Top Ten Projects Before the End of the Year

 

Now that I have my beloved new day planner, I find myself truly all about the goal-making. I'm sure this is mostly because I dearly love to cross things off my list. :) Can't do that if I don't have a list, now, can I? 

My pinnning game has been strong lately, as I mark things for here or there that I really love and hope to someday do in our home. But alas, we can't do it all at once, either from a time or money perspective, so yesterday I decided to look over everything from the perspective of a little distance, so I could figure out which projects are most important to me. 

We have six months left in this year, which means it feels reasonable to pick ten things I'd love to do between now and the end of 2022, project-wise in our home. Now, becasue I'm sure my mom's head just fell straight into her hands at the idea of TEN PROJECTS, I would like to quickly submit that these are not huge projects. They're just finishing touches that sit at risk of never being completed if I don't make them a priority.

Also, some of these may be a surprise to Ryan. SURPRISE, RYAN!!!!!!!! Also also...these are in no particular order.

1. Pretty up the mailbox.

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Ryan laughingly pointed out the other day that of the new houses on our street, the mailboxes get progressivly plainer as they go, and ours wins for most basic. That is, in part, because we had to buy our mailbox in a fat hurry after we closed on the house. Our build did not come with a box (sometimes they do, depending on the neighborhood, but ours did not) and we needed to be able to receive mail right now. We chose a very basic, bland, boring (you pick the word you like) standard box that would win ZERO design awards, but it functions at 100% in its main job of receiving our mail. 

We talked about ditching it and getting a fancier box, but I told Ryan that seemed so wasteful to me. It's practical and not ugly, in my opinion, so let's keep it. We already took the first step of ordering a cute little address vinyl cutout for the sides, and we installed those a while back. (We ordered from here.) Now that the yard is done, Ryan can fully and permanently set the box, which is currently shoved in the ground, mostly straight. Maybe someday down the road, we can splurge on a fancy box, but in the meantime, I think some sort of small and minor landscaping around it will go a long way in making it lovely. It will be a quick project with minimal material needs, but I think it can pack a big punch. I need to do quite a bit more research on this one, but the photo above shows the basic level I'm looking for. 

2. Pretty up the lamp post.

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Similarly to the mailbox project, we have one other little quick outside landscaping project that would not take much time or money in materials, but it would make a big difference in the look of things. We have a Narnia-esque lamppost in our front yard, and the landscapers didn't do anything to it. We noticed they mulched around the neighbors' lamp, but perhaps they asked for it as an upgrade. 

The post itself is thin enough that trying to mow/weed around it would be kind of a pain. But I think it wouldn't take too much in time or effort to decorate it and maybe even tie it in to whatever we do to the mailbox! 

This is a project that I also haven't researched in great depth to see exactly what I want to do, but the idea above shows the simplicity I'm after. I don't need it to be major!

3. Figure out how to effectively decorate the front porch.

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There isn't much about this house that falls on a "don't like" list, but there are a couple of things we perhaps would have chosen differently if we had been around for the design portion of the adventure. One thing is our front porch. It is not a sitting porch, unless you like to sit on the welcome mat. That is literally the only room we have for sitting. 

Our front porch is basically a little cove that holds the front door. There aren't steps. In truth, there's barely an inch or two of room to the side of the door with which to decorate at all. Other than throwing out a wreath and welcome mat (which we have done), I have not yet been able to figure out how to make it a cute and welcoming space. I've tossed around the idea of painting the door to make it brighter, but that seems silly, since its existing color is brand new. 

From there, I've spent quite a bit of time on Pinterest, looking for ideas to incorporate plants (to an area that gets very little light) or other forms of texture and color. I have a few ideas, but I would like to make it a point of focused work before the end of the year. I've seen some ideas for hanging signs on the side of the actual house, for incorporating faux plants, and for using a very slender bench to create depth. I like all those ideas and will see what I can do using what we have. 

The photo above is one of my inspiration pieces. 

4. Finish the foyer wall hangings.

This one should, hypothetically, be fairly easy to do. I've showed you the part of the foyer that we have completed, and I simply adore what we've done. It's one of my favorite corners of our house, actually. But the opposite wall is blannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnk. I have a plan. I just haven't finished it.

The opposite wall is where I want to hang the watercolor paintings of our Marion and Kokomo houses, and I've commissioned my friend Amber to paint WillowBridge (when she has time) and this house (after it has a yard and we can take pictures of what it might look like) to complete the wall of homes where we've lived.

Because the project is only half done, I haven't put ANY of those paintings up yet, so that wall is just big and blank. The two completed paintings are framed, and I have a frame for what will be the WillowBridge picture. So I need to get one more frame and then go ahead and hang up all four. I can put "coming soon..." in the two empty frames and at least that wall will look a bit more polished. I can insert the paintings as Amber is able to complete them! 

5. Stencil an accent wall.

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A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon this post of a foyer accent wall that the homeowner freehanded above her board and batten. It inspired me to combine that idea with a paint technique I saw once and really liked. The technique I saw used the idea of painting a wall in either matte or glossy paint and then using the opposite to stencil or paint geometric lines. They used the same color in both parts of the project. They just used glossy for part of it and matte for part of it. It made the design more subtle, and I liked that.

So I'd like to use a simple stencil to make an accent above our board and batten in the foyer area and maybe on that clock wall I showed you last week. I know it would take a little bit of time, but the end result would be worth it, I think. I have this idea for a stencil, but I'm not sure I'm completely sold on it yet. 

The photo above shows the painting technique, and here is a bigger description of how to achieve it. I actually like the design in the picture, too. Very flowy.

6. Figure out how to decorate the laundry room.

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This is the first time ever that I've had my OWN laundry room. I've been slowly moving up the laundry-room ranks in my adult life. In our Marion house, the washer and dryer were in the main bathroom. After Ryan and I were married, we redid things a little to get a stackable/washer and dryer, and that changed the whole look of that room and gave us so much more space! In our Kokomo house, the washer and dryer were in a hall closet, and I loved that. It was so fun to have laundry in its own space. 

Then we went to WillowBridge, and we had an actual laundry ROOM for the first time. It was every bit as grand as I imagined it would be, but it wasn't ours, so we couldn't do a ton to it. Then we came here, and we have an actual laundry room! 

It's perfect in its functionality, but it's very small. Pretty much only has room for the washer and dryer - and Lexi's litter box and water bowls. I have held off decorating it, because I can't figure out which direction I want to go with my decor! I've scoured Pinterest and made a few ideas, but so far, it's just still very utilitarian. I'd love to have SOMETHING up on the wall in there by the end of the year. (We have some laundry decor, even. I just haven't put it up yet.)

The photo above shows about how much room I have to work with, though nothing about the room is the same in colors of cabinetry or appliances. Still. That's one dreamy room. 

7. Hang those back porch lights!

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If you read the Saturday Six this past week, you saw I did a little dreaming for our back patio and yard areas. I know that realistically, all that combined space will take months - years, even - to grow into a mature-looking space. I'm completely fine with that. I think that's why I want to do the little things as I can - like the mailbox landscaping, prettying up the light pole, and making the back patio area look a little more cohesive.

One of my favorite ideas from the back porch list on Saturday was the hanging light display. I found some similar to the inspiration piece (seen above) and hope we can hang those before the end of the year. It's far too hot this week to sit on the porch, but come fall -which I am not hurrying along - it would be grand to sit beneath them!  I also think something so (seemingly) simple would make a big statement!

8. Finish decorating Lexi's corner

Lexi has her own little bedroom corner in our house, and I have ideas for decorating it, but it's not done yet! We purchased a sign on clearance at Hobby Lobby several weeks ago, and I need to get it hung above her bed, but I also want to print the picture I made for her bedroom area. (It's pictured above.)

I made it intending to get it on a canvas from a company I've ordered from before. They often run free-canvas-just-pay-shipping specials, so I watched for one, but alas, the shipping was MORE THAN THE PRICE OF THE CANVAS!!! Uh no. So now I'm trying to figure out how I want to print instead. But I love her little corner and want to finish it up so she has a proper bedroom. Is it overboard to add a rug...and stuffies...and more? :)

9. Figure out the guest room lamp situation and add the window candles back into the mix.

Fun fact that you may not know about me: I hate overhead lighting. Absolutely hate it. I appreciate that we have it as an option, because when there's a spider on the loose or something, I want as much lighting as possible. But in general, I much prefer soft lamp light throughout the house to harsher overhead lighting. And we have it everywhere...except the guest room. 

It's not that we don't have any. I actually think I have about six lamps sitting in the garage, awaiting further instruction. I just haven't figured out what I want in the guest room - or where. But the other night, Ryan took some pictures of our house - outside, from the road, after dark - and it was all so lovely, except the guest room, which was so dark, you couldn't even see it. Well, that's not going to work, is it? So I need to figure out my lighting in there, and I also need to see about finding rechargable batteries that fit our window candles! We received a whole set of window candles as a Christmas gift, and I LOVE THEM. But the batteries tank in them so quickly, and we don't really have the budget to replace them as often as they wear out. Ryan did some research and saw we could get rechargables, so we need to do that. I would love to see the candles in the window here. I think it would be the crowning touch!

The photo above is our guest room in Kokomo, before the Anne of Green Gables makeover, but it does show my love of lamps!

10. Find a cute and comfy office chair.

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Finally, on my list, is to find a cute and comfy office chair (or pair of them!) for our home office. We are currently using short wooden stools from IKEA that I would prefer to repurpose as plant stands. They work fine, but if I have a day when I get to spend hours upon glorious hours at my desk, my back is a bit achy by the end. Ryan has the same problem on his side of our shared desk.

I don't like the look of true office chairs - the big and clunky ones - and our flooring in the office is carpet, so there's no real need for the chair to roll. I want something comfortable, cute, and relatively small, since there isn't a ton of real estate for a big chair. 

I like the chair pictured above, and if you just want to see the cutest she shed ever, you can check out this post that goes along with it. I'm sure that chair is not in my budget AT ALL, but it's an inspiration piece! 

So there you go! My goals for the remainder of this year. I'll try to remember to check back in toward the last week of the year to let you know how we did on meeting them!