the playroom

Welcome to our playroom!

To start, I want to share that we are renters. Steve is in his sixth year of post-college studies (working hard now on his doctoral dissertation), so we aren’t in our forever-home yet. We moved in last summer, just over a year ago, and we are in the unique position that we’re allowed to make changes and updates to the house while we are here to increase the house’s value :) Oh, and it was built in 1920, so it has a TON of character.

Here are a couple of photos before the last owner moved out. As you can see, the room is set up as a formal dining room, situated between the front door of the house and the kitchen. However, we didn’t come with dining room furniture, so we decided it would work nicely as a playroom—and it has!


For a year, we didn’t paint or do any updates to the room. At the end of July, we decided to give it a couple coats of gray paint. We used Olympic’s “Gray Marble," from Lowe’s. The old paint was dull, marked up, and looked yellowy in the sunlight, so this serene gray was a vast improvement. I swapped the navy curtains for some light blue ones that were elsewhere in the house. Steve and I absolutely love how it turned out!

Take a look! :)

 

The boys’ personalized Thirty-One utility totes make for great toy storage!

   
These white drawers were in my closet, but I realized they would make awesome toy containers. Nolan has TONS of Duplos, and now they all fit in the bottom drawer :)




In recent months, I’ve really begun to see how visual clutter affects my mood. Nolan has acquired many toys in his short three years. At the beginning of the summer, I could see that he was bored even though he had toys scattered throughout the entire house. I moved many of them to the basement and started a rotation schedule. When I pull out a toy he hasn’t seen in a while, he’ll play with it for hours! This has helped me with the visual clutter issue. And it shows how for Nolan—less is more :)

Thank you so much for stopping by! These are my favorite posts each month—I love a good before and after :)

I’m linking up with Andrea for the “Come On In” series. We’ve already done living room, kitchen, outdoor space, and kids’ rooms.

Follow me on Bloglovin
Find me on Facebook
Instagram: @floralandfudge

the boys’ rooms

I have been so excited to share this post with you all! It’s been a long time coming. We moved into this house last July, and we painted Ephraim’s room in October. As for decorating, it has taken me this long because of all of the little projects I had in my head for this room, and the lack of time I had to work on them. Plus, Ephraim hadn’t actually been sleeping in his room yet! I’m super thrilled about how it looks now. Take a peek! :)


This is how it looked before the former owners moved out.
They had two young boys, but hadn’t updated the pink clouds and rainbows from the ‘80s!


This photo was taken right before Steve sanded and refinished all the floors in the house. You’ll definitely see a difference in future photos.


It took Steve a lot of time to get all the wallpaper off. He used liquid fabric softener mixed with hot water. 


Since Nolan’s room is so blue, I wanted Ephraim’s room to be something totally different. I chose a gray/white/lime green color scheme.


It was just happenstance that the baby furniture we have is cherry wood, and everything goes GREAT with all the dark wood we have in our bedrooms. Steve updated the outlets, switch, and covers to white.


It’s been really nice having a changing table on both first and second floors. We have two that are identical—the second one we found next to the dumpster at our old apartment! I spray-painted some embroidery hoops, then put fabric in them to match the fabrics already in the room.

  

Nolan did a number on the crib rails with his teeth when he was a baby. I covered them with fabric to hide the marks and prevent new ones.


For the mobile, we spray-painted some sticks and attached poms with yarn.


Not that his room was all DIY, but I sewed this crib sheet when Nolan was a baby.


We picked up this old dresser from my in-laws. I wish I had a better picture of it, but it was orangey and had mismatched handles.  Steve sanded it and finished it with a red mahogany stain.

    
Find this free print HERE (in 6 other colors, too)!

I posted Nolan’s room in January– If you want to see the whole before and after, that’s here.


When we moved in.

 
His room is pretty bare because he can’t have any toys at naptime or nighttime or he’d never sleep :)
 

Print by me.
 
Guitar by Daddy.

 
His footprints when he was eight months old (E will put his on there too), 2nd birthday party invite, puppy painted by Hannah, and his first ever photo :)

      Linking up with Andrea for her “Come On In” series!
See the other rooms we’ve done! 

Thanks for stopping by! Next month, we’re doing playrooms/offices. I have my work cut out for me! :)

Follow me on Bloglovin
Find me on Facebook
Instagram: @floralandfudge

our kitchen

 

Welcome to our kitchen! I’m linking up with Andrea for the “Come On In” series. 

For those of you who are new, I want to share that we are renters. Steve just finished his fifth year of post-college studies (working hard now on his doctoral dissertation), so we aren’t in our forever-home yet. We moved in last summer, and we are in the unique position that we’re allowed to make changes and updates to the house while we are here to increase the house’s value :) It was built in 1920, so it has a TON of character. 

The kitchen is very old. Can anyone tell me what decade it’s from? The 50s? We currently don’t have any intention of updating it, simply because it would require a complete makeover—floor, cabinets, counters, lighting—and we aren’t sure how long we’ll live here.

Here it is before we arrived (when the previous owners lived here):

And here it is now:

 

One of the first things I did was take down the old lacy curtains and sew new gray chevron ones. It really changed the look of the room for me.




 

Looking from the dining room toward the back door. We have Ivy’s food dishes up on a platform Steve built since it’s better for her neck (she’s had two horrible neck injuries).

 
 

I designed this print as a reminder for us when we leave the house that we are called to represent Jesus to the world by loving and serving others.

 

 

Looking from the living room into the kitchen. I wrote about the tiny bathroom on the right in this post.

Our dishwasher has been out of commission for a couple months…the door was falling off, and we worked with that, but then we realized that our dishes were coming out dirty, so we’ve been doing them by hand.

 
 

I love having a double sink (we didn’t have one in either of our apartments). There is so much more space for doing dishes and washing hands!


 

This pretty Thoreau print found here

 
 

None of the burners worked on the stove that came with the house, so it got replaced with this new (used) white stove. It has treated us nicely!


 

The counter is pretty shot. It is so stained and cut up, and it would be the first thing to go if we were to remodel.

 

Our pantry.

 

Our eating area. The kitchen leads into the dining room on one side. However, we use the dining room as a play room, and we just eat here at the kitchen table. 

 
 

Some photos of us on the wall. The middle photo is of my parents when they were engaged, and it's my favorite :)

 
 

My brother-in-law got me this vintage table at an auction a few years ago. It was one of my favorite gifts ever! I suppose the retro look fits right in with the age of the kitchen :) My mom has always had an enamel-top kitchen table (from my great-grandma), and they are so durable and easy to clean!

  
 

Some artwork for the fridge :)

 

After I took these photos last night, we sat down to some chocolate chip pancakes (and popcorn haha).

 

Thanks so much for visiting today and taking a peek at our kitchen!! 

Follow me on Bloglovin
Find me on Facebook
Instagram: @floralandfudge