2008 Project #1 - Meta Monday

Take a minute to click on the birthday cake graphic at the top of my right side bar for details of my one year blog anniversary giveaway! I would love to include your name in the drawing on March 8!

In May 2008 our son moved out of our house into his own home. The first picture below is the nearly empty "Detroit Piston blue" room with black trim the day he left. Hideous! He came back for a visit a few days later and the room shown in the rest of the pictures was what he found. I wish I had had a camera to capture his face when he saw his "manly" room, now a pretty silvery lavender guest room! Though the room is still not decorated completely, the real work is finished.

First I primed the walls, then I painted them with lavender. The next evening I painted the white wisteria border. Hubby and I were finally ready to order new furniture! We found this white set with carved roses on the headboard, footboard, and mirror. I love it! While we waited for the furniture delivery, my husband and I spent hours one evening scrubbing the floor by hand and touching up any paint needed. Finally the furniture arrived and I loved it even more than I had in the store. Next, the search began for bedding. I decided on an all white down comforter, dust ruffle, and four large white pillows. I found a couple of gorgeous Vera Wang sheet sets in exactly the same shade of silvery lavender. Love 'em!

All that was needed to complete the room was window covering, some things to hang on the walls, lamps, ceiling fixture, and closet doors. I remembered two matching lamps that my mother-in-law had given me which matched perfectly in color and style. Perfect! I couldn't find anything I really loved for the window so I made a valence using the same silvery lavender satin. Then I bought long soft cotton Shabby Chic "dotted Swiss" curtains. I'm still not quite satisfied with the results. I'm thinking of making a second curtain in a coordinating muted print to go over the white...what do you all think? The closet doors were easy...Hubby installed a new double sliding mirrored pair. I am still working on finding things to hang on the walls. I bought two 11x14 inch frames with a 4x6 inch opening in black, because that's how they came, then painted them white. They have a pretty raised vintage looking trim. I found two vintage postcards in lavender to place in the frames. Love it. I hung a wide frame over the bed that has 6 openings - that are still empty! I want to press purple flowers to place in those openings. There's only one wall remaining to hang something. I know what I want to do - a vintage collection of my grandmother's items, all in whites and purples. I have been gathering items to frame but I'm not quite there yet. I'll post it when I'm finished. The one last remaining search is a chandelier for the ceiling. I painted the ugly faux wood fan blades white and painted a lavender design on, but it's a chandelier I long for! I would also like to cover a stool or a very small chair for the room so guests have a place to sit other than on the tall bed!

So that's one of my big projects of 2008. Who was the first guest to stay in my new guest room? CeeKay of Thinkin' of Home when she came to visit in October!

Do head straight to Susan's where you will find links to many wonderful Meta Monday posts! I can't believe how creative you blogging ladies are!

Show & Tell Friday

Last Fall I posted about the redecorating project in my family room. Most of the work had been completed but I hadn't gotten my new furniture yet. So I thought I would show you that today. I've never had anything green in my house. But when Love and I went shopping for our new furniture the first pieces we gravitated toward were upholstered in a sage-y green textured fabric. We still looked other places but we always went back to the green at the first place we looked. We needed small pieces because furniture in that room can really only be arranged one way - the person who designed our house should be throttled! As you can see, the fireplace is huge. It looks impressive but it leaves very little wall space for furniture...the fireplace takes up almost all of one long wall, a full size door wall to the patio takes up an end wall, and the wide entry to the kitchen takes up half of the other long wall. We ended up ordering a sofa and two chairs with ottoman's in one style, upholstered in the green textured fabric we found on another set in the showroom. I was holding my breath during the 8 weeks it took for the furniture to arrive because of the green. If you go back and look at the first posting I did about the family room project you'll read about how many times my poor husband had to paint that room! I simply could not ask him to do it again! So the green really needed to go well with the raspberry on the walls - without looking like Christmas year round! I think women usually know immediately when something is a go or not. As soon as the first piece was carried in the room I know I loved it - whew! As you can see in the pics, I have gradually changed over to all white wood pieces in that room. I still have a drop leaf oval stained coffee table in front of the sofa and it seems to go ok in there. I also still use a stained wicker stand and a stained antique secretary in there. Our mantle is also stained oak. I bought the big screen for my Love when he retired in June - so naturally we had to get the entertainment unit and book shelves too! It's all an eclectic mish-mash, but it somehow seems to go together anyway.

I found pillows and lamps with the perfect shades of green and raspberry AND the roses I love at Home Goods. Don't you just love Home Goods? We'd never had a Home Goods near us until last Fall. Now a Hobby Lobby is opening in March right next door to Home Goods. Now, if a Steinmart arrived over there I'd simply have to be revived! I'd just have to take my pillow and blankie and hide out under a counter!

After all this time I still need to hang some more things on the walls in the family room - just can't seem to find the right things. We also want to remove the carpet in there and replace it with wood like the rest of the house or perhaps tile of some kind. Other than those things, I'm happy with the way the room turned out. I've already moved on the the living room -as we speak!

Before moving on to the pictures below, I want to remind you of my one year blogging anniversary giveaway. You'll find the details here.

I'm on my way to Kelli's House in search of links to many wonderful Friday Show & Tell posts. Have a wonderful, perfect weekend everyone!