Thursday, April 21, 2022

Finding The Joy In Becoming Empty Nesters



I had my first child just a couple of months after turning 18, and my second at age 20.  After I got remarried, my husband and I adopted a son (I was 32). Then after years of miscarriage and infertility, I got pregnant with my youngest daughter ( at age 35). 13 months later, we had a son (at age 36).   I am now 55 years old, and for the first time in my entire adult life, I’m about to be without children living at home. That’s over 37 years! 

One of the ways I have always dealt with the grief (and yes it is grief) of each of my babies leaving the nest, is to throw myself into one of the things that I enjoy most. DECORATING!

When the older kids moved out, we usually just played “musical rooms”. At one time all three of the younger kids were in one room, but as one child moved out, we’d move another child into that room. However, as the younger kids have started moving out, we’ve been left with rooms that do not necessarily need to function as bedrooms anymore. This leaves me with lots of options! 

I’ve made my daughter’s room a place to store all my crafts, but since the bed is built-in, I decided to leave it. It also gives us an extra bed for anyone spending the night. 





My youngest son just moved out a couple of weeks ago, so now I’m in the process of turning his room into a dressing closet. When it’s finished, I’ll finally be able to see all of my shoes! No more digging them out of boxes!!! I can’t wait!


More photos to come...



Thursday, October 14, 2021

The Bathroom Gets an Update Too

I knew when I added the new color to our home’s color palette, the bathroom would be getting painted too, but after living with the new color on the fireplace wall, I was even more convinced. I’m so in love with it. 




Some new towels, a new shower curtain, and a few fall accessories, was all that was needed to completely change the feel of the room. 



Below is the new palette color for @VaughnHillHome’s interior
You’ll be seeing the green and yellow pop up in the future 😉
                      

Now…what other things should I paint??? 🤔

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Adding a New Color to the Vaughnhillhome Color Palette



For a while now I’ve been feeling like our home could use another color to add a little depth to the current color palette. 
I had been considering a deep charcoal grey, but to make absolutely sure, I decided to test it on some of my lamps that didn’t quite fit. That way I could see the color throughout the day, and into the evening with the lights on. 

SW outerspace was exactly what I was looking for! It’s dark and moody with a hint of blue, and looks great in all light conditions in my home. 

The lampshades still looked a little “beachy” to me, so I also stained the shades to warm them up a bit. 


Once I was sure of the color, I recruited my youngest son to paint the entire fireplace wall for me. 


I was super impressed with his painting skills! He is 18 years old and just started painting less than a year ago. It was the first time I’d been able to watch him in action. He did great, and he seems to really enjoy his new occupation. 

The living room side of the wall looks amazing! I really love how it turned out!


 
The dining room side is equally impressive! 




This is now the updated color palette. 
Next up is the hall bathroom. 😉

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Details



That little dimmer knob was driving me crazy!
I got this oil rubbed bronze one on Amazon. 


Come on... you gotta admit this looks so much better!!! 


Now I can work in my office without being distracted by that ugly knob. 😉

Sunday, March 21, 2021

A year later...

After almost a year of working from home(which is so incredibly hard to believe), I finally picked up my office equipment from our downtown office. Until now, I'd been working from my laptop off of TV trays.

This gave me an opportunity to update our home office, and convert the attached "playroom" into my personal office sitting room. (You all know how much I enjoy making over a room, so any excuse will do. lol)

 The office is in the basement, and it can get quite cold in that room. So the first thing I did was purchase a space heater.  I looked for the cutest one I could find, that would still heat the room effectively. 
I found this one on  Amazon. It got decent reviews, but it didn't come in the color I wanted. I went ahead and purchased it, and just painted it black to blend into the wall. Then I found this super cute mantel shelf. I had actually found it on another website first, but Amazon had it cheaper. Also, with Prime, I received it in just a couple of days.  I ALWAYS make sure to look for items on Amazon before purchasing elsewhere, and visa versa. I purchase a lot of things online, so I'm always looking for the best price.  
See that dimmer knob that sticks out like a sore thumb??? I have a replacement coming tomorrow!

This is the attached sitting room. It used to hold all of their toys when the kids were little, and it was the room they played video games as they grew up. Now that we're getting close to being empty nesters, I can finally start converting some of the extra rooms that they no longer need.
We installed the wainscoting and grasscloth wallpaper, and painted the ceiling white. We had done this last year in Reese's new room, and I just loved it!  I thought it would look great in here too.
This cute rug has been around for many, many years. I used it in our living room a long time ago, but it has been in my office at work for the last several years. It's still in excellent condition, and I still absolutely love it.  
As you probably remember from previous blogs, we started painting all of our interior doors SW Tricorn Black, just before quarantine. This is one of the last rooms to finally get done. We had already painted the French door, but the closet doors hadn't been done yet.   
The cabinet has been around for a long time also. I just keep painting the inside panels to match the decor of the room.  This time I painted it black, and did the French love letter stencil again. If you've been following me very long, you've seen this before ;) Now it holds office supplies, and some of my extra decor items.
This is also the room the kids used to use when they had friends spend the night. It's a sleeper sofa, so it came in handy since they have twin beds in their bedrooms. I promised it to my son for his new house as soon as I get my apartment sized sofa from the office. (I still do not have any of my big pieces from my work office) Because it's brown, I didn't think it would go with the new decor. However, I'm now thinking I don't hate it. hmmmm 

This TV stand was a piece I got for free when I purchased a 'lot" at a local auction many, many years ago.  When I first got it, I painted it white, removed the drawers, and replaced them with these huge baskets.  For this makeover, we sanded it down to reveal the wood top and to repaint the body. However, once it was sanded down, I really loved the "extreme distressed" look, so I decided to just change out the knobs and leave it as is.  I used some dark wax on the top to bring out the grain.  My husband said it is now one of his favorite pieces. 




I do still have a few more pieces that haven't arrived yet, but these rooms are practically done. As soon as Joey moves to his new house, his room is next!!!  :)

Monday, August 17, 2020

The Pergola is Finished...Well Almost 😉

Randy finished building the new structure for the pergola yesterday, and hung the new fans. We finally have a nice, cool place to sit when it’s hot out. The only problem is, the waterproof canvas cover that I bought is about 5 feet too short. The new one should be here in about 4 weeks. 





I found this cute outdoor bench, that I didn’t even remember I had, when we cleaned out the storage unit. I had purchased it in 2008! 😂