The next project

We moved into our house in December of 2010. I was 8 months pregnant. In the 6 months we've been there, we have completed the following projects (on top of becoming parents!):

Preston's nursery (details here)

From this:

To this:

Master bedroom and bath (details here)

From this:

To this:

Formal living room (details here)

From this:

To this:

Dining room (post with a breakdown of the room coming soon - I know I am behind on that one! Plus, I still need to hang a few things and put up curtains.)

From this:

To this:

Again, not bad for the short amount of time we've been there and all that's been going on!

We debated a bit over which room to do next. I wanted the foyer done next because it is the first thing people see when they walk in. It is covered in horrid wallpaper (surprise, surprise) and mustard trim (surprise, surprise). I want the wallpaper taken down and the walls painted a beautiful natural linen color that would coordinate with the dark slate floors. Because the foyer is so large, we have a beautiful marble sideboard that would work perfectly. I want to add a bench with pillows, a mirror, some artwork and family photos. Since we very rarely buy any furniture or accessories from a store - I've got to work at scouring over the usual suspects (estate sales, antique stores and Craigslist) to find just the right mix of old, new and repurposed. We would also add a glass door to our front door for more light. We got a quote from a contractor on removing the wallpaper and painting to include painting the staircase and spindles, as the ceilings are so high this is not a project we feel comfortable doing. The verdict? OUCH. Here's a few pics of our foyer before we moved into our house... it's so dark in there! It still looks like this, minus the furniture.

However, Brian wanted to do the playroom next. We are turning the downstairs master bedroom into a playroom for Preston and future kids (not anytime soon!) This room is also covered in wallpaper - imagine that! - but seems much more attainable. It has white trim already. Praise the Lord! So, we would need to remove the wallpaper, paint (we've already decided on Benjamin Moore's Salisbury Green), and collect furniture and play stuff for Preston. I have already started doing some searches on playroom ideas and I cannot wait to do this room! It will be so fun to pick stuff out for it and to really make it a fun place for Preston and his friends. I want to make it gender neutral just in case any girls decide to enter our family. This room also has an attached bathroom, so it would be fun to do a kids style bathroom that we would use for clean up after art projects, etc. This would be much more affordable to redo. But, furniture and other pieces could prove a little costly. Here is the playroom before we moved in/formerly the master bedroom... terrible pic but you get the idea.

So who won our friendly debate?







Brian! Bet you thought it was me, considering I'm pretty strong willed :) Wonder who Preston gets that from! What can I say, I am kind of a sucker for my two favorite men. We'll be doing Preston's playroom next, so stayed tuned for updates.

After the playroom is complete, we'll still have the foyer, the office, the guest bedroom, the upstairs bathroom, and the kitchen. Little by little, we're making this house OURS.