Decorating a rental home can be somewhat limiting and frustrating. In our two previous homes where we rented, I used renting as an excuse for holding back on decorating. Our current home may not exactly be our dream home or our forever home, but it is our home and a really great home at that. I spend a lot of time here as a stay at home and I want to feel content in my space. These desires are nothing new for me. I'm pretty sure a lot of these sudden strong nesting urges are pregnancy/hormone related.
It all started with the question of what to do with baby boy when he gets here, as far sleeping and room arrangements go. After throwing around a couple different options, Jay and I came to the agreement of switching the office (middle bedroom located next to the nursery/Evelyn's room) and the guest bedroom (last room at the end of the hall). Baby boy will most likely sleep in our bedroom in a bassinet for the first couple months. We'll have to play it by ear, but because we have such a large master bedroom and walk-in closet we figured it'd be safe to plan on him sleeping beside or bed or just across the room in the master closet. It doesn't make sense to invest in another crib, so once we feel he is ready to sleep in a separate room and in a crib, and more importantly once Evelyn is ready to sleep in a big girl bed, baby boy will move into the nursery (Evelyn's current room) and Evelyn will take the guest bedroom (middle bedroom, next to the nursery).
There wasn't much furniture in the guest room or the office which would make the switch pretty easy. The one hang up was the internet box... Basically the internet was wired specifically to that middle bedroom and moving it to our desired location (last room at the end of the hall/future office) would require a $60 visit from a Cox technician. Lame. My oh so handy father had been talking about making a trip up to see us within the next few weeks, and once I told him of our internet dilemma he felt confident he would be able to figure it out. We saved ourselves $60 and held out for a visit from dad before switching the rooms.
In the meantime I was planning out how we would arrange the rooms and got carried away with ideas on how to decorate our new guest room/Evelyn's future room. I had this vision and perfect color scheme in my head... Rich navy blue flowers painted on one wall, a new white dresser with gold knobs, gold accents around the room, new bedding, a full-length mirror... My vision was so specific I even sketched it out on a piece of paper and got permission from our landlord to paint flowers on the wall using a stencil. While pricing it out I came to find I could make it all happen and stay within the budget. It was going to be a beautiful space for my Evelyn and all our guests! There were a few changes I intended to make to the nursery as well. I was overall happy with the setup but felt it had the potential to be made more functional for Evelyn now, since it is still her room and will be for another few months at least.
After diligently researching Amazon and Walmart I came across a perfect flower stencil. And after a couple trips to Walmart I had all my paint supplies and the exact shade of navy blue I had been going for. Hoping to get the stencil work perfect on the walls, I practiced on a large poster board. The room was prepped and ready to paint, so one afternoon while Evelyn was asleep I went for it. And it was a total and complete fail! I forgot to consider the fact that our walls are not perfectly smooth, unlike the flat piece of poster board I had been practicing on. I couldn't paint over the stencil without paint bleeding in random spots onto the textured walls. It was not at all what I had envisioned. After a couple more failed attempts with the stencil I sat back wracking my brain on how to make it right. I concluded that it wasn't worth the time if it wasn't going to turn out right. So I shed a few tears as I painted over the sloppy stencil work, then back to Walmart where after a good fight I successfully returned my $8 quart of navy blue paint. It was difficult to let go of the idea of painting the room but I decided it'd make more sense to spend money on other things for the room and/or things around other parts of the house- things we could take with us when we move, since we are only renting.
In preparation for dad's arrival I basically spent two weeks taking inventory of our house and made a list of projects I wanted to accomplish during his visit. Not only did dad accomplish everything on the list but he added a couple things including building five large shelves for my picture frames downstairs, and extending our patio to a 12 by 16 foot space. The patio project is something dad suggested awhile ago and then brought up again just before driving up. Jay and I agreed against the patio simply because we didn't want to invest in our rental home. But dad, being the generous and wonderful man that he is insisted taking on the project. Our backyard consists of nothing but rocks. So while it's the biggest yard in the neighborhood, it also has the least amount to offer. Evelyn was the main motivator to the patio project. She loves being outside and we knew this new space would be beneficial to her. Dad was a machine and knocked out the patio within three days, leaving plenty of time for us to complete the smaller projects.
If we owned this house and planned to stay a few more years, I'm sure I could have come up with a few more projects. And I'm sure over the next year or so I'll find new ways to spruce up the place. The guest room/Evelyn's future room is still a work in progress but for now I'm content knowing the rooms have been switched and I can take my time putting the room together. With these small changes (along with a few not pictured) I'm feeling pretty dang satisfied with our home.
Patio:
Shelves:
Evelyn's room (before) :
Evelyn's room (after):
Office (before switching with guest room):
Office (after switching with guest room):
Guest bedroom (after switching with office):
Dad, the honey-do list master, made all of my home project/nesting dreams come true within four days. And per tradition replenished our freezer with ice cream. After he left on Friday morning the house felt terribly empty, as it always does after our visitor's leave. Evelyn brought me to tears that morning when she roamed the halls and empty guest room calling out for her papa. This man has raised eight kids and he continues to go above and beyond, and then beyond some more for each of them. I love him more than I can express and am sincerely grateful to have him as a father, and as a "papa" to my babies.
Ice cream at 10:30am. Only when papa comes to town.
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