Dresser turned bookshelves - Stage 1

Hi, my name is Jennifer and I am a Pinterest addict/junkie. 

Here is the latest project I have decided to take on.

The original pinner's site can be found at Redoux Interiors

I found this one on Pinterest a while back and have been keeping my eye on the FREE section of Craigslist.org... I found this one today and picked it up on my lunch break:

The dresser I picked up already had the drawers removed but was in great shape. As you can see, it is a cherry finish. This will not go with my decor, so I will be painting it black and adding some MDF shelves. I am looking for a pretty black/white floral or damask pattern fabric (something similar to what is in the original picture) for the background and I don't want to add legs to the bottom since it is up from the ground. I have ordered a few things from a friend who is a Thirty One Consultant and I am so excited to see those in this bookshelf. Here is what I ordered (4 of them). Check out her site at Tracey's Thirty One Page!

I also ordered a few other organizing tools from her as well as Zulily. I will post pictures when everything is put together and done. The main colors for the office will be hot pink, black/white, and aqua. 

Here are some pins I found on Pinterest that I will be using as inspiration for my office.

I will install some sort of organization system in the walk-in closet for ribbons, wrapping paper, fabric, etc.

I have a lot of acrylic paints like this because I use them a  LOT! I will have to make something like this, and BONUS! It doubles as a photo frame when folded up!!!

I will make shelving similar to this, but painted white :)

I will be using things like this and other apothecary jars to sotre craft supplies in the open while making it look pretty/ 

This is amazing! I plan to use storage boxes like this to hide any uglies. 

I have a table that is very similar to this in my carport right now that I am working on refinishing (after it had been painted 5 different colors) and it will be painted nicely when I am done. I do plan to have nicer chairs though. 

Master Bedroom Decor

Okay guys, I know we are moving and that is a lot to deal with, but I have been working on a master bedroom design for a while now. I have slowly been buying a few things here and there and my goal is to have this room be put together in February, preferably the first half, so we have a nice retreat for Valentine's Day. :) This post is going to cover all of my ideas for the master bedroom design. Here are some pictures of the room as it is...

(Looking towards the back of the house) To the left is the master bathroom and to the right is the hallway and another bedroom. 

Looking the opposite way (towards the front of the house) is the rest of the bedroom. The door on the right is my giant walk-in closet. :)

 The general idea is romantic, old-Hollywood-esque, vibe. The color scheme will be primarily peacock/aqua and heather gray with black/white and purple (eggplant but a little lighter) for accent pieces. 

My favorite piece (already) is the headboard. I have always loved the idea of an upholstered headboard, so we are finally doing that. I have upholstered before, and headboards are some of the easiest to do, so it should be done in a snap! My hubby will be cutting the pattern into MDF and finishing it in a glossy white for the trim, and I will be using a gray damask patterned fabric for the center. I want just a solid center, so it will be simple.

This is what the headboard will look like. We are planning to make a smaller version of this to be the footboard as well and at that time, Jeremy will make the railings and the frame all out of wood as well. In the meantime, we will just have the headboard attached to the metal frame. 

This headboard is the inspiration for mine. I liked the shape of the footboard more than the headboard.

Our fabric choice for the new headboard :)

We currently have some purple bedding and a chocolate duvet, but we will probably be changing these out to complete the look later down the road (March?)...

Below are some ideas for pillows I will make to tie in with the aqua/gray theme, and we will be using black, white and purple as an accenting color scheme. 

I have recently come into loving vinyl wall decor, preferably from Uppercased Living. I will actually be hosting a party for Uppercased Living at our new home towards the end of March, so I will not have this until then. I intend to use the hostess rewards to my full advantage. :) 

I want this on a wall in our bedroom. I am not sure which one, but it will be there.

 For some additional decor ideas, I have found the following:

I will make a mirror like the one show, using plastic spoons and instead, painting it purple.

I will make a super simple bench for the foot of the bed, probably using some type of gray or white fabric, but it will definitely be something soft and cushy. 

I will make "art" using fabric and styrofoam and fabrics probably similar to these. 

I already have the aqua fabric for these, using 2 flat sheets from Walmart, to go on either side of our current window treatment, which is a gray patterned shower curtain. 

I am on a hunt to find some new lamps (or just paint our current ones) to make this look using the white or gray colors.

I will also keep my eyes peeled for anything like these that I could spray paint. 

I will be making a cute doorknob rack for the closet to hang ou keys on and things of that nature :)

I want to use the lace/mod podge technique on the drawers of the dresser for our bedroom .

I plan to use this on at least one of the lamp shades in our bedroom, or maybe the master bathroom. 

I plan to do this to a small chest of drawers instead of a dresser. 

I love this kind of mirror! They are sooo pretty!

I am still debating on whether or not I can live without a ceiling fan in the bedroom. If I can find one of those vintage table fans, I will use that instead and add a chandelier. 

Main color scheme:

This is roughly the same color that is already on the walls throughout the entire house. 

Accent Colors:

This shows the other colors to be used in the room as well as an idea for more pillows. :)

Last, but definitely not least, I want to get a couple of our recent family photos blown up into canvas sized prints in black and white featuring the portraits by Photography with Darla.


Overall, I am thinking I could keep it under $500 total. We will see... :)

Happy decorating!

Moving Tips & Printables (yay!)

Okay so I found the printables I used in this post at The Oxford Place Diaries in a post about how to keep your move organized. I made my own printables based off of her ideas and tweaked them to meet my needs.  Check out her site if you want some additional ideas!

Our Moving Timeline:

Ideally, you have more than one month on your timeline. :) I like to make life interesting, as you can see... We knew we would be moving due to circumstances out of our control, but we didn't know exactly when or where to. There was a chance we could be staying a couple months extra or leaving at the end of the month. We ended up figuring things out to be able to move in 4 weeks time (January 31st, 2013)!!!!

Above, you will see my timeline for that short time span. I somewhat based my timeline layout and choices off of the blog I found this idea on. I chose to first de-clutter and sell or donate anything we were choosing not to keep. The original blogger had a saying that basically explained how to decide what you keep and what you rid yourself of. If the item is worth carefully packing, moving/paying for storage, carefully unpacking, and finding a place for it in your new home - all in a reasonable amount of time - you should keep it. If you answer no to any of those, you probably should find it a new home as well. :) 

I have been trying to use this frame of mind while packing and it is because of this that I made up a donations info sheet. I have not been the best about tracking exactly what I donate locally, I just keep the signed sheet and this year, the IRS is actually asking for a (VERY) detailed list of the items I donated to get to the estimated amount I am claiming to have donated to the Goodwill. I do not have a list of the items, nor a record of the condition they were in when donated, so I am eliminating that claim from my tax return to avoid any possible trouble. I will just keep better records in the future... Yes dad. You were right. :) 

Here is the Donation Item Info Sheet:

I used the moving checklist to organize all important reminders for the move, such as who will be watching the kids during the move on what days, who we hired for moving help, rental truck info, etc. I forgot to add it when creating the printable, but I also made sure to write on our new address (more for my husband) so that there is no confusion. This also helped to serve as a checklist for switching the utilities over as well as reminding me to put in a change of address. I have a brief timeline on this printable so I can see an quick hint of the schedule for after the move and make sure I plan my unpacking so I stick to it. 

Below is the Packing Inventory Tracker. Because we are hiring movers and my parents were ripped off by movers before, I am a little extra wary of this. We are listing every single box/container and a brief description of the items inside, as well as where it is to be placed. I made columns on the right for checking them off once they have been loaded and unloaded on the moving truck, and my job will be inventory on Moving Day. :) This sheet will also help keep boxes organized so if we are in the process of unpacking and need to access a specific item, we can find it easier. So far that has seemed to be helpful during the packing process when everything is put away. 

Those are all of the printables and that is really all I have to say about moving for right now. I am SO excited to get into this new home y'all, it is just ridiculous! I can't stop planning the decorating and ideas I have for this home since we plan to stay here for a couple years until we are ready and able to buy our long-term home... I want to make this feel like OUR home... I will be back with decorating plans and ideas later this week! Have a great Monday, everyone!

Here are links to download the free printables you see above:

Moving Timeline

Moving Planner

Donation Item Info

Moving Inventory Page 1

Moving Inventory Page 2

Moving Inventory Page 3

Special Giveaway - Completed!

This is the sign, delivered and completed :) 

Transform your own handwriting into a font!

OOOOMMMMGGGG!!!!

Y'all I found this on Pinterest a while back and have had it on my to do list. I never even looked through the instructions until today. I wanted to do something easy and though.. Hey! I have been told by a lot of people that my handwriting rocks some socks.. What if I tried that thing on my Pinterest board to convert it into a font, and anybody could use it for whatever after that? Wouldn't that be cool? So I went and looked at the pin, which leads you to this site: Writingfonts - Make Your Own Handwriting Font. I looked through the 4 easy steps of doing this, and figured I would give it a try. At the worst, I see the preview, realize how much I hate my own handwriting, and don't proceed with buying it, right? So here goes nothing... 

Step 1: Print & Write - You print their PDF formatted template and write down your font inside the template lines. If you are anything like me, you are a perfectionist and borderline OCD... Sorry, that was a fib... I am VERY OCD about several specific things, one being my handwriting. If you have ever had the "pleasure" of observing me while I take notes, you know that I go through a lot of paper. Like, a TON! I will start over repeatedly, no matter how many times it takes, until I am happy with the look of my notes. This is just for my notes to myself. Like, sticky notes, tablets, random pieces of paper, y'all, nothing fancy. When it comes to anything I know somebody else may place their eyes on, it is about 100 times that severe. I went through probably 20 templates before I was happy with every letter. 

The final result of all of the OCD madness!

Step 2: Scan & Upload - Just scan in your template and upload it to their site.

Step 3: Preview & Buy Font - After about 40 seconds of waiting (not bad at all), the preview of your own font will appear and if you like it, you go to the next step to pay for it using PayPal. The preview is not as big as I would have liked, but I could tell that I liked it enough to buy it and use it. I already have a PayPal account, so it was pretty simple. If you don't have a PayPal account and you like to make online purchases, I recommend you sign up soon. It is a nice way to access funds without having to put your debit/credit card or even check information out there. 

Step 4: Download & Install Font - Immediately after I paid through PayPal, they had emailed me a receipt with an attachment to download the font to my computer. All you have to do is download it and then install it to be able to use it. I have already played around with it a bit on my work computer.

I mean, really... how cool is it to see your own handwriting on your computer screen?!?!

I did this with my printed handwriting as well as my cursive/scripted handwriting, but I didn't like the preview of the cursive. Apparently I am not good at lining up the matching points where it should go, but I do like the print. If you would like the file with my personal handwriting font, I will email it to you. Just let me know. :)

A printed version of what my font looks like.

**I was told that when I originally had my font on here, it didn't show on anyone's computer but my own since they hadn't downloaded my font and their computer wouldn't recognize it... Here is my quick fix :)

Like I said, if you want it, let me know!