The Front Room...

Our front room has undergone a transformation! This room has had a bit of an identity crisis ever since we moved in. It's the second largest room in our house and it has only served one function: eating. That would be fine and dandy if we had a large home, but in our cozy home, this room needed to pull its weight. Thus the transformation.

Now this room serves 4 purposes: dining room, living room, sewing space, and entry. Talk about a workhorse! The transformation started taking shape in my mind this past Thanksgiving. I was sitting at my Aunt Debbie's house nursing Charlie in her living room when I noticed her amazing tufted, green velvet couch. When I asked her about it, she said it was my Great-Grandma Bartel's couch and that she was actually looking to get rid of it, but wanted it to stay in the family. I totally wanted the couch, but I had no idea where I was going to put it. John (and everyone else in my family, I think ;) thought it was hilarious that I was even considering adding a full size couch to our house. I thought about it for a few weeks, and realized that it wasn't going to work. I was bummed.

Pretty amazing couch, right?...

Then, a few weeks after Thanksgiving, I was at my friend Shelly's house and I was lamenting to her the fact that my dining room and family room were so disconnected from each other. I was getting so frustrated by the fact that Henry wanted to eat a snack or color while I was nursing Charlie on the couch 2 rooms away. I wanted to be able to do both activities in one room. Then, Shelly gave me the best piece of advice ever (she's an expert on making small spaces work for a growing family)...she told me that instead of complaining that I needed to reorganize, rearrange, purge, whatever, but I had to figure out a way to make it work. She suggested moving my sideboard and bookcases. So, as soon as I left her house, I came home inspired and moved things around. And, wouldn't you know it, the rearranging allowed me to fit a living and dining space in this room, AND that living space necessitated the addition of a couch, which meant that I was now able to inherit Great-Grandma's couch! (I'm not going to lie, I seriously prayed about finding a place to put that couch...I love it THAT MUCH! :)

So anyways, here's the updated front room:

I rotated the bookshelves and sideboard 90 degrees and moved the table directly in front of the window rather than having it in the center of the room. This allowed enough space on the wall opposite the window for the new living area...

I also spiffed up our entry area in order to make it more functional for us. I added a mirror and hung an old tin tray from Grandma Net's shed to the wall. The tray is magnetic, so I'm going to use it to hang anything that needs to be remembered when we walk out the door. Beneath the mirror and tray I hung a piece of twine and am using mini clothespins to attach Henry's Sunday School and Bible Study papers. This is working out so well for us because it means that all of his paperwork has a place to go as soon as it comes in the door. It also means that when we eat meals together we can take his papers down and talk about them while we eat. PERFECT! (and yes, I still have my advent calendar up...I didn't get around to doing much with it during December, so I thought I'd use it during January. But don't worry, I'm not doing much with it this month either. I just need to put it away :)


View from the boys' rooms. I still have my Christmas cards up, but I love them, so I like to leave them up for awhile...

Right now at the dining table we are using this old bench that used to be in my Grandma Sue's house. I believe she told me that her 5 girls used to eat their meals on this bench, so it's a special piece of furniture to me (it could use a new coat of paint, but it's good for now)...

We are also using 2 bentwood chairs to eat on. These were handed down to me from Grandma Sue as well. I love them. I'd love to have a few more...

This is what you see when you walk in the front door...

Here's the couch again...

Over Christmas break, Denise came over and helped me hang my gallery wall. I love it so much! I'm finally feeling like this room is a reflection of me, and I couldn't be happier about it...

I still need to get an 8x10 picture that will fit in the bottom frame correctly, but everything else is working on this side...

The right side of the gallery wall...

Not quite sure what I'm going to do with the 3 frames above the mirror, so I'm kind of ignoring them for now and just have a piece of twine hanging across them. And that heart banner was a feeble attempt at getting Henry to be crafty with me. I had a vision of how I wanted that banner to look and all Henry wanted to do was chop up my perfectly shaped hearts with his scissors. It turned out well, but that's because I did it all myself :) Maybe next year...

Here are the bookcases and sideboard in their new home. So.much.better...

Just a fun picture of an old fan I found at a yard sale in Fresno for $3...

And the mini party bunting...

So there you have it. The current state of our front room. It's working out fabulously for us and I feel super happy when I walk in there. And really, the only thing I bought for this transformation was the rug. Not too shabby. I'll post pictures of my sewing space later, once it's actually cleaned up :)

My new sewing space (part 1)

With baby #2 on the way it's come time to reassess and reorganize this little home of ours. My sewing space is slated to become Henry's new big boy room, which means, I'm out, and he's in. Instead of being sad about giving up my sewing room, I am super excited about my new sewing space. We are dedicating the nook in our front dining room to my sewing needs. John and cousin David moved my desk out of the sewing room last weekend, and I am loving it in it's new home. Bob made a quick trip to ikea while in LA last weekend and ordered some wall cabinets for me, so hopefully, within the next month or so, I will have a built in desk & cupboards devoted to all of my fabric & craft supplies. So fun! Here's my desk so far...



I'll post pictures as this space evolves, but for now, I'm loving the fact that I get to see my super awesome $50 yard sale teacher desk every day. It's really one of my very favorite pieces of furniture in the entire house. I'm glad it's receiving it's rightful place of prominence in our home :)

Bookcase curtains...

I made 2 sets of curtains to cover up the lower 3 shelves of our bookcases. I'm not a huge fan of open storage. I love the look of it, but when it comes right down to it, looking at too much stuff makes me feel a wee bit claustrophobic. Thus the curtains.

I used fabric from Amy Butler's Nigella line on the top, and a painter's drop cloth for the bottom. (I saw the idea of using a drop cloth for a curtain here first). They were a simple project to sew and I love the way they turned out.

The halls...

...are (partially) decked.
We haven't brought our (fake) Christmas tree in yet though. I wasn't sure about even bringing it in this year, but I have since reconsidered. Hopefully it will come in this weekend (pending John's tournament schedule). One portion of my (very minimal) front room decoration is shown below...

Excuse the overuse of the parentheses, I must be in a parenthetical sort of mood these days...

Tag Team painting...

I've mentioned numerous times to my family that all I really want for my birthday and Christmas this year is help. While there are many areas in which I could apply said wish, I am most specifically appealing to their willingness to assist me with some projects around the house.
There are quite a few loose ends that need to be tied up prior to April 18th, and unfortunately, my inability to be in the presence of paint or to participate in heavy lifting has greatly limited my participation in project completion. This has all come as a huge disappointment for me, as I've now realized that I am very (very) terrible at accepting help from others when I am unable to contribute to the workload myself. So, I have learned to swallow my pride, at least a little bit, and rely on others.

So, in light of my current wish list, my sister gave me an early birthday present and volunteered to paint our front room/dining room for me. (I chose Lowe's "light raffia" which is a very light, cream-like color. I love it, but most people find it too boring for their liking. I, on the other hand, am obsessed with it. It is the same color that I used in our family room.) My sister completed approximately half of the room and then, unfortunately, had to go back to Fresno. So, I was left in a bit of a quandry. My room was unfinished, John hates painting, and I can't inhale paint fumes.

So, I did what any girl does when she finds herself in a difficult situation...I called my mom. She immediately offered to complete the job. She came over today and finished the majority of the room, but unfortunately ran out of paint, so she will come back tomorrow to administer the second coat. Not only did she spend 3 hours painting the room, she prepared a pot of taco soup for John and I to boot. As difficult as it is for me to accept help, I sure do appreciate it when it's given. Thanks mom and Denise...I'd be nothing without you!

No pictures of mom...she was painting while I was at work.

Kitchen Cabinet Panel Progress...

We've started gluing the panels onto the old kitchen cabinet frame. Maybe we will finish before school starts, who knows?

Cabinet Progress...

...we made some surprising progress on the cabinets yesterday. We hadn't really planned it, but I guess we needed a break from this guy:

We discovered the power of wood putty & an electric sander...it sure made our corners look close to perfect. The primer helped as well.

Securing the corners

More primering

Craigslist is fantastic...

When John and I moved into our house 2 years ago, his Aunt Susanne & Uncle Mark graciously loaned us some furniture. Having more space than furnishings, we gladly accepted it. I realized recently, however, that my summer furniture reshuffling rendered the loaned furniture unnecessary for us. So, after a quick consultation with Susanne, I placed the furniture on craigslist. After about a month of waiting, and one price drop, we finally sold the furniture! Besides the obvious benefit of making money, I love craigslist because, oftentimes, the purchasers will drive to your house and pick up their desired items, which means that we don't ever have to load it up and move it! Beyond the money & free pick up, the listing service is free! It doesn't get much better.

Before

After
(although temporary until the recycled kitchen cabinets are ready...)

Furniture Profile...

I'm loving the shelves & sideboard I got for Christmas/Birthday. Here's what I've done with them so far...

I love this map calendar that Bob & Sharon gave me for Christmas, but I really didn't have any wall space to put it on, so I improvised. I used a chopstic and stuck it under the stack of books on the top shelf and hung the calendar from it. I couldn't bear to put a nail in my new shelves. It seemed to work out rather well.

I love my "W"

Pocket Watch Clock from Pottery Barn via Bob & Sharon for Christmas

faux bois votive holders (Christmas gift from a student)

Pewter platter with "W" reflection

John's shelf