Third Floor Space

As more of our friends and family come to our new home, everyone wants a tour. I love showing all the nooks, crannies, and character of our old beaut - but my favorite part of the tour is when we get to the end of the second floor. Everyone asks, "where does that door go to?" - and when I say the third floor, the reaction is usually "third floor?!" From the curb, you wouldn't guess there would be more than an attic, but it is very deceiving because there's a ton of room!! 

Right now, we have no need for this space (as the other 4 bedrooms on the 2nd floor are good enough for us and guests), but it will be great for our 4-5 kids down the road. (We'll see if I can convince Luke to have 5 ;)

Here are the before/current/inspiration pictures of our bonus 3rd floor space!

Before:

The pictures don't do this space justice. It is bigger than it seems. It's basically one big, long, wide hallway. 

I didn't include pictures of the storage rooms, which are on either side of this space. Currently empty, but I'm sure years of living here will lead to filling them up!

Third floor bedroom #1 - pink floors, pink walls, pink curtains...

Third floor bedroom #2 - wallpapered ceiling...

Current state:

Very similar to the before posts... we haven't done a thing! No time to - there's a million other more necessary projects to do right now. Honestly, I hadn't been up here in a month. Luke, on the other hand, is up here on a daily basis messing with antennas. Yes, plural, antennas. There were 5 last time I counted. He is trying to figure out which one gets the best signal. Insert eye roll.... 

I found this adorable table at Goodwill and couldn't resist. [This is the dangerous part of having unending storage - you buy things for children who don't yet exist.] It sparked my thinking about what I picture this space looking like down the road. 

Our current children - fur babies, Abe and Ollie - enjoying the new addition.

Inspiration:

After looking through these pictures you'll understand why it is on the bottom of our to-do list. Even though it's going to be fun to do, it's not necessary until children are in the picture. Someday!

Give us 5-7 years and hopefully this space will be a fun-getaway-hide-the-toys space for our future children!

Be Our Guest

We had our 1st overnight guest this weekend - my almost-14-year-old-sister, Kelli. Parents were out of town, so Luke and I played mom and dad - which basically meant being a taxi driver and cheering obnoxiously loud at soccer games. Isn't she adorable?

Luckily one of our guest bedrooms was ready for her - the pink room, as we call it. A good cleaning, furniture moving, curtain removing, and decorating is all it required - yet it wasn't finally finished until last weekend. #toomanythingstodo

 I have grown to love the wallpaper in this room. I imagine our first daughter growing up here.

 

I love that the closets in the bedrooms are wallpapered. Even if we remove it in the bedroom - the closet will stay, so we'll always remember what it used to be.

When Luke and I first moved in, this was the only bed in the house. We bought it from the previous owners. We spent our first month and a half of marriage sleeping in this beaut - something only newlyweds would do! Grateful for our new king ;)

I love decor that has a story. Luke gave me this frame the day we were engaged. After the elaborate-amazing-insane proposal, we went back to the house I lived in my senior year of college with all our friends and family to continue the celebration and watch the ISU/Iowa game. In the kitchen, was this sign. It is our motto - and couldn't have been more perfect in that moment. From our engagement, to our wedding, to our honeymoon, to married life - it keeps getting better - and I know the best is still coming.

Started a goodie basket for our guests. Yes, those are hotel shampoos. I'm not the only one who takes them, right?

Another piece of artwork with a story - I went through a faze when I wanted a meaningful tattoo in memory of my friend Emily Joy who passed away. My mom convinced me a piece of art would be cooler than inking my body so.... one of my amazingly talented sorority sisters, Claire Roesler, took my idea and turned it into a beautiful painting. My sign from Emily is butterflies - whenever  I see a butterfly, I know it's her visiting me reminding me to always find joy in life. Claire painted a butterfly within the letters of joy in the phrase 'find joy'. It is perfect and a great reminder!

T.V. dinner stand - painted & turned into a beautiful side table

This room is calling for more guests.. hint hint ADPi sistas!!

Xoxo, jenn

Master Bedroom Inspiration

Pinterest is my go-to for inspiration. I may have a picture in my mind of what I want - but I like finding real pictures to match it. I am a visual person for sure - as in... I buy 3 different colored curtains, bring them home, hang them up, and return the ones I don't like. (In this case, it was all 3 and we're back to square one.)

Our goal was to have the wallpaper removed in the master before we moved in, but wedding projects took over the last month of summer and it didn't happen. It is going to be a big project - and I'm not ready to dedicate an entire weekend to it. As a teacher, my weekends are precious. Consequently, we are living in a room with some pretty busy wallpaper. It's fine for now, but I have big plans for this room! Check out my inspiration pics to get a feel for what the after will look like:

We have a 4 poster bed similar to this - the fabric gives it such a fairytale feeling. Not sure if we'll go this route, but I like the idea.

Common denominator in these pictures: navy walls. I am the least gutsy person when it comes to decorating, but I want something warm, cozy, & bold - in the master. (I realize, it basically reiterates the fact that I think navy is gutsy? It is in my book!) We have 4 windows, so I'm not worried about it being too dark! 

Current state - if you stare at the wallpaper long enough it'll turn into navy blue walls ;) But really - you gotta look past the flowers.

The curtains/blinds were there when we moved in. We are waiting to decide on the curtain color until we have the navy walls to match - too hard to imagine with the flower power on the walls. And I'm hoping I can talk Luke into getting rid of the blinds.... cross your fingers. 

All the furniture in this room (desk, dresser, mirror, side table, chair, bookshelf, bed) is used. It pays off to garage-sale/thrift/tell-people-you-don't-have-a-bed-frame. You can find beautiful stuff. I highly recommend - but forewarning, it is addicting.

A friend of mine, Jennifer Bemrich Dutcher, gave us the most amazingly thoughtful wedding gift - a one-of-a-kind original painting! When she asked me if we had anything in particular we wanted, I talked to Luke about it. His idea... a portrait of us, LOL. I said let's leave the creativity to Jennifer. She came up with the coolest painting to hang in our first nest. Love! Hopefully someday she can paint a few eggs as we add to our nest :)

*Side note: this bed was given to us for free from a friend who wanted to get rid of it. Lucky us! It was a light pine wood when we received it, but we wanted it to match the dresser/side table we already had. Neither of us had ever stained anything before, but we thought we'd try. Worst experience ever. It is near impossible to stain pine to look like the dark-cherry-red wood we wanted. After many failed staining attempts and a discussion with the paint guy from Menards, we decided to paint the bed frame. We brought a dresser drawer into Menards to match the color. It is not as pretty as staining, as paint covers up the grains of the wood, but it matches the dresser/side table much better. I hope to give staining another try at some point!

Luke's thoughts on the throw pillows...

"What's the point?"

"So we just take these on an off every day?"

"I don't get it."

My goal is that by the new year, the master has a new look!

That's only 3 months away! :o