Decorating Vintage-The Entry Way Edition

Another "installment" of my Decorating Vintage Series! Today, I'm focusing on a little bit of our entry way. Our apartment has a lovely little entryway...and without anything in it, it seemed like wasted space. Turns out, it was the perfect spot for an entryway table. We took the IKEA expedit coffee table we had, took the legs off of one side, and installed them onto the other legs, making the table much taller. Then we attached the legless side of the table to the wall using some "L" brackets. It's just the perfect height for the entryway...and as an added bonus the cat's litter box fits perfectly underneath. Score.

Now the top of the table? Well, that can be a problem. After all, what better place for clutter to accumulate. But if you take the time to make it look nice, amazingly you have no desire to get the entryway cluttered. :)

And my favorite part (besides the cute handprints of my LBB):

Some of my vintage books and the lovely Brownie Hawkeye camera a dear friend gave me a few Christmases ago. :)

Vintage can be anywhere in the house. When used just right, it gives just the sweetest touch of character to your home.

Do you go vintage shopping at all? What is one thing you are ALWAYS on the lookout for?

Decorating Vintage

I'm not an expert when it comes to decorating, by any means, but I have learned a few things since Dear Sweet Hubby and I got our first apartment. It was there, much to his dismay, that I adopted what he so lovingly termed "Nursing Home" style.

Yep, that's my sweet hubby. Keeping it real. :)

But, like I said, since then, my "style" has evolved. I went from nursing home style. For a while our apartment looked like we lived in a cabin in the woods. Then I went through a "primitive Americana" phase. And most recently, our apartment literally looked like we bought IKEA and put it in our home.

Now, though?

Well, now it's a little bit of everything that makes us happy. And what really makes us happy is vintage. More precisely, vintage-industrial. There's a fine line between buying cool old stuff and becoming an antique museum. It takes a lot of balance and awareness of what you're actually bringing home. It also take a lot of knowing that some antiques can be useful as well as beautiful. And in our little apartment, form and function make me a very happy girl. :)

So, I figured that while I may not be an expert when it comes to this stuff, I do know a few things. I'll begin randomly posting various vintage decorating tips now and then.

My first tip, and I think this one is MOST important:

Know what you love.

Dear Sweet Hubby and I love vintage cameras. We love industrial looking goodies. We love distressed pieces. And I have a ginormous soft spot for pyrex. And LBB? Well, our little vintage nut already has a penchant for vintage toys. What better way to decorate a room, right?

Now I love cool old furniture pieces more than anything. But right now, we have our small apartment, and limited funds, so we are quite content mixing our cool vintage pieces in with our modern IKEA furniture. (Although, someday, we will slowly be merging in some cool old furniture along with our modern furniture. It's all a slow, wonderful, creative process.)

In our dining room, we have a cube shelf...the 4x4-cube Expedit shelf. Modern, modern, modern.

But, mix in a little of this:

and a little of that:

Well, now it's not so plain anymore. :)

You're going to have to wait a few posts to see the whole shelf...we're still in the process of doing a few things to fine tune how it looks.

But, did you notice? Awesome old cameras. Cool pink pyrex (from a dear friend of mine.) And a sweet, simple pic of LBB as a baby. It is completely unique to us. The old projector camera was my main Christmas gift from my hubby (he rocks.) The Canon AE-1 was my hubby's (who got it from a family member.)

Vintage. Personal. And nothing close to being just some antiques sitting on a shelf.

Look for things you love. Things that catch your eye. Not every piece you discover will have a super special meaning to it, but when combined with the pieces that do, along with whatever furniture you won, you will end up with a vintage style all your own!

Tell me...what vintage things do you love? What's the one vintage thing you're constantly keeping your eye out for?

Because Walk-In Closets Can Hold So Much More Than Clothes

LBB has the "master bedroom" in our apartment. Mostly because, let's face it...he's got more than just a bed and a dresser (like Dear Sweet Hubby and I do.)

It just made sense that he had the bigger room. And, the bigger room comes with it's very own walk-in closet. Lucky kid. (Along with his own bathroom...I think a bathroom just for kids is a lifesaver. All those bathtoys get to just hang out in the tub indefinitely. haha.)

Anyways. I digress. Back to the closet.

He started out having his clothes hanging in the closet. Then, we trimmed down how many clothes he had, and were able to fit them into his IKEA stuva wardrobe. So, that left an empty closet. And, I'm a big fan of empty closets. :) After all, closets, when used correctly, can nearly be a very task-oriented room.

We got that cute little playkitchen at Goodwill...for a whooping $3.99. For a long time it sat in our dining room right next to the kitchen. I had great plans of LBB play-cooking while I cooked. Instead, the dining room turned into a regular mine-field full of play-utensils and wooden food.

It HAD to get moved. Thank goodness for empty closet space, right?

And with just a few small projects, LBB's walk in closet turned into a veritable play-kitchen.

I used my cricut and cut "Buster's Diner" (with the wall vinyl) to make the perfect little sign for his kitchen. The car rug was SUPER cheap at IKEA (but don't ask me how much...I can't remember.) My Mom and Dad got him the wall clock on the left. LBB loves "telling" time...of course, it's always 2 o'clock. And it's always "nommy" time. But, it's toddler-world, so it works. And, of course, Slink the Dog is man's best friend, and therefore, in the kitchen at all times.

We then decided that we needed something to make the space a little more "kitcheney." So, off to IKEA we went. (Have I ever mentioned that I love IKEA?) We got those two wall pockets, the two bars, hooks, and the basket, and it barely even dented our pocketbook. I like that. :)

We had two little decorative hooks on hand, which we used to hang up the ADORABLE chef's hat and apron my Mom made for LBB for Christmas. (The chef's apron says "I'm the next play-food network star.")

And those wall pockets? Ah, pure bliss. They are like miniature cupboards that he can put his food in.

And at this point, this is the farthest we have gotten with the corner. We picked up this cute vintage bookshelf at Goodwill, and it fit perfectly in between the wall and built in shelving. :) Literally, there's 2 inches or so of space. We want to paint it, but are kind of waiting until a later date. Paint or no paint, though, it's still perfect for keeping his pots, pans, dishes, mixer, and some more playfood in one spot. And notice the doggy? LBB is a big fan of doggies. They seem to be everywhere around his room. :)

So, there's a tour of LBB's play-kitchen! Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest...it's a weird layout in the first place to try to get a good picture of, but when combined with my bleh-camera and bad lighting, the odds were against me. :)

Pinterest 30 Day Challenge Day 4

Today's challenge was a bit of bust. I saw this pin and immediately thought of my gross showerhead...what a simple way to clean that grungy thing! But...after letting it sit ALL day, I came home to just a stinky bathroom and no clean shower head.

Sigh...here's picture of my gross showerhead after I spent all day letting it soak in vinegar. Ah, well, you win some, you lose some, right? :)

And yes, I posted this, much to the chagrin if Dear Sweet Hubby. :) I have to be real about the whole challenge, right?

Organization

That's my thankful thought today! I'm thankful for organization. Who isn't, right?

Well, I suppose messy people aren't. But me? I love it. Sometimes I'm not as organized as I'd like to be. Sometimes I'm obsessively organized. But there are those moments where a light bulb goes off above my head and I can appreciate my home for what it is, part relaxed, part organized...just the right mix of mess and structure.

And then there are those parts that are, um, not organized. My constant trouble spots...bedroom closet, anyone? Good golly...you should see that mess. Well, you won't, because if by some chance you do come over, that is my "clutter ninja spot." The spot where things go to get lost for an indefinite amount of time when I need to put something away in a jiffy, only to be found again in a frantic treasure dig through the closet.

We're working on it though, because I have big plans for that closet space. So, that's my thankful thought today because I'm about to tackle that nightmare in my closet in hopes of making it into a sweet little office nook for my hubby and I (with some rearranging of a few other places in the house to accomodate our clothes until we can possibly buy a new wardrobe.) I'll make sure to take some before and after pics so you can see that I am not joking about the mess. :)

Living in the small space we live in, we've learned through the years that organization is key. The best thing? When we finally do buy a house that is sure to have a little more space than our apartment, we will be in serious business because we'll already know how to organize and make the best use of the little space we do have.

So, tell me? Are you organized? Messy? OCD organized?

Small Spaces

On the front of the IKEA catalog is something along the lines of "A home doesn't have to be big, just smart."

Amen, IKEA.

We're in the process of re-evaluating our apartment space...since we are a homeschooling family, our home looks a little different than other people's, especially since we don't work well with just keeping it at the dining room table. (Clearly the need for well-defined spaces is a common denominator in our little family. HaHa.)

We split our very long living room into two, making a small living room, and small homeschool area. But...

...it's feeling a little crowded and not quite conducive to learning and teaching. So, after a little debate, we are going to switch things up a bit. Long story short, we are planning on making what is the "dining room" the homeschool room. It makes no sense to me to have that large of a room for a place that we spend maybe 30 minutes a day. (Yes, we have the terrible habit of eating on the couch. We're working on it.)

So I've been getting lots of ideas that I want to incorporate into our little learning space to make it even more learning focused. I think it's going to turn out awesome, and if it doesn't? Well, then we move it right back. :) No big deal.

There are a few other projects in the works, like converting the freshly cleaned hall closet into an office nook for me so I can do my curriculum planning and what not in a designated space.

Plus, we get to paint in our apartment, and that makes everything a whole lot more interesting. :) The next few months will be filled with tailoring our home to fit us even more...and on a budget. I'll make sure to take some before/after pics and post them when I can!

Ah, I love decorating. :)

Beginning Fall Decorating

I'm a tad behind in getting my Autumn decor up, and I think they are buried somewhere in the garage...so until my hubby goes on an expedition to find the bin, I decided to make a few things for around the house. I've been so inspired my all those cute little felt leaf garlands I've been seeing around the internet, and I decided to make one for our humble abode. It was soooo simple. In fact, so simple I was able to complete it in an evening with LBB by my side. :) I hung it across our IKEA expedit unit that is in the dining room...

...and I had left over garland. So, I stood there, looking around trying to decide what a good use for it would be. And then I looked up...at our new dining room lamp that is gorgeous (and completely free and installed for us...it's moments like this that I LOVE apartment living, haha.) Those beautiful wrought iron curves just screamed for a little autumn festiveness. So, I wrapped some of the garland around each curve of the lamp, and voila!

Dear Sweet Hubby came home and just loved it. :) I also made a garland for my bedroom, but haven't gotten a picture of that yet...I need to get our decor up so we can have our Annual Family Fall-ebration. :) I'll take more pics then. :)

And Finally...

...pictures of LBB's preschool area! Before you read any farther though, make sure you read THIS post first, mostly because I didn't plan tonight's posts very well. Haha!

And since I really didn't plan very well...the pictures are kind of in the opposite order I would have liked. However, my computer doesn't seem to like me much tonight, so I'm just going to take what I can get. :)

First picture is LBB's Work Tray. We haven't technically started LBB's preschool yet, but everyday is a learning day, and right now we are working on beginning letters. LBB knows A pretty down pat, but we still did the Letter A this week...and are moving onto B next week. His tray for this week includes everything that has to do with A. :) And he loves it, which means that at least 3 times a day I see an apple roll across the floor as he pulls the tray off the shelf.

LBB's reading area. We originally had that adorable Pottery Barn Kids basket in his room, but his room has since been rearranged and things were moved out here. It's been a rearranging kind of week. The rocking chair was made by my grandpa for me when I was little, and I passed it down to LBB...with a new cushion that is the cutest little book print on it.

And LBB's preschool book bin that is over by his desk. We put all the books that have to do with both the letter of the week and theme of the week in this bin. :) It makes me happy because it reminds me of when the library does their theme shelves.

And LBB's chalkboard/dry erase easel...he loves this thing. And you can tell he is definitely from our gene pool because he is already showing an affinity for the chalkboard side. Dear Sweet Hubby and I both love chalkboards. We make sure we put a the day up each day, and usually draw a picture for him with the word. He loves going over and trying to draw it himself. So cute.

Some of his tactile toys! He already loves this corner.

His book corner, along with his bulletin board, more tactile toys, and my old childhood bear who is in "charge" of watching over the preschool area.

The main part of our preschool room. We split the living room in half to make a special spot just for it, and I love how it turned out! And I love the alphabet puzzle mat...it really makes the room complete. On top of the main shelf unit we have 3 bins that hold LBB's chalk, clay, and letter blocks. It also holds his work tray and more tactile tools. I also love the little poster we picked up at the local teacher's supply store that is about colors. :) And the bulletin board is a work in progress...I ran out of staples.

And last, but definitely not least, LBB's desk area with his Letter of the Week learning board, puzzle shelf, theme book bin, and magnetic boards. He loves his little desk, and it is just perfect for him!

Thanks for stopping by for a little tour of LBB's preschool room. We are so blessed that we were able to make space for it in our tiny little apartment...but hopefully that is an encouragement. If we can utilize this little area of our 1000 square foot apartment with NO extra rooms, then I hope it helps anyone that is looking for ideas to utilize every inch of their space, as well! It's a challenge sometimes, but all in all, it's so well organized for our family that it stays very clean, especially considering that it's intended for a very active and rambunctious toddler!

First Off, A Desk Redo...

I think I may have mentioned that we found a super cute desk at a flea market for LBB. One problem though...it was a tad girly. :) But, it was only $5 for the desk and two chairs. Here it is: (and please pardon the terrible picture...it was late when I painted it.)

And, after about 15 minutes or so of painting, here is the finished product!

I LOVE it!!!! It looks so nice there in his little preschool area, and really fits his "Little Boy Blue" nickname. :) And of course, there has to be Cat #2 making an appearance in the photo. :) Now...off to finally post his preschool area! I've been promising for a while...it's about time that I actually posted it!

Our Productive Day

We had a busy day today! Dear Sweet Hubby had a short day at work, and LBB and I managed to get even more done than we normally do...how does that work?

We labeled all his bins in his room, and got the bins ready for preschool to start. We cleaned up and went through some of his toys (although I only snuck out 2 little things.) And most exciting as far as the home aspect today went, I pulled out all of his Autumn books and put them on his reading shelves in his room.

I made a Blackberry Buckle...which we've yet to try, but it looks delicious. Put dinner in the slowcooker, although we ended up grabbing a bite to eat because we went to my sister's cross country meet, which she completely rocked. :)

I love Autumn days. :) Pure bliss. And you know what I love even more...that adorable smiling face that is smiling at you from this blog post.

Coolest. Kid. Ever. :) (But I'm biased, haha!)

It's Nearing Autumn...

...and my thoughts naturally are directed towards the coziness of our house.

Every room in the house is cozy and near where we want it to be. The dining room is nice, minus the need for a larger table that fits in there better. (We're planning on getting a table with a leaf...small for when it's just the 3 of us, big for when we entertain.)

The living room is kind of where we want it to be, mostly with the exception of a comfier couch (ours is just a little loveseat...we'd like to get one a sofa bed so we can have people stay at our place if need be.)

The kitchen is the kitchen. There's not a whole lot you can do in there.

LBB's room is always a work in progress, but mostly because I love decorating for him. Right now it's Sesame Street in there, but this spring he is getting a twin sized bed, and we'll be changing the theme over to Vintage Transportation. So cool.

The bathrooms are pretty much done...LBB's is all done, and all I need for ours is a wall hanging...unless I decide to change it again, which may happen.

LBB's preschool area is almost done...I just have a few things to hang and it will be complete! Pictures to follow in another post someday soon...

So. That leaves ONE room, and one room only. Our bedroom. To be honest, our bedroom has always been the bane of my home decorating. Since the day we got our first apartment together...it's always been the room that is done last. The room that is done cheapest. And the room that is done with little or no thought to longevity. Sure, we've come up with cute decorating things now and again, but they were all fairly temporary and not something we kept in there in the long run.

But I've been thinking lately. The bedroom is the place we wind down from each busy day and the place where we wake up to start each day fresh. It's the room in which we have our most heartfelt discussions and the place that LBB brings his cars in during the day to drive around on our bed. And since both of us work so hard each day, don't we deserve to have a room that is an oasis?

It's time for me to say I'm being selfish. I'm going to start getting ideas for how we want to decorate. How to arrange the furniture in a pretty dinky little room. And how to control that monstrosity of a pile that always seems to accumulate under the bed and in the closet. :)

This won't be a fast change...we don't have the budget for that. It will instead be a thought out, long process while we save up and plan. I am tired of not focusing on our room and just doing things quickly so that it is somewhat nice. I WANT A NICE BEDROOM!!!!!

That's not a lot to ask. :) And I do have to say, I'm excited for this new chapter...now off to get some ideas.

I Love Vintage Chairs

And if I find one super cheap...it's nearly impossible to pass it up. And if that super cheap vintage chair also happens to be LBB sized...well...you know I can't walk away from that.

So, when we went to a garage sale today and came across this chair:



I fell in love. But, me being frugal and all, I walked past it and looked at a few other things, sure that since it wasn't labeled, the lady would want more than I was willing to pay. And then as we were checking out, and she was getting a kick out of LBB, she said:

"Any of those chairs over there...if you want one, they are a dollar each."

Wait. What?

She did not seriously just say a dollar, did she?

She sure did. So I raced over and picked it up, despite the fact that there was no one there at the time to snatch it away from me, and we promptly paid. I ADORE this chair. LBB has an already pretty adorable chair at his art desk that we bought brand new, but I have to admit...this may just replace it. :)

We also found a few Thomas the Train coloring books, 4 adorable nearly new toddler shirts, and a few books at that garage sale. And this cute mini Little Tikes kitchen that will be going in his preschool room. Although Santa is bringing him a nice little kitchen set that he is just crazy about. :)

We stopped at a few other garage sales, and we got some Hot Wheels for LBB, LOTS of Bible Story books, a Dinosaur monster truck that LBB dug out of a bin (and has seen better days, but it was 10 cents, so who could say no...especially when he roars as he drives it around), and LBB's favorite thing? A ERTL metal construction truck that was in near perfect condition...and our one big splurge at $5. He loves it...it was quickly turned into a snack holder while we drove and he had to show both Dear Sweet Hubby and I the truck twice. :) So sweet.

So we got all that stuff, and the chair, for...drumroll please...$18 dollars. I really can't complain.

And I got that awesome chair, so it was a very successful garage sale excursion. :) (Even though we could not for the life of us find the garage sale I was originally looking for!)

Muffin Tin Monday and A Very Clean Kitchen

Well, kind of a Muffin Tin Monday. :) I got inspired by all the awesome Muffin Tin Meals on THIS website, and since LBB is extremely picky, I figure this is a good way to mix things up a bit. :) I still need to go to the dollar store to get a 6-tin muffin pan, but for now, LBB had lots of fun using his fun feet silicone cupcake wrappers. We did an Easter theme this week, so we have a Pancake Cross, a stone covering an empty "tomb", watermelon (I needed something to represent His blood to forgive our sins...and the store was out of strawberries. How is that possible?), and whipped cream to represent heaven. :) LBB loved all of it, except for the watermelon, which really surprised me. Last summer he was all about watermelon...today? Not so much.


OK! And onto my kitchen...I am scared to show you the picture of my kitchen before I cleaned it up last night, lest you think I'm a slob or something. (I will admit that I can get a little messy...but not gross messy. Just cluttery messy.) Granted our kitchen doesn't always look this bad: But it does get pretty cluttery. Yikes! Look at the fridge! I don't know how that happened...but, after a little bit of cleaning, reorganizing, and purging, my kitchen turned out like this:

Much better, huh? Yeah, I thought so too! And check out the fridge!!! No piles of paper falling out of the little basket! And we put LBB's fun magnets on the dishwasher. I've got my eye on THIS so that will be going on the dishwasher for him as well since he is learning his letters. Now I just need to tackle the inside of the cupboards, which is a much more frightening task. As of lately, I've just been finding spots to put things in...and sadly, there are no more empty spots to even fit a can in. Sheesh. Sometimes I can be the most disorganized person ever. :)

And a little sidenote...Tot School went great today! That's all I'm going to say for now. You will have to wait until I do our weekly review to hear all the fun details. :)