You know your home renovation has gone on long enough when the “Before” pictures start looking good to you again.  This was the dining room of The Ugly House when we saw it for the second time.  What made us even bother coming back a second time?  Why the painted purple trim on the buffet and the matching carpet, of course!

This is the original view from the living room.  The dining area felt smaller than it actually was because of that monstrosity of a buffet and the wall blocking the dining room from the kitchen.

Now while I admit that Lukus does have a creative side, and he has excellent taste, I’m usually the design visionary in our household.  However, while I was trying to get over the purple velvet on the wall between the buffet cabinets (where oh where is my picture of that!?) Lukus saw an open floor plan from kitchen to living room to the den off the side.  He convinced me that we could really make something of this ugly house – that it was a diamond in the crushed purple velvet.

So with the help of a couple of our good, strong friends – Toby and Dale – we accomplished this:

It takes talent to destroy something so well.  Two walls completely gone.  Finally!  We had our open floor plan and could see our hideous pink and green kitchen from the living room!  We kept the charming archway that led into the living room, but the buffet wall (along with the purple velvet) and the kitchen wall were gone.  We said farewell to the purple carpet, which had concrete underneath just like the rest of our downstairs.

But then it stayed like that – for months.  Our dining room was suddenly officially HUGE, and not having ever had anything more than a breakfast nook in previous homes, the only table we had was a six-foot folding table and borrowed church chairs to fill the space.  Moving forward with this room left me blank.

With only two partial walls to work with (thanks to a large archway and a bay window), I had a great deal of trouble picking a paint color for the dining room.  I love light spaces – I’d have an all white house if I didn’t have small children.  But that large window doesn’t let in as much light as you’d think, and just like in our entryway, light paint colors looked cold, medium swatches washed the room out, and my only real option was to go with a cozy dark color.  I picked “Seal” in flat by Martha Stewart.  It’s basically a very dark taupe – mostly gray, but with enough brown in it to make the space feel warm.  And since there’s so little wall space to paint, the dark color doesn’t feel oppressive.

I pulled in some long, leafy, neutral colored curtains, which I also have hanging in the living room, so it pulls the rooms together a bit more.

In that torn up space below on the left where the wall used to be, we plan to install crisp white open shelving – enough to separate the breakfast area from the dining room, but still allow for a bright, open feel.

As for the exposed beams here on the right, we plan to form another archway to match this one.  It will keep the space open, but will bring a bit more intimacy to the dining room to have a tad more wall space.  For some reason, all of our male relatives are super excited about the archway and hoping to get in on the action of constructing it.

Lukus is researching how to build a modern/rustic table that will seat 12.  We not only have a large family, but we also host a Bible study at our house every week and we have about 20 people in our group.  Having a 12-seater is essential for this room.

Just to give you all an idea, here is our tentative color scheme for the whole downstairs area.  I’ve only ever had to concern myself with painting single rooms before, and never had to bother with “flow”, and making sure that the colors from one room worked with the colors in another room.  But this open floor plan has really challenged me.  Once I had painted and stenciled the entryway in navy & white, I was kinda stuck with navy (which fortunately, I like).  But I didn’t want to do the dining room in navy, so choosing another dark color was very difficult.  I’m really hoping that the navy/dark taupe/natural twine and a few pops of yellow will work.  It’s not a color scheme I EVER would have just picked out for myself, but I’m at a point that I’m trying to pull together what I’ve got in a stylish way.

So this is the beginning of our dining room make-over.  We still have to:

• Figure out our flooring situation (wood? cork? stained concrete?)
• Build arch
• Build open-shelving divider between dining and breakfast nook
• Replace window & frame with safer glass
• Scrape & paint ceilings
• Replace or make-over light fixture
• Build table
• Buy rug & chairs
• Put in some artwork & décor

Well, it was a really difficult decision, but I finally decided we needed to move the upstairs, light-filled schoolroom that had lovely built-ins to the downstairs den, which is smaller, darker and doesn’t have any built in storage.  This was our schoolroom/guest room/my office & craft room before:

Ah, how I shall miss our big, bright and sunny room!  But there were several good reasons to make the change.

1)  We are currently housing an international student who is studying English at a local university.  The program pays us rent each month to house our student, and we wanted to make room for a second student so we could earn some extra money (we also just really enjoy having international students).  Our current student resides in the office that is connected to our den.  We were not currently using the den since it felt a bit awkward to snuggle on the couch with Lukus to watch a movie with our student’s door right there, so the den ended up becoming a junk room.  We had thought about turning the den into the second student’s room and putting up a door, but we thought our students would not appreciate having to walk through one student’s room in the den to get to the other room in the office.  Also, the den is connected to the garage, and is our most-used entrance to the house.  Putting a student in the den would mean we’d give up that entrance and have to walk around the house to the front door every time.  Which meant that we had to free up one of the upstairs bedrooms.

2)  We host a Bible study at our house every week, and apparently, our group is the only kid-friendly group, so we’ve ended up with about 15 kids in our house every week.  They play upstairs while we grown-ups have fellowship and worship together.  Except our daughters’ bedroom is extremely small, and when all the kids are cooped up in that tiny room, the panic sets in among the babies, and some of the kids start to go bananas and get destructive.  Moving the girls’ bedroom to the former schoolroom (which is almost twice as big) just makes sense.

3)  Having the new schoolroom downstairs is more practical since the den is almost right off our kitchen.  So I can give Taytem her math work while I unload the dishwasher, or Taytem can work at the breakfast table while I read in the schoolroom to Eisley.

We certainly lost some aesthetic benefits in the exchange (like all the storage the built-ins provided, and a sunny window, plus a connected bathroom), but moving the schoolroom downstairs was really the only option if we were determined to have a second student.  Here’s what the den looked like before:

This is the view from our breakfast nook (which no longer has hot-pink wall-paper thank goodness!)…

This door leads to the garage…

This door leads to the office…

The walls were covered in grass-cloth wall-paper that had been painted over, the ceilings were covered in popcorn texture and the woodwork was looking pretty dated.  So I spent about three days removing wallpaper, then another day of retexturing the walls, Lukus scraped the ceiling, then I kilzed the walls, painted them a warm gray color, kilzed and painted all the woodwork and painted the ceiling.  It took us a total of 7 days to finish.  Then, after about three days of staring at the empty room, wondering where the heck we were going to put everything from upstairs into this tiny space, I finally had a vision for the room.  Granted, it still isn’t finished and I haven’t figured out how to take decent photos in this room, but here it is in progress:

The new view from the breakfast nook…

I’m lovin’ yellow and gray together right now.  As you can see, I’m taking advantage of the gray paint on the walls to use as a chalkboard.  It’s not chalkboard paint, but it’s writing and erasing just fine on the regular paint.  I love maps, and since Taytem is learning her continents and oceans, I figured some map-art was in order, so I free-hand drew the world with chalk.  And the daybed is not only essential for over-night house guests, but it serves as our family reading spot and Eisley’s favorite place to climb and jump around (it’s also helpful that there’s room underneath for storage.  I’ve managed to hide some pretty large bins under there that you can’t see).

This is their reading corner (it’s roomier than it looks here)…Here’s my (much smaller) work space.  That doorway to the right leads right back into the breakfast/kitchen area, and there’s a door to the left that will be the student’s room (fortunately, the students are gone all day, so doing school right next door to their room won’t be as awkward as movie nights)…

Here’s Taytem’s desk and our teaching area.  That little room divider is a shelf unit that holds some of our school supplies, and can be easily turned to face the wall when kids come over to play.  Lukus hung some trim board on the walls to divide our subjects, so now the whole room can be one big chalkboard for Taytem’s schoolwork.  And I plan to use the white wall paneling below as a place to hang learning boards for Eisley as well…

You can see Taytem’s daily schedule in plain sight from her desk.  I don’t have a chalkboard pointer, so I just painted a paint stir-stick.  And yes, the light switches still need to be changed out and some things hung on the wall, but I’ll update you on the major progress or changes in the room.

So there it is:  our new schoolroom.  It’s not ideal, and I still have a giant pile of junk upstairs that I’m not sure what to do with yet since it won’t all fit downstairs.  But compromises have to happen sometimes, and hopefully, with the extra rent money, we’ll be able to get some bigger projects done (like the kitchen! *fingers crossed*).  And really, school can happen anywhere – at the dining room table, in the car, in the backyard, the kitchen, the grocery store – it doesn’t have to have a big, fancy room.  In fact, my ideal schoolroom would be on the road in a vintage Winnebago, reading about Lewis & Clark while driving through the country they explored, learning about Native Americans while camping out in the forests and prairies, learning about science at the various ocean aquariums and NASA sites.  But that’s another blog for sometime in the future.  Hopefully.  In the meantime, I’m thankful we have a dedicated schoolroom at all and am happy to make the most of it.  Happy learning to all!

Well, I had hoped to put up some new pics today of some house projects we’ve been working on, but a big storm hit on Monday night and we’ve been out of electricity ever since.  We’ve been displaced to my husband’s parent’s house, and alas, the rooms we were working on are still only partially painted, and when the electricity finally does come back on, we’ll be going home to a giant mess.

In the meantime, I’d like to know where you all stand on wall quotes, framed quotes or Bible verses, or any home decor in written word form.  Personally, I’ve never been much of a fan of many wall quotes, Bible verses, or written references to “Home” or “Family”, but some versions are growing on me, especially considering my current love of wood palettes.  Then again, maybe it’s just the palette that I like and not the quotes.

Here’s a modern application of inspirational quotes, but I can’t tell if I still think they’re cheesy or not.

Usually the vinyl wall applications that are so popular right now are a bust with me, but here in a laundry room, it might be kinda cute.  Can you tell I’m really undecided on word art?

This application is definitely one of my favorites, perhaps because chalk is so non-committal.  But I love the vintage frame gallery even though I am usually much more inclined to modern things.And I adore this photo family tree with a few framed quotes mixed in with modern fonts.  I’d want to pick better quotes than “Just Soak it All In.”  What does that even mean?

I hate this.  If you have this in your home, I’m sorry for my strong distaste, and to each their own, but you will never see this on my wall.  Ever.

These printed canvases are quite popular right now, but for me, they’re just “eh”.  If I were to get one of these, I’d probably get one with favorite cities I’ve been to, or significant dates or numbers instead of a quote.

So what do you all think?  Do quotes about family and home make a place more cozy?  Or is it just a forced effort, and a home should feel like home without the word “home” being hung on the wall?  If you do like quotes and word art, what are your favorite versions – framed, canvas, wood palettes, or are you going to justify vinyl decals to me?  I’m willing to hear you out.  Are there certain rooms where quotes are more apropos and some where you would never put a quote?  Let’s hear the word on word art!

All images found via Pinterest.

If you’re a regular reader, like I am, of the blog Young House Love, you might be aware of the Pinterest Challenge issued by Sherry and her friend Katie over at Bower Power.  Home-design over-achievers that they are, they decided to issue a challenge to all their readers to participate with them in (*gasp*) actually creating something using inspiration from Pinterest.

If you haven’t heard of Pinterest, it’s positively disgusting how inspired and addicted one can get to this site.  It’s a virtual pinboard from pictures all over the web that you can pick and choose to “pin” to your own customized inspiration boards – everything from fashion and hairstyles, to funny quotes, to DIY ideas…the possibilities are endless.  It’s like having all of your favorite magazines right in front of you without having to tear out pages you like, and without those annoying automatic re-subscriptions.  I’m totally hooked.  I’ve been pinning DIY ideas for the house and for the kids like crazy, but I have yet to make anything from all that inspiration.  Hence, The Challenge.

I had noticed from my pins that I’m quite obsessed with wooden palettes for some reason, and conveniently, some roofers from the house next door left a few palettes in my driveway.  Christmas in July!  So many ideas to choose from!

But I had no idea what I wanted to do.  I didn’t need a wall garden or an outdoor coffe table.  Then it came to me:  During our master bathroom makeover, Lukus and I had always planned to put in a little half-shelf-wall thingy to partially block the view from the bathtub to the toilet.  Not only did we want to add some privacy to the toilet area without blocking out all the window light, but we wanted a place to store toilet paper rolls, magazines and the hilarious Jack Handy quote book.  But we had very little space.

Also, I wanted something that would warm up our modern bathroom.  I love soft modern, but I think the best look is to mix it up with some nature and rustic elements.  A wall made out of a wooden palette would be perfect!  We measured the palette, and with just a little bit of trimming, it would fit perfectly and perform all the needed functions.  Lukus measured using a level and a straight edge:

Then he cut down both sides by just a couple of inches:

Then he sanded while I went to the hardware store for some clear varnish and some accessories:

Can you tell where I’m going with these?

That’s a special pottery bit that I pick up for under $2 just for this project and used it to drill two holes in each pot.  Then I took some twine (and yes, my nails don’t look great in dark purple):

I pushed the twine through the holes and tied a knot on the inside of each hole, like this:

By then, the varnish I had put on the night before had dried, and Lukus had installed the palette using only a single screw into the baseboard.  I drilled a hole into the palette and screwed in a drawer pull that I’d purchased:

Then I hung the pots with some lovely succulents planted in them, and stood back to admire mine and Lukus’ handiwork:

Here’s the view from the toilet (I promise I am standing up and fully-clothed while taking this picture):

I used some small shims to slide through the planks to hold up my favorite catalogs from West Elm.  Granted, the palette is a bit out of style by itself in this modern bathroom, but our shower curtain is hanging from the rod by twine, and I plan to purchase a jute runner rug to place in front of our sinks.  I think that with those three, small, natural elements in the same color tones, it will be just enough “rustic” to warm up this space and bring cohesion between the modern and the earthy.  And if we decide we don’t like the palette, it’s very easy to remove with just the untwisting of a screw.

In any case, I successfully completed my attempt for The Pinterest Challenge, and went from viewing to doing.  I’d love to hear what you think, and what projects you’re up to.  Have you heard of Pinterest yet?  Or are you already fully addicted and stay up until 3 a.m. cataloging ideas?  Uh…me neither.  Check out the other bloggers who spurred this whole thing on:  Sherry, Katie, Emily, Lana.