2011 Projects

A couple weeks ago I shared some of my New Year's resolutions, but I didn't really talk about what I'd like to accomplish in our house this year.  So here is a list of projects I plan to tackle in 2011:

Finish decorating the breakfast room

This room right off our kitchen is where we eat daily meals, put together Lego kits, and do crafts.  I love the new dining table we purchased, but now I need to get new chairs.  I have a set of vintage ones I want to redo, plus I am thinking of recovering a wing chair to use at the head of the table.  Ideally, I would like to replace the light fixture too.  It's the one I chose when we built the house because I had to make a quick, cheap decision, but the hubby is pretty unwilling to part with it.  So we'll see if that stays or goes.

Organize our family desk

In the kitchen we have a small desk area where we have our family computer.  I want to put up a bulletin board and organize the general area since it tends to become a resting place for coloring pages, unpaid bills, junk mail, etc.

Finish redoing our master bedroom

Here is a "before" photo I shot a few months ago:

I have been working on making some small changes to our room.  I don't plan on changing the furniture arrangement too much or repainting, but I would like to swap out some of the textiles and accessories, and I am looking to change the overall feel of the room.  Right now I feel like it's not very cohesive (probably because we had to buy things in a huge rush to get ready for the home show, and the new things we bought don't necessarily go with our old furniture and such).  I'd like to go with a more traditional feel and add in more pattern and a more systematic color scheme.

There are a lot of other projects that I need to work on, like sewing some pillows and slipcovers, figuring out living room seating, adding more artwork throughout the house, organizing the garage, and hopefully working on our front yard (landscaping and fencing), but I hope to get the three projects above finished sometime during 2011.  When I do, I'll be sure to post pictures and details!

In the meantime, this week I thought I would focus a few posts on decorating without spending a lot of money.  It's still early in the year, which means if you're like me, you're looking to maybe upgrade a few things in your home without investing a lot of cash (especially since we're still fresh off all that holiday spending!).  So tomorrow and Wednesday I'll go over how to rotate and repurpose objects and furniture in your home.  On Thursday, I will share a good source for free artwork.  And on Friday, I'll give you a little DIY on how to frame that art inexpensively.