August 2, 2011

my woman cave (get your mind out of the gutter, people)

I'm still kinda on a high from our new lovely grey walls in the master bedroom (ah...) so I decided to share what's been going on in the den too!

We painted the den a full year ago- I know, bad blogger for just now posting pictures! For that being the smallest room in the house (save the bathrooms and laundry room) it was the biggest mother to paint, hands DOWN (probably because of all of the crap treasures we had stuffed in there). Here's some pictures of the old digs to bring you up to speed.

from the weekend we moved in- who ever thought that color was a good idea?!

HATE mini-blinds!!!

And here's how the room looked last August before we cleared it out to start painting-

holy disorganization!
As you'll remember from this post of yore, we painted the room Martha Stewart's lovely shade of Hummingbird Blue.


After we got the paint on the walls came the fun part- DECORATING! It's important to note that we painted the den all of two weeks before I started graduate school last year, you know- when all the fun stopped. So that's got MUCHO to do with just now posting these follow-up pictures... and the fact that it's a year later and the room still isn't completely done. And, since we're on the topic of the room not being totally done I think it's only fair to not post pictures of every nook and cranny until it is. You know, to keep the mystery alive. :)

Anywho, here are a few pictures of our in-process den!


hehe... just kidding! that's what the den looked like when we shoved everything from the master bedroom in there for painting last weekend. :)

Here is what the den really looks like today!

laptop + can of Diet Dr. Pepper = keeping it REAL

There's a lot left to do in there, including hanging some pictures on the walls and adding a chair in the corner that isn't visible in the picture. We did have a white IKEA chair in that corner but as it's now taking up residence in the bedroom, we've got a big ol' hole in the room there. We do have a comfy brown chair with no arms in another room that I think will work nicely there, once I slip cover it. That being said... anyone have any tips on slipcovering armless chairs? :)

Let me tell you, re-using furniture from other rooms (or the garage) plus a coat of paint is the most economical way to give a room a make-over! I think it's often easy to look at magazines and on the internet and see such great things for the home but get discourged at the prices. Peeps, there are so many ways to have a fun room without breaking the bank! Here are some ways that we did it in the den:
  • Painted an old dresser white and placed it in the room for more storage and as a fun place to set the tv- no cost for the paint, as it was left over from another project.
  • Dusted the old futon frame in the garage off and brought it upstairs. Snagged both the mattress and grey cover on sale.
  • Took an IKEA shelf from another room and found a new home for it in the den- no cost.
  • Placed some pretty postcards from West Virginia in cheap-o Target frames.
  • Transferred some of our pretty flower pictures from our trip to Costa Rica onto canvas using a really affordable internet site (Google.com is your friend, people).

Easy peasy, folks.

This, hands down, is my favorite room of the house! I spend A LOT of time in there as it's where I do my work for graduate school, in addition to grading the millions (exagerate much?) of essays that my students turn in so I wanted the room to be comfortable, functional and, of course, to reflect our personalities. I think we accomplished all three. :)

Man, posting this blog makes me really want to get this room DONE! I think some slip cover making and picture hanging may be in my near future... :)

1 comment:

Thanks for leaving a comment!

I usually respond to inquiries or funny bits via email, so please make sure your address is available in your profile.