Let's get started on our master bedroom, shall we? 

Just to remind myself of how far we have actually come, I have included the above pictures of the space when we moved in. I would say that we have come a loooonnnngggg way from the days of water stains, pink wall paper, and gross carpet. And if you guys have been with us since day one, you will also remember that our floor plan changed a bit upstairs, when we took our two itsy bitsy bedrooms and made them one gigantic room. 

Then

Now

We love that we were able to open it up and create way-too-big-of-a-space for ourselves. Once it was gutted, we added the molding detail which, we felt, kicked it up a notch. We love that it added visual interest, when you walk up the stairs. Plus, the carpenter loved the idea, because it meant that he didn't have to finish any of the drywall corners. 

Now, I look at the above picture and think, "Wow, what an open and airy space! It is beautiful!" But then, I look at the picture below, which is a semi-current picture of our space, and all I see is a dark cave. 

It feels way more traditional then we will ever be. So, it's time for things to change a bit! If you remember, in this post,  I outlined a few things that I would love to add in the long run. Today, though, I'm going to focus on a way to spruce up our space, without spending money--if I can help it! 

As I said in my last post, the first step to renovating your space with little to no money, is to take a step back and really analyze your space. Upon doing this, I noticed a few things. 

1. Our floor plan was not working. 

In about two months, we will have a wiggly baby boy joining us. For the first few months, at least, we are planning on keeping him in our bedroom. The current floor plan just wasn't going to work for that change. I wanted to add a bassinet, some clothing storage, and space for a changing area and ,well, with the way the room is currently set up, there isn't much space to do so. Plus, I sleep on the side of the bed closest to the windows (in the above picture). Which means,  if I need to go downstairs, at any point in the middle of the night, I will have to walk across the room and down the stairs. I know, not that big of a deal, but I want to be able to be as quiet as possible and let Jonathan get as much sleep as I can. After all, he will be the one going to work everyday. So, floor plan had to go. 

2.) Something needed to be done to lighten the space a bit.

Visually, our bedroom is feeling very heavy to me. It might be the darker, more saturated colors. It could be the black furniture. Maybe it is the dark curtains and the color of the floor. Whatever it is, it needs to change. So, I need to figure out what it is, and fix it...or at least find a way to mask it for now. 

3.) The space doesn't read 'Jonathan and Liz.'

Like I have mentioned before, our master bedroom is the least like us, compared to the other rooms in our house. The problem is definitely the overall traditional feel that comes through. This needs to change and a rustic country house feel needs to be brought in. This is the part that I'm most looking forward to!!

So after taking it all in, these three things are the problems I discovered. I'm going to first tackle the floor plan and then we will go from there. The floor plan is something small to start with, which is step number two on my list. But we will save that for the next post! 

What space needs to be changed in your home? After taking a step back to take it all in, what are some things that you noticed, need to be changed? What is the first "small thing" that you are going to try? 

The Formula for a Lux Master Bedroom

As I'm sure you remember, Friday our post was about our master bedroom transformation. It wasn't anything too dramatic, but with a bed-switch, some decorative shifting, and general organization occurring, our room was looking spiffy. Slowly this room is shaping into the room that I have envisioned all along.

Yet, there is still something about it that is bothering me. I'm sure you think I'm crazy--heck I even question my sanity from time to time-- but I think its the color that is bothering me. If you look around the rest of our house the colors are soft and more muted. I wouldn't call them pastels, but they aren't as saturated as our bedroom's color. Don't get me wrong, I love the color in our bedroom, but every time I go up there, I can't help but think that it would look so much nicer if it was a bit softer. I would love to add some gray to it. Maybe I would like something similar to the blue in our living room rug.

This color is called Palladian Blue and I have mentioned it before, but don't you think it is beautiful? So soft and soothing. I would love to do something more along the lines of this color. So, that being said, I don't think that's all that needs to be changed. I would love to add more texture to the space. I have been looking around Pinterest for a bit of inspiration and I came across this picture:

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Isn't that white planked wall to die for!? I mentioned it to Jonathan and he rolled his eyes and asked if I was kidding. 

"No, love, I'm being completely serious. I think we should cover our beautiful wall with a bunch of scrap wood and paint it all white." 

Yea. That went over real well. 

Poor guy. He has to live with a wife who is perpetually trying to make things look a certain way. I have a very particular design-eye and when something is off, it just bothers me to no end. Sometimes I know what is bothering me, other times I just move furniture around, re-accessorize, and visualize a different color scheme till I come up with the answer. Unfortunately I'm still learning how to get everything "right." But isn't this just all part of the process? For me it's fun!!

Yup. Again. I realize I'm crazy. 

Anyways, since I can't really go in and change our bedroom in one fell swoop, I figured that I could just write a post about where I would like to get to eventually. It may take years, but at least I have a plan. Let's take a look shall we?

First things first, I would like to create a focal point by covering the wall behind our bed with paneling. I would love to use the process that The Lettered Cottage used to panel a ceiling. See this post for details. It seems like a pretty straightforward project and I really don't think it would cost us more than fifty beans. For all the texture and visual interest it would add, the money would be worth it.

Another thing that I would love to do is work on defining the area next to our bed. I mentioned that in this post, but I still am dreaming up ideas as to what it should look like. I'm thinking a cozy book nook or maybe even a desk area.

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I would also love to add something to cover our closet. Jonathan and I have plans in the long run to add some "barn doors" that have become very popular in design lately. Yet, that is very expensive. So the other thought is maybe doing some curtains. A friend of ours recently recommended this to me and, the more that I think about it, I absolutely love the idea! I'm starting to look into it as a possible permanent option too.

Finally, I think there is some general design tweaking that needs to occur. A few things off the top of my head are: I need to figure out a way to cover our box spring that always peeks out over our bed frame. I would like to either carpet the entire upstairs or buy a bigger area rug.

Then we really need to do something about the horrible dresser that we have. It was a hand-me-down from my grandparents and we painted it black to match our bed, but it is in really bad shape. Finally, I really want to add some luxury to our space--I'm thinking a duvet for the bed and different curtains for the windows.

Obviously this is all just dreaming and would cost WAY more than I am willing to spend or even interested in spending right now. But a girl can dream can't she?

What do you think? Am I crazy for thinking the wall color needs to change? Any suggestions from the peanut gallery? 

Geiger Cleaning Week: Day 4

I mentioned in my original post that I would be covering various "themes" this week. I had originally planned on writing about what I cleaned out in our entire house, but that has changed a bit. After the little snafu we had and the fact that I didn't anticipate needing Jonathan's help with so many of these projects, I have decided that the 'entire house' post is going to be one about our bedroom instead. There have been a bunch of chances that have happened up there in the past few days and I figured that you guys might appreciate that more than one about the small changes I have made throughout the rest of the house.

It all started when we decided to clean out the guestroom/storage room and make it usable. I wanted to put the bed that we were using upstairs--into the guestroom, and the bed that was being stored in the guestroom--into use upstairs. So, that switch occurred. But, while we were at it, I decided to do a bit of moving around. If you remember, our bedroom looked like this.

But now, it looks like this.

I decided to move the bed down to the far end of our room. This would allow space to be used more efficiently. I felt like there was too much space on each side of the bed, but it wasn't enough space that we could do anything with it. So now, right when you reach the top of the stairs, there is a wide open space that we can use for a future seating area and dressing area.

Harlie's chair, a mirror, and our dresser are currently arranged there, but in the future I would like to get an area rug and maybe configure the space a bit better. We will see :)

Another thing that I worked on was cleaning out our closet. This space has been a constant battle for me. With the exposed shelving, it is a challenge to keep everything looking good. Sort of like with the open shelving in our kitchen.

So I went to work organizing our clothes a bit better and getting rid of a few things. I also decided it was about time we unpacked Jonathan's box-o-shoes and get them out where he could grab them and go. I sorted, put a few things under the bed for better storage use, and arranged in an attempt to make things feel more open and airy. When I lay down to go to sleep at night, I don't want to be overwhelmed by chaotic shelving. I want to enjoy the organized chaos we have going on. (Please tell me I'm not the only one who can't sleep when there is something unorganized staring me right in the face!) Anyways, its a whole lot better now.

In the end, our bedroom is starting to feel much cozier and more like a retreat. I still would love to get the baseboards in, but we are waiting because we would like to install carpet first. It's all a process people...patience.

And with that being said, the official Geiger Cleaning Week is coming to a close. We never did get to our garage and we still need to finish cleaning out our yard, but that will happen in due time. It has been nice to get a bunch of things crossed off my list, though, and maybe now that stuff is done, and I'm feeling a bit under the weather, I can take a break.

Doubt it, that to-do list still has a bunch of items on it, but you know how that goes :)

Happy weekend everyone!!!

Fixing The Lack of Storage

I love our house, really I do. But there is one thing that I completely overlooked when we were seeing her for the first time: STORAGE. I didn't realize that there was a complete lack of it. There is no attic, the basement isn't what I would call a "storage-grade" basement, and there were three closets total, in the entire house. One in the dining room and two small ones in the upstairs bedroom. So, that is why most of our stuff has landed in the unfinished guest room and in the sunroom. 

When one doesn't have an attic or a basement, where does one store big boxes of seasonal decorations, miscellaneous items, and things for the future?

Yea...

Two weeks ago, the carpenter decided that it was about time to build out our master bedroom closet. I totally agreed and practically did flips when he mentioned it--if only my body could contort that way. We had this huge space just waiting to be filled with our clothes and other odds and ends that we wanted to store in our bedroom. You know a girl has to have a place for her purses, shoes, and well, anything else she decides is, um, bedroom worthy. 

Here is a picture of our space before...

and here is all of the stuff that we wanted to put into the closet. Most of Jonathan's "dresser" clothes where just sitting in various piles, in boxes, on the floor. We also had been storing sheets, beach towels, and all of our hoodies in a giant fake-fireplace box. We had a basic system, but it was getting really frustrating.

So, while I went strawberry picking with this adorable little man and his mom, the carpenter spent the afternoon putting together our closet.

When I came home, I ran upstairs and this is what I saw...well it wasn't 100% finished yet, but I will just fast forward a bit for you wonderful blog readers :)

Look at those huge shelving units and the great bar to hang clothes on! I was so excited and couldn't wait to get her all painted up and ready to hold a bunch of our stuff. Finally, our bedroom was going to have some storage and I wouldn't have to worry about tripping over clutter as I moved around our room!

After a first coat of primer, the whole unit was looking pretty good. The bottom three shelves just have primer on them and the top shelf has a coat of primer and of semi-gloss. I ended up doing two coats of semi-gloss, just to be on the safe side.

Let's do a bit more fast-forwarding and here is what the closet looks like all painted and filled to the brim pretty much filled. We still have plans of adding our rarely used TV, a few other clothing items that are currently being stored under our bed, and I may see what else I can fit on the shelves.

For now, things are really starting to look up when it comes to the storage situation in our house. Plus, our room is looking much better and with all that clutter gone, I really enjoy the space so much more. Just take a look at how things have changed. Let's go all the way back to the two-bedroom-layout that was present when we bought the house. 

Do you remember the little "bedroom" that was directly at the top of the stairs and then the "master bedroom" that was down the hall a bit? 

Then, we moved in with all of our clutter and started throwing things together.

And present day is offering up a much more polished room. There are still plenty of things that I want to do, but it's really starting to come together. 

I'm pretty sure it won't continue to always look like this--I will probably organize and continue to tweak things around the room until I'm satisfied. Yet, this closet has already made me feel SO much better. It is amazing how lack of storage can have an affect on you.

Plus, what makes this even better, is that we now can use our closet downstairs for storage!! Things are a-changing!

Time to start making over another closet!

We are getting there...

First I have to say, thank you all for your kind words and prayers. After yesterday's post, I am truly at peace and know that God is in control. Amen for serving an amazing, all powerful God!!

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Now, let's get on to the oooey-gooey, detail-filled post of today. I promise it is a good one. Why don't we just say that there has been a lot of progress in house-update-world.

We are moving right along as we try to accomplish that wonderful list of things-that-need-to-be-done-before-we-move-in. I think we are feeling good about the progress so far. Who knows if we will end up in the house by Sunday; I'm still bound and determined. Unfortunately, I can't make paint dry faster, so its basically going to be up to Jonathan to decide if we can risk putting our carpet down on the painted floor and fill the painted kitchen shelves with dishes.

But enough from me. Why don't we just view a bunch of updated pictures and call this post a wrap? 

Here is the current state of our bathroom. The tub and toilet have been plumed and the sink should be done within the next few days. Now, we just need to wait until the new window comes in and then Jonathan can finish trimming everything out!

The place where there isn't any bead-board will eventually hold our built in cabinet. We are just taking our time figuring out exactly what we want to put there :)

My pretty, yellow, clawfoot tub. This makes me SO happy. I can't tell you how long I have wanted a painted clawfoot tub. It makes me so happy to walk in the bathroom and see her. Oh and we also painted the underside of the sink too.

And as you can see from the above picture, we still need to finish the inside of the tub. The kit for doing so should be in tomorrow! Oh and we will be doing the sink as well.

Jonathan primed the kitchen cabinet doors over the weekend. So, now we just need to throw two quick coats of white on 'em and they will be donezo!

My task this weekend was to mow the lawn (check!) and to paint the kitchen walls the same Marina Gray by Benjamin Moore, that is in the bathroom. Here she is!!

Oo and do you like my pretty pantry? Jonathan really made her look SO much better. You can see a before picture in this post.  

Oh and for those wondering about the outcome of our bedroom flooring debacle, well, thankfully, the paint darkened quite a bit.