Craft Room Reno Day #1

Settle in folks, this is going to be a long post and a long journey.

First, I think we need a little back story.

My husband and I bought our house back in the summer of 2007. You know that time when the house prices had started to drop and it seemed like a great time to buy a home? When we bought our house, we had the naive assumption we would get 5-8 years out of it, have some kids and then move on up. We love the neighborhood, are within walking distance to an elementary school and I'm literally two stop lights away from my full time job.

But then, as you well know, the economy tanked in 2008. So, here we sit, almost 6 years later. With a mortgage way more than the house is worth....and still no kids. The still no kids thing definitely has its benefits and because it's obvious we're not going anywhere for a LONG while....I've realized it's time for some reno's and redo's.

Our charming (isn't that the adjective most people use to describe small, older homes?) is a 1963 three bedroom, 1 and 1/2 bath tri-level. The house had recently been updated right before we bought it. The bathrooms had been upgraded (Thank goodness for no horrendously colored tile bathrooms), the kitchen was gorgeous (though basic), and the real hardwood floors were to.die.for. There was our master bedroom (obviously), and two other rooms. The second bedroom we made our guest room/office and the third bedroom served absolutely no purpose other than to catch all our junk for the first 4 years we lived here.

Last fall I decided to make the 3rd bedroom our official guest room. We pitched ~~most~~ some of our clutter and stored the rest (thank goodness for our TWO attics and shed space). I painted the room grey. We moved my husband's childhood dresser (which I repainted white) and our double bed into the room. I added some yellow pops of color here and there and a beautiful, huge white framed mirror (still one of my favorite buys/finds ever). But do you know what I regret the most? I didn't document the process.

So now it's time to remake our old guest/office room into an official craft/cookie room. My cookie cutters need a permanent home and the room needs a big time update.

So, follow along with me over the next few weeks and watch the project unfold.

I feel like I'm baring my soul here, but here are some before pictures.

When my husband and I started dating, he had a few palm tree decorations. Then my family found out and his palm tree collection exploded. When we moved into our house, this room was our palm tree/tropical guest room. And I was big into accent walls. YUCK. What you see here is a collection of the random, crappy furniture that was in my husband's bachelor pad, any palm tree decoration he ever owned, and my cookie cutters slowly overtaking the space.

This was my attempt to coral all of of my craft supplies into one area. Once upon a time, I was extremely into scrapbooking. Until I realized I had 20 scrapbooks and panicked about where I would store all of them. Needless to say, I have quite a bit of scrapbooking supplies leftover as well as various other crafting products.

And rock band drums. Which I cannot stand to have downstairs in my living room where the PS3 is located. I can't tell you the last time we played rock band. Anyone want a set of rock band drums?

Seriously.

See those bins and shoeboxes? Yep, all cookie cutters and ribbons.

See that beautiful piece of furniture they're sitting on and hiding?

That came from my grandparent's house and my grandmother says it came from her parents who probably bought it when they got married around 1915 or so.

And that horrendously huge office chair. That thing has seen better days!

I shudder just looking at this picture. I have hated that desk since the moment I spotted it in my husband's apartment. It's cheap and hideous. The top of it is the only place my husband is allowed to show off any of his tchotchke's. We haven't used that desktop or that printer in about two years. I had just graduated from college when we got married and was so proud of my diploma. After seeing it for 6 years, I'm tired of looking at it! (Which is funny because I'm taking it to hang in my office at work. Hey, that framing was expensive!) Can you tell my husband is a police officer? See if you can spot the random pair of handcuffs.

And here is what it looks like this evening.

Everything has been taken off the walls. The pieces of furniture have been cleared out and are ready to be painted tomorrow. I'm big on trying to redo rooms for as little as possible. (My last room reno was done under $200 and most of that went to new yellow accessories.)