Out With The Old, In With The New: My Vanity Setup

Moving has been freeing in a lot of ways for me.  It's been nice to let go of a lot of tangible baggage I had accumulated (hello to the purging I've been talking about incessantly) and being in a frame of mind where I'm more willing to switch out a lot of things from the old place.  I didn't realize how much I needed a little breath of fresh air.  One of the first things to go was my old vanity.  It was adorable, but pretty uncomfortable and rickety.  Anytime I would bump it, things would spill everywhere.  Seriously annoying.


Here is my new little setup.  Before she moved, Elsie passed this mirror on to me.  It was originally Rachel's score, she gave it to Elsie, and now it lives in my house.  Hooray for hand-me-downs!  It's one of my very favorite things in our room.

I found the little desk from a craft store on clearance and my *squealing and jumping in excitement* has been all about this 1970s Playboy bunny chair.  You don't find crazy things like this just everyday.


Okay, here is where I need your help, friends-- I'm not all about the black on this little desk/vanity table.  What color should I paint it?  Keep in mind that my ceiling is teal and my bedding is a mauve-y pink.  My initial thought was mint, but I'm feeling like that may be a little bit of green overload.  Gold?  Yellow?  I need your suggestions!

Okay, I'm off to work on a fun project for ABM.  I'll share about it very soon!

Hope's Bedroom Makeover

One of our main goals in the new house has been to transform Hope's bedroom from a messy pre-teen explosion to a manageable, tidy room fit for a young teen girl.  She's a collector of itty bitty things, so it was a challenge for her to decide what things stayed in her room and what things would go to the playroom.  Plus, she does a lot of school work in her bedroom (little sister problems), so it was very important for her to have a practical desk setup.

Another goal was to get this girl in a comfortable bed!  She's had a loft bed for most of her life, and she really wasn't feeling it anymore.  We picked a new bed frame together and went online shopping for a mattress.  Eventually, I was lucky enough to get hooked up with a mattress company called Loblolly, thanks to my friend Jess.  They're a new-on-the-scene mattress company that ships directly to your home.  Jess happened to be their lovely model for a day.  Small, small world.

Anyway, here's a peek at Hope's room before we REALLY started to tackle it:


As you can see, Hope had a spring-filled, twin mattress on her new full size frame.  She's a pretty cautious little gal, so she shoved as many blankets and stuffed animals in the void because she was scared of rolling off the mattress in the middle of the night.  :D


Once we finally got her bed all set up, it was time to actually go through all of those boxes.  Oof.  It's taken us quite a little while, but she's extremely pleased with how her bedroom is looking.


I feel so happy for this book-loving, Harry Potter obsessed, Lego-building, gymnast.  She's waited a long time to have a room that reflects her style so perfectly.  xo.

**Things in Hope's room:  bedframe-- WalMart;  mattress-- c/o Loblolly;  rug-- RugsUSA;  desk-- DIY on ABM;  emoji marqui-- DIY on ABM;  stuffed animal chain-- Amazon;  bedding-- Target;  rug in the "before" photo-- Uncommon Goods;  lamp-- Target;  houses jewelry hanger: Shlomit Ofir

Living Room Progress

House progress is chugging along!  One of the biggest things that has gone unfinished since we moved in was our living room shelves.  I new I wanted to back them in wallpaper, but the paper I had originally decided on was going to end up being WAY out of our budget.  After a couple months of searching and some serious indecisiveness, I finally found this one!


I was also delusional enough in the beginning to think I was going to tackle this project myself.  I'm SO GLAD we hired a professional for this.  It looks so good and I'm pretty sure I would have either ruined a bunch of the paper, or I never would have actually gotten around to it.


I have big plans for this space.  We have a carpenter building a window seat for our bay window and I'm still hunting for the perfect chairs to finish up our seating.  For now, I'm off to find my boxes of knick-knacks so I can style these shelves properly!

Happy Monday, friends!

Snapshots

Whew.  It feels really good to be done with the holidays.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas and NYE, but I'm ready to get back in the swing of real life.  Here are some bits and pieces of our life lately.  Johnny and I got all the Christmas decorations put away yesterday and I'm excited to start chugging away on house stuff again!  As I keep saying, we're making some serious headway.  I'm officially devoting most of today to my bedroom.  It will be so nice to have more rooms fully unpacked and put together.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are excited about starting the new year!  We had a super fun get-together with friends last night, and it made me look forward to all the gatherings to come this year.  I haven't made any real resolutions or goals yet, but I know my main theme of the year is to surround myself with love.  Happy 2016!

**White and gold coasters and hedgehog mat both c/o ModCloth.