Back-to-School Clothes Organization

Many of my friends tell me that I am lucky that Elizabeth is not very interested in clothes.  As long as an outfit is reasonably comfortable, she won't fight me.  She will occasionally wear skirts and dresses so long as she can wear tights, leggings, or bike shorts underneath (bikes shorts have been a LIFESAVER!).  I generally put out her clothes for school the night before and she puts them on.  Last year I tried to encourage her to pick out her own clothes but she is nervous that it won't look right if she does it.  I have analyzed the problem and realized that I often mix and match outfits, brands, etc. and that rattles her organized, rule-following mind.  She is her father's daughter.

While on our beach vacations this summer, I started organizing her clothes by outfit instead of by type of clothing (shirts, shorts, etc.).  She could pick out her own outfit without worry, thus exerting some of her own choice. AMAZING.  Perhaps I should do this for Handy Hubby too?

I reorganized her closet last week before school started - she was excited immediately!  Woohoo!  Here's how it looked before (though not quite this neat):

Here's how it looks now:

I took out a shelf and hung a bar at her height (thank goodness for Elfa).  I will probably move that shelf with the bar below it up another notch or two, so she has room for a few baskets for headbands and tights on top of her shoe cubbies.

I then assembled her outfits on a single hanger (for the most part):

She even helped me put outfits together and immediately put on an outfit that I don't think she has ever worn before - probably because I didn't even think of it as an outfit.  I found I put more thought into what goes together and what she could use to complete outfits -  more so than if I just throw things together the night before.  I realized she only has one shirt to go with a pair of bright yellow jeans (she does love colored jeans which is great).

And a picture of the proud closet owner (blog photo bomber):

I hope I can keep up with this system throughout the year.  I often hang out in her room while she gets ready for bed (pushing her along) so perhaps I can do some outfit assemblage instead of just sitting and waiting.

And here are my cuties on the first day of school.  Her dress is from Gymboree. Wish they had the dress in my size!

First day of school: DONE!  Both kids loved their teachers.  I hope the rest of the year goes as smoothly!

Behind Closed Doors {Magnet Wall}

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have had a little inkling that I had a magnet wall planned for the house.  I have been intrigued with magnet walls for a long time but Elizabeth's room was the perfect place to give it a go.  She previously had a disaster of a bulletin board behind her door.  It was a hot mess. I didn't take a true before picture but here is the area right before I took down the bulletin board and (cute) frog barrette holder.  She won't wear barrettes any more (wah!!).

My friend Colleen recommended some magnetic paint that she found on Amazon with good reviews.  It seemed better than the Rustoleum version which I heard is stinky and doesn't work all that well.  after reading all of the reviews, I learned that I had to paint at least 4 coats using a foam roller to limit texturizing the wall.  This stuff is THICK so be sure to stir it well.  I gathered my supplies and started a couple of coats just before we started painting the walls.  

Soon, the wall looked like this.

After a few more (and some paint on the other walls...

After I tested it with 4 coats, I realized it would definitely need a couple more.  I called it quits after our full day of painting.  Sunday morning, I rolled on two more coats before painting the whole wall blue.  Fortunately, two coats of the blue paint covered it beautifully.

Another Amazon review tip was to use strong magnets (also known as neodymium magnets or rare earth magnets) if you want to hold paper up.  They are easily found on Amazon.  I picked up some of these pushpin style magnets to hold up her masterpieces.  Just two of these little guys held up her oversized "getting to know you" school poster.  

She also received a set of magnetic poetry for kids for Christmas (I may have tipped off Grandpa) which has been fun for all of us to play with, especially Handy Hubby...

You can see the slight texture in the paint in the picture above.  It was tough not to have texture but super thin coats seemed to be the way to go.  I just wrapped my roller in a grocery bag between quotes (I waited about an hour or so between layers).  

So, that's the secret behind the door.  I love that when you take all of the magnets off, you cannot even tell it's a magnetic wall.  In the long term, it will be a great place to hang certificates, photographs, and other childhood memorabilia that deserves display.  Perhaps the best part is that only she really sees it since you have to close the door to see the wall - it cannot be seen from the hallway.  

Any fun projects at your house this weekend?

Elizabeth's Room Evolves... AGAIN! {Reveal}

I cannot wait to share the pictures of my daughter's room.  Although I was skeptical about changing the color, I am so glad we did.  I think I like it even more than her original room!  So, without further ado...

And a before and after...

Sorry about the wonky color in the pictures - I took the photos at various times of the day and night.  

We ended up keeping all of the hard furniture, ottoman, and bean bag. I even kept her duvet cover but just used the white background side instead of the pink.  She has so much pink stuff, it just made sense to keep some of it and perhaps phase it out as she gets older.  We an easily do that now that the big stuff is changed out.  

I ended up changing out the curtains as well.  Although I liked the embroidered sheers, I decided that something more substantial would look better.  These are basic panels from Ikea - total cost $32 for four panels.  I hemmed them to just below the window frames because I was so tired of them getting caught in her bed linens.  They stay neat now without my intervention!

What do you think?  Did you like the pink more?  I know... it's a tough call!

Elizabeth's Room Evolves... AGAIN! {Chair}

When we last left off in the Elizabeth room saga, I was talking about rugs and paint.  My goal was to keep all of the furniture because this was supposed to be a "quick change".  Hmm...

I had been thinking for quite a while that the chair was not working in her room generally. Although it was cute, it was not comfortable for reading or really sitting for any period of time.  It was also very small so I could not read the kids stories.  I had explored some other options on Overstock and other discount sites but with no real luck.  Some good contenders for $400 dollars but nothing that really struck me.  It had to be neutral to withstand any future fits of redecorating. This World Market chair is completely adorable and I almost bought it but decided it was no larger than the current chair.

Then I started thinking about Ikea...

Winner! So cute - compact size, washable slipcover... Yet, big enough for reading.

My mom and I took a quick trip to Ikea over the Christmas week.  We picked up a couple of small treasures and this chair.  You can imagine Handy Hubby's face when I told him he had to pack the chair as well as Christmas gifts in the car for the trip home from my brother's!  hehehe

It's so perfect though...

What do you think?

Elizabeth's Room Evolves... AGAIN! {Rug}

When I started thinking about Elizabeth's room redesign, I first thought we could just paint and all would be fine, but alas... no.

The bedding was not going to work, and then it quickly became clear that the rug was not going to work.  There was not a speck of blue in either and the contrast would be too obvious.  Bummer.  Bedding I knew I could replace for under $100 and then sell her old stuff.  I achieved both of those goals so net net I only paid about $25 for Elizabeth's new blue bedding.  I'll show you the new bedding in all its glory week, promise.

But, the rug was a bigger problem.  

First, finding a rug with blue in it that is neither too gray or too teal/green was a more difficult prospect than I expected.  I definitely wanted a pattern and I didn't want it to be too light (she is 6 after all).  Given the chance, Elizabeth would have chosen a light blue shag rug but, as I said before, 6 year olds get to advise but not pick.  I pick.  I promised her it would be cozy like her current rug but not shag.

After a bit of trial and error, and several trips to HomeGoods (no luck there - what has happened to their selections anyway?!).  I found one rug on Joss & Main but it arrived with large dirty footprints all over it.  And it was too green, so that went back.  Then I found the great trellis rugs on Overstock.  They have a TON of varieties, but I liked this one...

I had a 10% off coupon before Christmas so it came out to about $160.  Really not bad considering the quality. I first thought I would pick the blue but then I started to wonder if I should go with something more neutral and settled on the slate.  It has a tan background and the blue was less prominent so it wouldn't be an issue if it was slightly off from the other blues in the room.

It arrived and I fell in love.  The blue is perfect with the walls and the background will not show any dirt.  Woohoo!

If the pile wasn't so high on the trellis, I would order one in another color for the living room!  The best part... doesn't shed. Elizabeth's old Pottery Barn Kids rug shed like CRAZY.  There were tumbleweed wool balls rolling down my hallway for the first 6 months!  Crazy annoying for someone who despises vacuuming (and thus only Roombas).  But, it was in perfect condition so I was able to sell it for $125 on Craigslist.  I swear, there is a resale premium on anything Pottery Barn!  So, the new rug netted out at less than $50.  Handy Hubby does not enjoy my redecorating math because it does not include the value of his time. Hah!

So, that's the new rug. Pretty, isn't it?  

Elizabeth's Room Evolves... AGAIN! {Paint}

I was looking back at the blog archives and saw that almost exactly 2 years ago we made some changes to my daughter's room to make it more her for the longer term.  Now here we are 2 years later with some more drastic changes.  Fortunately the cost was relatively reasonable overall, but I'll break that down a bit later.

After a lot of thought, I decided that we would paint her fabulously pink room blue.  At first I was sad and then I started to get excited just as I usually do about decorating projects. So, Handy Hubby woke up to his worst nightmare last Saturday morning: me in my painting clothes.  Haha.  He tried to roll over and go back to sleep but then fairly quickly came to his senses and got out of bed. After breakfast, we sanded down the putty covered holes we had covered the night before, taped off the baseboards, and moved the smaller furniture and rug out of the room, and put down drop cloths.  Actually, Elizabeth sanded most of holes - she earned her new room makeover!

We also removed her cherry blossom wall decal which was not quite as easy as I had hoped.  

Elizabeth pulled most of it down and then I scraped the residue off with a putty knife. Then I washed the wall with low-odor paint thinner to get any remaining residue off.  It took about 30-45 minutes total but you can not tell it was there. 

Then I cut-in while Handy Hubby rolled the paint - Sherwin Williams Emerald matte paint in Hinting Blue.  After lunch we rolled a second coat and then we had this.  

The paint wasn't quite dry in the picture above so it looks a little spotty but it dried nicely.  We probably could have done just one coat on the sheetrock walls but the plaster walls absorb paint like nothing else so that definitely needed two coats.  By 3 p.m., we were pretty much done.

I really love the color!  It's not very bold and in the sunlight, it's a bit washed out and beachy which I like.  I really hope she likes it for at least 5 years or Handy Hubby is going to lose his mind!

Lots more details to come.