The mud room plan

Hello errrrybody! How are you? It’s been a HOT one this week – I’m not complaining (yet) because it’s the first 90+ temps we’ve had all summer. And tomorrow it’s supposed to cool down again. It’s really been an amazing summer!

So I’m busy working on our bedroom right now, but my mind easily wanders when it comes to projects and decorating around here. If you haven’t noticed I’ll start one thing and get an idea and then move on to something else because I have a great idea I just have to do. It’s very much “Oh look, a butterfly!” Or in this case…a mudroom.

That’s what I’ve been thinking about a ton lately. Ours has been sitting half way done for years. It started when I replaced the floor, and then last year we moved the the laundry down to the basement (best decision ever). It used to be a combined mud/laundry room and it drove. me. nuts. The picture tells it all:

It looks much better now (well, it’s still bright yellow, which is making me itch) – but the clutter (shoes!!) is creeping back in. I have an idea to address some of that till we finish the room but otherwise it’s just going to be slightly messy until we get some storage up in here.

I know I’ve said it a million times, but it takes me a while before I know exactly what I want to do with a room. I’ve sat on this one long enough that the plan and ideas are finally coming together in my head. Like other spaces though, the updates need to be made in a certain order, which slows me down a bit.

The big decision I’m struggling with now is whether or not to keep the flooring as is or do hardwoods. I don’t want tile in here because it flows into our family room and I want a nice transition that you don’t really notice. The vinyl tile that’s in there looks great because it’s a similar color to our floors. A few years ago I would NEVER have considered hardwoods, but now that I’ve lived with them for awhile I love them and how they hold up – even to the occasional water.

These vinyl tiles are holding up great, it’s the grouted spots between them that’s not looking the best. So I need to make that decision quick, because I want to move on this space. Here’s my plan, told through inspiration pics, of course. :)

First up, the lighting – you can’t tell in that picture above, but our lighting in here is a long fluorescent light. GREAT light, but I’d love something prettier. We got the fluorescent for a reason – we wanted good light because we knew the laundry would be in there. We wanted to see the stains well I guess? :)

But now that’s not needed, and I’d like to do some regular lighting, maybe two of something? It’s a decent sized room so I think we’ll need more than one. This mud room is one of my all time favorites:

For MANY reasons, but I do love LOVE that light fixture. I think the round shape is fun.

I love the idea of adding color in the lights too, like this room:

Speaking of the ceiling – I know I want to do something fun. I’ve always loved the look of a planked ceiling – I just can’t decide if I want to go with color, like this one:

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Or natural wood, like this one I’ve loved forevah:

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I am leaning towards the natural wood, but it will depend on the lighting situation. We don’t get any natural light in that room, so I don’t want the ceiling to feel too heavy. Isn’t that beautiful though?

Next up – storage. This is what has taken me the longest to figure out. We have about five feet of space where the washer and dryer used to be – plenty of space but not a ton, so I want to use it well.

I know I want to go all the way to the ceiling with the built ins:

But I’m not sure if it will be closed like that one or open shelves like this:

Isn’t that room ADORABLE??

We have a shelf in there now that just ends up full of clutter (stuff I mean to take out to the garage/my car and hardly do) so I don’t know if I want it open. I know I need closed storage in there somewhere. And if we go all the way to the ceiling (nine feet), that area won’t be accessed regularly anyway since it will be so high. So it will probably be closed. Thanks for helping me decide. ;)

The biggie for me is the shoe storage. ARGH. The shoes!! (Shakes fists in air!) At first I thought I’d be OK with open storage for them underneath:

I figured I could use baskets and such. But the more I’ve thought over it, the more I know I want them put AWAY. Will they stay put away? That’s yet to be determined. We have a million shoes and wear the same ones over and over, so I think most of them will stay out of sight.

We have them in baskets now and it’s not working great. One, we have too many shoes. Working on that. Two, you have to dig through to find the ones you need and it makes a mess. Not great.

I love the idea of the bench opening up and hiding them all, like at my girl Traci’s old house: 

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I think that would be the easiest solution.

But I’ve been crushing on this secret door idea since I saw it years ago:

Like hard core…CRUSH. I know I can’t do this on my own though, so we’ll see. I heard from a friend after I posted this pic the first time years back that this is actually nearby in central Indiana – I need to do some investigating! :)

So there’s the biggies – the beadboard has already been up in most of the room but I need to wait on built in dimensions of the built ins before I finish that up. Paint will be easy – in my head I’ve been planning something a little different though. I may go with a color on the beadboard and white (or light) on the walls. I think it would look awesome!

Do you have a mud room? I consider myself lucky that we even have a space like this! It’s going to be SO fun to work on, I can’t wait! I’ll try to anyway. :) What would your dream mud room look like?

Have a great weekend!!

**I can’t find original sources for some of these pics – if you know of them let me know!

The power of a neutral wall

Happy Friday to you all! I’m so sorry for the late post, the Internet is not cooperating today so I’m lucky to even get this one out! This is my third location trying to get wifi – that’s dedication right there. ;)

So many of you have noticed lately that my style, it is a-changin. While I still love the look of a dark, dramatic room (and still have plans for one or two in the house), overall my preference has moved to lighter spaces.

I do struggle with having enough color in a room with lighter walls – I NEED my color. But I’ve had one too many instances where I couldn’t find drapery fabric/bedding/accents that work in a space because the look of the room was so dictated by the color of the (darkish) walls.

I’m realizing that there is great power in a neutral wall. I told you how I couldn’t decide on light or dark for our bedroom, but I made a decision soon after:

Yep. Light won. :) It’s a really light gray color (I can’t remember the name so I’ll have to look and update.)

I went light mostly because I didn’t want the room to become too dark (it already is with the current color). We only have one east facing window in there and I knew it would become a cave if I went any darker on the walls. And it felt like it would be a dark and depressing cave, not a cozy and comfortable cave. :)

But working on the powder room redo really opened my eyes to the decorating possibilities with lighter paint on the walls. I’ve already had plans to lighten up the family room and kitchen, and these inspiration photos kind of sealed the deal for me.

Here’s the thing – I’ve fallen in love with white kitchens over the years too. I drool over them. I love how clean and bright they are, but so color is SO easy to add in:

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I painted my kitchen island a similar blue, and I love that you could totally change up the look of the space with just a new color on the island. (And painting an island is WAY easier a whole room.)

I loved this bright kitchen with the soft yellow island by Sarah Richardson:

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That kitchen still feels so warm and comfortable to me, even with all the white.

And in a kitchen you can add a ton of color with a backsplash if you wish too:

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Of course that’s not an easy change down the road, but you could also add color with the chairs and accessories like this photo.

I found this kitchen on Houzz a few days ago and instantly fell in love:

Maybe it’s because I was still feeling the Americana love from the 4th, but I just adore the use of blue and red in there. SO welcoming.

These walls aren’t really neutral, really, but they are light. It just goes to show all the different colors you can bring in:

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I’d love a built in banquet like that by the way. Any time is fine.

You know I love a painted ceiling. With darker walls a painted ceiling will feel heavy and could make the space feel dark (I’ve done it and it does both) – but in a lighter room it’s just a beautiful, unexpected accent color:

OK, but seriously, make sure you love that ceiling color. It’s a pain in the patoot to redo. (Again, ask me how I know.)

With a lighter wall color the less expensive, easier decorative stuff (like pillows and accessories) can be changed out more often if you wish:

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Although I would totally paint the back of those built ins. ;)

Like I said, I have loved our darker bedroom for quite some time, but it’s been SO hard to decorate. The greenish/gray wall color made it difficult to even find accessories that I liked. And bedding? That took FOREVER.

This light gray/blue color is so pretty – there’s not a ton of color in this room but the dark blue pillows totally pop:

I could see a big print on the drapes too – that would be amazing in that space. (Like that room needs my advice.)

In a more neutral room you can do a darker accent wall too – or a really fun wallpaper you wouldn’t normally use on in a whole space:

And this photo (which is one of my all time favorite spaces by the way), is a great example of how a lighter space doesn’t always mean stark and bland – the accessories, art and furniture add plenty of texture and color:

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All that gorgeous, thick molding sure doesn’t hurt either. 

I still don’t think I could do white walls though, do you? Do you have them and love them? I had plenty of white walls in apartments over the years so I don’t think I’ll ever go that far in the light direction.

You’ve probably noticed I’ve gone lighter as time goes on, and I think that will just continue. What do you think? Of course color on the walls doesn’t always mean it will be dark and hard to decorate – I’m just speaking from my experience. Years ago I used a lot of very deep, saturated colors in our house and it was such a struggle to make changes in those rooms. It can be done – it just takes a lot more talent and patience than I have most days. ;)

Are you leaning light these days? Or do you still love your color on the walls and not on your shelves?

Dark or light side?

Hello all! Hope you had a great weekend! We took a little road trip to the Chicago area for a couple drum corp shows (for hubby), Legoland (for the kiddo) and IKEA (for me). It was a fun, quick trip!

So now that the powder room is done I’m moving on to a room I’ve been itching to change up for a while – our master bedroom. I made some changes earlier this year using things I already had, and the room got a few other changes a couple years ago.

We have a new addition coming to the room that kind of spurred a new redo on but I’ve been wanting to change some things up for a while – No. 1 on my list is getting rid of the striped wall behind our bed. It’s given me the itches for a few years now.

But my biggest dilemma before I can really get moving is the wall color – I’m torn between the allure of a deep, dark wall color and the light and bright look. I STILL can’t decide. Every time I think I have I see a new picture and it takes me back to the dark side. Or light. Or dark.

You get the idea.

I’m drawn to the moody, comfy feeling of a dark room:

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Did you notice the trim is painted the same color as the walls? What do you think of that?

Although if I went dark I would keep the headboard light like Dear Lillie’s room:

The light bedding brightens up the room and gives great contrast – I’m a lover of contrast you know.

I actually have a sample of a deep navy color like Carmel’s room:

Mine has a little more of an aqua tint to it, if that makes any sense – like a peacock blue. Can I just say how much I LOVE that mirror above her bed too??

In general I think it’s easier to pull in colors with a lighter room, but I love how color was used in this room, even with the dark walls:

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I do love the pop of pink with the dark chocolate walls in this bedroom:

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Just not sure the hubby would go for that. ;)

Here’s a great example of how a darker color completely changes the look of a room:

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There’s plenty of other changes too, but isn’t funny how much bigger it looks in a dark color? You always think it will be the opposite but that’s not always the case.

But here’s the thing – I’m finding I’m loving the power of a neutral wall color. It’s soothing, yes, but it also allows you more options when it comes to decorating with color:

My friend Layla’s old master bedroom is one of my favorites:

I love that the walls and bedding are light but the room is still so warm and colorful.

I think it’s evident by my photos (and recent projects) that I’m loving the wall planks:

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I just adore that room – I think every room can take some black pieces and this looks amazing with the white walls and green accents. Love!

And no, I’m not planking our bedroom walls – I need a break from the painting for awhile. ;)

Of course it doesn’t have to be white on the walls – I don’t think I could do an all white room anyway. This greige-ish space is just beautiful:

I love that you could pull in pretty much any accent color and it would work. It’s that a gorgeous room?

I love this blue color too – and it proves that a lighter color can still offer plenty of contrast against white trim:

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I also love that there are plenty of darker accents in there (rug, chairs, ottomans) that offer some depth without making the room really heavy.

Overall I just love the idea of a calming, serene space:

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But the thing is, our current wall color is darker (Tornado Watch at Lowe’s) and it feels super cozy too:

A dark room feels like a hug to me, a lighter one feels like a big breath of fresh air.

Decisions, decisions.

A few months ago I was getting ready to slap a deep color on the walls, now I’m leaning big time toward a light color. I think I’m ready for a change!

What is your favorite for a bedroom – dark or light? Do/did you struggle with your wall color like me or did you know exactly what you wanted? Do tell!

P.S. I also painted the Bub’s room a dark blue but kept it light with lots of white trim – you can see it here.