A Place to Start

 

We purchased this house about 2.5 years ago.  We’ve done a few basic projects and a little inexpensive decorating, but now I’m ready to make it into a place I really love.  I’m trying to add color to cheer up the space, and will be decorating in an eclectic style.  We have three small kids.  Our twins, Grace and Jacob, are 4, and Clare will be 2 in April.  The space will have to be child-friendly and very durable.  We started out with a neutral, coastal style.  I was looking for a soothing, relaxing environment.  However, after living with it for the past year, I really I feel like I need a more energizing space with lots of color and pattern.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting photos of our house in its current state and coming up with plans for each area.  The photos above are of the master bedroom.  The top photo is from yesterday afternoon, and the second is from about a month ago.  With allergies and messy young kids, we couldn’t deal with carpet in our house, but we were faced with a big dilemma.  Money!  We didn’t have any to buy new flooring.  After some research, we decided to go ahead and rip out the carpet.  We patched the seams and knots in the subfloor, rented a drum sander, and then painted the floor with Glidden Porch and Floor paint.  I then went back with a chalk line and a Dremmel and made small lines in the floor to look like floorboards.  Finally, I went over the floor with a Ralph Lauren glaze to give it an older, rustic look.  It isn’t perfect, but I don’t plan on keeping it forever.  It is a wonderful interim solution for us.  We managed to do about 1000 sq feet for less than $200.  I’ll do a separate post on it eventually.

Back to this…

To quiet the noise of the floor, I bought two of these rugs from HSN in 8x10.  I overlaped them, lining up the stripes, so that they cover about a 10x13 area.  Not bad for $120. 

I really liked these rugs from Madeline Weinrib, but it would have been way too expensive in the size we would need.  Also, I think the bigger white areas might be a problem with the kids and dog.  (Did I mention the dog?  We have a Golden Retriever.)

I’m really happy with my solution, and at 1/10th the price, who wouldn’t be?  …And I think it even looks a bit like this Madeline Weinrib rug:

More on future plans for our master bedroom to come!