a great investment...a can of paint!

 Happy New Year!
I haven't posted lately because we have been redoing our home! 
Over Christmas break we had great plans of all the things we wanted to do to get ready for the Spring Barn Sale... 
....then... I started thinking that I spend all this time making rooms in the Barn look great and that I had been neglecting my own home over the past few years.  
I also thought that I don't have many years left with my kids in the house and that I wanted to give them both a room that they would really love.


....So we started with a trip to Ikea.  Love that store!  We were there ALL day!
Inexpensive, but nice things.  Pretty easy to put together.  Amazing showroom to walk through.  If you haven't gone it is worth the drive (for us about two hours one way)
We decided to completely revamp both the kids room.  
Jake wanted a "cool New York hotel" feel for his room.  
Anya wanted a " cool modern teen room"  I had to guess what both of those meant...
I didn't take before pictures but wish I did.  Jakes room had bunk beds and was a hunting cabin feel before.
Here is the after...  I modeled his room to look like the hotels where I stay when in New York, complete with the view out the window.

Snowboards got mounted off the floor... posters got framed...everything just looks so much neater. 
(And an added bonus...they have taken pride in their rooms since we did them and kept them clean!
Had I known that, I would have done this YEARS ago! LOL!)

His walls got painted a beautiful taupe grey.  I loved it so much I painted another room downstairs that color.


Anya's room was a shabby chic miss- mash before.  Pink and green.  Hodge podge. Not nice.
And jam packed with junk!
Here is her room now.  My interpretation of a "cool modern teen room" ... 

We painted her room a lovely lavender color and all the furniture is black.
The desk was a $2 purchase from a yard sale a couple years ago with a coat of black paint. 
We had to add some height to it on the bottom.  
The furry chair was a steal from Pottery Barn outlet mall on our way home from Ikea!  

She had two twin beds before and her room is always where guests stay.  
We replaced her bed with a queen size bed and a pull out futon.  
Still room for guests but much more modern.
Plenty of space for all her awards that have been shoved in a box.


The highlight of each room was the collage of pictures we put on each of their walls.  

They each worked with me to select the pictures for their walls. 
I bought cheap black frames at Ikea and we resized and printed out our own pictures.  
They put a lot of thought into the pictures they selected.  
This let them be a part of the remodel and really made the room their own. 


I had really forgotten how a can of inexpensive paint could transform a room into a new space!
The other great thing was getting rid of all the clutter!!  It is such a good feeling!
We took about 10 loads of stuff to good will and threw away so much junk!
This fulfilled one of our New Years Resolutions... NO MORE CLUTTER!
Next post I will show you two other rooms we have redone!