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I have to admit, my favorite part of this clip is Avalee’s little “confession” which is so typical of her quirky personality 😉
My tip for bedroom organization? (That is, the tip I *know* but don’t do…)
- Make a habit of quickly getting rid of clothes that are ruined, too small or otherwise not worn. Also, a good seasonal system is a must (pass one along if you have one!) I start out with good intentions–a box labeled “winter”, and placed in the top of that child’s closet, but somehow I don’t think this system is working very well.
P.S. I’m serious about needing the decor advice!
30 comments
Wow, I’m just thrilled to know my 5year-old girl is not the only one struggling with “Yes, Ma’am”. She had it down pat when she was younger, but the past year, it seems to have really fallen by the way.
I’m not a great decorator, either, but I can see a soft, muted green or sunny yellow on those walls-it would really warm it up.
Also, I haven’t commented any on your plans for “more natural” delivery, but I found that I recovered better after delivering without drugs.
The Lord’s blessings to you as you await your sweet little one.
Beth
How about hanging pictures your children have drawn/colored in different style frames? I know you have at least ONE artist.
hmmm… what could I video cast about? ;o)
Kelly, I did not listen to the clip, and I am not a decorator, but….
my girls live in the attic. It is a large open room that was painted plain white, but a cute purple rug. Well, i did actually buy full price walmart curtains that were bright pink, and some bright lime, and then at the dollar store, in the one section that had cute flower decals you apply to the wall for $1. I bought several of those, and they had long flowers, short flowers, yellow/pink/purple flowers with a few buitterflies and ladybugs mixed in. For a few bucks i made a horizon of flowers alongside each of their beds, and then also above the windows, using the top trim of the window as the grassline if you will. The colors really brightened up the room and accentuated the rug.
Also cute is those string of lights….on a wire. I found mine at the thrift shop, in pink and purple to match, but i think strings of some kind of cute lights is like a little ‘nightlight’ for a baby’s or child’s room. It also adds color or a frame of sorts if you scallop them arpound where the top of the wall meets the ceiling.
I love the idea of the flower decals! I don’t have any great decorating advice for you, but I do love the furniture in their room, especially the armoire.
Oh, also i hung a white chiffon piece of material, scalloped around part of my bedroom celing where the top of the wall meets. you can get cheap material on a clearance table in a color that suits you for baby:)
I take pics of my kids or family, and get $1 frames at the dollar store, and hang them in the kids rooms, too. Photos make a inviting and hospitable home, and keep it ‘authentic; looking…hehee. Sometimes i only buy the wooden #1 frames and them quick paint them a color that matches the decor(or have your older children paint them….or better yet….have art day and have them all take pics of each other and then each child paints one frame!)…
Hahahahaha!
Heeheeeee……..
I just watched the videos. Laughing at the ‘pathetic’ thingy on the wall…….I think we all have one or two of those!
Ok….I really urge you to hit the dollar store and find some decals….I cant see the color of your rug but it looks light. The tops of the walls and ceilings need help. I mean it would be fine liek that forever and its still a *really* sweet room, but ou want to change that. So….swags of material swung from the celing or scalloped….perhaps decals in the middlish of the walls, around….or in clusters, however you see fit. I really still like m y frame idea from the dollar store. Your kids would love you for it, too! And you take lovely pictures of your children. That young sprout in the video is a doll….
Another cute idea Ive been implementing is decoupage. I am decoupaging my childrens DOORS. My doors have cut outs in the wood, so I will glue material down neatly there, to match decor or offset the decor….and then you can put mojpoj or whatever its called over in layers. It gives the room a flavor and materials can cheaply and nicely add clor and hue….and personality. 🙂
We may not agree on much…but I could get you to love that room, I promise!;)
Oooh…AM, what some great ideas–all of you! Get my creative juices flowing then I’ll have to do another “after” video 😉
Swatch portraits would be cute on the walls.
http://www.purlbee.com/swatch-portraits/
A wonderful site and an amazing woman is at Resolved2Worship. She has 6 kids and is pregnant with number 7. She comes up with creative economical ideas on almost everything.
Some posts, especially the ones dated 2/21/09 & 2/16/09 may spark some ideas can be found at:
http://www.xanga.com/resolved2worship?nextdate=2%2f21%2f2009+19%3a53%3a1.057&direction=n
Well You are inspiring me! Now if I'll jet get off the 'puter!
I LIKE the white!!!
I am thinking since you have the antique furniture that "vintage" would be absolutely beautiful & classy in there. Black and white w/ tinted old-fashioned photos. A pretty quilt (with vintage prints) hung on the wall (on one of those quilt hangers.) You could probably find a lot of thrift store stuff and Bria could make the quilt!
OR
You could do an angel theme…
hmmm… This is fun!
P.S. Avalee is too cute!
What a sweet room you have for your children.
Just a thought:
Rearrange the furniture in room.
If you don’t like the way it looks, you can always put it back the way you already had it.
Since you’re pregnant, it would be better if your husband, oldest daughter and/or friends put the muscle behind the move. Still want to be mindful that their bodies don’t get injured while moving furniture.
Center the armoire on the wall it’s already on.
Place the youth bed to the left of the armoire with the head board up against the wall and the body of the bed sticking out into the room.
After turning the crib to fit along the other wall it’s touching, it would be to the right of the armoire.
The armoire would be the main focus along the wall that you’d see as you entered the room.
Since the armoire is a tall piece of furniture, it will cover the wall space and there’d be no need to hang pictures on that wall unless you wanted to hang something on the wall above the youth bed.
Or you could have the armoire on the side of the room where the youth bed is already at and have the beds along the wall where the crib is presently at. If you’re wanting the youth bed to be along a wall for safety sake, it’s cute where it’s at.
A larger sized picture on the wall with a grouping of smaller pictures or objects to one side of the larger pic or placed on both sides of the larger pic is a easy way to decorate the wall and make a cute decorating statement.
The items you have hanging on the wall are cute. Would you consider grouping them closer together? Keep in mind that if the items are hung at adult eye level or slightly higher, adds interest to the wall and easy on the eye.
At any pace, you already have a sweet, clean room for yur children.
I just thought of something else! If you were to do vintage, you could hang old timey little girl dresses or aprons on the wall too.
Ok… one more thing and I’ll shut up! Silver hair brush set, vintage little girls tea sets, old books,
My girls have a collection of bonnets hung on their wall.
Also, our son’s room has a big beadboard wall where his baby bed is. Hubby made a simple wall hanging shelf that that is really long, It goes from one end of the wall to the other. We hung it about 7ft up the wall. So it is one shelf that stretches the length of the wall. We put memorabilia up there, a stack of antique children’s books would be cute up there, with other vintage toys, all being purchased from thrift store of course. (Right now it is nearly empty.) On the other side, where we plan to put a toddler bed, we did the same thing but hung the shelf about 4ft up the wall. We put toys on this shelf. Does this make sense?
We got the idea from pottery barn catalog. I refer to pottery barn when I need inspiration.
They are too expensive to buy from though!
Hey, I really like this “do-it-yourself” blog.
http://www.littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2009/01/quick-um-stick-um-wall-decorations.html
The link is for a super cute decorating idea.
HTH
Molly
you might like hanging really large prints on your wall. check with the lady at HC that does the graphic work for paula deen’s mag. she has the cutest portrait of one of her girls. it was painted on one of the large canvas screens. you can purchase at hobby lobby with 40 off coupon. might be able to find at thrift store. just paint over.
Decor: I just finished painting my kids room…and I don’t mean one color. All of our walls are slightly yellow. I got some fun acrylic paints and freehand drew a tree and stenciled some flowers and dragonflies and a lady bug along with scripture that I wanted to pray over her. Now every morning when my daughter wakes up the first thing she points it all out to me! I love that she loves it!
Hey Mrs Crawford,
I was thinking about your decor dilemma for Mallie and Kyla’s room. What about the putting scripture on the walls? Check out fruitfulvinecreations.com. She has a lot of really neat, inexpensive stuff and it would solve your big blank wall problem.
I think you can by some of the scripture verses at Hobby Lobby that are ready to put on the wall.
e,
Funny you mentioned “resolved 2 worship”…I know Alyssa..in fact her husband’s family is the one I make frequent reference to as having a huge impact on my life (Yvonne Welch). She is indeed quite creative…I did think about looking at her decor for some creative ideas.
Dear Madame
I am sorry to spring at you like that – for many days now I am searching the web for any mentioning , any information on Alyssa Welch. Ever since her blog on Xanga disappeared I am feeling very sad – feels like I lost a precious family member. After all these years it is hard to imagine living on without Alyssa’s photos, quotes, kids, ideas, her well defined road to Christ. Please, if you have any info on where whe might start blogging again – do let me know:
natalyafrance@gmail.com I would love to invite her whole family to visit us in France one day 🙂
Decor ideas . . . for some reason, I was thinking bright pastel colors (e.g., pinks, greens, and yellows). I think these colors would go nicely with the brownish furniture that you have in the girl’s room. Pictures in frames would be nice, but stick with “girl themes,” like rainbows, flowers, fuzzy animals, etc. Draping of artificial flowers around doorways and window areas are nice too, as long as the flowers are not overly long and gaudy. I’ve used this approach in my master bathroom. The thing with decor, you don’t want to make it too crowded otherwise, your decorations will look overly busy.
I like to decorate, but I’m not really good at telling people HOW to decorate their own spaces. Anyway, I know that my ideas were probably kind of cliche’ and not very helpful, but at least I tried.
ooooh, i like Kim M’s idea better about either black and white photos, or sepia. Im all for vintage!
OH…AND….I *did* get my grandmothers old christening dress and robe, and hung them each on those pastel padded hangers, and I hung them at slightly different levels. People comment on it all the time (not that i let many people in my bedroom, lol!) So, again, I second Kim’s ideas!
I decorate old wooden windows. These are great for photos, or spray painting with stencils on the glass part…..i mosiac mine, but there are so many ideas. I find free windows all the time at window installation places..they place the old ‘trashy’ (heh) ones out back, for the garbage collector.
I personally find it easier to decorate vintage, due to the thrift stores. I dont think id have a smuch luck matching up decor if it needed to be contemporary-style.
I was thinking about your little things on the wall: what if you grouped them all together and put together some antiqued looking wood as a frame and ‘framed’ them on one wall? or paint a ‘frame’ around them?
If you would prefer to not paint the walls again, you could paint the trim in the room an accent color.
Also, a quilt on the wall would look nice and take up a lot of space to make the room a little warmer with the white walls.
I love the little cove with the window and are the walls beadboard?
My two young girls have way too many stuffed animals so I went to ACMoore (a local craft store) and bought a few inexpensive unfinished wall shelves. I painted them a nice sunny yellow to brighten up the room and we put a bunch of their animals on them. It got clutter off the floor and decorated the walls at the same time. 🙂
It’s so much fun having a whole “decor team”! I just came up from a little rearranging (sorry, Deanna, I didn’t enlist hubby’s help!) and it already looks better!
Belinda,
Yes, it’s beadboard. My dad built this house and he had a fit when I started painting it! He loves the “paneling” look which I really don’t like, and I just love painted bead board, though it was no fun to paint. I like the idea of painting the trim a different color.
AM…I love decorating with the old window frames too. I’ve got one that I cut an old piece of a quilt and attached to the back–it’s one of my fav pieces…and then another, I stuck a dried bunch of flowers on the bottom and I love it too. I’ve also made a table out of a longer one. I blogged about it a long time ago.
I really appreciate ALL your great tips!
AM,
I like your tips too. I think re-inventing things is one of the most creative & thrifty things to do!
Kelly I remember that picture frame table you made. That was really nice…
I haven’t read any of the other thoughts so here are my ideas…
hang a quilt on a part of the wall, a large grapevine wreath with some dried flowers and ribbons, I love peg shelves and you can hang dried flowers or a little hat from the pegs and put pictures on the shelf. How about writing a Bible verse on the wall? If you can’t (I think I saw the walls were a painted beadboard), then get a piece of wood, paint it and then distress it (sanding, what-not) and then paint it (or stencil)…you can use a Bible verse or write something about little girls, etc. Use wire to hang it and the put a little scrap fabric bow on it, too. Anyway…that’s what I would do! Hugs to you!
Ive also seen people place either different rectangles of pretty fabric, a different color in each……OR a different type of wrapping paper in each pane. Of course the vintage look is a nicer appearance.
I also have a bad habit of taking old junky furniture I see laying out for trash. I pick a paint color, get pretty knobs..and sometimes add decals.
Eventually, when I get a new camera, I hope to post a lot of my ideas on my blog. Not having a lot of money has blessed me in that it helped me discover how much i love reinventing old trash. 🙂
Oh……mirrors are a lovely cheap way to decorate (a la thrift store). I find vintage looking ones (even if they arent vintage) for 2 or 3 dollars, and whip out the paint. Decals are cute for childrens rooms, anmd relatively inexpensive; this time Im not talking ‘peel and stick’ form the dollar store, but rub ons that you can locate and a craft store. Dragonflies, butterflies, animals, roses, etc. Handpainting fine art i have not yet conquered, so off to the craft store i run at times…
I love hearing everyones ideas. I think im going thrift shopping today, haha…
How about some fabric on the walls over the crib and over the bed . . . draped loosely in a triangular or scalloped fashion–think of different ways they drape sheers on curtains, etc. I can picture it in my head, but am having a hard time describing it! LOL I am thinking some sheer type fabric in some cheery pastel colors . . . you could also get floral garlands at the dollar store to wind loosely around the swag to add color, or take apart silk flowers and hot glue some flower petals of different coordinating colors here and there, etc. You could probably just use some hooks to place where you want the fabric to drape from. I am a yard saler, thrift store shopper, and my decor is made up of finding ways to use what I have, and bring it all together. It is so much fun!