Home, Part 1: Master Bedroom

I'm pretty sure I mention how tiny my house is in nearly every blogpost. But bear with me while I say it again...950 square feet! For 4 people, that's insane. But, as my husband likes to say, our has good bones. It's a 103 year old craftsman style home with a victorian peak and decorative shingles.

It's a perfect home. Except for how small it is. And the fact that everything needs updating. And as soon as we bought it we had to sink a small fortune into a brand new roof. And I haven't had a dishwasher in 6.5 years! But this year we tackle our remodel of the huge, unfinished attic. The remodel will also involve removing a couple walls from the main floor which will really open up the floor plan. And allow everyone to see my hideous green kitchen cabinets from the front door. Can't wait!

In the meantime, we're doing little things to make the tiny home more accomodating of two adults, one child, and one baby.

All this time, I've battled the crampedness of the home by making sure there is an official "place" for every object. I would say this is the #1 most important rule for small homes. Every toy has a spot. Every game has a place on a shelf. Every item of clothing, toiletry, towel, crayon, etc. has a special drawer. As soon as one object is not immediately needed, it goes RIGHT back to its spot. In a tiny house, it's amazing how five toys on the floor can make your living room look like a war zone.

Well, it turns out that while all of this is very important. It is not quite enough. Secret #2 is this: making every square foot lovable, cozy, and inviting. We have one living/dining room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. These are the livable spaces. But for some reason, we were only spending time in the living room. At any given time, the four of us were constantly congretated within the confines of the same four walls. I am a claustrobe. I was going crazy.

After a little bit of soul searching, I finally figured out what was going on. The two bedrooms were dark, cold, often cluttered, and just not loveable. The people who owned the house before us had a very strange color pallete. In my opinion, the color of a wall should not stand out (unless it is an accent wall). You should not know the color of a room's walls unless you consciously think about it. This is why I love light neutral colors. And turns out that dark walls make rooms look smaller. I definitely do not need any of that!

So this year, we invested a tiny bit of time and a tiny bit of money to re-vamp our bedroom. This is what the "master" bedroom (absolutely nothing master about it!) looked like before we moved in.

This is what it looked like with our crap in it for over six years (because we were too poor and lazy to change anything). Gross.

The photos do not adequately capture the hideousness of that paint color. Seasickness green is what I would call it. Or booger green. Or green bean poopy diaper. Or smashed bug's guts green.

This is what is looks like NOW (at night):

It clearly needs some work- ignore the piles of crap on the floor and the cheap-ass night stands. But it's amazing how much difference a new coat of paint and a new comforter can make. It makes me so very happy! I seriously want to be in here all the time now. When my husband was gone all last week for a work conference, I lived in this room.

I love dream catchers. I really wanted a black and white sketch of a dream catcher hanging on an old wooden door. I couldn't find one. And I was too lazy to sketch one myself. But I finally found this print and I love it! So appropriate for above the bed, right? I think the walls on either side of the painting still need something more but I haven't figured it out yet.

And the birdy painting I made three years ago FINALLY has a spot on the wall. Right next to the curtains I hemmed only nine months after my husband bought them. When it comes to the bedroom, we move like molasses. Wait. That came out wrong.