Things I like

I thought I would share a little of my decorating in progress.  I have noted that others like to wait for completed projects to share but if I waited that long I may never actually share anything.  What is a completed project?  You still wouldn't have seen the wall in my kitchen if we were waiting for that.  I mean the trim now has one coat but there are a dozen little projects still to be done, on top of another coat of paint on the trim.  It is the joy of being a home owner and living on a budget and having a husband that works in construction and doesn't always want to spend his evenings and weekends working in his own home.

ANYWAY...Our family room has been the bane of my decorating existance since we moved in.  I just don't know what I am doing down there.  I have considered several themes but get bored with them long before I get around to acting on the thought.  Well finally a very undefined theme that I am calling "put what I like down there" is forming in my mind. The biggest issue will be painting the walls but I have decided to definately hire someone to choose paint colors for me.  I am ready to paint a few other rooms as well and am saving up all my paint color plans for a 1 hour consultation.  Worth every penny in my opinion.  Actually I heard recently that Home Depot will send someone out for free to give you a color palate.  I might check them out...In the mean time here are a few pictures of where I am going.

Believe it or not John got this great cabinet out of someone's kitchen when they were remodeling.  The plan is to paint it black and put shelves on either side and crown molding along the top to create a nice built in.  I gave up my bookshelf last year to Isabelle's toys and now have my books stored in strange places all over the house.  When I am looking for a book I really miss them.  Would love to see this project happen soon but realistically it will look like this for another year.

I did decide to start my "things I like/Family history" theme with some items I brought back from Kenya.

Now keep in mind this is a work in progress.  I love the Lesos on either side of the fireplace but I realize they are too close and the one is a little crooked. (and they both need to be washed and ironed desperately.)  I had the map of Kenya and the painting I bought at the Nairobi market both framed and love them.  The question is...do you like them together on the mantle like that?  I will probably hang the smaller picture up a little higher if I decide to do it but since it is brick don't want to do anything until I am ready to commit.  Actually don't know how I will hang it on brick when I do decide to commit so sugestions for that welcome as well.

So then this is my favorite part.  I have been thinking about a wall of family pictures for the past year and picked up some random frames at our church sale last spring.  Then I started second guessing myself thinking they wouldn't work because none of them match.  But since I can do anything I want in this new decor style I decided to bring them all down and lay them out around this big picture we have of John rock climbing back in his hey day.  It looked great.  Then I realized I had 2 other frames with pictures I didn't really have a use for inside them and they were both the same size.  So I put them on the end and voila...I am a genius.

(John did the math to hang them perfectly.  I am only about the concept not the details.)

So there you have my perfectly hung family photo wall but not with family photos in any of the frames. I had initially planned to pick up a mat for the two end frames with random openings to give that collage look but as I was going through Kenya pictures spreading them on the floor I really liked how they were looking laying there. I decided to simply open up the frames and glue the pictures to the back of the pictures already in there and pop them back in. They turned out great..

...if I do say so myself.

So now all the big frames are filled and I just need to order a few 8x10's and 5x7's to fill in the other frames.  While I love seeing all our Africa memories I do want the family room to represent more than this one event in our lives so I a going to try to choose a variety of other photos of our family to fill in the gaps.  It is so exciting to see it all come together.  Now I just need to figure out what to put on the existing shelves in the entertainment center.  I guess the answer is to look around and see what I love and what is part of the history of our family.