It may come as a shock to you…but, I don’t DO resolutions. Nope. They never work. I try. But LIFE gets in the way, I get side tracked easily … Look! Something shiny!… I am a habitual procrastinator and whirling dervish task accomplisher that likes to see the fruits of my labor nearly instantaneously, or at least within a calculatable (it’s a word) amount of time. And, I get kinda frustrated if I don’t make my end goal, which turns the people around me into lightening rods. Some could also maybe call this a lack of discipline but, I don’t venture to go there. Rather than resolutions I have a “To-Do” list. It’s written on PAPER. I have a special notebook AND, it has a clipboard on it and lemons… It’s totally cute. I scratch things off when they are complete. If I accomplish something that wasn’t on the list I add it and then scratch it off… you know you do the same.
Some tasks can be benign. “Shower today”, “go to the bank”, “vacuum”, etc.. Some are loftier tasks that are to be completed by season or within the coming year. “sand, re-cane and paint kitchen chairs”, “demo kitchen backsplash and replace with subway tile”, “rip out stairway carpet and refinish stairs”. Some of these tasks (like EVERY.SINGLE.ONE I just listed) are carryovers from the last year (and actually from the year before that). The fact that they are still on my list doesn’t mean I failed at my “resolve to accomplish”, it just means that I did SOOO many other things that I couldn’t pull it together enough to tackle it all.
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Seriously though, 2018 is my YEAR ya’ll! I’m GOING to get to those three things… and hopefully a whole lot more that may not even appear on my list because, there are also some things that do not warrant a line item. Shout less, be kinder, reach out to old friends more often, tell my boys how much I love them more, and focus more on being healthy. The things that we all chat about, aim to achieve but that should bullet pointed on our internal lists and not necessarily on paper.
So, in the vein of to-do lists… I know you spent your whole holiday vacation wondering how that Guest Room refresh teaser I posted on IG actually turned out. Well, this guest room was NOT on any of my lists. Not really anyway. It was something that I knew I eventually wanted to tackle as we increasingly have more guests staying there (this is our 2nd guest room) but it was so far down on “the list” that I didn’t even give it a second thought. Until an 11th hour decision to quickly pull it together enough so it was not the drab sea of grey and amalgamation of mismatched and wayward furniture not fit for other areas of the house. Wanna see the before? Be warned, the following includes graphic images that you may want to look at through slightly covered eyes.
Yuck, right? Let me explain. This is the bedroom area of the apartment above our garage. We have a primary guest room in the main part of the house (which truthfully, is only half finished as well), but this is our secondary. For a long time we had our dear sweet rockstar Nanny living there. She was AWESOME… and she also came with all of her own stuff so we didn’t need to worry about what the space looked like. Then she left to explore other adventures and we had the space back to use for guests. Realistically, it is crazy convenient. It also has a sitting room and ugly little kitchenette which will both get a refresh before the summer and our prime entertaining season (I will spare you those spaces, for now). It’s the perfect spot for friends with kids because it has 2 living spaces. BUT… that was about it. The walls are this funky slightly padded kind of thing which at first we thought might be sound proofing but actually isn’t. There was also paneling… lots of it. Trust me, I am actually shocked that I still have these pictures because I usually don’t have a “before”. They kinda make me want to throw up a little but now that it is slightly prettier I’m OK.
The furniture is all hand me downs… the bed was from an Aunt, the chair was a carryover from my husband’s great aunt Myrtle (awesome name, right?) and was probably a FORTUNE back in the day when it was made but is currently a mass of lumpy down crammed into a slip cover I sewed when we were first married. For now it stays cause it kinda matches and it’s too friggin heavy to move back down the stairs. The bedside tables were cast offs from other family members and were meant to be replaced by Christmas… if only the stupid Craigslist dude I was supposed to be getting a pair of campaign tables from actually pitched up.
The lamps… OH MY GOD THE LAMPS… they were the catalyst for this whole project. I mean sure, I am all about hunt scenes and pheasants, etc. as much as the next girl, but they were a hot MESS. When I found the Caspari Wrapping paper (my something ‘shiny’) there was one of those little cartoon light bulbs that went off above my head. In the supermarket, Aisle 8, there I was, pondering like a Rodin Statue of what I could do with it.. ‘cause I don’t know about you but at $12 bones a roll you can be sure as shit I wasn’t going to wrap a present with it. But, I had to have it. By the time I reached the check out line it’s purpose was clear. DECOUPAGE!!!!!!!!!!! And in the style of if you give a “Moose a Muffin” one thing led to another. Next thing I knew I was knee deep into my fabric stash and sewing pillows. Lots of pillows. And some paintings. And… you know the drill.
Then I needed drapes. BADLY. Enter a kismet trip worthy of praise from my dear IG bargain hunting friend Melinda Jennings… seriously she is the Goodwill QUEEN ya’ll… we are talking GOALS! Anywho.. I know Melinda’s thrift gods were shining down on me because check this out… this was ONE pair of drapes.. faux silk… multi colored buffalo check and LONG… long enough to trim and make valances, wide enough to split each panel into two.. and they where… wait for it … $4.50!!!! FOR THE PAIR!!!!! Yep… major win. That just sent me over the edge with giddiness.
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So, while this is no epic ONE ROOM CHALLENGE level of a refresh, and is still not finished it is by all means FAR better. Sure you will spy these fabrics elsewhere throughout the house but you know what? Who cares. I tacked on a “Resolve to do/finish” and managed to make it happen. That’s not a bad way to close out a year of projects and if you ask me is a pretty darn good way to consider how much I can tackle in 2018. So, cheers to “To-Do” lists. To realistic goals. To the unwritten efforts that have a special file in our heads and hearts. And to making our world a little prettier one roll of wrapping paper at a time. Happy 2018 my friends!
XO,
Pippa