we will never be finished packing

We have hit the "oh my heavens this WILL NEVER BE ALL PACKED" stage of packing.  As in, I've been packing for weeks and yet there is STILL SO MUCH CRAP left to be packed. Gone are the days when I everything was packed in shoe boxes and crammed into the back of my Dodge Neon.

***************
We have a general contractor, a plumber and a cabinet maker doing work in the kitchen, and the general contractor and the cabinet maker are like an old, crotchety married couple.  They bicker all day long.
"Why are you doing it that way? That looks terrible!"
 "You don't tell me what to do, I been doin' this for forty years, this is the right way, you shut your mouth."
"You don't know what you  are talking about, this is all wrong, why didn't you put it over there?"
"Only my wife gets to talk to me like that."

************
Conversations you don't want to overhear when your kitchen is ripped apart:
"What the hell is this?  You built it an inch too small, you moron."

************
While packing, I came across this gem, given to me by my mother in law nearly a year ago (possibly TWO years ago) for my birthday or mother's day or I don't remember when, but BWAHAHAHAH I certainly intend to cash that puppy in, preferably THIS VERY WEEKEND.

BWAHAHAHAHA.....

sorry, its the packing, it has finally sent me over the edge.

Sarah's dining room moodboard

I've drawn up a moodboard for Sarah's dining room.  She has a dark stained table and chairs....and that's about it.  I don't have a place for my large Marimekko kaiku birch print in the next house, so I'm giving it to her for the moment, and that is the inspiration for this room.

Her dining set has dark chairs that match the table.  For some contrast we'll paint the chairs.  I'd like to paint them citron, Sarah prefers turquoise.  

Breezy white curtains will go on either side of sliding doors leading to the backyard. 

The unfinished wood of the Ikea sideboard is a nice complement to the cool aqua walls.  Under the sideboard these two ikat baskets can hold table linens and other supplies.  Over the sideboard will be a round white mirror.  The one in the board is a discontinued one from Ballard, but I'm hopeful that we can thrift one inexpensively.

On top of the sideboard I put this wire mouse from CB2, because its whimsical, and Sarah has forbidden me to put birds in her house.  So, 2 foot high rats instead!

Sarah's bedroom moodboard

I made up a moodboard for Sarah's bedroom. We started with the bedding she already owns, which is the Paint Box quilt from Crate and Barrel about five years ago. Its got a ton of great colors in it; lots of blues and reds and yellows.

(Looking a wee bit wrinkled from a four year visit to my attic.)

The walls will be a slate blue color.   The Ikea Henny curtains are white with blue crosshatch circle-ish shapes and will really pop against the wall color.

Sarah will be getting white Malm dressers from Ikea, and possibly the night tables as well, although we hope to thrift a second hand pair instead .  I also hope to thrift some lamps as well, since pretty lamps are expensive.  Homegoods is a good source for lamps so we'll look there too.

She has the white overlapping square headboard from West Elm.  Above the bed will be a blown-up photo on canvas of one of Sarah's vacations--the frontrunner is the beach near my inlaws' home in Costa Rica.  At the foot of the bed will be a rattan blanket trunk for storing linens.

This mirror from Ballard is out of our price range, but I think we can DIY something similar with paint sticks and a mirror.  We are going to give it a try, anyways.

The yellow trellis rug is a warm and happy complement to the cooler blue on the walls, and the bedding ties both the blue and the yellow together.

To be honest, I really pushed Sarah to try this kilim rug instead of the yellow trellis, but she put her foot down.

I've also tried to get her to paint her bathroom pink, but she said no, just like the Mister.  No one will let me paint a bathroom pink. Grr.

my sister Sarah's living room

My sister Sarah will be moving into an apartment this fall.  She has a little bit of furniture in storage, but for the most part, needs to furnish almost an entire apartment from scratch.  She asked me to pull together some moodboards for her.  Of course I jumped at the chance!

She has a preference for modern furniture, but since we are furnishing an entire apartment all at once, she is also very fond of "free", even if its not modern in style.  For her living room, she owns a red sofa, and the walls are already painted a dark beige, so that was our starting point.

Here is the layout for the room:

If you're standing in the middle of the living room and looking towards the far wall with the tv:

(Pretend the sofa is facing the tv.)

The red, purple and green floral curtains will go on the front window. The Expedit units will go along the wall under the staircase, and will house books and items Sarah has collected on her travels.

Along the far wall will be the tv, on top of a midcentury credenza that we hope to find on craigslist.  Around the tv will be a gallery wall, using Ikea Ribba frames.  Instead of pictures, there will be quotes from song lyrics (inspired by this picture I saw on Pinterest). Maybe the entire wall will be the lyrics of Baby Got Back?  (Oh. My. God. Becky. Will you look at her....)  If Sarah can't come up with 10+ lyrics she likes, I will turn the wall into a shrine to her nieces and nephews, because we have plenty of pictures of them.

She is looking for a steamer trunk on craigslist to use as a coffee table.

I have a rug similar to this one that I am donating to this living room.

She bought the aqua chair on craigslist for $5.  We will attempt to recover or slipcover it. Eventually.

The back view of the room, towards the front door:

When you walk in the front door, this Ikea console will be along the side wall, with the Kandinsky print above it.  The console will be a nice place to put keys and purse, etc when entering the house, and there will probably be two storage ottomans or baskets beneath it for shoes and dog leashes.  The Kandinsky print was previously mine, and since it goes well with her sofa, I'm donating it to the cause.

She already owns a red sofa, and the pillows are from here, here and here.  Since its not a huge room, this table that tucks over the sofa will provide a place to put drinks but won't take up lots of additional floor space.

UPDATE: Feel free to leave your favorite song lyric in the comments.  Mine: "you ain't a beauty, but hey, you're alright" (Bruce Springsteen, Thunder Road.)

the musical fruit: our meals before moving

A few months ago those crazy kids over at Young House Love did a post on what they ate before they moved when selling their house.  They frugally ate down everything in their cupboard, including creative meals like Laughing Cow cheese on wasa crackers.  (What is a wasa cracker?)

In that vein, we will apparently be eating be beans for every meal from now till moving day.  And beyond.

I have a feeling the beans will be moving with us, and the pizza guy will be sorry to see us leave.

Anyone want to guess on how old the oldest expired item of food in our cabinets was? Anyone?

If you guessed FOUR YEARS ago, you'd be right.  You know this means that TWO years ago when we moved in here, we moved in with food that had already expired nearly two years prior.  (I had 3 kids under 4 the last time we moved, one of whom was 3 weeks old....purging before packing wasn't high on my list for that move.)

Friday night entertainment: painting furniture!

Years ago, when I was young and pretty and employed, on Friday nights the Mister and I would go out to dinner.  We would sometimes meet friends for dinner on these social Friday nights, and wine was frequently imbibed.

Flash forward ten years, and the last five Friday nights have involved me and a gallon of paint and an unsuspecting piece of furniture.  Sadly, there isn't any wine involved.

I repainted my dressers.  For the 400th time.  The high gloss black was too shiny, and the black made the dressers look too heavy.  I painted the dressers Benjamin Moore Camouflage, which despite these pictures, is actually a soft, neutral greenish beige-ish sort of color.  The pictures make it look sorta washed out white, especially against the warm beige walls, but the next house will have white walls and you will all love it then.  It looks very klassy.

I also painted two lamps and my jewelry box navy blue, and the mirror orange. (You can see how everything used to look here. And yes, I know, the bedroom looked much more put together in that post, but bear with me, I'm moving in two weeks, and I haven't gotten everything together for this design yet.)

This mirror will be going in Princess's room, and I wanted the mirror to have a pinkish orange hue.  I attempted that with thin layers of spray paint, but the Mister gave it the thumbs down (see the upper quadrant in the picture below).  I also tried some Krylon Celery spray paint, but it looked terrible. (See the whitish patch on the upper right?) So I painted it orange.

This Friday night I'll be packing!  Next Friday night I'll be moving! Who says I don't know how to have a good time?

I really hope the lighting is better in the next house.  That or I finally figure out how to adjust the aperture.

bedroom progress, of a sort

My bedroom is going in a very direction from the original moodboard.

I'm not the only this happens to, right?  You all make up 9 moodboards (ahem) for your bedroom and then go with the one you couldn't figure out curtains for, right?

No, no, me neither! (coughcough)

Ok, so maybe I did.  If anyone has seen the most awesome coral fabric in the world that happens to be under $10 that would make great curtains to go with the chiang mai pattern, feel free to send them along.  

Blue and orange rooms

I've been working on a moodboard for my sister's bedroom.  She's thinking of adding some orange to her blue and brown bedroom.  I've pulled some orange and blue rooms for inspiration:

Source: houzz.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: housebeautiful.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: farm6.static.flickr.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: brightboldbeautiful.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: russetstreetreno.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: homeinteriorszone.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: theletteredcottage.net via Lisa on Pinterest

I absolutely love the simplicity of the last picture--it looks like a fun summer cottage, doesn't it?

Epic fail on so many fronts: new bed, chiang mai

This weekend was incredibly busy, what with painting Princess's dresser,  packing up my house, and various projects that crashed and burned.

Epic fail #1:

About two weeks ago I bought a headboard off craigslist.  I went to pick it up, and found myself at this veritable barn of furniture.  The woman selling it was a realtor and had an industrial storage space full of stuff she used to stage houses. I bought the headboard, but also wandered around the barn looking at her other stuff.  Back in a far room, I found the bedframe that matched the headboard.  

I debated about buying the frame, but one of the reasons I wanted a new bedframe was so that we could utilize some underbed storage in the new house.  (Our old bedframe was a platform style that did not allow for underbed storage.)  The bedframe seemed a bit low, so I passed them at the time.

Fast forward to this weekend, I sold our platform bed on craigslist.  The new headboard has a weird hinge for fastening to a bedframe, so I thought rather than mess around figuring out how to attach it to another frame, I will just contact that woman and buy the matching frame and put it up on risers or something.

You'll notice that nowhere in there did I mention measuring the bed. 

Dun dun dun.....

We pick up the bedframe for $50. We stop at a hardware store to get new hinge pins for $11.  We get home. We clean the bed and put it together.  It looks great!  We pull our never-used box springs out from behind the enormous pile of crap in the garage.  We are now super hot and sweaty.  We put the box springs on the bed....

and they don't fit.  The box spring is about three inches too long for the frame.  

We think, hmm, mabe this is supposed to rest on top of the frame, instead of being cradled inside the frame?  We attempt that. We put the mattress on top.  I sit on the mattress.  The mattress comes crashing down and things sound like they are breaking.  

Ok, that wasn't it.  We spent much time trying to figure out how we might easily and inexpensively rig the bedframe to fit, but essentially every fix involves cutting parts off and rebuilding, and ugh, forget it, we are not Ana White.  I will take the $61 loss and move on.  

It did not even occur to me that a vintage king size bed might not fit a modern king size box spring and mattress.  LESSON LEARNED.  

So, we will be buying another bedframe from west elm to go with the new headboard, but for the moment, since we are moving in two weeks, we are sleeping with the mattress on the floor like broke college students.  

Epic fail #2:

After talking about my chiang mai dragon inspired bedroom, I sat down and thought, what can I do to get that pattern in my bedroom?  I love how this painted chiang mai wall has such an oversize scale--I want that.  Just ordering a piece of fabric and framing it won't give me that big of a focal point, even though the pattern repeat is pretty large.  So I came up with the brilliant idea of painting it myself on canvas.

But Lisa--we didn't know you were an artiste!

I'm not.  I can't draw my way out of a paper bag.  

I spent much of last week running around to various art stores.  One day I bought a projector.  You can get pretty awesome projectors with large magnification areas for about $500.  Hahaha. Not in my budget. I bought a $50 projector.  The salesperson at the art store said "This projector is a piece of sh*t, by the way." 

Thanks! I'll let you know how it works out!

I took it home, it blew stuff up just fine.  Only problem was it could only blow up a 3x3 area at a time with 5x magnification, and I wanted to cover a 36x48 canvas.  So I copied the chiang mai pattern, isolated the part I wanted to replicate, printed it out, made a grid on the paper, and made a matching grid on the canvas.  

Unfortunately, I could not get the pictures to line up appropriately on the canvas.  The magnification of the picture was a few inches short of the size of the canvas.  If my canvas had been smaller it might have worked.  Perhaps someone who does not have to ask her sister to do the math for her might be able to make it work.

I gave up on that particular version.  I haven't given up on getting that pattern in my bedroom, and I have a different solution I'm hoping will work.  Hopefully in the next month or two I'll post that. If it works. But for now I have to stop wasting time and money on crap that isn't working and finish packing up our stuff.
   

pink ombre dresser

Edited to add: I'm linking this post up to Young House Love's Second Pinterest Challenge.  If you want to see the dresser in Princess's room in our new house you can see it here.

Like everyone else in blogland, I saw this picture of an ombre dresser and thought hmm, what can I do that to?

Princess's dresser, of course!  Although I liked the dresser painted orange, I didn't particularly like it against the brown rug that would be in her room.  I thought about painting it pink, but for some reason it just seemed...eh.  Then I saw the ombre dresser picture and thought, ohh....that might work.

And here she is:

The light in the kids' room is terrible, I find it really difficult to take well-lit pictures in there. I feel like my photography does not adequately convey the awesomeness of my projects sometimes.

This was such as easy project.  I got a quart of Benjamin Moore's Autumn Red (yes, really, it was called Autum Red, even though Bubblegum Pink would have been more appropriate) and a quart of BM's Decorator White.  I started with the bottom shelf and painted it pure Autumn Red.  I added some white to the pan for the next shelf, and even more white for the next shelf, and so on.

I had three different containers of color going at the same time.  After I put the second coat on of those three colors, I added more white for the next two drawers and the body of the dresser.  The body of the dresser is painted the same lightest color as the top drawer.

I cannot WAIT to get into the next house so I can finally put Princess's room together.  Two and half more weeks!

ombre stuff

I've seen a ton of ombre-styled things in the blogosphere lately.  I never knew that's what it was called, did you?

Source: designspongeonline.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: urbanoutfitters.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: marthastewart.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: bugglebeehandmade.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: marthastewartweddings.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: erineverafter.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: bhldn.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: brooklynlimestone.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: anthropologie.com via Monica on Pinterest

I've got my own ombre project I'll be posting soon.

Happy Blogiversary to me!

Apparently my blogiversary was on the 5th, but I wasn't paying attention.  How about that, I've been blogging an entire year.

image via Martha Stewart

I started blogging to keep in touch with my family, and originally, the blog was probably 50-50 between decor-related stuff and pictures of my kids.  Over the past year I think its evolved more towards 85% decor stuff, and a lot less of the kids.  (Sorry, Grandma.) I blog nearly every day because I really enjoy it.  This blog is largely my sounding board for ideas that are in my head, and I'm flattered that my invisible internet friends are interested in stuff I'm thinking about.**

Today I'll leave you with my very first post. (Oh, I cringe at the tiny pictures and flash photography.) When I first discovered that you could keep track of page stats, I found that my very first blog post was by far and away my most popular post.  Hundreds of hits on that page, compared to low teens on everything else.  I couldn't figure out why on earth that page got so many hits.

One day I was at my parent's house, and told my father to check out something I had just posted.  He brought up my blog, and the page it brought up was my very first post.  "Um, does it always bring up the first post, instead of the most recent?" Apparently my father's browser settings were set to start at the beginning of the blog.  So my post popularity was not because people of the internets found it fascinating, but due solely to my father bringing up that page every time he checked my blog.  Still, despite the flash photography, its one of my favorite posts.

Enjoy!

**Question I cannot find the answer to anywhere:  suppose you have 5 Google Followers, and 25 subscribers following in Google Reader.  Does your Reader subscriber count include your Followers (since if you Follow someone, it shows up in your Reader), so you actually have 20 people?  Or does it not count them at all, in which case you have 30?

chiang mai dragon inspired master bedroom

I have had many many many ideas for my master bedroom, and haven't been able to pick among them.  I like navy, and coral, and orange, and lots of fabrics, and yet nothing seems to be jumping out at me saying "I AM THE ONE."

Well, actually, that's not entirely true.

I have loved Schumacher's chiang mai dragon fabric since the moment I saw it.  I can even remember the first time I saw it; it was a on an ottoman. I love the aqua colorway best, although I'd take any of the other colorways too.  Sadly, this beautiful material is to the trade only and retails for $206 per yard, so its not exactly the kind of fabric you run down to JoAnn's for and order a whole bunch.

This weekend I was thinking about my bedroom and how all the fabrics I like for curtains are over $30 per yard, which makes four panels (at about 14 yards total) kind of expensive.  And then a light bulb went off over my head.  Expensive!  Hell, I'll show you expensive!  Why get expensive fabric I merely like?  Why not get RIDONKULOUSLY expensive fabric that I LOVE???

I ran this past the Mister.  He said no.  Rather firmly.  

Regardless!  They WILL be mine.  Someday.  Until then, though, I came up with a chiang mai dragon inspired room.

1. The Schumacher fabric.  I could either get a yard of the Schumacher fabric and frame it, or a roll of the wallpaper and frame a triptych.  While still expensive, smaller pieces won't cost thousands like the curtains would.  Call your local designer, they can probably get to the trade fabrics for cheaper than the list price.  I called Bryn and she gave me a quote that was much cheaper.

2. White curtains with greek key trim.  These are discontinued Pottery Barn; you can find them on ebay.  Or you could make your own for way cheaper.

3. Green lamp and nightstand.  These are what we already have.  The green lamp was from Crate and Barrel and the nightstand is a hacked Ikea play table.  They will be making the move and will be reused.

4. DKNY Chrysanthemum navy quilt and shams, available at Bed Bath and Beyond. I like how this quilt is almost navy but is a bit lighter.

5. Chiang mai dragon pillow, available on etsy. A number of etsy sellers have chiang mai dragon pillows, just type it into the search box.

6. Green Brooke Madeline Weinrib rug. I'd need this in a 9x12 or so, so I'll probably look for something less expensive.  But this one is pretty.

7. Pier 1 honeycomb mirror (discontinued, but we already own it).

8. Dressers that we already have.

9. Orange foo dog, available on etsy.   My original plan was to do an orange room around the chiang mai fabric, but I liked the navy and green better.  

ready-made fretwork panels

A few weeks ago I was looking for fretwork panels to put on my antique secretary.  I couldn't find any ready-made fretwork panels.  There were custom panels, but they were really expensive and far more than I wanted to spend.  I figured I could either go crazy with some balsa wood and glue or just put it on the back burner for a while.  Not being the crafty sort, I left it alone.

Yesterday I was reading Gorgeous Shiny Things (remember this amazing painted chiang mai dragon wall she did a few weeks ago?), and LO AND BEHOLD, she has come up with another amazeballs idea:  ready-made fretwork panels.  When she remade an Ikea Pax armoire and couldn't find any inexpensive ready made fretwork, an idea was born:

She's put her panels on a Malm dresser:

and a Rast dresser:

and walls and mirrors and anything that will stand still.

These are just awesome.

Danica announced that the business would go live next week, and I am so excited.  I will be first in line to order panels for my secretary, and anything else I can think of to put these things on.

Kinda makes you want to run out and get a Pax armoire, doesn't it?

P.S. I can't get that chiang mai dragon wall and its awesomeness out of my mind.  Its giving me ideas for my bedroom....  

coral bedroom

Remember a few days ago I blogged about seeing this coral bedroom?

I was looking through my Pinterest boards and realized that I had pinned the other half of this bedroom months ago.  I realized it when I saw the bedding and thought "hmm, there's that same coral quilt with a green quilt...hey....wait a minute!"

I am really loving the color coral right now (as if previous posts weren't a hint).  I am seeing coral all over blogland these days. (This bedroom is by Tobi Fairley, btw. You can see her blog here.)  I am not, however, seeing coral anywhere I shop in real life.  I have found one coral quilt at West Elm, but otherwise, practically nothing.  I am happy to paint furniture, but I like bedding or pretty curtain fabrics to tie it all together.

Have you seen any coral in big box stores, or fabric stores you frequent?

orange moodboards for the boys

I discussed all of my rug options in this post, and rather than trying to make the zebra rug work in the Princess's room, I'm going to use it in the boys' room.  Honestly, I had no intention of redoing the boys' room; I was simply going to take everything they already have and move it into the new place.

But!

An opportunity has presented itself and who am I to ignore the hand of fate?

I've put together a few mood board for the boys, who are 5 and 3.  We have nearly everything in the mood boards already (rug, dressers, curtains); at most I would have to buy two new inexpensive plain comforters, and a few accessories.

Here's the easiest one to do--we already have everything (see their current room here) but the two prints and some ribbon trim.  In this version, I would keep their comforters, add some orange trim to white curtains we already own, and repaint a bookshelf we have.  The greek key trim is pretty expensive ($12 a yard), so I might try a plain orange grosgrain ribbon trim, or perhaps a pompom trim.

Rug: Orange Safari 5x8 rug from Overstock that doesn't work in the Princess's room

Dressers: Ikea Malm 6 drawer dressers, the boys each have one

I'd repaint a bookshelf we already have, but you can find the one in the board here.

I love the two art prints (here and here).  I'd love to add some positive, up-with-people happiness to their room. 

The comforter is from Target a few years ago, the photos I made, and the other sun art pieces were picked up in Costa Rica.  

************

I love a navy blue and orange combo.  I saw this photo a while ago and its been in my inspiration files ever since.  Here is a board inspired by that photo:

Bedding: I'd look for inexpensive twin navy comforters.  I've seen something similar at Target for about $30 apiece.

Curtains: those are from Bed Bath and Beyond, but I have orange curtains out in my garage.

Pillows: from Etsy (blue and orange), although I already have some orange pillows I'd use

Headboard: I'd make a padded headboard from this striped navy and white fabric, using this tutorial.

My boys are really into Batman and Spiderman right now. I'd get some small posters framed, and this Batman wall decal for over each of their beds, and maybe a Batman cuddle doll.

**************

Lastly, a brown and orange combo, which lends itself to a more safari-type theme.   I will admit that this is my favorite.

In this version I would do a monogram wall decal with their names and initial in orange over their beds.

I'd paint the interior of the bookshelf a bright green for another pop of color.

The cardboard elephant would go over their dressers, and I'd bring in another ceramic elephant as well.

I *really* want to do one of these Cameroon juju hats, but since I have no desire to pay $$$$ for a real one I'd use this tutorial to make my own.

************
And voila! A whole new room I hadn't intended to redecorate.  I put it to a vote, and the boys (surprise, surprise) picked the navy with Batman.  

Give me some inspiration, pretty please.

So!  I am fresh out of ideas when it comes to my master bedroom. Actually, this happens to me frequently--there are so many beautiful things out there that I can't pick anything.  I get analysis paralysis.

Do you have any pictures of favorite bedrooms?  Beautiful fabrics? Stunning curtains?  I'd like to use pretty curtains as a jumping off point.  Leave a link in the comments.  I need some inspiration.

orange rug FAIL

I ordered an inexpensive rug from Overstock for the Princess's room.  I really liked it.  And I still do...but not for her room.

The curtains go well with the orange dresser, and the curtains go well with the rug, but the rug and the dresser = no bueno.

The orange is much more brick-like than it looked on the website.  I can return the rug, but return shipping is almost $50. It appears I am the proud owner of an orange rug I don't have use for.

Options:
1. Put the rug in the garage, forget about it, sell it on craigslist, move on.  Still need a rug.

2. Use the orange zebra rug in the boys' room.  Its an option, but whoa, that's a lot of pattern in a room that already has a lot going on.  Very colorful.  I am more boring neutrals.  I had planned to move the brown trellis rug into the boys' room, as its a nice neutral rug with a bit of pattern but won't overwhelm the room, like an orange zebra would.

3. Use the brown trellis in Princess's room.

Meh.  The orange, the brown, the pink....its a possibility.  I think if I were to use the brown rug in her room I would paint the dresser pink, and forget about the orange.  (Sad face.)

4.  Repaint the dresser.....but what color?  If only I hadn't painted the damn thing it would have worked JUST FINE.

Black: too heavy.
Brown: BORING.
White: eh, white walls behind it.
Pink: not sure if it would go well.
Different orange: maybe.
BLARG.

Note to self: stop shopping and buying stuff until you actually get in the house.
Second note to self:  refrain from buying things you can't easily return.

5. I do have three of these Malm dressers.  I could take one of the unpainted ones in Princess's room with pink curtains and zebra rug.  (Of course this means I have to paint two dresser to match in the boys' room.)

6.  Put the zebra rug in the boys' room, comforters we already have, plain white curtains (its a bedsheet, use your imagination).

WAIT!!!  I HAVE AN IDEA!!!! (Can you tell I've been writing this post over the course of six hours, dragging the rug in and out of the room?)  

7.  Use zebra rug in boys room.  I have orange curtains from our old house in a similar color.  Buy two navy comforters, and voila, new boys room.

YES! THIS IS IT! I will expand on this in a separate post, I think, since this one is enormous already.  

8. You might note that numbers six and seven still leaves me needing to do something about the rug/dresser problem in Princess's room.  Well, at least I solved a problem I didn't even know we had.