Spring and the decorator itch

We will now take a (very long, rambling) break from your regularly scheduled dose of kid news.

I've been itching to decorate our space for a long time now ... like since 2007. But now that it's spring, and we've been in this interminable loop of waiting to hear about whatever house we currently have an offer on, I just can't stop thinking about what we're going to do with our new space when we get it. The idea of a place of our OWN where we can do what we want is inspiring me to want to paint the walls (and a bunch of our hand-me-down, mis-matched furniture) fresh, soft spring colors and nice, bright (clean) white! Maybe I've been living with plain (and ugly) white rental/student housing walls for too long, since I'm not normally a big painter. I think my style has evolved some, too, since I was last able to do any decorating. Our casual/classic (or comfortable traditional) vibe is getting just a bit of coastal/cottage influence.

I am very, very excited to be able to hang pictures and curtains, and to get out all the books and bookshelves. At our last place in Rhode Island, we made a fun gallery wall of pictures that we love (mostly of places that we love - some of our own shots and some of our loved friend Reb's incredible photos - if you love them too, you can check out her new etsy shop), and I am excited to get those pictures out and maybe even fill it out a little more. Mountains, beach, Ireland - happy. =)

All laid out on the floor, ready to hang. I never did take a picture of it on the wall - doh.

I'm trying to be reasonable, and not get my hopes up that we'll be able to do a whole lot right away, since any available funds will go toward actually buying the house and any appliances, etc. that may be necessary to get it up and functioning, but I think there will be a lot of little, inexpensive things that I will want to do as soon as I can. (Because moving and promptly having a new baby isn't enough to have on your plate.) I have a cool little cubbie shelf riding around in the back of the van, ready to help organize the toys in whatever basement/playroom area we may end up with, and a fun little kid-sized table and chairs (in storage for now) for art projects and puzzles and such.


I would love to make some fun, interesting wall art for that playroom space, too. This map idea is fantastic (and pretty cheap), and I have some kid art and some other fun (cheap) mod podge canvas ideas floating around in my head that would be great with it, based loosely on something like this:
We already made a rustic and western looking name plate for Elijah's cowboy room, and I have all the supplies to make some great letter tiles for Molly's name in her girly new room.

I think I already have most of what I need to put the kids' rooms back together into something fun and cute, but I am on the lookout for appropriately-sized chairs/beanbags (or whatever) so that they can each have a little reading corner with a book shelf and a cozy spot to sit. I don't know why, but I am SUPER excited to make that happen for each of them. I've also been designing a big-girl quilt for Molly in my head for about a year now. (That's going to be on hold until she really needs it though, since I've got a bunch of baby quilts that are much more pressing at the moment.)

Here are some other pictures that are inspiring me:

A little mudroom nook - I think I would skip the middle shelf and hang the hooks a little higher, and I'm sure anything at our house would be less pretty and more utilitarian and basic, but I love all the storage! Mittens, jackets, backpacks, shoes and boots, all in one place - perfect.

I'm also excited to get out my grandma's dining room table and have enough room to have people over. Of course, we're gonna need some chairs, so that people don't have to stand around that table! =) Well, we can throw together the whole motley crew of mis-matched chairs from all over until I find some I like and can afford, but I love the ones in the pictures below - the shape of the first ones and the fabric on the blue striped ones in the background of the second picture. I'm a sucker for comfortable upholstery, and washable slipcovers, and curved backs instead of the plain old square backs of regular parsons chairs. Wouldn't it be great to have some nice, summery slipcovers like these, and some darker ones for when you want something more formal? (Have I thought about this too much? Oh yes, definitely.)

(photos from House Beautiful)