Finishing Touches

I've recently started "making our bed" in the mornings before getting started with the day.  I put it in quotation marks because all I do it pull the sheets and top blanket up over the bed so it's smooth and nicely covered.  No fluffing and rearranging a menagerie of pillows, and I'm not re-tucking the sheets every morning either.  But just that simple smoothing out of the blankets is a nice easy start to the day and makes our room look a little more put together.

Since moving in a little more than two years ago we have repainted all but three rooms in our house.  The laundry room, front porch, and half bathroom are all that remain.  When it comes to redecorating, picking a paint color seems to be the easiest part for us.  (Even if we have to slap a few samples on the wall before making a decision.)  Putting a new color on the walls is the fastest, biggest, and simplest change you can make to a room.  But what happens next?

Decorating isn't really my "thing".  Coordinating colors in a room, hanging pictures, making a room look "put together" just isn't one of my talents.  I don't know where to start and I don't want to spend a lot of money either.  Also, I don't like clutter, so filling flat surfaces with decorative "stuff" doesn't work for me.

I've heard people talk about making their bedroom a "sanctuary".  I didn't really think it was that important, but I'm starting to change my mind.  With two little kids taking up my energy during the day, and especially after moving Oliver out of our room recently, I've been craving a cozier, more comforting space for the evenings where Noah and I can unwind together.  Some place where we enjoy being since we get such little alone time together these days.

But how do I do that?  Actually put some pictures on the walls?  Keep the room free of clutter?  Put up curtains?  Get some kind of soothing color palette going that jives with the blue walls we already have? Hanging photos is definitely something we've been wanting to do for a long time.  Especially printing some of our wedding photos.

There are other rooms in the house I would love to "finish" too.  Hanging some photos in the living room.  Finding a frame for my new Hope Olson print and a place to hang it.  We purchased prints for the bathroom and need to get those hung up too.  I'd like to paint the laundry room and make it more functional.  (Hoping to go for some kind of cream paint color via this blog post from Julie Blanner.)  I'm also continually searching out ways to make our home more organized and decreasing our possessions so that there is less stuff to organize.

After pushing so hard for two years to change things around the house, it seems like we've lost a bit of steam, and all of these little changes, these smaller projects are taking longer to get started.  I mean, really, how hard is it to buy some picture frames?  I would really like to accomplish something before we dive into the craziness of shooting weddings this summer.

I'd definitely like to make changes to the laundry room ASAP because there's nothing more frustrating than nearly tripping over things while doing laundry.  It drives me crazy.

My little plant buddies keeping me company in the kitchen.