Feathering The Nest in 2012

Today I'm linking up with Jules of Pancakes & French Fries, for her William Morris Project series. (I've never been to a link party before. Hopefully, there's no lipstick on my teeth.) Each Thursday, Jules will be posting about a project, makeover or home DIY as she checks off her list of goals for her home. You can read much more about that here, where she explains all.  To that end, I've made my own list. I'm not a big list maker in general, but when it comes to feathering our nest, I always have a short list stashed away to remind myself where to spend the “nesting” money. But for 2012, inspired by Jules' own massive list of goals and dreams for her home, I've gone through each room and area of my own house and come up with quite a list of things to tackle.

I've held myself in check and only listed actual goals for this year...this isn't by any means a complete list of things that need to get done/repaired, nor does it include any “dream projects” (like replacing the carpets with hardwood, or building a deck off the master bedroom). And it doesn't include the outside of our house, which requires another list entirely. 

Living Room/Entry: The first areas you see upon entering our home, the first impression of our style. The living room is somewhat more formal, a sitting room, a library with a large wall unit of books.  Big plans for the room this year:

• Re-paint the room, changing out muted blue paint for sapphire blue
• Change out sheers/drapes with matchstick blinds and new curtains
• Possibly sell solid blue chair, replace with new white or vintage chair
• Spray-paint frame on vintage Turner print
• Repurpose a current rug, or buy new rug for under coffee table
• Buy new table lamp

This is an old picture of the living room (I don't arrange furniture on the diagonal anymore), but I still own all these elements, and this is the current paint color & window treatment that I want to switch out.

Entry Way

• Remove the pesky double shelves, as seen & discussed here.
• Touch up paint from exposed shelf holes
• Buy new, used or vintage chest or table for entry area
• Solve need for coat rack/hooks for our sweaters/ jackets – (right now they pile up on the couch until I get sick of them and hang them up.

The Family Room/Kitchen – The most active and used area of our home: cooking, meals, TV, homework, video gaming, reading, snuggling on the sectional: the heart of our home is in this one large space.

Great Room:

• Replace old wooden blinds/add window treatments
• Have the sectional professionally cleaned (find out if a foam-insert couch CAN be cleaned)
• Replace entertainment center with a vintage/mid-century console for the new TV
• Paint the nook that will hold the new console
• Buy a larger, 8x10 rug for the space (guilty of buying too-small rugs)
• Buy new art for behind the couch
• Add on to the gallery photo collection on the Big Green Wall (see below)
• New pillows for sectional
• Replace cold-weather throw for sectional
• Possibly replace sunburst mirror over fireplace with new art
  

 
Kitchen

Our kitchen is in pretty good shape, thanks to our Ikea remodel, seen here. It still could use a few things/repairs:

• Repair/caulk the tiles behind the faucet suffering some water damage
• Better organization for paper flow/mail/etc.
• Replace blinds/window treatments
• Make a terrarium for the island
• Buy pendant lighting for over the dining table
• New napkin holder (!): A small thing, but I don't like the one we've used for years.

The Laundry Room: Ugh. My least favorite room in the house, because it's a tiny, dark closet without even a sink. Located off the kitchen and with a door into the garage, the linoleum floor is often dirty and full of lint. Goal: make it happier? Prettier? How about just cleaner?

• Rug?
• Artwork?
• New Storage containers?

Kids Play Room

• Organize/purge (never ending)
• Hang Mary Blair postcard art from Disneyland
• Hang some kids art

The UPSTAIRS:

Office Nook My work space at the top of the stairs. Recent painting/re-do (you can see the bland "before" shots on this post) needs finishing touches:

• Buy mats for the black&white photo prints now hanging (pop of color)
• New art work on bare wall to the left
• Colorful slip-cover for chair
• Buy or pick fresh flowers for my desk, all year

Master Bedroom: An elegant, cool retreat from the world outside. A (mostly) adults-only space. Over a year ago, we painted and restyled the room in a big overhaul, but it's still needing lots of finishing touches

• Buy a true bedskirt ( long story behind the reason, but I've been using a king-size flat sheet as a bedskirt.)
• Make & install wallpaper panels for the Big Gray Wall. (See Below) I bought a beautiful roll of Romo wallpaper on Ebay last year, and it's still sitting in my closet.
• Art work and/or mirror
• Small side table for the chair
• Possible small/brass shelves for books & storage
• New duvet cover, for shot of pattern & color
• Purchase correct-sized shades for bedside lamps (current are too small)
• New vintage clock! See photo at top of this post. It looks cute and retro, but I HATE this stupid, inaccurate, loud-ticking cheap thing. When it's wound up, I have to stick it in the drawer at night to mask the ticking noise.

Lily's Room – Bedroom of my almost 10-year-old daughter. Recently had a major re-do last month into a big-girl/tween room. Needs finishing touches:

• Shorter bookcase
• Wall shelf for her Josef birthday dolls/collections
• Small shelf for her sleeping area
• New desk lamp
• Need pops of bright color to break up the hot pink/black/white theme
• Improve cheap ceiling light fixture that replaced her fan

Tucker's Room – Bedroom of my seven-year-old son, a collector of tiny insignificant objects (read: trash) and champion pack rat.

• CLEAN IT UP (currently a disaster)
• Buy new, working blinds
• Curtain or valance
• Hang art work
• Organize, organize, purge
• Buy vintage dresser

Kids Bathroom: A place where the mirror is constantly streaked/spattered

• Needs artwork
• Switch out old, dusty wicker display shelf
• Hamper for towels
• Clean out & organize under cabinet of old toddler bath supplies (Sniff!)

Upper Long Hallway:

• Start work on the family photo gallery wall I keep wanting to do. Will include old photos of me and my husband, extended family members, etc.

Office: aka The Cave, where my computer-geek husband works from home. Full of computers, monitors, and too much furniture. (Requires it's own AC system during the summer!)

• None of my business. Although, I recently had the idea the he should take the doors off of the closet and organize and utilize that area to work harder for the room. And next time he picks a paint color, I totally get veto power. (Current color: Suntan Pantyhose)

Whew! Okay, that's it. Although I'm sure I forgot quite a few things. But do you see a theme here? Looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of time picking out new window treatments and artwork this year. I don't know if I'll be able to participate and link-up with Jules every Thursday -- not many of my fixes and projects are cheap ones -- but then again, if I direct my cash and efforts wisely, I hope to check off most of these items by next December.  Better get on it. Time is ticking...ticking loudly, like my stupid alarm clock.