Hey! I have a pantry! Like a grownup!

The list of all the projects to be finished before Bea's arrival range in difficulty level from "clean the laundry room" to "decorate the nursery." Either mundane things that really needed to be done anyway, or room-shifting, multi-layered, spread out tasks.  Somewhere in the middle of that range was "turn the extra closet into a pantry." Definitely neither difficult nor expensive, but it was still just...there.  And necessary.  I had food tucked into the oddest little places all around the kitchen, and some sense needed to be made. 
"Where do you keep the bread?" 
"Next to the mugs, just below the dog medicine."
"Do you have cereal?" 
"Yep - in the cabinet next to the fridge, right behind the crock pot."
"Peanut butter?"
"On the shelf above the measuring cups."
"Where's the toaster oven?"
"In the laundry room." [toaster ovens are useful, but ugly.  My kitchen is not ugly.]

Luckily, just around the corner from the kitchen is a coat closet that we didn't really need for coats [there are two other coat closets within 25 feet on either side of this one, so we're set.]
Aaaand here it is:

And here's what it looked like on the inside.  Crap on the available shelves, and what wouldn't fit on a shelf was dumped on the floor, in no particular order.

Since the closet was already there, this was a very straightforward project.  1: add shelves 2: make it prettier 3:fill the shelves.
So I emptied out the closet.  And at this point, my dad came over and wired in an outlet on the wall on the right, tucked away behind the door, so I could plug in the toaster oven.

Nothing was wrong with the existing shelves.  Quite the opposite, really - everything that's original to the house is STRONG.  So I primed and painted the shelves white [all latex and low-VOC - don't worry ;)]  Then I let the shelves cure for a couple of weeks.  Partly because painted surfaces need to to really cure before setting stuff on them, and partly because I couldn't make time for the next step for a few weeks.  It happens.

Step 2: get rid of the sad, weak beige walls.  I painted them my go-to pretty color, "dusty miller" by Glidden.  And it got prettier :)

Step 3: Contract the husband to install pre-made melamine shelves.  Oh, and ummmmm, this shouldn't have to be said, but measure the closet before you go to Lowes.  *Someone* measured a few months prior, and remembered 8 feet.  So we bought 8 foot shelves [for only about $20 each!].  And in reality, the closet is more like 7' 8" so we had to get out the sawhorses and chopsaw, and cut off a few inches.  Adding probably half an hour to this 'quick' project.  [that 'someone' who measured and remembered incorrectly was, of course, me.]
Moving on! Each shelf sits on 3 sturdy brackets [coming in at 10 bucks each], and each bracket is securely screwed into a stud.
I decided on just two more shelves because - as much as I love all the crazy cool pantry systems at the Container Store - pre-planning all that out would be so. friggin. stressful.  Just not how I like to roll.  So just two shelves, spaced out to accommodate an extra large box of cereal [priorities] and pretty baskets and containers from Target were all I needed to get my own system started.

Then I filled up the shelves!

Now I have room for THINGS!  And things have their own place!  There's plenty of room to grow, too.  I can always add more baskets and organizers, and the space can evolve to fit our needs for years.
AND - bonus! - I gaining space in my laundry room closet, which housed big, rarely-used items like drink dispensers for parties, coolers that were on the floor in random places, and the like.  I also gained some space on a few shelves in the kitchen that will now house bottles and sippy cups.  Because I guess I'll have a few of those that will need a place to live...

The State of the Nursery

Well.  Those three months kind of flew by without a post, didn't they?  Summer brings wedding & portrait season, which tends to keep me pretty busy.  But also, now that we have an actual deadline looming for finishing house projects, we've kicked up the pace on a whoooole bunch of things.  Little things spread out over the whole house, but all time-consuming.

Anyhoo - let's pick up where I left off, shall we?

Three months ago I revealed plans for our spare bedroom, which involved turning it into a nursery!

It looked like this at the 6 month house tour [a.k.a. the last time it was clean]:

 Then I did a little photoshop mockup with some new carpet and wall color added in:

 And here it is today!

The walls have been painted [Sweet Serenity by Valspar], carpet has been installed, and the whole room feels so. much. brighter.  The light never gets really strong in there, but in the afternoon it's lovely and warm [this pic was taken early this morning].  

We got a crib, and I adore its lovely clean lines [it's a Babyletto, and you can find it on Amazon, Target, and AllModern, among other sites].  Fabric has arrived [but is still waiting to be turned into pretty things], a vintage mirror was found, and an inherited MidCentury dresser is being polished up. I picked up a floor lamp I had been dreaming about from Crate and Barrel and eagerly set it up as soon as it arrived:

 

It's about a foot shorter than I'd like, but it's still sooo pretty!  The mint matches the wall color almost perfectly, and looks really nice against the wood wall.  But I ran into a dilemma. 

So.  The room itself has no overhead light, just like almost all the other rooms in the house [it's a MidCentury thing and I'm embracing it - I don't want fixtures marring the clean lines of the ceilings].  Just like in the other rooms, there are some outlets that are attached to the switch at the door.  But in this room, those outlets are both on the crib wall.  I don't really want a ton of light pouring into the crib, but would like to have a light that comes on when I walk in the room, so I put a regular 60watt bulb in to see what we were working with.

"oh, hello super bright light.  I don't want you offending my sleep-deprived eyes or waking up my sleeping baby.  .....you should leave."

A new bulb would do the trick.  I've used chrome-dipped bulbs in our hall fixture at our last house, so I looked at Lowe's for one to see how it changed the light.  They, of course, had nothing.  Amazon to the rescue!  I searched for the chrome bulbs and not only found them, but I also found something more amazing.  Bulbs that are DIPPED. IN. GOLD.

I bought a 60w and a 40w to test.  And of course took photos all at the same settings to help decide which is best:

A little bit softer than a regular 60w bulb, but still a little too bright...

aaand the 40w is perfect.  Especially because the light spilling onto the mattress has decreased by about 75%, which means if I need to get into the room for something, or to check on her, perhaps not having the bright light on her face would keep her asleep.  Just enough light to light the room, not enough to be jarring at 2am.

I made a little gif so you can see the [very clear] difference:

So!  That's where the nursery is now.  I have some time planned this weekend where I'll work on a few more projects, and perhaps commence with the sewing!  Little by little I'll get it ready to go for her [which I'm 29 weeks as of today, so the deadline is looming.  Gotta get on it!]

__________________________

With all of the things I want finished before she gets here, we've been doing little bits all over the place.  And more seems to keep getting added to the [already sizable] list.  Case in point, the hallway.  When we got new carpet in the baby's room, we decided to bite the bullet and have it installed in the hallway and in the master bedroom.  It's gotta be done sometime, so why not have it done when I don't have an infant or toddler to manage?

Here's the last time I showed a pic down the hall, with the light beige walls and old shag carpet:

And here's the new carpet, next to the stone floor:  [love this carpet, btw!  it looks so clean :)]

But of course I couldn't stop there.  The new carpet made the beige walls look like a dirty white.  And it just seemed a little sickly.  So it got painted.

[just a fun shot the day before painting because my dogs are cute.]

And of course since we were planning on painting the hallway, it was high time to get rid of the POS thermostat we inherited with the house.  So we got a nest! 

I prepped the spot the day before the nursery and hall were painted:

[whoever painted the house before we bought it made some ....questionable.... decisions.  I've found so many THICK ridges of paint in the weirdest places...  Which in some places I've had to literally cut off with a knife, but in this case, a scraping did the trick]

And now it's much better - no more beige, and a pretty, easy to use thermostat. 

 

While I was painting the nursery walls in 'Sweet Serenity', my mom painted the hallway in the oh-so-romantic-sounding 'Wet Pavement' [also from Valspar, and one shade lighter than the color we chose for the exterior grey, since I knew it works well with the stone, and since from the hall you can see the outside of the house, and everything could live in harmony]

On the left, new carpet and dirty white walls.  On the right, new carpet with gray walls!  

And check out the light fixture on the ceiling!  While we were at it, my mom painted the ceiling too [love her] and spray painted the metal ring on the original light fixture [scroll up to the 'before' shot where you can see that it was white].  

Gives the lights [there are two] and the foyer more of a presence, dontcha think?

So!  Up next I'll do some baby posts on a few other smaller projects that have gotten crossed off of the 'before baby' list!

BIG plans for the guest room!

There are a few rooms that have been SERIOUSLY neglected since we moved in, while we focused time + energy [let's be real - I really mean money] on the rooms that people see the most. The stuff that's on the blog, and that I actually want to share.
One of those rooms is the guest room.  The poor, neglected, still-beige guest room.  The last time it was on the blog was for the Six Month Post - I didn't even deem it necessary to include it in the One Year post!  So here it was last fall, after we had lived here at the Haus for 6 months:

And I guess I didn't really want to include it in the One Year post, because little had 'officially' changed, as far as purposeful design.  In all reality though, it did change - this is how it looks today.  [just keeping it 100 on the blog - I'm sure all of you have neglected rooms that look the same.  ....please tell me you do!] 

The treadmill has its home here, along with a TV & an old PS3 [because how do you spend an hour on the treadmill without streaming Sex and the City to keep you company?]  Along with all of my wrapping gear that I parked in here at Christmas, some random stuff that needs to go to Goodwill, and a dresser [and a headboard with bedrails, that are just out of the frame] we recently inherited.
It's pretty much a mess.  Doors are closed at all times to minimize embarrassment.
BUT!  Its time has come!  In our continued effort in the aforementioned 'Battle of the Beige' we've waged at the Haus, we've decided to spring for new - NON BEIGE - carpet in the master bedroom, guest bedroom, and hallway.  All rooms that will make a HUGE impact. 
I went carpet shopping at the same local place we bought our hardwood flooring, and brought home a palette of swatches to see which is best:

I picked a low-pile carpet, in a pattern mix of berber and cut berber, for a nice subtle pattern that has an organic feel.  While choosing the perfect color, I held it up in just about every room, in every light, against the wood wall, the stone wall, and the marble floor, to make sure everything was perfect.  I of course was looking at the greys in the palette [you know, because of the 'Battle of the Beige'] 
I settled on the bottom left swatch, named 'Destin' because it's super classy like that.  It's a nice neutral [but still warm] grey, that suited just about everything.  Light to brighten things up, but not too light that we'll also have to wage a war of the 'Battle of the Puppy Prints' everywhere. 
I can't wait to see how it brightens up our room, how it looks when you see the end of the hallway carpet against the marble floor, and how it transforms the guest room to make it look 'ours.'
In addition to the new non-beige carpet, I'll also paint the walls [because over a year later, they're still - you guessed it - beige], and I'll paint the wedge of wall above the wood & painted walls a really bright white, to keep it light and airy in there [they're also beige, just a lighter tone of beige.  But....beige.  How many times can I say 'beige' in one post?]
I'll also be adding some new, thought-out furniture, instead of using the hodge podge of hand me down stuff, and leftovers from the old house.
Just to get an idea of how it'll look all together, I did some crude photoshopping to see how the new carpet and wall colors will work in there, along with some new furniture. 

Check it out!

What do you think?!

Yep - you guessed it - I got knocked up [4 months pregnant now, actually!] and the new, purposeful furniture in the guest room will transform it into a nursery!  [as soon as I found out I was pregnant, the new carpet jumped waaaay up the list of 'to do' around here]
I photoshopped some stuff in that I know will be in here, or just a general idea of it.  MidCentury [duh] with an eclectic mix of colors, patterns and textures for a comfortable boho vibe.  I think :)
This is just the 'gender neutral' version - we'll actually find out next Thursday if it's going to be a Girl's room or a Boy's room, and then after the carpet is installed, the fun can begin!

Stay tuned for updates!