The progress on 2.0 has been so much slower than the OG castle. Which is OK. No, really, it is. Cause we are in it for the long haul. But for perspective: we only lived in the OG Castle for 15 months. That's it. Fifteen. Like, the number between 14 and 16. And we, along with a contractor and his small crew, re-did the whole dang thing. Like, ALL of it. (Except for finishing the basement which BROKE MY HEART, BUT WE PRESS ON.)
We have been in 2.0 for almost a year (October, baby!) and there's still lots to do. But we also have gotten a decent amount done. And one of those rooms is our den. (If you follow on the ol' gram you have seen a couple of these pics already, so temper your excitement. 😬)
A couple things you need to know about me:
I'm very practical and design has to be functional. It just does. (But I also has to look awesome.)
I don't like tchotchkes (did I have to look up how to spell that? YES. I mean, there are MULTIPLE SILENT "T"s) I just can't put random stuff on shelves. I am HAPPY to do that for others. LIVE THAT LIFE. But it's just not my jam any more.
I don't like when rooms aren't being used. I really don't. I want my rooms to have multi-purpose and I want to be able to spread out and GET STUFF DONE in these spaces.
So this room makes sense as a den for us (we turned the old homeowners den into our dining room - it was MUCH bigger and I blogged about it here). We will use this room as an office/playroom/reading room/second living area. AKA: a den 😬. We have an unfinished basement that I have set up as a major playroom for our kids but we also needed a spot upstairs to hold some toys. So this is that room.
There are still some things I'd like to do (I AM WHO I AM, OK?): french doors for a little privacy if someone ACTUALLY needs to do some real work around here; a built-in bookcase/window seat (ahem, JOSH) so we can fit all of our books on the shelves and chill on a real window seat - plus I want to use the IKEA pieces in here in my laundry room. But that would require our garage being a usable space for Josh to actually build something and him having the confidence to build it beyond just me saying, "You can TOTALLY do this."
But all-in-all this little room is lookin' a-OK. Want to see her? Good....
The clocks represent the different times zones of family members around the world. We miss them. And these clocks help us think of them and feel connected from afar. The clocks (left to right):
Our time zone in the US
Our parents in Asia
Our bro and his fam in Japan
Our cousin + wife who live in Australia
We took the carpet out about 46 min after we closed on the house! A crew from our church came and helped us do the entire house in ONE night. It was incredible. I had ZERO plan if the floors weren't in fantastic shape when we pulled up the carpet. THANKFULLY they were. #phew
Then we lived with it looking like this (below) for QUITE a while. (Cause I was burnt out 😬.)
Which was tolerable. But I hated it. (Some people commented that they actually liked the paper in here...so I bagged it up and sent it to them when we tore it down...)
So we hired the same guy who did our entryway/hallway to tear down the paper in here. (I used design $$ - THANK YOU. I love you forever, please never change.)
And then my sweet friend offered to "help" me do a skim coat of spackle on all the wallpapered walls (had to, otherwise glue would have bled through when I painted). She really did it. I tried. I think she lapped me.
Then I had to prime and THEN I had to paint. It's hilarious to think about what I thought it would be like to remove the wallpaper and paint the rooms before we moved it.
Old Bethany: "We will take down the wallpaper and then paint the room."
New Bethany: "We will pay someone to help take down the wallpaper, do 46 other steps that I am unqualified to do, prime the walls (which will wreak and give you a headache) and then paint the walls. IT WILL BE SO GREAT."
I miss Old Bethany.
This is where I want to have a built-in, around the window. But, for now, the IKEA shoe storage cases work perfectly 😬🙌🏻. I stacked one on top of the other and left the doors off the top case on each side. Bottom ones fit well under the window.
Here's why I don't have a coffee table in here:
Kids needed space to play. SO I GAVE IT TO THEM. (And I gave myself my first-ever round rug...in exchange for money. 😬)
Took me forever to find a chair from IKEA that was comfy, looked awesome and was affordable. This one checked all the boxes, baby.
Our den is right off the entryway. I didn't want everyone to see these pegboards as soon as they walked in the door. It was too much.
The pegboard on the left displays the kids' art and has folders for school papers that have to be saved. The one on the right has spots for our keys, sunglasses, headphones, chore chart for the kids, sticker chart for the 4-year-old 😬and has space for anything of importance I need to hang up and be reminded of #commandcenter. So these babies function HARD for us. But "hiding" them on these two walls made a huge difference in the room.
Having the desk be this visible when I walk in the room is all the motivation I need to keep 'er tidy 😬.
I did large blocks of angled black paint because, well, I wanted to. I thought it would look cool. (I had a stripe behind each pegboard at first and did not like how that looked so I repainted it, pronto.)
Little table is where we have a charging station so that I don't lose my mind with iPads and speakers strewn all over the couch. (I'm VERY chill.) And that lamp was $25. TWENTY FIVE.
INSERT CHILD.
I wanted this couch to go in the basement (it has survived two moves and still has a lot of life in her) but she doesn't fit down the stairs. At all. Did this ruin my day/week? Yes, yes it did. Did I handle it well? No, no I did not. So this is me making lemonade out of the ol' couch lemon that I didn't really want in this room.
This house has truly been a lesson in contentment. I really wrestle with being content. This isn't my dream house; I don't love the layout (it's choppy and I like more open concept.) But I'm thankful the Lord is patient with me as I recognize the gift of this home, one room at a time.
OK, friends. That's all for now. Thanks for being here. Hit me up if you have questions or want me to send you some of the old wallpaper 😏.
Hugs + Kisses,
Best Friends Forever,
Never Change,
B