects around my house and something will always need updating, but I just love doing new things and having projects to do! Our master bedroom hadn't been painted in nearly 8 or 9 years - and that's a long time for me. Add to that, I wanted something to sort of pop in there and make it change. I updated our bedroom a few years ago but wanted something more. It looked nice, but it really needed new paint since the walls had faded a lot. 

I decided that I would take my wallpaper obsession to another level and again get some wallpaper up behind the bed. I had previously had a darker blue-ish paint color and wanted to update with gray. I also had put these decals on behind our bed and they were starting to pop off! 

Boom Shakalaka Entry Goes Stylin!

The kitchen update has been amazing! I am truly thankful and amazed every time I am in there, to know how updated and functional it is! But, my entry, which is right next to the kitchen, was looking a bit shabby! So, I realized I had to kick it up a notch so it could compete with the awesome boom shakalaka-ness of the kitchen!

It started out nice, but it needed a lot more pizzaz. I mean, a lot!

Chalkboard Art Made Simple

If you saw my amazing houndstooth wallpapered wall I shared last week, I told you that I was still working on the other wall. Well, it's done! Here is the fireplace wall in our middle {totally awkward} room. 

And, now for that wall over those fabulous turquoise chairs:

What Did You Put on Your Walls?

If you live in an old home like I do, or an awkward layout newer home, you might have one of these rooms. Ours used to be our "Piano Room", as we had our piano in there for years and taught piano lessons there, as well. But, it's the "walk through" room, the one with all these doorways and places to go but with no real purpose of anything going on IN the room! It has SEVEN - yes, that's 7 - doorways in this room! There is a fireplace, which of course, no one could ever enjoy since there is no where to sit down and enjoy it! So, that fireplace gets no use at all. We moved the piano into our living room, now that I'm not teaching piano lessons anymore, and I decided it was time to do something drastic and fun in this middle room! Here is a before...

And, here is the layout that I drew up so you could get an idea of what it really looks like, along with a short video I made on my iPhone of the room in person.

How to Use Chalk Ink Markers Properly: Great Tips and Tricks

How many ways can you possibly think of to organize? Well, in my opinion, there are countless ways! One of my newest favorite {well, at least in the last few years} is with Chalk Ink Markers. Well, guess what? Chalk Ink Markers {the company} invited ME {and a few other bloggers} to Austin,Texas to spend time with them and learn more about these markers last week. I have some great tips for you about how to use them and how anybody - yes, anybody, can use them and create simple or fancy things with them. I use them mostly for organizing and labeling, but there is so much more that you can do with them. See this picture below? Yeah, I actually drew this - and I'm awful at this stuff! 

They also gave me a discount code JUST for my readers to use...and if you love chalkboard art as much as I do, you'll want to see this and use that code.

My ALL Time Life Changing Update + Giveaway

I have been compensated by Schlage Sense™ 
for my review and giveaway of this amazing product. 

Can I blame it on my husband? He oversees all the tech department at his work and so I am constantly introduced to technology that he has to "try out" before anyone at work does. I remember when he brought home this tablet thing called an iPad and we all stood around him in awe and wonder! But, seriously, I'm kinda hooked. I love gadgets now - but only gadgets that don't clutter and actually help out with things that are important. Today, I'm going to show you something that I am SURE you will love and think is definitely more than just a gadget! This thing is life changing - like I absolutely love it and I get to give one away to one of YOU! What is it? 

Chalkboard Pantry Door Update!

The kitchen is the hub of our home, and probably for yours too! One of my favorite things in our kitchen is the pantry. I had never had a pantry before - I had a pretend one in our last house - but this house had an actual walk in pantry. It's not huge or anything, but it's the one place that holds ALL our food in the kitchen. My pantry door was fine. But, there were a few problems with it and I wanted to kick it up a notch or two - because I LOVE organizing and decorating!

Time for RV Debrassification

Updating our RV is a continuous journey. We bought our used RV about 9 months ago now. Let me interject here and just say we have LOVED the whole experience of RVing. And, we have never had so many little vacations! We travel about every 4-6 weeks to some campground and it has been a big de-stresser for us - especially my husband and I. Most campgrounds have little to no internet or cell capabilities - and that's GOOD! It has caused us to put down the technology and just relaxed and enjoy one another. Now, let me talk about something else I love - organizing and decorating - and in this case, debrassification. Yes, that's my word and I made it up but I bet you know what it means! 

And...I'm going to share how I changed the shower doors from brass to oil rubbed bronze!

Organized Creative Corner for Just $15!!

This post is by my assistant, Tiffany. Enjoy!

When I want something beautiful to hang on my walls, need someone to take family photos or want help organizing a lovely party I am so thankful to live in a house full of "creatives."   Often times, however, this creativity comes with a bit of a mess.The random art supplies that my family collects and uses on a regular basis can quickly take over the house if I am not diligent to corral all of it.  In this post I will show you how I was recently able to make a tiny artist studio space in our home. 

25 of My Best Organizing Hacks!

What is a "hack" - as in organizing hack? It's modifying or customizing everyday {organizing} ideas to improve their functionality. So, I thought that showing you the best organizing hacks that I've ever done would be a fun way to start the year! Here are 25 of them!

Reglazing Update on Kids' Bathroom

It's been about two years since we updated the kids' bathroom by having all the outdated, original tile professionally sprayed white. It's gorgeous in there now -- as nostalgic as I am about our 1940s home is, their bathroom was just ugly. The white has refreshed and brightened it up in there ten fold! But, as promised years ago that I would let you know, how is it holding up? 

Gray and Orange Master Bedroom Makeover

If you knew me personally, you'd know I like to change things up when it comes to decorating my home. After four or five years, I'm ready to change it up! It may not be drastic, but it must look different and feel different! That's how I felt about our master bedroom recently. It was decorated so lovely - in blue and brown. Very much something that five years ago was pretty hip and nice. But...my taste and decorating style is constantly changing and I'm learning to find my true style. I think our bedroom truly reflects my style now -- and my colorful side. So, I left our blue walls and decided to add gray and orange to the bedroom to mix it up. 

My garage is more organized

Our garage has such a hard life. It's the one area that seems to be organized one minute and a mess the next! How about you?  Since I am only 1/3 of the way done truly getting the garage organized, I decided that I needed to get another third done and painted it a couple of weeks ago.

Our Living Room - Up close and personal

Last week I showed you the professional photos that were taken of our house and a couple of them included our living room. 

Turquoise Girls' Room Final Reveal

Here it is! My girl's room is done! Yippee! Turquoise is the main color we're trying to highlight in there. Finally revealing the whole room to you now is pure delight!

My Girl's Room is growing up!

How is she getting so grown up now? My sweet little girl turned 9 yesterday! Aack! Of course, her room is now needing to grow up with her!