Do You Need a Dining Room?

Targeted Obsession: Home Decor

I'm in need of a new project. I know this because I have begun "pretend" house shopping online. My husband would strangle me if I brought up the idea of moving and would probably disconnect our home internet if he knew how much time I've spent on Terra Vista lately. (BEST real estate search engine for NC, just FYI!) I even pitched the idea of house flipping to him. He flipped. Literally. SOOOO.... I came up with another idea...

Room flipping!

I'm out of spaces (and let's be honest, money) to re-do in my home, so why not sell an entire room and use the profits to do it all again? This probably sounds like a nightmare to some of you, but to me, it sounds like SO much FUN! And I'm banking on the fact that the people who think starting over on a room that's been completely finished are the ones who might want to buy a complete room. When I say "complete," I mean EVERYTHING. You just can't have the walls and floor... but I'll tell you the paint color and include the rug! This could be a pipe-dream and if so, we can all have a good laugh together... but just maybe???

The first room up in my crazy room flipping trial is my dining room.

It's got a traditional flair with darker furniture and light accents that really brighten the room. From a charcoal navy in the ikat fabric chairs to the light blue hue in the rug, this space transitions to grey/ silver accents easily. However, the gold in the ikat allows for bronze and copper elements to work as well! The coolest part? You don't have to plan anything! Everything you see that wasn't part of the original home construction goes! (And no... the light fixture WASN'T a part of home construction- I added it after the fact!) Truthfully, the light fixture might be my favorite thing about the room. 

Departing with the curtains will make me sad too, but the thought of shopping for new ones makes it all better. My favorite thing about them is the long drop. Hanging them well above the top of the windows makes the windows look so much bigger and allows for so much light to come in. I'm a big fan of "puddling" drapes, so I went for the 92 inch drops. (Curtain rods are not included.) 

From talking with friends, one of their most frustrating things about decorating is shelving. Well... you can take all of the decor on the china cabinet as well! There's even wine storage on the bottom. (Sorry, no wine included! Ha!) 

The rug in my dining room was almost the rug we chose for our office re-do. When I chose the rug for the office, I kept thinking about "that other rug" and went back two days later. It was still in the store, so I took that as a sign that it needed to come home with me. 

And finally, here's what I call the "entrance table." It houses our candy bowl and one of my favorite mirrors in my house. It's a "skinny" mirror. I took all of my baby bump pictures in this mirror for a reason! 

The flowers are fake and will last forever. The only thing I doubt you'll want is the picture of Ivan and Ridge inside the white frame, but the frame is included! Soooooo... if you need a new dining room or want to completely re-do yours without dealing with the hassle of shopping/ planning/ wondering "does this work," then I'm your gal! $4,000 (or best reasonable offer) takes the lot! You're more than welcome to come look at everything in person and we will help with delivery within 20 minutes of area code 28078. If interested, please private message the Mommy Obsessed Blog page on Facebook. I could be crazy, but hey... watching a crazy lady decorate can be fun, right? We'll see how this pans out. Pipe dream? Maybe. But hey...  you never know! 

Laundry Room Redo

Targeted Obsession: Home Decor

A while back we started the process of renovating our office. What I didn't tell you was that we started discussing doing our laundry room too! And I'm kind of glad I didn't tell anyone because the laundry room took us longer than the office for various reasons, but it's now FINISHED!

The major reason we wanted to focus energy on the laundry room was the lack of storage in our house. We also hated the fact that we spent so much time and money on making our home exactly how we wanted it, but whenever we sat on the couch and turned our head slightly to the right, this was our view...

That's one nasty "before" picture, right?!

The laundry room became our "catch all" space. It also butts right up to our staircase. Why homebuilders don't think to give you extra storage under the stairs is beyond me, but we'd always discussed cutting under our staircase from the laundry room to create more places to stick stuff. I've mentioned before that my husband is pretty handy (flashback to the shiplap wall- I still go stare at it daily BTW) and he totally figured out how to add the storage under the stairs while protecting the integrity (aka, structure) of our home. What he didn't want to do was figure out how to plumb, reroute electricity, and hang cabinets... so we contracted the majority of this project out. Therefore, this wasn't one of our cheaper re-dos. However, we love it none the less, so without further adieu... check out this "after" shot!

It doesn't even look like the same space, right?! It's amazing what a little space planning and some cabinets can do! We didn't move any walls or change flooring, we simply added things and moved our washer/ dryer hookups. When we built our home, we had it plumbed to one day house a sink in this room. We went for the extra large farmhouse sink and cool industrial faucet in order to better bathe our 40 lb dog. (Let's be real- that was our "reasoning" but we totally wanted an excuse to splurge on the cool stuff!) I have to hand it to my husband though, the sink and faucet were both purchased off of Craigslist for half of what they'd typically cost and the stackable washer/ dryer combo came from an incredible sale as well. SOOOO, even though the re-do wasn't cheap, it could have been way worse!

Now, we all know I have a 5 year old. His preschool does the most adorable crafts and artwork! I hate clutter. All of that is the perfect combination for mom guilt because WTH am I supposed to do with the plethora of art that my son brings home weekly?!!! Cue big idea! A few summers ago I grabbed a piece of sheet metal and spray paint from Lowes and a poster frame from Target and wound up with this:

I loved the easy-to-switch and cute photo display, so I thought about doing it on a grander scale... and voila! We wound up with a sheet metal wall! If you live in the Lake Norman area and want to know where to get large pieces of sheet metal on the cheap, I can hook you up!

It's perfect for displaying everything and is located right in our "drop zone!" It didn't alleviate the mom guilt though. Come to find out, we're out of magnets so I still have to pick things to discreetly get rid of whenever something new comes home. And do you see the shelf in the bottom corner? That's the hole under the stairs!

Ivan cut a shape that followed the stairs for easy access and then built this rolling cart to sit in front of the giant hole! Behind the cart is a TON of space where we stash seasonal items and the cart is our new "drop zone" for Ridge. (See the pile of unhung artwork in the top right? hehe!)

And that's it. Seven months, three contractors, one husband, and hours on Craigslist and this is what we came up with. The storage is awesome and the view from our sofa has greatly improved! Ciao for now, or at least until we find another room to mess with...

I try to avoid public restrooms anyway...

Here's the thing... I try to avoid public restrooms anyway. In my mind most are full of germs, stink, and weird people that are perfectly normal outside of the confines of where we go to pee and poop.

Because of the world we live in, I'm ALWAYS looking around the corner and wondering what's hiding in the shadows. I call it my "irrational fears"... irrational because (and I'm sure there are actual statistics out there, but I'm not looking them up) there's typically a crazy small percentage of a chance that it's going to happen to me. And that "it" is anything. I don't park beside creepy white vans. I load my children both on the same side of the car and my oldest "crawls" through. My 45 pound 5 year old is still in a 4 point harness carseat. My guns are locked in bionic safes. I have a supply of canned goods and have thought about "what if" our power grid is wiped one day. I don't float on a rubber raft in the surf anymore... you see where I'm going. Basically, anything that seems dangerous or potentially hazardous, I try to avoid.

Now don't get me wrong, I still really enjoy life and the majority of the time my husband and kids have no idea I'm weighing the pros and cons of choices in my head, wrestling with the irrational fears that pop up. It's just a part of my day, and if I have to guess, it's just a part of being a MOM. It doesn't diminish my quality of life and if you had a conversation with my subconscious, I bet it would argue that my fears actually enhance my quality of life because I feel as if I'm actively protecting those that I love. Love...

It all comes down to love. Jesus teaches us to love our neighbor as ourself. Protect my kids... love the guy dressed as a girl... love the uber liberal left that continually rips at my conservative Christian values... protect my ability live in a country where my voice and values matter... It's a constant back and forth battle against loving and protecting and it's not really about bathrooms.

There's an agenda that helps to gain the following of us that wants to choose love first. We want everyone to feel loved and valued and that agenda is taking advantage of us. By gaining our following, they gain power. By gaining power, they take it away from us... bit by bit. Our government gets bigger and more powerful and our voices become less important. So if we want our children to have their voices heard one day, we have to protect their rights.

This is not a "boycott Target" post or a post encouraging/ discouraging  the support of HB2. This is a post about letting your voice be heard. VOTE. Don't be complacent. Don't hide your opinion for fear of ruffling feathers... I say that because it describes me perfectly! I have strong opinions and never share them publicly for fear of hurting others. I want to love. I want to spread the love of Jesus. But Jesus didn't hold his tongue for fear of ruffling feathers. He ruffled plenty! And he was the perfect example of love.

I try my hardest not to use public restrooms anyway, so passing laws about who can use which restroom seems really silly to me. There are bathrooms for men and bathrooms for women. If we wanted everyone to use whichever restroom, we wouldn't have put stick figures on the wall labeling which belongs to whom. It saddens me that my home (Charlotte, NC) was specifically targeted to promote a liberal agenda (that uses bathrooms as its voice, but is in reality MUCH bigger) because we're a liberal city in a swing state with a conservative governor. They came after us because we would create a perfect storm that would put them in the spotlight. They don't care about bathrooms either, though they're really making you think they do. They care about your votes. So no matter which side you're on... remember...

VOTE. Let your voice be heard. Educate yourself on the policies and PRAY. God is bigger than politics. He is bigger than government... and He sure as hell is bigger than bathrooms. Show love, shower grace, and if you feel threatened, read Luke, chapter 11. (I especially love verses 9, 10, and 21.)

You Don't Know the Power of the Dark Side

Pinterest. The Dark Side I'm referring to is Pinterest. And while some may see it as "the dark side," I have to politely disagree. A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a friend about numerous things and the topic somehow came to Facebook and Pinterest. His opinion was that people only throw elaborate birthday parties so they can brag about them with posts to Facebook and Pinterest. While yes, a "like" on a Facebook picture is certainly an ego boost, I totally don't think that's the reason some people throw Pinterest worthy parties, or participate in certain activities, or even share pictures on social media... I honestly feel that nothing "they" do has anything to do with you or me. For example... I share my life on Facebook. Facebook has become for me what scrapbooking was to my mother- a way to capture and share my family's memories. This blog is another example. It started as an outlet for a mom who hung out with a 4 year old and 4 month old all day. The fact that people read it is a blessing, but it didn't begin as a way to virtually "brag" about anything. For me, Facebook and blogging is all about friends and family and bridging the gap that geography and life have put between us. But that's not my entire train of thought...


The Dark Side...

My son is obsessed with Star Wars. What IS it with guys and Star Wars? I'm obsessed with my son. I'm also obsessed with making things pretty, as we've discussed numerous times in this blog. Sooooo... naturally I'm one of "those" Pinterest party moms. (You didn't think I was defending the type without reason, did you? I'm a card-carrying member!) I think it's more of a personality thing and it certainly has nothing to do bragging on social media. For example, years ago when I was in middle school I was given the opportunity to decorate my homeroom's door for homecoming. The project wound up growing from a door to a wall. It was awesome. I LOVED doing it. And from there on out, all of my projects tended to go overboard. My personality type would exist without Pinterest or Facebook or blogs... you just see me (and moms like me) more because the world is simply WAY more connected. We each have our own talents and I love that we can share them better thanks to the internet! To the coupon moms out there- I WISH I could be more like you! I tried and it's totally not my forte. To the "life hacker" whose posts I find on Pinterest (where someone way more clever than me came up with 100+ uses for the Magic Eraser)... THANK YOU! We are all gifted in certain ways and I think social media allows us to share those gifts. I do think being gifted in coming up with clever, spend-thrifty things is way more awesome than wanting to decorate out the wazoo whenever life gives the opportunity, but hey... we all have to embrace our talents! For the past few months, I've slowly been using mine to plan an elaborate 5th birthday party.

The theme (as you've probably gathered) was Star Wars. I took my inspiration from our trip to Disney last year where we watched the Jedi Training experience. I wanted to throw a party where I didn't have to plan a million games to entertain the masses, so I thought simply training a few Jedi might be easy and fun. We planned the party to last for two hours and reserved the facility for 3 hours to allow for set-up and cleaning. If you're looking for somewhere to host a small event in Huntersville, NC then you should look into the Huntersville Arts and Cultural Center. It's wonderful and cheap. You can learn more about it here.

Jedi training in full force.

For Jedi training, I decided I'd host the session myself (gotta put the teaching experience to good use!) and watched YouTube videos of the Disney professionals to put together my training plan. At Disney, Darth Vader crashes the training session, so of course I needed a Darth Vader. Amazingly, I happen to know a family with the COOLEST Star Wars costumes and the kids were raising money for a school trip. I asked if I could rent them in costume for an hour and the rest was history. The kids will be doing another school trip next year, so if you're interested in cool Star Wars characters at your next party, I can give you their information! (Side note- the kids are super awesome and kind! They were great with our guests at the party and I couldn't have asked for anything better! For real, you want them to come to your party!)

Our awesome characters!

I knew guests wouldn't all arrive at the same time, so we played a Lego Star Wars video (thanks, Cartoon Network and YouTube) while guests arrived. The party favors were light sabers. (Yes, they were expensive, but at around $9 a piece they were only a few dollars more than what parents generally spend on goodie bags and will be played with way more, so for me it was worth it.) We used the party favors during the training session. After about 15 minutes of training, we turned on what Ridge claims is his favorite song (blame the dad), Imperial March by Celldweller and Darth Vader came in with his Stormtrooper escort. It was AWESOME! We battled the dark side for a few minutes and then sang happy birthday with our cool characters present. After cake, the Star Wars crew hung around for guests to get their pictures taken and then played around with the kiddos. That was pretty much it! It was a super quick, simple party and we had a blast. I still felt like I didn't get to spend enough time with our guests (why does it always feel like that?!) and stressed out for about 2 hours prior to the party getting everything in order. But it was worth it!

Listening intently to the Jedi master. Ridge wanted to dress up for his party...  Let them be little and join in on the fun!

Party crashers

We battled the Dark Side and W

My take-away on our latest party?

• Forget paper invites to kids birthdays. They're nice and I'm sure Emily Post wouldn't agree with me, but creating a Facebook event to invite and inform guests was so much better! I was even able to send a "heads up" message when I confirmed the Star Wars characters so parents could let me know if they thought their kids might get scared. Paper invites couldn't do that.
• If you're doing a themed party where you'd like cool decorations, give those things as presents beforehand. Santa brought some Star Wars toys at Christmas and Ridge's birthday gifts from family members were also Star Wars themed, so it was all brought to the party and made decorating way cheaper! The Star Wars backdrop fabric we used is going to be made into a blanket. So my suggestion is this: whatever you buy to decorate a party with, think about how you can use it after the celebration is over. 
• Make things as easy for you during the party as possible. (Meaning, you don't want to have to be the entertainment for the kids. I know... I totally didn't follow this rule. But the party would have been more fun for me if I had.) 
• Light sabers are cheaper at Target than Walmart. (Really?! Really.) 
• Have the party outside of your home. Best. Thing. EVER. 
• Think about your child's favorite things and center it all around that. Ridge won't remember many things from many parties... but I bet he'll always remember that Darth Vader came to his birthday and that he got to battle his friends with light sabers. 

The party food was a total Pinterest copy. We served Wookie Cookies, Padawan Popcorn, Droid Nuts and Bolts (Chex Mix) , Edible Ewoks (Teddy Grams), Thermal Detonators (cheese puff balls), Princess Lays (Classic Lays Chips), Hans Rolos (Rolos), Death Star Donuts (donut holes), Jedi Juice (Capri Sun), Wookie Water (bottled water), and Yoda Soda (Sprite). 

Baby Leia observed from afar

The birthday boy and the Star Wars crew

Thanks to Cheeky Cakes for making our Star Wars cake a reality! I highly recommend working with them! Find their Facebook page here.

I love this. Ridge couldn't get all of his candles out on the first try...

...so our Jedi master and Darth Vader began to use "the force" to help! 

My last thought on the Dark Side is this: Do what you want. It's too hard to please everyone all the time. If you want an elaborate party, throw one. If you want to post the pictures to social media, do it. I've tip-toed around "What will people think" for too long and find it so freeing to no longer worry about it. (Or no longer worry about it as much- let's be honest!) But the real Dark Side isn't Pinterest or Facebook or even Darth Vader... it's worrying about the judgement of others. So... step into the light my friends and thanks for checking out our 5th birthday Star Wars extravaganza! 

Clothes, the BIG Birthday, and Easter. Get Ready for Photo Overload!

Targeted Obsessions: Kids/ Girls Clothes/ Traditions

Dressing a little girl is super fun. We've already established that. But dressing a little girl around Easter time has gotten out. of. control.... or at least it has at my house. (Crossing my fingers the hubby doesn't read this post. Ha!) We've had a ridiculous amount of "trips to the park" in the past week or so because it's a great excuse to take the camera and snag a couple of adorable pictures of my kiddos (aka, Ell in her awesome clothes) looking serenely perfect while sitting in a beautiful field of blooming trees... or setting suns... or budding flowers... because that is REAL life! (I'm killing myself over here! hehehehe!) My Facebook friends are probably rolling their eyes at the amount of pictures I've posted lately. Believe me, I am too! But I can't stop. I'm blaming the warmer weather.

Obsessive, yes. Justified? Of course!

It's also Ridge's 5th birthday week! I'm so torn between being excited for him, reveling in the awesomeness that is my *almost* 5 year old... and crying in my pillow because, "Where have the past 5 years gone?!!!" And time with Ellington seems to be moving even faster! For real. I can't handle life at this speed! Ridge's favorite restaurant is Brixx (pizzeria), so I took him and his sister yesterday as a sort of "birthday week" kick-off. While sitting at Brixx and having ridiculously grown-up conversations as we waited for our food, Ridge decided he wanted to make a list of some fun things we could do throughout this upcoming week. (The kiddo is crazy lucky because his birthday seems to always fall in the middle of Spring Break- so he's out of school all next week... which leaves plenty of time for fun activities! I'm probably creating a monster...) Ridge's list made my heart smile. It includes:

• Meeting friends at a park (which we did today and will most likely do again)
• Baking a birthday cake
• Going to the movies 
• Getting ice cream with mom
• A trip to Barns & Noble (totally his idea- NO prompting from me!)

I was proud of the items on his list. They're simple and sweet. And totally doable. But first... Easter! 

We strive to raise our children to be as Christ-like as possible. We certainly fall short daily! But this is the first year that Ridge seems to "get" Easter. I know there are parts that are over his head, but the key components he gets. Even though we stress the Resurrection is the reason for Easter, we still do the fun things like hunt Easter Eggs. This year, we dyed eggs for the first time. Whoa. Stress! Dye + an *almost* 5 year old + crazy obsessive mom who has NO WHERE for messy egg dye = spreading out a towel in the middle of the kitchen floor to dye eggs. (FYI, teaching the concept of "dye" vs "die" was interesting... but he got it! Smart little bugger. It also helped that teaching vocabulary is a huge part of his mom's job!) But I totally stressed over nothing. Ridge was awesome with messy dye! The set up definitely helped. Had we sat at any table in our home, the rug underneath and the fabric chairs would have certainly suffered, but the towel on the floor was perfect. The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes, but gah... I'll remember it forever! I remember decorating Easter Eggs with my mom, so I know he'll remember dyeing Easter Eggs with his mom as well. 

Something else I remember is shopping for Easter dresses. My husband thinks this is crazy. It never occurred to me that "Easter dresses" isn't a thing everywhere. Must be southern? Ivan said he always grew up getting dressed up for Easter, yes... but he thinks my need to coordinate all family members church attire is a little much. Well... yeah... "obsessive visual tendencies" will certainly go overboard on Easter Sunday. Ivan has graciously let me coordinate our outfits since the year we got engaged. (Back then I think he was scared to tell me no. Ha!) And then when Ridge came along, it wasn't even a conversation. The only issue for Ivan is my desire for pictures. We are always running late to church- it doesn't matter how early we start the process, something happens and we wind up slipping into our pew just a few minutes late. Add in Easter baskets, pictures, and special clothing and you can see the dilemma! This year we're trying something new. We're going to all get dressed on Saturday afternoon and take pictures then. After, we'll go out for a nice family dinner. That way, Sunday morning can just be Easter baskets and church. (And then an amazing brunch and egg hunt with my wonderful neighborhood family.) 

Our 2016 Easter coordination

I hope our Saturday Easter pictures and dinner will become a tradition... kind of like church on Sundays, dyeing Easter eggs, coordinating Easter clothes, making birthday celebration lists, taking too many pictures, and Brixx for birthdays. Wow! It's SUCH a busy time of year for our little family but it is the most amazing feeling to get to experience it with my crew. Until next time...

The Office

Targeted Obsession: Home Decor

There's only one thing this face can mean...

It's done! We FINALLY finished the office! When I think back to when this whole process started, I realize that my poor husband has been in a make-shift office space since October! Poor guy! He says it was worth the wait because he loves it! At first glance, I think the office feels very beachy and light (which made me worry that it might trend more feminine- yikes!), but it has SO many pieces of "Ivan" in it that he thinks it's perfect. (Or maybe he's just super excited to have a desk that doesn't shake- the world will never know!) 

We started by determining what the room needed. For Ivan, he needed hidden storage, a sturdy desk, a rolling chair, and a filing cabinet. I needed a wide open space with a clean backdrop and the ability to switch my backdrops. We decided that lining the back wall with built-ins would work for Ivan's storage and the shelving could double as something to hold backdrop reels for me. We also wanted to keep the furniture to a minimum and make everything rollable so I could easily move it out for photo shoots. (FYI, just the office portion is done... we're still working on the in-home studio add-ons.) After that, we thought about the kind of budget that would work for us. Our goal was $2,500... which meant real built-ins were out. We're lucky to have an IKEA right here in Charlotte, so we started there. We found bookcases we loved, but continued looking around to make sure we couldn't find something better. We couldn't, so our first decision for the office/ studio was to purchase 3 Liatorp bookcases from IKEA. You can find the link here. We also bought the Liatorp desk and Ivan attached wheels to the bottom of it. The final "needed" item for Ivan was a rolling chair. I wanted something leather, affordable, and not cheap-looking or black. I found exactly what I wanted at Overstock.com. All of those items together pretty much ate our budget. After purchasing the furniture, there was $800 left. 

Since the room is going to function as a studio, I needed to keep with light, neutral walls- so we went with a skin-toned beige for paint. I also wanted the wall that's visible from the front door of our home to be some sort of awesome accent wall, but simple enough to be an unchangeable backdrop for photos. We went with a white-washed wood wall. (Say that sentence 3 times really fast!) It might be my favorite thing about the office. Ivan bought sheets of plywood from Lowes, had them ripped into boards, divided the boards into 2 to 3 sections per row on the wall, and nail-gunned them in. The thing that took us so long on the office was the actual white-washing. We were SO nervous we would mess up the wall! (Okay... Ivan was nervous. He wasn't about to let me touch his masterpiece! I'm definitely the "getter done" type- but that means no measuring, no taking-your-time to ensure perfection... Ivan is the opposite and wanted to make sure I didn't screw up his hard work.) When he finally built up the courage to wash the walls, it only took him about 3 hours total and 2 coats of wash. They were stunning! 

As soon as Ivan finished the walls, I left for HomeGoods! I threw out navy as an accent color idea to Ivan and he liked it, so "navy" was my inspiration as I shopped. My first stop was the rugs. When selecting decor, I always like to start with rugs. I found a couple that I really liked! (I'll stop here to note that if I hadn't found a rug, I probably would have stopped shopping right then and there- I knew I wanted a rug for the room and wouldn't have selected anything without knowing what the biggest visual piece was going to look like.) I took pictures of the rugs I liked and sent them to Ivan for him to pick his favorite. He picked my favorite (without knowing it was my favorite) . I've taught him well. 

I adore how vibrant the rug is!

Here's the terrible iPhone picture I sent Ivan when shopping...  the rug is 8x10, which at first was a slight concern since the room is only 10x10, but the rug looks perfect! And if it hadn't, HomeGood's has an excellent return policy.

Ellington is a big fan of the rug too...

...as is Kuma

After determining the rug, I went to look for a few items to hang on the wood wall. I wanted a small gallery section of interesting pieces. The first thing I found was a collection of knots matted on a navy background. Score! Ivan is obsessed with things like knots (he grew up going to sailing camp. awwww!) and it fit with my "navy" color scheme. There was also a turquoise "M" that looks great as a "W" (which was more for me than Ivan, but he thought it was cool even though he wasn't thrilled with the color. Everything can't be navy. Take what you can get, dude!) I found a nice fabric canvas wrap that worked with the color scheme and complimented the other items, as well as a silver clock hanging from a rope. I loved that the clock had a rope to "tie" together (see what I did there? hehe) the rustic with the refined and semi match the navy knot picture. 

 

Once I was done selecting the items for the small gallery wall, I went to find knickknacks for the faux built-ins. This is the main reason I'm SO anti real built-ins. To decorate them correctly, it costs a TON! You have to have larger items because small things get cluttered and look rinky-dinky. But they can't all be large. The items you pick need to work together, yet contrast well too. (Meaning, you need to mix soft with hard, masculine with feminine, light and dark... you get the picture.) I'm also anti built-ins because all of these decorative things need to be dusted and we've already discussed the fact that I don't clean. (My way around that in this room was getting bookcases with glass doors. I'll let you know how that works out.) Finally, I hate built-ins because once you have them, you're stuck with them. I like to re-decorate periodically and moving built-ins just can't happen... well... unless you use bookcases from IKEA that slightly resemble built-ins! Ha!

One of my thoughts to help save $$$ on the built-in decor was to use lots of baskets where I would store my photography items (blankets, newborn hats and head wraps, etc). I picked out baskets first. Next I found some random things that worked color-wise that I knew Ivan would like. I found some deer antlers, driftwood, and a crocodile skull (It's made of plaster, but my boys- especially Ridge- love it!) for my masculine/ hard/ nature items. My feminine items were a vase, picture frames, a glass candle jar, and a piece of coral. I chose a fan to give an industrial feel and a visual pop. I also used some things we already had- an award Ivan won from his company, a bull figurine my (bull-headed) husband had from high school, a sailboat from the original office... you get the picture. Along with things I bought to "look pretty," I threw in some items of sentiment. And if I must say so, the bookcases/ faux built-ins look fantastic! 

Getting the angles of everything in bookcases is difficult as well. To me, things look better when you have multiple items facing the same angles. Balancing color and textures is important too... all things that make decorating built-ins a challenge.

The baskets all follow the soft/ hard, masculine/ feminine compliments as well. And check out that crocodile skull! Isn't it cool?! Something I'm currently struggling with is what to do inside of the picture frames. I have so many beautiful pictures that would look great in them, but I feel that images would clutter the design. I might just leave the paper in the frames and write inspirational quotes on them. If I do decide to insert pictures, they will all be black and white. 

And there you have it, folks! The office portion of our renovation is complete! The final budget tally was just over $2,700 with the rug and decor... so I only went over about $200. That $200 was how much the white washed wooden wall cost and we didn't initially have that in our plans, so had we not done it, we would have actually been right on target! The room would have also been way boring, so I think the slight overage was completely worth it. Thank you for following this journey and to all the people who have been asking me if I've finished the office yet... here you go! 

Another plus about this rug... it'll hide all of the hair that this sweet girl leaves scattered about our house! Side note- Helga has already given this room a good cleaning, amazing robot that she is! If you aren't sure who I'm talking about, check out  this blog post to learn more!

And of course I'll use any excuse to take more pictures of my precious baby!

She's letting us know she approves of the office redo. It's wild to think she was barely 3 months old when we started this process! 

For all of you clothes obsessed mommies... this is a 2T Shrimp and Grits flutter top that looks amazing on Ell as a dress! And if we don't wind up saving it (because let's be real, it's white and she's a baby), it doesn't really matter because I found it at a consignment store for $9! Whoo hoo! I actually prefer how this flutter style looks on her compared to other brands. It's not as overwhelming on her tiny shoulders.

Bless it! 

Blogging away. Until next time...