It’s not one of my goals to have an impeccable, eat off the floor, ultra organized home. I’d rather have a workable, approachable, forgiving, welcoming, lived in, acceptable, good enough home that I’m comfortable in and that is presentable.

My house isn’t dirty.  But, it’s rarely clean all at the same time.  I know what my threshold is for messiness and our home usually stays right within my limits.

And sometimes a room needs too look like this for awhile so that I have the time to make another room look better.

{every photo but this one was taken this morning}

This room rarely looks like this.  All my boys are at school in this photo along with their 40 pound backpacks, stinky tennis shoes and 19 cups that they each use every day.  What a beautiful mess they create.

It normally looks like this with a huge dog bed and coffee cups and books and papers and 14 remotes.  Back when our boys were younger there would have also been a train track on the floor.  Oh how I miss train track on the floor.  Now, we have a wet suit for diving hanging up in the bathtub and teeth rotting in tiny jars for a science project and a dog that believes my husband is the king of the universe.  I think my dog just proposed.

And really, I’m kind of a messy person.  Us creative types usually are.  My husband is very neat but also easy going to a fault and puts up with me and never complains about the condition of the house.  If it bothered him, I’d probably try to keep it a little neater. And looking at this, I really should start picking up more after myself.  It would only take 30 seconds to make this bathroom look presentable.

One of the tricks I pull to make people think my home is clean and orderly is I try to keep the entry area clutter free and cleanish.  Works every time.  There’s something about walking in to a tidy area that magically makes one assume that an entire house is clean.  It’s not.

Another trick I learned was to keep some surfaces cleared off.  Here’s where we eat.  I just sold most of our chairs so right now we are eating in the family room until I figure out what I want.  Our home is constantly being tweaked and played with and moved around.  And once again, if my man was annoyed by this I’d probably need to find a new hobby but, he just goes with the flow and is happy that I can find some chairs with the money I made from selling the old ones so he’s very smart to just let me have fun and be creative for free.  What’s a few meals eaten in the family room if it makes your wife happy, right?

Sinks are for dishes.

I really need to get on the boys for not cleaning up the playroom.  But, they do their chores and sometimes we just let the playroom go.  It’s normally about 10 minutes away from being clean.

I am not a slave to my house, my house is supposed to work for me.  I’ve learned the balance of what kinds of messiness I can put up with in order to accomplish other things like cooking dinner and writing blog posts {this is my business you know} and picking up boys from school and watching 30 Rock with my husband.  Throughout the years my standards have changed, I’ve allowed myself to lower my expectations,  sometimes I want  my house to be more organized, sometimes messes don’t bother me.  But, I’ve learned not to let other people’s standards of tidiness dictate me feeling guilty for having baskets of clean laundry on the floor.

Having a presentable home is more about what I feel comfortable inviting others into.  And I don’t mind a little messiness if it means I get to accomplish my bigger goals and still have friends over.

What is the current stat of your nest?  And more importantly, is it working for you?

Last October I took an entire month and wrote 31 Days to a Less Messy Nest.  Written from the perspective of a clean enough, working, household in constant use.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

before

Our bedroom had been neglected for far too long.  I was ready for change and my requirements were:

• neutral colors
• a pretty bed
• drapes
• masculine and feminine feel
• places to sit
• an 8 x 10 rug
• surfaces to place books and tums and snoring medicine and my other old lady paraphernalia
• better lighting
• pay cash for everything

Neutral Backdrop

This is what the room looks like without any embellishments.  Actually, it looked like this until today when I grabbed the brocade shams from the playroom, blue chevron pillow from the downstairs sofa and a pretty throw from my office.  Photos look better with a little color in them.  The walls are Martha Stewart Flagstone, a nice gray color.  Our en suite bathroom has browns and grays and this room gets tons of light so a dark gray was a good choice for us.   From this point, I can add in yellow accents with a vase and a pillow and a throw, or some fun greens or a big graphic pillow shams in orange, I guess I don’t have to list every possible color combination, you get the idea, right?  I love that I can add in any color or pattern and instantly change the room.

Currently I don’t have anything covering the box spring.  Once I get a feel for what direction I’ll go for the accent fabrics and colors, I’ll add some fabric or a printed sheet that will offset all the white.

The Bed

If I could pick any bed, I would want something like this from Z Gallerie…

Or this from Lindsay Harper’s apartment.

I had a yard sale back in October and made a good amount of cash to put towards a new bed.   But for whatever reason, I wanted to wait and see if we could work in what we had.  And what we had was a super sturdy 5 year old sleigh bed from Big Lots.  Not nice wood but not falling apart at all. Rats. {Do people still say “rats”?  My dad says it all the time so it sounds normal to me.}

The walls are gray so for contrast we painted the bed white.  My husband helped on this one, he encouraged me to try this bed and see and with my aversion to spending money, that was all I needed.  But, I told him if we were going to keep the sleigh, I wanted him to help me paint it.  He rolled, I brushed and it took about two hours using leftover paint we had from the dresser.  BEHR paint plus primer in Hushed White~it’s actually more yellowy than I would like for the bed, you can tell when it’s up against my super white sheets, but it’s not bothersome enough to paint it again.  If you want further instructions on how to paint your furniture, I’m not a professional, but I did read my friend Mandie’s ebook and learned all of her secrets.  It’s not the bed I wanted but, it was free and I like much it better than before.

Drapes

I agonized over drapes for a LONG time.  I love long drapes, I think they have magical powers to soften and transform a room from blah to cozy. I really wanted a neutral graphic print.  The drapes were the VERY first thing I looked for for this room.  Long before I knew what we were going to do with the room, I knew if i could find the right fabric everything could springboard off that.

I love this DwellStudio Gate print by Robert Allen. That would have added in some masculine feel.  However, we are renting this house and there are 4 windows in this room which means 8 panels that each need almost 3 yards of fabric. This fabric would have cost me over $1000. Just for the fabric. Eight panels at even $10 a yard fabric would have cost $240 just for fabric for me to mistreat. That was the most I was willing to spend but, as I looked around, I realized that finding $10 per yard discount fabric I like was difficult but I did find a few however, I could never find 24 YARDS of the fabric I liked.  At such an inexpensive price, the fabric was usually on sale or discontinued and every time I found something that would work, I was faced with not enough fabric on the bolt.  Plus, I knew I didn’t want to sew and the thought of paying $250 just so I could hang fabric pieces kind of bothered me.  Finally, I called off the search and decided to go with white panels.

I went to the least expensive store in town, Ollie’s, and bought 8 full sized flat sheets for $3.99 each.  And then I bought 4 rods from Home Depot for about $13.00 each.  I dressed 4 windows for less than $100.  I just realized that I accidentally put a queen sized sheet for the left panel of that window, see how it puddles on the floor? One day, maybe I’ll switch that out with the couple of extra full sized that I bought.

Masculine and Feminine

It’s my tendency to be overly girly.  I guess it comes naturally since you know, I’m a girl and all.  But, I wanted to make sure our room looked like it belonged to both a man and a woman.  Not the owner of hello kitty.

For us that meant no toile, no floral {ok so there are a few flowers on that throw but remember, that actually goes in my office, I just brought it in here so my photos wouldn’t look like black and whites} no pinks.  I decided to balance the white with wood.  We happened to find this clearance sunburst mirror back in October at Pier 1 for $80.  Sold.

Plus, we had this armiore in our room that is wooden and I wanted to balance the wood and white.  I thought I was going to witness the death of a 120 pound mover when they moved this solid wood armiore up our stair well and dropped it and it left huge gashes in the walls {didn’t damage the armiore one little bit though, solid wood and all}.  Those little boys got so mad at me telling me I packed too much stuff in it.  I made them open it once they got it into our room so I could prove it was empty.  All that to say this armiore is staying in our room until we move.  Try to ignore the pile of clothes and lamp and wall stuff. This room isn’t quite done yet and even if it was, my favorite hobby is piling clothes.

Places to Sit

One of the few requests that my husband has for our room is a place to sit.  I found this classy and slightly masculine chair at One Kings Lane {that’s my referral link thankyouverymuch}.  One Kings Lane is a website that has 72 hour sales posted every day from all sorts of great sources.  I’ve got a post coming up in the next week where I’ll explain how I use OKL so hold on for that.  But, just like any store, you need to be patient and wait for a great deal that works for you.  This chair was about $400~about half what it retails for.

My chair was a $35 thrift store find that I painted and distressed {lazy girl’s way to paint} last year.  I found the garden stool at Ollie’s for $25.  I had my eye on them for awhile and saw them one blogs and in high end shops, even One Kings Lane had them but they were all over $100.  Of course, I didn’t buy the $25 one when I saw it.  Lucky for me, my trusty mom found one for me at her local store.  Thanks Mom!

The Rug

Our entire house has wood floors which is absolutely wonderful and simultaneously absolutely cold on morning toes fresh from the bed.  We needed an 8 x 10 rug to go under the bed so we could step onto cush.  I think this rug fits the cush factor and the fun factor. It was $400 from One Kings Lane and it made the whole room come together.

Surfaces

We needed side tables.  Since we had long drapes, I wanted tables that were leggy so the drapes would show through under the top.  Plus, I know that we won’t be in this home forever so I wanted tables that I could use in other rooms later if I needed to.  I found these crescent tables at One Kings Lane for $170 each.

Lighting

The pair of lamps are from Hobby Lobby $100 each but of course, Hobby Lobby has a sale rotation with lamps 50% off about once a month so I got them for $50 each.  The extra large lantern commands attention.  You can’t tell from the photos but it’s the first thing you look at when you walk in to the room.   I had originally thought I would find an old chandelier and wrap twigs around it but when I saw this lantern at the Habitat ReStore for $30 I knew it would be a nice centerpiece for the room.

All I had to do was dust it off and hit it with a little spray paint.  I should probably adjust that chain a little bit.

Pay Cash

I just moved three paragraphs from this topic to a new post.  Does anyone really want to read me go on and on about why it’s not worth it to put furniture on a credit card?  We paid surprisingly little for this makeover. We used all cash and I had some referral credits from One King’s Lane that I put to good use. I’ll share more about how to use One King’s Lane later this week.

All in all, we LOVE our room.  And that was the overall goal.  It didn’t turn out anything like I had originally planned, it never does but the plan is just a guide, the goal is to like it.  Maybe one day I’ll figure out what I want to do with the tray ceiling but, I’m not in a hurry to make it happen.  We still want a bookshelf next to my husband’s chair and there’s one wall in this room that you are going to laugh at that I’ll show you very soon. If anyone is wondering, we have our dressers in our closet. I’ve got my eye on Etsy for the perfect graphic pillows in a fun color.  You’ll be the first to know when I find them.

I’m so happy to finally have a bedroom that I don’t dread walking into.  Creating a welcoming master bedroom is one of the best investments we’ve made.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Pretty piles of fabric, colorful ribbon neatly organized, all my favorite trinkets delicately placed together. Dear Etsy, please come take photos of my beautiful shelf for your featured office space–it’s so charming.

Then it started looking like this. The truth is, I don’t do crafts in this office. We decided I needed a writing office void of shipping boxes, hot glue droppings and overflowing boxes of trim and fringe. I’m so totally spoiled that we actually have an extra room where my husband and I both store our stuff–his books and my fringe.

At first I thought the solution would be to move the shelf where it could be visible to anyone who walked in the house. I hoped that would keep me accountable and force me to not let the shelf clutter get out of hand for fear of embarrassment. I figured out that I have no shame and I am not embarrassed in the least by a cluttered shelf. Seeing the clutter simply drives me crazy.

The problem was, I really didn’t USE anything on the shelf in that space. I just liked that stuff. All I really needed was a place to organize papers. I didn’t need magazines and crystals and dominoes and an unopened box of books.

And, to top it off, I had a problem area in my house where I actually NEEDED to use the shelf.

It was time to edit and delete. Actually, it was more like cut and paste. I can’t wait to show you where this shelf was actually needed. I can’t believe I could have been actually using this shelf in a way that really helped our family stay organized. It was being wasted in my office. I really dreaded moving it because if it didn’t work I didn’t want to have to move it back but it was SO worth it.

Do you have a piece that you are not using to it’s full potential? Maybe it’s the solution to a problem in another room.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

also, we’ve got some winners:

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

This is the second half of pricing my living room. Read the first half here. Let’s get to numbers 5,6,7 & 8 shall we?

5. Pair of these chairs. Y’all these chairs have a fancy name, and for the life of me I cannot remember what they are called. I’ve used them here and here and a whole slew of other places. These chairs move around more than a swarm of flies on a watermelon and were one of the best items I’ve ever spend money on. They were each $350 and that included 2 matching ottomans that I use as extra seating and a coffee table.

The blue table was a yard sale find at my sister’s house and I traded clothes for it, I’m sure. It started off black. Pillows: Target $20 each. Lamp: Target $40, years ago. I told you about the drapes in part 1. Total for this part of the room: $780 and that includes the two ottomans you don’t see in this photo, I counted the windows in part one.

6. Rug: Tuesday Morning, 5 years ago $200. It’s a 5 x 8. I wish it were an 8x 10. This rug has held up, again for 5 years. And it’s made so well that I can flip it over and use the other side if it gets too dirty. I really should just have it cleaned.

7. The Toile Sofa: I’ve written about it before. We bought it in High Point at a showroom called Utility Craft. It’s a Clayton Marcus that is/was a division of Lazy Boy. It’s got those cushy down wrapped cushions and it’s just made really, really well. It’s held up to five years with 3 boys, a man who sleeps on it, and 5 moves. It cost about $1800. A huge amount for us. We paid cash for it and spent a while deciding what we wanted. It can seat lots of people/kids if needed and one day, when the toile gets all ripped up, I’ll just have it recovered. Total: $1800 {I took a poll to see what others spent on their sofas to make sure I wasn’t the only one who’s spent this much, click here to see the results}

8. Red Chair: This sweet thing is quite worn. But I love the lines, color and scale. It was $350 purchased also in 2004 in Thomasville, NC at some hole in the wall store that was going out of business. The toile pillow came with the sofa and the other pillow got a 30 minute makeover. The picture on the wall came from my husband’s grandparent’s house and I wish I had 67 of them to hang on every wall. Total: $350

Total for second half: $3130 plus $552.75 from the first half = $3682.75 for our living room that seats 8 comfortably and 12 uncomfortably. And has already lasted 5 years.

Well, as you can tell, there were some things that we spend money on and other things we found super cheap. To me, if you have the money, it’s worth it to spend it on upholstered pieces that will cushion the family hineys for many years. The things that you sit on get the most wear and need to hold up more than anything else. And that’s where the bulk of our money went. I’d rather have a nice sofa than go to Mexico. As far as windows and walls and accessories, I try to find those things as inexpensively as possible. You can build those over time and switch out and rearrange, shop the house and really get creative with all that extra stuff. But, if you can, it is worth it to put your money into a well made sofa.

I’ve also seen some amazing hand me downs, consignment and goodwill finds and slipcovered sofas that have looked fantastic.

Five years ago, we had a budget set aside to help us furnish our house and for that I am forever grateful. It might have to last us the rest of our lives. Now, I have close to a zero budget. I am so glad that we purchased some things back when we could. I wouldn’t go back and invest that money or spend it any differently. I love that we “invested” it in our home and get to enjoy it every day. And now, I have a new challenge, how to decorate on a virtually non existent budget.

So, join us Monday. Feel free to price your space. No pressure. But, whether you spend thousands at a retail shop or quarters at a yard sale, you can have a beautiful home that you enjoy and that blesses your family. I cannot wait to see how you all have beautified your nests!

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

My first priority was places to sit. So we started in the living room. I had a yard sale and sold our old furniture and we had no where to sit for a few weeks while we waited for our sofa.

1. Window Mistreatments: the fabric was $7 per yard {purchased at 1502 Fabrics in Thomasville, NC, 5 years ago} each panel is about 3 yards so each panel was $21 plus the trim at $3ish per yard so that is another $9 per panel. Each panel was about $30 completed. I bought the rod at Target for $30 and have used it in 4 houses so far. We’ve got another window that cost the same on the other side of the room. {See how to make them here.} Total for both windows: $180 These are my most expensive windows and have been used for 5 years in 5 different houses! And I wish I would have bought one more foot of fabric–then I could hang my rods even higher.

2. Sofa Table and stuff: Table $109 at a crazy unfinished furniture place that has since gone out of business. I bought it already painted black 5 years ago. Changed out the knob: $4. Ottoman was included in a set I’ll tell you about on down. Lamps, TJ Maxx, $39 each, 5 years ago–I moved them from my boy’s room. On the table there’s some red stuff I pulled out of this wreath and a box thing that I had in college sitting on a candle holder that is chipped that was $1. I painted the box blue last month. Pointy thing on the wall, Goodwill, a few months ago, $7. Total: $199 not including the ottoman.

3. Armiore: Purchased used from a friend for $75 –again, 5 years ago. I painted it last month with Behr Paint Plus Primer all in one stuff that was ??? Maybe $30ish. I’ll tell you more about painting it soon but here’s the before. It was super easy. I still need to find 3 knobs for it. Plates; the middle blue one was a gift to myself back when I had that big tassel sale I bought this plate for $13 at HomeGoods. I had the red ones {part of a set from Target 5 years ago 4 for $10} big green ones were $2 each from the rich Goodwill and the square one was $3 from HomeGoods. Total: $130

4. Fireplace Wall: Well, it already looks different up there. I’ll list what you see in the original photo and I’m still not happy with it at all so just so you know, it will keep looking different.

• mirror: $50 Garden Ridge 2 years ago
• white urn: $20 Hobby Lobby 6 years ago
• red plate: $2.50 part of that set
• white crock: wedding gift {one of my favorite things}
• books: .75 cents yard sale
• wood thing on the fireplace front $13 TJ Maxx 6 years ago {hiding an ugly little scroll thing}

Total: $86.25

Now:

• urn: $20 with free branches from my yard
• books: .75 cents
• shutters: $10
• wood thing: $13
• starfish: ?? I have no idea how that appeared in my house

Total: $43.75 and I like it better

So far we are at $552.75 and we don’t even have a place to sit yet. And if you want to see the photos closer in, you should be able to click them to enlarge. Go here for part 2.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

If you are new here, this is the part where I link to myself over and over again in an effort to get you to fall in love with me and never leave. If you are a faithful reader, thanks for putting up with me and my big self.

I live in a house with three boys and a manly husband who comes home from work dirty every day. I have a little room that is mine all mine and I’d love to show you how I winterized it on the cheap.

I just added some ribbon to my garland to finish it off. Want to see how I made mine?

Then we had a garland party. Want to see how over 150 different women made theirs?

Killing 3 birds with one post: Here’s my entry for THAT Family’s tree party!

Currently, we are renting a house. The family room is small so this year, we let the garland decorate it, and put the tree upstairs in the playroom. My boys BEG for colored lights every year and usually I pretend like I can’t find them until after the tree is decorated. I’m not all mean. I always let them string up the colored lights in their room.

But not this year. I bought extra colored lights and piled on a few inexpensive plastic ornaments and bright colorful ribbon. My boys squealed with delight, jumped up and down and hugged me. I think we’ll be using colored lights from now on.

Does the black star look satanic? I like it. If you still haven’t had enough of me, I’ll be back tomorrow for Kimba’s Holiday Open House.

If you still need more….
Last year’s Christmas tour with BooMama
My Philosophy of decorating
Best of the Nest: Fun, well read posts
All this talk make you hungry? How about a virtual cookie exchange at Cottage Magpie?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Target even has towels to coordinate.

See, here’s how I used the panel in my old house. You remember the trick, right? Hang that rod high to make the room look bigger. The top of that window is right above where knots are on that ribbon holding up the fabric. And if anyone cares, the walls are tobacco road and I painted the cabs black. This is an example of what you can do to a builder beige blah bath when you own the house and can paint and wreck it all up to your heart’s content. Look, I even kept what I refer to as the Miss Piggy lights above the mirror but that fabric is so seductive that you hardly notice them.

Here’s another fun trick for all those extra mirrors you have sitting around. Since we have a run of the mill frame less mirror I thought it would add a little cute factor to layer a mirror on top. I tied a super fat ribbon to the things on the back and hung it all on an old finial. This is the boys/guest bath so it’s hung at a good height for them. You know for when they fix themselves up and all.

This room is tiny so here’s just about all there is to see in our current boy’s bathroom. Sure beats beige and the bold pattern hides all kinds of mud and dirt that they bring in. Bold Pattern: a great way to bring life to a boring beige rental!

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Is it just me or is the placement of those lights up there really weird? And the one on the left is being held up extra high with a keychain of some sort. I guess it wasn’t placed right for the previous renters either.

Ahhh. Nothing says grown up like a centerpiece. Oh, and to remind us not to dump every bill, bag, purse {ok so I’m the only one in my family with a purse} golf ball, laundry, book, paper…. on the table, I found these old plastic chargers and put them around. They also help with that white hot spot problem you get when your plate is hot and you put it right on the wood.

This shelf is from my 10 year old’s room. After our friends who helped us move left for the day, we realized that we hadn’t moved it upstairs. We decided just to leave it. Any ideas on how to cutsie it up? Now that we don’t pile on the table we end up just piling there on the shelf.

Our sink is against a blank wall. I put a mirror there so I didn’t have to stare at a blank wall. Even being forced to look at myself is better than looking at a blank wall. But, it’s amazing what you see when you are doing the dishes and your boys think you cannot see them while they are sitting at the table. PS, I added stuff to that corner on the counter just for you. It was so empty and I wanted it to look pretty but, in a few days it will bug the heck out of me and I’ll have to clear the counter off. Just sayin.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

We have a sofa and a chair and it’s just a sweet little sitting area. The sun shines in really warm in the mornings. I love that part too.

I’m not gonna paint any walls here. How do you like my white plates on white walls? It wouldn’t be my first choice but, it’s somewhat soothing. And, it’s paid for, that’s extremely soothing. Remember that iron thing in the middle? Yard sale last year $1.

Above is a wooden file cabinet I found at the Goodwill last year. Down below is one handle for it that I fell in love with at Hobby Lobby. Maybe I can find it’s mate at my sister‘s Hobby Lobby while I’m visiting her TODAY!!

Our computer stays here too. This is actually the borrowed computer. Abraham Lincoln’s computer. Don’t let that hard, shiny, white outer shell fool you, it’s old, outdated and totally uncool. And have I mentioned slow? But it’s still a zillion times better than no computer.

Remember the sexy back hutch project? Still love it. And my hot glue survived the move–no touch ups needed!

Black pillow from the Goodwill. Scratches on my much loved so very versatile chair.

And there’s that light that we still haven’t hung.

Am I boring you with this yet? Maybe tomorrow we can see what Em and I did together! See you then!

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?