I just can't leave well enough alone!

Hello there!!  Since it's summer, you are seeing less and less of me.  That's because this is the first summer that my hubby doesn't have summer school!  I get to spend 24/7 with BOTH of my boys and I am enjoying every. single. minute. of it! 

I wanted to show you how I changed around my Master Bedroom.  Yes, I know.  I just revealed it a month or two ago on my old blog.  Like the title says, "I just can't leave well enough alone!"  ha!

Anyways, You may remember it looking like this:

It was wonderful.  The only thing I didn't like was when we had thunderstorms.  And the lightening would wake me up.  Our heads were right by this window, and the lightening worried me.  So we moved the bed back to the original wall we had it on.  The one that is to the left of this picture.
 
I wanted to try something a bit different with the headboard as well.  Hubby didn't like the one we had.  It was a brass one that I painted black.  According to hubby, it didn't match anything else in the room.  After flipping through a Flea Market Style magazine and seeing a pic of a screen as the headboard, I was in love!!

So what ya think?

I added the screen, and then felt like it still needed something so I added my DIY hymnal wreath!  It totally set it off then!  I LOVE it!! 

Since the bed is turned this way, there was no room to put my loveseat back in front of it.  The Master is long and kinda narrow so I placed the loveseat in front of the two windows!

And my gallery wall and dresser were moved to the wall on the right of the loveseat.

We got rid of the large entertainment center and pulled my hubby's chest of drawers out of the closet and put the TV on top of it and put it in the place of the entertainment Center.  It was very large, and hubby didn't really like it either.  The TV was too low.  lol  I don't have pics of it because we just did that part last night, and I haven't figured out how I want to decorate that wall yet, since you can now see it again!  lol

So we are really liking this configuration of the room now!  I think this room is done....finally.....maybe.  :)

God bless!
Jessica

You know what they say....

I have always heard that any old barn looks good with a fresh coat of paint!  Well, it was no different for the outside of our home!  Now, it was far from an old barn, but a little paint totally transformed the look of this house, and I am so excited to share it with you!  I didn't take any before pics, but I managed to find a few to give you an idea of how it looked:

These were taken last summer when my little fella was swimming in his pool!  The shutters and door were a teal color.  The door was what needed painting the most.  Here is the after! 

We didn't know the exact paint color of teal, so we just decided to go with red!  The name of this red is Red Prairie by Sherwin Williams.  It's number 2916 if you are interested.  A painter friend of my hubby's said for outdoor paint, you just can't beat Sherwin Williams or Behr.  I love it!  (Ignore the freshly cut grass all over the front porch there...hubby and little fella did great to get it cut in this weather!) 

It makes such a huge difference to the house for not a lot of money! 

Jessica

Welcome!!

Hello!  Welcome to my new and, I think, improved blog!  Why did I decide to go with a whole new blog?  Well, I wanted a fresh new name and look.  I could have just changed the title of Take Two Designs, but couldn't change the URL, and I didn't want it to be confusing to find me.  So here is the new blog.

Another reason for the change is that I am a different person than when I first started blogging.  I not only want people to come to my blog for ideas, but also to find faith and hope.  My new name reflects that.  My house also looks completely different than when I first started my blog.  

I have listed my favorite posts (and the rooms that still look the same) of the Take Two designs blog, but if you would like to see old ones, you will have to go here:  http://www.taketwodesigns.blogspot.com

I hope you will continue to follow me!  I am so excited about what God has in store for my new blog!  I give it all to Him and give all the glory to Him!

God bless!
Jessica

Relaxing retreat for Guests!

Hello!  I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!  We did some grilling and chilling, but the thing I am most excited about was that we did some painting!  Oh I can't wait to show you what all we have been up to!!  So let's get right to it and take a look at the Guest Bedroom.

You may remember I showed you months ago that this was the way the guest bedroom looked when I decided it needed a makeover:

And when I say it needed a makeover, it really needed a makeover!  Once I found this comforter, I had my vision!

This comforter was on clearance at Walmart!  It came with two shams and the bedskirt, and I already had yellow sheets that matched perfectly!  I bought some curtains and paint, then we were in business!

The walls were in desperate need of some painting!

So my hubby and I  did the only thing we could do....rolled up our sleeves and put our painting faces on!

He's so silly!  Now you see where my little fella gets it from?  :)  And are you ready for some before and afters?  Me too! 

before

after

I can't believe it's the same room!!  And after shopping my house, the only thing I bought for this room was the comforter set (which was about $60), the curtains ($20 for the two panels) and paint ($20 because we found a can that had a messed up top and were able to get the whole gallon mixed to whatever color we wanted for $7!!)  So for around $100 I was able to totally transform this room!

On the walls I used a Better Homes and Gardens color called Ginger Lemon and had it color matched to Color Place.  The can we used had some cardboard glues to the top of it, but there was nothing wrong with the paint, so that's how we were able to get it for way cheap.  For the closet (which you will see in the pics) I used a light light green called Spring Leaf in the Glidden paint.  I used it mainly because we ran out of the yellow and I wanted the closet to stand out and not have to put a curtain back over it because it doesn't have a door.  I took lots of pics so I hope you enjoy them!

I found this little pillow at the thrift store for $1.00!  It still had the target tag on it!  It has a nice pattern in white on the front that was too busy for the comforter, but the color matched perfectly, so I just flipped it over!

The lamp I painted a while ago, and the lamp shade came from the little fella's train lamp that never really worked right anyways.  The shade was too big, but it worked perfectly in this room and with this lamp!  My hubby and I went on our honeymoon to Disney World and we bought that Mickey and Minnie frame!  That's my hubby and little fella when he was 6 months old  in the other! 

This was a gift from my mom, and it has flown around (get it?) from room to room ever since.  I think it's made a safe landing in this room!  (Ok, enough with the corny jokes!)

I bought the metal wall thingy from ABC Distributors months ago (love them!) and it too has moved from room to room.  That bird cage I found a few months ago at the Goodwill, and painted it white.  It was a gold color. 

Someone sketched this drawing for my hubby years ago, and I found it when cleaning out this room, and decided to frame it!  I love free artwork!!

I love the green in this closet!  It's the same hue and intensity as the yellow so it goes perfectly!  The pink table doesn't quite match, but it's a nice spot for guests to place their suitcases!

The main reason for not covering up the closet with a curtain or door is so that this chair could sit there.  This was my grandparent's chair and I love ti in here!  It's all original; original color and fabric and if you look at the back of it you would find an original burn mark from it being too close to an old wall heater at my grandparent's house!  :)

So there you have it!  I love the colors scheme and it's a nice place for my guests!  I couldn't be happier with it!  Another room completely....DONE!  :)


God bless!
Jessica

New Cubbies

Good morning!  Is it as cold at your house as it is at mine?  I thought we were done with the cooler temps!  I'm not really complaining though, because once it warms up to the 70s during the day, it is n-i-c-e!!

Anywho, I am excited to share another project with you!  My little fella's room needed some help.  His toys were getting out of control.  I dreamed of shelves like these in his room:

These are the Expedit shelves from IKEA.  Imagine my surprise when I checked Craigslist the other day and found this:

This thing is homemade and has 30 cubbies!  I really consider this a blessing (and I mean a HUGE blessing) from the Lord.  Why?  This cubby unit didn't cost me a penny!  Really!  It was in the free section of CL!  It had been about forty minutes since it was posted, but we still were able to get them!  Best part?  We actually got two of these (they were one whole unit but they cut them in half so they could get them out the door.  We got them from a daycare center.)  The other one we gave to one of the hubby's fellow teachers at his school.  All the teachers had cubbies in their classrooms for their students except for her, so she really loved them!


The back of these have peg board so that's an extra bonus!  I was thinking of painting them, but hubby suggested I put them in the room and live with them for a while, and then see what color and if I want to paint them.  They are stained, and it's not bad.  I couldn't wait to start organizing his toys into it!  I pulled every bin I could find in the house and to my surprise, the large ones fit perfectly!  I was so giddy, I think I squealed!  :)

Before we get to the pics, I must say, these bins in here are not staying.  My son wants orange in his room, so I am going to find all orange bins.  These were just what I am using until I can get them!  Ok, here are the pics!

I asked my son if he liked it, and he did!  Score!!

Did I mention that this piece has 30 cubbies?  The ones on the bottom are a tiny bit smaller, but that's ok with me!  You can't beat free, baby!  And I cannot believe how much room he has in there now!!  I took the opportunity to get rid of a few things in there too.

I have already sold the toy organizer (thank you CL!) and the easel will be sold today so I have made money on this makeover!  :)  Money that will be spent to buy those orange bins!  I love shopping my house and CL free section!  And here is how his closet looked before:

Sorry it's so dark.

And here's the after!

(I can't believe this is the only after pic I took of the closet!)  There used to be  two buckets of toys in there along with that toy organizer (I pulled the bookcase out long ago!), but now there is one bucket and I may be able to condense it more onto the cubbies!  I ran out of bins in the house.  I am going to change up his room just a touch because he wants more orange in his room, so that will be one of my next projects!  I think it;s probably number 47!  lol

My tip?  Don't forget to check the FREE section in Craigslist!  This is why!!


God bless!
Jessica

Coat Closet Makeover

Hello!  I hope you are having a great weekend!  While reading a few blogs this weekend (my new fave is Jen @ I Heart Organizing.....it's a must read!), I was inspired to give my coat closet a makeover.  It wasn't being used to its full potential.  I had coats in there, of course, but it also stored our board games (which were so high I always had to get the hubby to get one down if we wanted to play) and it stored our suitcases (which was a nice thought at first, but I knew there had to be a better solution).  So after I cleared everything out, this is what I had to work with:

I didn't want to spend a penny in this makeover, so I decided to paint it with the leftover paint from the master bathroom project.   I had about a half gallon left, so it was perfect!

(This was after one coat.)  Then I placed all the coats back in the closet.  I decided I wanted to keep all of our shoes in here because now that spring is here, my bare feet have been finding all the stickers from the yard we have been tracking in on our shoes.  So the shoes are not allowed in the living room or anywhere else in the house besides the entryway!  :)

Since this tiny closet needed to be super organized (and that's what I am going for in my house now) I decided that we needed some shoes storage in the closet.  The problem was that we I have a lot of shoes and needed more than just one organizer.  So I went with two different kinds I already had:  one was the hanging kind (and I actually had two I could use!) and then I used to shoe rack on the floor.

It worked beautifully!  I placed the little fella's shoes on the floor rack so he could reach them.  :)  I also placed a blue plastic basket (also what I had on hand) on the top shelf to hold all of the hubby's hats (and my two hats as well).

Then I was thinking my entire entryway is going to be changed (yes, again!) so it will function better for my family.  The way it is now is cute, but it could be used better.  I have really been trying to look at each space in my house and really see how we use it and design/decorate it to fit that, rather than just decorating to please the eye.  Why not do both?

I said all that to say, my coat closet still needed something extra.  I am thinking of taking the table of out the entryway altogether, so my hubby needed a landing place for all his papers, his wallet, keys, watch.....you get the idea.  So I swiped borrowed took the over-the-door organizer from my son's room:

His little house shoes are still in it!  See if you can spot them!  When hubby got home and I was showing him my project, he was starting to have something to say about not being able to reach his hand into the pockets to get his stuff, then he realized it would work!  Score!!  So here is my cute little happy coat/shoe closet now!

Now that is a closet being used to its fullest potential!  This tiny closet proves it doesn't have to be a large space as long as its organized!  Let's look at the before one more time:

And the after:

Love love love it!  And the final cost:  $0 baby!!  Everything I used I already had on hand!  All it took was the time and effort to do it!  You know I love free projects!!



God bless,
Jessica



I linked this project at Jen's at I Heart Organizing!!  (Sorry, Jen, I couldn't get your button to work right!)
http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2011/05/reader-space-closet-case-of-laundry.html