Saturday, July 2, 2011

Moving Out and Redecorating

I’m bad at this..  I’ll get y’all caught up at some point.   Promise.

After we survived the New Orleans trip (our concerns were not dying of alcohol poisoning or sketchies.. they were flash floods and the apocalypse), I came back to finish out post planning.  The lovely team that I work with hosted a goodbye breakfast for me and the other guy on our team that is retiring.  They are all truly special people that I am going to miss dearly.  I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to work with!

At the end of the week Mama and Daddy came to move me out of my classroom and the apartment.  Usually I get to a point when I’m designing or decorating when I say to myself was it really that bad before?  I couldn’t I have just left it?  It took me about 12 hours to put my classroom together and about the same amount of time to pack it all up.  However, looking at the before and after really made it worth it for me.  I am so glad that I was able to personalize the space for the short period of time that I was there.  It felt like home.  I was comfy, the kids were comfy, and they learned better because of that—or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. 

It was the same for my apartment.  I’m kicking myself for not getting many before and after shots, but when you’re in the zone its hard to remember to stop and take pictures.  New goal.. take more pictures of my work.  I don’t think I’ve explained the decorating of my apartment so let me take this opportunity to do so.  When Megan and I lived in the house, Meg kinda gave me free reign for the design.  I chose a beachy nautical look that really looked great with the hardwoods and white trim, but it was a bit more grown up looking.  When we decided to move into the apartment, Megan requested that we incorporate some brighter colors that would make the place a little more lively.  I was happy to oblige because while I loved our ‘beach house’ it was a little.. blah.

Our apartment came furnished with some lovely pleather couches, metal and glass tables, scuffed desks, and white, WHITE walls.  We decided when we did the walk through that we definitely wanted to used my furniture instead of theirs, so my sweet, sweet parents hauled all the furniture from Betsy to the Exchange and hauled the Exchange’s furniture back to our house.  That in itself made our place more unique.  In the common area (we will call it the living/dining/kitchen/laundry area) we painted two walls teal and one wall yellow.  I got a new cover for the futon and made a bunch of new pillows to incorporate our new, brighter, color scheme.  In the end I would say that our apt still looked beachy, but a brighter beach house for sure. 

My room was kind of an experiment.  My color schemes have gone from green and orange to incorporating yellow to incorporating navy and trying to fade out the green, to yellow and grey.  Only one problem… my bedspread that cost bank is green and orange.  Don’t get me wrong.. I love my bedspread but its kind of limiting.  I’ve gotten to the point where I do what I want with the rest of the room and then throw in a few little green and orange accessories in other places to tie it in.. Oh well, next time I’ll go for this one a cheaper, neutral one.  I painted two walls yellow.  On one of these walls I stenciled a damask pattern in grey.  L. O. V. E.  Well worth the time it took!  There was a little nook for my desk so we painted that wall grey and my dad made a whitewashed shelving unit to go above my desk.  It was perfect! 

However, all good things must come to an end.  That weekend we painted over all our walls and moved out all my furniture and moved the Exchange’s furniture back in.  My apartment now looks like every other apt in the complex.  It’s a little sad, but it makes all the hard work that went into making it a home worth it.  THAT is why I decorate! 

Bringing it all home, however, was a challenge in itself.  We had to merge two households worth of furniture into one.  It seemed like a perfect time to redo my bedroom (which hadn’t really been changed since middle school—man I wish I had before pictures!) so that we could incorporate some of my furniture from the apartment.  Here are the after pictures. 



And because I"m proud of this too, my bathroom (sorry I didn't close the toilet. Gross..)

My Ikea chandys for $30 each!


and just to make you smile...
Dooley loves 'her' new room!
I haven’t had time to do any stenciling yet but I would love to do some gray stenciling on one of the khaki walls.  My desk chair is the chair that I got at TJ Maxx for $50.  Daddy fixed the leg and it’s good as new (and super comfortable I might add!)

That is all for my room redo.. Next time I’ll talk about YTC Planning, Jamie’s wedding, and why you should always listen to your mother.  

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