Rooms with a purpose

I've been thinking about the rooms in my home. I read somewhere that you should think about each room and it's purpose. Well, that's fair enough but I haven't done that with all the rooms. However, I have done it with the front room and my bedroom. I tend to use my bedroom as the catch all for everything out of place in the rest of the house whenever someone shows up. Shove it all in the bedroom and shut the door. but then it stays there for awhile and my bedroom becomes this place that I hate. It's messy and I find it harder to sleep. And then as soon as I wake up I feel discouraged with how messy it is. So a couple of weeks ago (while Josh was putting the shed together the first day with the "help" of the girls) I totally cleaned my room. And then I redecorated a little. I moved my big tall dresser that was by Josh's side of the bed that he kept bumping his head and/or arm on and replaced it with a small dresser that was in the front room as a side table. That left a blank wall so I made a wreath to go on the wall. I took the mismatched picture frames off the shelf and remembered that I had some old green books and an old red bound book. So i put them and my favourite smelling candles and my one and only Willow tree figurine (hint hint) and voila...a nice bedroom. (don't look too close at the green books, I bought them off ebay and they are the old Happy Hollister books. not really books for an adult's bedroom but they look nice and were the right colour.) =) A couple days later I made a garland of praise that looks really nice too with dark green hearts and a green and brown ribbon. It hangs under the little shelf. I also had bought some candles and sconces from a Partylite party that Gwen held. They are a little small for the wall they're on (opposite the bed) so next party I'll buy one more. I LOVE the candle thingy hanging above the bed. I got it at Target for half price and wish I had bought two. It isn't centered over the bed because it is centered between the wall and the window and the bed can't be centered because of the side table. but we have to have a clock somewhere so that's life. I also added a rocker and footstool. I'd prefer a recliner but we don't have room. Anyway, I'm still working on the whole no kids allowed thing. They've recently decided they prefer showers to baths and our shower is twice as big as their's. And we also need to split Catie and Emma up for naptime so one of them always sleeps in our bed. But still, keeping the room tidy at all times (except Josh's side of the bed and I can't see that) and making it pretty has created a peaceful room that I just love walking into. I've been sleeping better and I feel peaceful and content in that room. All that's left is to repaint a deeper sage-y green colour. But I need to talk Josh into that. =)

That room gave me so much satisfaction that I turned to the other room with a specific purpose in my house--the front room. I have children in my home all day so my home will always look like children live in it. There's no hope for it and it really doesn't bother me. But I wanted a room that was nice and had no toys in it. So the front room is sort of a retreat room. The girls are definitely allowed in there but to read books or to play quietly. It's a nice room to have when friends come over as the children can play or watch a dvd and the adults can go in the front room and have a nice chat. Today I totally cleaned that room including the windows. They were disgusting but that's beside the point. I recently bought suede covers for the couch and chair. Our poor couch split all it's seams and has been without seat cushion covers for over a year now. But I was tired of using a sheet for the seat cushion covers and covering everything else up with throw pillows. I like the suede, it doesn't quite fit but I'm working on that too. I bought some cute fabric that has the Texas flag and bluebonnets on it. I'm trying to figure out how to make some throw pillow covers and a blanket with it. I also want to paint a little trio of birds over the door like this and I'm thinking about doing a little hedgehog along the baseboard somewhere. I'm slowly getting that room to look like the picture in my head but even while I do that it is a nice quiet place to read a book or have a conversation and when people come to the front door there aren't toys laying everywhere. It's also a great room for when we have Wednesday night Bible study although it's a little small.

Obviously other rooms in my house have specific purposes but they also have several purposes. My kitchen is definitely a work kitchen and very rare are the times when absolutely everything is put away and it is sparkling clean. Of course part of that is due to the fact that when I have a really clean kitchen it makes me want to bake something. =) This way I have two peaceful rooms in the house that stay fairly tidy all the time. The girls are slowly learning to tidy up on their own but a house with three children will always have toys and whatnot scattered around. And I will never have a house that looks like it came out of a magazine. But that's okay. Because the highest compliments I've ever received on my house are that my house is "comfy" and "homey" and "easy to be in." That to me is better than anything else.