(to read the post about how we found out we are going to be on HGTV click here.)
The background: Our house was built in the 50′s and at the time was quite small – living room, dining room (all one room), kitchen, 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. Then, someone finished out the upstairs attic and the story is that there was a house fire 20+ years ago and when they refinished the upstairs they built on to the house. This left a large bedroom and a teeny bathroom, but you’ll see that in a second. Then, later another one of the previous owners finished out the basement and added another full bath. You could see much of it in the previous HGTV post, but what you couldn’t see includes my office, the bathroom and a storage closet.
Now, the tour of our upstairs … we’re going to start at the bottom of the stairs:
The week after New Years we got brand new carpet (awwww … so clean and fluffy and perfect for our sweet baby to roll on and lick if she wants). I just happened to come home right before they were putting the new carpet on our stairs only to see that there were stained stair treads underneath the old carpet! I told them to leave it be. All we’ve done so far is pull up the hundreds of staples. I had intentions of painting the wood on the front of each stair and possibly painting numbers in a darker color?? Now, I’m wondering if HGTV will be so kind as to finish our stairs for us, too.
The sitting room/Charley’s room at night. She has her very own room which can be seen here, but it’s downstairs and right now we like having her closer to us when we sleep. I have dreamed of making this room a cozy reading nook.
At the top of those four stairs is where we sleep:
I love the idea of the built-in bookshelves, but the shelves are so close together you can’t set the books up right. So strange to me! Who decided how close the shelves would be and why so close?? Apparently the person only read children’s books.
See what I mean about this room having so much potential? Yet I can’t think of anything creative to do with it.
Even our dog matches the khaki and white theme I got going. ; ) (The pile of clothes sitting there are the dirty clothes that were already accumulating as the others were being washed downstairs. You know how that goes – a never-ending cycle ….)
I don’t like all those pillows on that bench. I just decided that. It’s all too much.
I like that dresser (painted it when we first got married), but I’ve never been able to figure out just where to put it. It used to be on the wall where the humidifier is (sitting on the floor), but I wasn’t crazy about it there either. See … design problems is what I have.
And, the door you see (next to the dirty laundry) is our bathroom:
This room was atrocious when we first bought the house – sailboat wallpaper, ugly vinyl, and bright red baseboards. I tiled it, put the beadboard on the walls and I think it is a lovely little bathroom. It’s just so darn small. Also, there are all kinds of little design-flaws since I – having no background in construction – did all the work myself:
(I ran out of trim so I tried to add a small piece to keep from having to buy another piece of trim. Bad idea. And, you can see where I tried to make it look better. I only made it look worse.)
There are a few things I would like to keep around …
This recycled wood art I bought from Arhaus. I love it so.
This sweet owl art I also love so much.
And, the carpet we just got put down. It is so pretty and soft and we love it so much. But, you know it’s going to go. I’m sure flooring will be an option America will get to vote on. So, the decision will need to be made as to what we’ll want to do with it once it’s been pulled up…. ???
As you can see there aren’t too many things I’m really stuck on keeping and even those can be used elsewhere (well, minus the carpet). I do love our bed so I’m wondering if they’ll still use it … or paint it … ?
There’s the tour! What do you think? Any design ideas of your own for our space?
xo!
jc
