My own hallway full monty.

Well.  Nice little neglected blog.  My bad...

In other news, I put together a photo wall!

Thanks to Young House Love, I got all excited to put together my own little hallway.  My problem?  Where to put said hallway.

I could have put it in the basement, but the basement doesn't get a whole lot of face time when people come here.  Plus, it's kinda dark and, you know, in the basement.  Oh, and the little matter of the fact that the hallway leads to the utility room.  Also known as the Cat Room - that's where we keep the cat boxes.  Sooooo...maybe not exactly where I want to direct traffic.  :)  So, upstairs it went.  That hallway is a lot smaller and tighter, but it's a good place to pop a bunch of pictures and other fun items.

So, there you have it.  Now, some pics.

Here's the whole thing laid out on the hall floor.  Note the glorious tiles in the doorway.  Courtesy of the wonderdog when he was a pup.  Stupid wonderdog.

Here's another angle of it.  Not all the frames have the final pics in them.  Can you guess which ones?  :)

Who doesn't like a good progress shot?  I know I do.

Aaaaaaaand another.

And a couple of gratuitous "all done" shots!

Just one little story - these squirrels were painted on our car when we were married.  Back in the day, hubby's roommate named a squirrel that lived in their attic after him.  No, I don't know why.  All I know is that the little car paintings are stinkin' cute.  PS - those are hands, not boobs...

Wait, what's that?  Some TP art?!  Yeah.  You know it.  Also, note the mess in the bedroom behind it all.  This would be the carnage of pulling out all the picture frames and piling everything onto the bed while I find the right frames and the right places for them all.

Oh, and so the other side of the hall doesn't feel lonely, here's what that side looks like.  Not sure that I'll ever actually put anything on those walls other than the CB2 bud vases that are on there right now.  The thermostat and all that on the other side really distracts...

So, there you have it!  My own little version of the picture hallway I someday hope to have - like the Petersiks'.  Someday.

Up next:  finding the right bathroom mirror?

Some bedroom ideas

I've been thinking a lot lately about my bedroom.  I'm kinda tired of it being a cluttered and unfinished space.  It really should have been the first room that we finished, rather than the last, as it seems like it will be.  The upstairs guest room is done.  The dining room is awfully close to complete.  The living room's right there with it.  Our kitchen is looking pretty good.  Now that the family room is painted, it won't be long till it's decorated just like we want it to be.  MOST of the rooms in Casa PV are looking good or on their way to being complete.  What's missing here?  Our bedroom.  (and three bathrooms, a garage, utility room, and another bedroom...but who's counting????)

I finally gave Husband Mine an ultimatum over Christmas (please excuse the tardiness of this post...):  Bed must be finished by our anniversary, or I buy one.

You see, he decided several years ago that he wanted to take up furniture making as a hobby.  As in, "I want to build bookcases and beds and end tables and coffee tables."  He has been saying since the day we bought our mattress (which was delivered the week we moved into the house 2+ years ago) that he wants to build the bed.  Which he started last spring.  And then abandoned because he didn't like how heavy it was.  So, he decided to start anew.  Two years after we moved in, I still find myself sleeping on a mattress on the floor.  Which really doesn't help with the whole "look how finished our bedroom is" thing.  Hence the ultimatum.

And let me tell you, folks.  I've been saving my pennies.  It's not that I don't have faith in him.  I really want to.  It's more that I'm a realist when I come to that man.  He is a perfectionist, so he has a tendancy to stop doing something if it's not perfect.  Like our bed in round 1 for example.

Since I'm a visual person, and I just believe everyone is exactly like me, here are some pics to give you a sense of what the general idea of the bed is.  Our "inspiration pieces" if you will.

We started with this great bed from West Elm:

We loved everything about it but the price.  Oucheroo.  So, we took the idea of the storage bed (note the drawers on the bottom), and kind of combined it with this great headboard from Ikea:

I know, the headboard looks a little goofy, but you have to imagine it behind a solid headboard.  Those shelves are pull-out.  They stay hidden in a box-like headboard...kinda like this one, also from Ikea:



It's okay to ooohhh and aaahhh over my fancy photo-editing skilz (note red arrow).

SO, combine the two pictures, and you have a basic idea of what the finished product is rumored to supposed look like.  I see that bed in my mind's eye, and imagine the sweet lamps we just got (hello, Home Goods score!) perched on top of the headboard, a slim bench in the same color at the foot of the bed...then come the bookshelves in the corner and the small chair in front of them...the floating shelf on the wall to the left of the bed...I've got it all planned out.

All I need is a bed to get it started...