Happy Saturday friends! Just popping in to say hi. I absolutely LOVE Friday nights and Saturday mornings, don't you? The promise of a whole weekend ahead. My kids are making happy messes in our craft room and I'm doing a little organizing. My favorite way to start the weekend! :) This sweet boy of mine […]
The post Weekend is off to a good start! appeared first on The Sunny Side Up Blog.
Happy Friday everyone! I have some fun favorites and clothes to share with you today! We are actually going to start with a couple of my mom's favorite things. Since I shared pics from her Retirement Party I thought I'd show you a few of the fun gifts she got. My mom's birthday happened to […]
The post Friday Favorites and Fashion! appeared first on The Sunny Side Up Blog.
Over 85 residential and commercial properties with a total value of over €11m will go under the hammer at the biggest Allsop Online Auction yet today.
Bidding for this auction opened at 8am and you can view the online catalogue by clicking here.
Ellen Prenderville, Online Auctions, Allsop, commented:
“Our latest online auction catalogue provides a wide selection of both residential and commercial properties throughout the country. Dublin properties feature prominently in this catalogue with a number of apartments and commercial investments on offer.”
She added: “Following on from the trend of our previous online auctions, we expect the level of bidders for this auction to increase in line with the number of properties.”
Over 25% of the online auction properties are located in Dublin – a mix of tenanted and vacant, offering great investment potential and contain attractive multi-unit properties, suburban apartments and houses. Headlining the auction is a multi-unit property on Northumberland Road – 3 x one bedroom apartments to be offered collectively as one lot, reserve range €625,000 – €675,000.
An attractive selection of apartments in Dublin are for sale including a first floor three bedroom duplex apartment in the Waterville housing development in Blanchardstown, reserve range €185,000 – €195,000; a first floor three bedroom apartment offering designated student accommodation close to DCU, reserve range €155,000 – €165,000; and a ground floor one bedroom apartment in Cherry Orchard, reserve range €55,000-€65,000.
The multi-unit properties offering great investment potential include four houses to be offered collectively as one lot together with remaining development lands in Kilkenny, reserve range €310,000-€320,000; 4 x three bedroom semi-detached houses in Sligo, reserve range €240,000-€260,000; and 6 vacant two bedroom apartments in Letterkenny, reserve range €145,000-€155,000.
The auction also presents appealing houses and apartments, many in costal or holiday locations providing great opportunities for home owners and investors alike. Highlights include a detached three bedroom house on the shores of Lake Mask, reserve range €170,000-€180,000; and an end of terrace four bedroom house beside the beach in Culdaff, Co. Donegal, reserve range €75,000 – €85,000. Other house purchase opportunities online include a semi-detached four bedroom house in Knocknacarra near Galway City, reserve range €205,000- €215,000, a mid-terrace four bedroom house in Killenard, Co. Laois, reserve range €245,000-€255,000; and a detached three bedroom house with office/study on the Meath/Kildare border, reserve range €145,000-€155,000.
This Online Auction is offering the largest quantity of commercial properties to date, over 20 retail, industrial and office properties, the majority of which are located in Dublin. Highlights include a Dun Laoghaire mid-terrace mixed use property arranged over ground and one upper floor comprising a ground floor take-away unit together with a first floor two bedroom apartment, reserve range €210,000-€230,000; a multi-unit trade counter investment in Millenium Business Park, Blanchardstown, reserve range €150,000 – €170,000; two adjoining warehouse units in Greenogue Business Park, reserve range €230,000-€250,000; and an end of terrace retail building together with an office and three warehouse buildings in Clonmel, reserve range €150,000-€170,000.
The post Allsop's biggest online auction yet taking place today appeared first on MyHome.ie Advice & Blog.
Hallelujah – the sun is back on the East Coast! So when it finally reappeared after weeks of rain, we broke out the camera and took some photos of our finally finished bonus room (well, “finished” is a loose term, since I don't think we're ever actually done tweaking things). We're happy to report that we crammed in a decent amount of fun, function, and a big ol' spot to sit down and never get back up again. The couch in here is truly a vortex that's impossible to resist. But I digress…
If you missed what got us to this point (and are wondering where the heck this room is), you can catch up on how we finished this unfinished storage space above our garage, added built-ins & shelves to fill the nook, and made a wire-free spot for the TV. It's hard for us to even remember that it looked like this back in January.
Overall, we wanted this room to feel fun and casual, and act as a bonus space for the whole family to enjoy. We're learning more and more that it's helpful to have a contained play area for the kids (i.e. not the door-less living room) and to have a shared play space upstairs (i.e. not one of their rooms). But we've been hesitant to call it a “playroom” because it also serves us grown-ups. It's great for movie nights, it sleeps our overflow guests, and even works out as a quiet space to sneak off and read (did I mention the door is one of my favorite features?).
Since you already know a little bit about what's in the room (like the TV wall and the built-ins) we'll fill in the rest of the blanks today. We consider these to be the five main functional “zones” of the room:
All but the dress-up corner and the wall of storage are visible in the photo below.
Let's start with the art desk. Apparently our kids like to have one on each floor of the house, because they're both getting tons of use lately. This spot has quickly become the first place they go in the morning before we head downstairs for breakfast. It has even made the elusive morning shower less of a dream and more of a reality. #winning
The desk and chairs were the luckiest hand-me-downs ever scored. When our neighbor heard we were adding a bonus room over the garage like hers, she asked if we could put them to use because her grandkids had outgrown them. They're from Pottery Barn Kids, and the chairs reminded us of our painted spindle-back chairs downstairs. The art is by Cat Coquillette (serpent | llamas | narwhals) who is one of our favorites for intricate and colorful art with awesome subjects (she also has donuts, cicadas, and a venus fly trap).
The little art supply trays were wooden spice racks from Ikea that we painted white, and then added some green to the front bar to tie them into the chairs. Coincidentally, that's actually green touch-up paint that we had leftover from our dining room buffet, which was a ridiculously close match to the chairs.
The clear plastic cups for the pencils, crayons, markers, and other art supplies were from Target. It was somewhat of a challenge to find containers that were small enough to fit, but when we realized a small soup can fit perfectly it became our reference point when we were out shopping. Bigger than the soup can? No dice. Plus, I kinda liked making Sherry tote around some chicken noodle in her purse at all times.
Next door to the art desk is the teepee, which we second guessed a few times because teepees felt, I dunno, kind of clichéd? But it turns out that so many people have them for a reason: kids love them. We asked a few friends if their teepees actually got used before buying ours (One answer: “every. single. day.” Another answer: “Yes, all the time if you put something cushy on the floor in there”). So we went for it. We bought this basic white one and added a large faux sheepskin rug to the bottom, making it comfy for the kids and apparently prime napping real estate for a certain chihuahua as well.
The teepee also comes in other patterns/colors, but we should point out (since it's not clear from their photo or ours above) that it's actually FIVE-sided, so it can even get a little larger. We found the pentagonal footprint harder to fit into the corner, so we basically just squished two of the back poles together to make it four-sided. I'd say it gets at least daily use and one of the kids' favorite activities these days is going in there with two flashlights. They pull the fabric flaps closed behind them and it pretty much looks like Studio 54 from the outside with all the flashing and swirling lights that go on. All it needs is a disco ball.
We did hang one of these Ikea LED lights inside (the cord runs outside along the back of the teepee between those two squished-together poles) since we quickly learned that “blinds closed, room lights off, teepee light on” was a favorite combination (it nicely complements a flashlight dance party). You may have seen a picture with the teepee light on in our Instagram feed a few weeks back.
So let's talk about the butterflies. OH THE BUTTERFLIES.
This was an idea that Sherry had mentally squirreled away after we moved the butterfly/bird pillows from our guest room in here. But it was buying these feather butterflies on clearance at Pottery Barn Kids that helped make it happen. Even before they arrived at our house they were sadly out of stock, but there are lots of options on Etsy like these or these.
We mapped them out on the wall using post-it tabs first, since it was an easy way to move things around and figure out the general shape we liked best. Then we just started swapping them out for the butterflies one-by-one, fine tuning as we went.
Each came with a little 3M adhesive circle on the end of a bendable wire. The 3M makes them removable and the wire is nice because once placed, we could still adjust their position a bit. The wire also gives them some dimension since they float away from the wall a little.
It probably goes without saying that the kids gave them a giant stamp of approval (bugs and butterflies are a hot topic these days) and, heck, we liked that they made use of that weird, sloped wall. Oh yeah, and there's one more Cat Coquillette print anchored by a monster that Clara painted a couple of years ago.
If you were to spin yourself around while standing at the art desk, you'd see this. Our big patterned rug (more on that here), our wall mounted TV (we bought this one and explained how we hid all the wires here) and our big comfy Mega Sofa-Thing. At least that's what we're calling it. It's actually three Ikea Kivik chaises that we attached (they come with little clamps to secure them to each other) aaaaaaand…. it's basically our new favorite spot in the house.
Originally we contemplated moving our living room sofa (an Ikea Karlstad) in here and getting a new sofa for downstairs, but we've still got a few more years of snacks / sticky fingers / spills to contend with down there, so it felt impractical to upgrade that sofa quite yet. And since it has held up so nicely for us over the last 5 years, we didn't hesitate to turn to another Ikea sofa. When we saw a trio of Kivik chaises sandwiched together in one of their catalogs we realized it could be a perfect solution for our large bonus room. We chose the “gray-brown” slipcover and we really love it. Kinda makes us want to change out our dark gray slipcover in the living room for something similar but they don't make ol' Karl anymore (whyyyyyyyyyyy?).
Already in its short life in our home, Mega Sofa-Thing has hosted a ton of family movie nights and no fewer than four sleepovers. As you might recall, one reason we finished this room was because several of our out-of-town friends outgrew our guest room as their broods expanded. So the mega-couch transitions to a bonus “guest bed” with the simple addition of a sheet, blanket, and pillows.
But I'm probably the person who has clocked the most zzzzs on it so far, since it's my go-to spot on weekend mornings when the kids wake us up before I'm ready to officially seize the day. You know, when I'm more in the mood to zzzzs the day.
We also hung some dark curtain rods from Home Depot, and bought these ivory curtains in the 95″ length. And after stealing the bird/butterfly pillow shams we originally bought for our guest room, we picked up two of these smaller neutral pillows with orange piping.
Behind the couch, tucked in the corner next to the built-ins is the dress-up corner. Since our collection of costumes, capes, weird hats, firefighter suits, and vet tech outfits (yes, we really have one of those) had been overflowing the bin in the downstairs toy closet, this felt like a smart place for them. And it's amazing how much more use they're getting now that they're out in the open. My Saturday morning post-wake-up nap is often interrupted by a crown or a cowboy hat finding its way onto my skull.
The baskets and blue inlay floor mirror were from HomeGoods ($429 marked down to $199!). The mirror might be the secret weapon in “The Resurgence Of Dressing Up” in our house (there's just nothing like gazing at yourself in the mirror with a shark on your head).
We also created a spot to hang stuff up using some of the doorknob hooks we designed. And we hung a piece of artwork above them that we made out of some of Clara's old “recipes.” We snapped pics of them with our phone, used Photoshop to size and arrange them, and then got a $1.79 engineering print at Staples.
It's kind of hard to see in the picture above, but I love that her recipe for a hamburger involves only toppings (no actual burger) and finishes with a “ta-da!” Like it's the end of a meat-related magic trick.
Overall, it has been an awesome bonus space to use in the mornings, at night, on weekends – pretty much whenever. When we first finished it (aka, drywalled but not furnished) there were a couple of weeks where we second-guessed having jumped into this project, since our routines didn't seem to be adjusting to include going in there at first. It felt like dead space except for the occasional “kids running laps” (and that novelty eventually wore off). But sure enough, it just needed time and, well, a little more stuff to actually do/sit on/look at.
Speaking of stuff, we didn't really buy a lot of new toys at all, we just moved existing ones in here so they get more action. The play kitchen came out of Teddy's closet and has gotten a lot more communal use in here. We split up our giant Duplo stash so they can be enjoyed both upstairs and downstairs. And the lower cabinets in here make accessing puzzles and kids games a little easier than on the high toy closet shelves downstairs. We're just glad this room didn't turn into an excuse to accumulate ALL THE TOYS (although we did just celebrate two birthdays, so there's that…).
It has been surprising how quickly it became a very useful room across all of its intended functions (play, relaxing, TV, guest sleeping, Burger pretending he's camping, etc). And it makes our whole upstairs feel much more finished. Well, assuming you don't look at the bathrooms too closely…
So let's wrap up this post with a memory lane montage. Picture these photos scrolling by with some slow, soul-stirring music (you know, something Adele-y). Here's a look back at what the end of our upstairs hall looks like now:
But we can't forget that this was the view back when we bought the house: (“I heeeeaarrrrddd…”)
… with this unfinished space hiding behind it. (“….that you're….setttlledddd downnn…“)
Which now looks like this from the new doorway at the end of our hallway: (“…that you…found a girrrl…and you're…married now-ow-ow“)
Now if you'll excuse me. I have may or may not have some important sprawling out to do on a certain trio of chaises.
*This post contains affiliate links
The post Our Finally Finished Bonus Room appeared first on Young House Love.
Last weekend we spent in Utah celebrating my mom's career in Education. She is retiring after 35 years of teaching Elementary school and being an administrator over Title One. Her friends and co-workers threw her an amazing Retirement Party (I had to share some pics!). She wanted all of her kids and grandkids there and we […]
The post My mom's special day appeared first on The Sunny Side Up Blog.
Chairman of the Housing Agency Conor Skehan has said more needs to be done to solve the housing crisis than just building new homes.
It comes after a new report from the agency estimates that there are almost 250,000 empty houses across Ireland.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland yesterday, Mr Skehan said this is an opportunity for everyone as it translates to around two years' supply of housing that could be used.
Mr Skehan said there are a range of solutions that the Government could use to incentivise owners of vacant homes to open them up.
He said refurbishment grants for vacant homes or short-term taxation breaks on rental income when someone puts a vacant property into use could be launched.
Other countries penalised those who had long-term vacant properties but the housing agencies would prefer to use “carrots”, Mr Skehan said.
“Countries like Scotland, England and France actually penalise long-term vacancies – once your house is vacant for more than a year in an area of high population density you would start to pay dramatically increased tax every year.”
He added that bringing property back into use is “the real trick”.
The Minister for Housing, meanwhile, has admitted something needs to be done about the vacant homes in Ireland.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Simon Coveney said a new housing policy will be launched by the end of July, adding that he will not be afraid to be radical.
Mr Coveney indicated that he “may well” look at the option of tax penalties to force vacant properties into use.
The Cork South Central said 40% of people looking for homes in the Dublin area are getting no supply at all.
He said there is a mismatch in terms of the number of housing units being built but also the type of units being provided.
The minister said that homelessness and housing is the Government's number one priority.
Meanwhile, Focus Ireland said the Government may need to consider a moratorium on evictions as the number of families becoming homeless continues to rise.
74 families became homeless in Dublin in April. Figures from Focus Ireland show that 366 families became homeless in the first four months of the year.
The charity's Director of Advocacy, Mike Allen, said it is simply not possible for the homeless sector to deal with that number of families losing their homes.
Mr Allen said the number of families ending up homeless us continuously rising, adding that figures released by the charity today do not indicate a downward trend.
He said with summer coming there will be more pressure on hotels, meaning less rooms available for families.
Mr Allen added what we want to avoid is a point where we hear of a family sleeping in a park.
The post 250,000 vacant properties across Ireland according to estimates appeared first on MyHome.ie Advice & Blog.
{Full post on this Outdoor Entertaining area here} Summer is just around the corner. Can you all believe that? I can't believe that. Where did the school year go!? We spent last weekend at my mom's house in Utah (I'll share more about why soon) and all of the sun and outside time with family […]
The post My Summer Goals appeared first on The Sunny Side Up Blog.
Ok! Kitchen refresh take 2. :) What a week! My blog has been struggling lately but I think (I hope!) we're up and running again. Tech issues are never fun, but the good news is that I'll have lots to catch up on next week. :) Thank you for being patient with me! You all […]
The post Kitchen Refresh! appeared first on The Sunny Side Up Blog.
The new Government might be up and running a couple of weeks now but the great Irish Water debate continues to rumble on.
The issue of water charges was one of the reasons why it took the best part of two and a half months after February's General Election for a government to be formed.
Fianna Fáil insisted on water charges being shelved in order to support a minority government led by Fine Gael and supported by independents.
In the wake of that deal it was announced that water bills would be suspended from the end of March.
However, with a large number of people having not paid for previous quarters or, indeed, at all the question remains what happens in this instance.
Is it fair that some have met every payment and others haven't?
The only real statement on the matter was by new government chief whip Regina Doherty who said at the start of the month that the new bills would not “magically disappear” and must be paid until the charges are suspended next month at the end of the current billing cycle.
However, that message hasn't really got across with Irish Water confirming yesterday that there had been a significant reduction in revenue from water charges from bills sent out at the start of 2016.
The bills relate to services used during the last three months of 2015, suggesting people stopped paying in the build-up to the General Election when the future of water charges were a hot topic. These bills would have been issued to households in January and February.
Figures from the utility showed that the amount collected in charges for Q4 2015 was down by more than 20% compared with the previous billing cycle and that is expected to reduce further yet again with many more households expected to ignore the latest bills.
The amount was €33m down from €42.3m over the previous quarter.
During that period also, 8,000 of the 200,000 customers who had signed up to pay their water charges by direct debit cancelled their direct debit mandates.
However, Irish Water said that a total of 975,000 people had paid domestic water charges during 2015 which is 64% of households liable to the charges.
The total amount collected over the year was €144m which was 53% of the total income due from domestic charges during 2015.
With the matter set to be discussed more in the coming weeks as the due date for payments for the first three months of 2016 approaches, we'd like your opinion.
Have your say below…
The post Government clarity still needed on water charges appeared first on MyHome.ie Advice & Blog.
Hi friends! SO sorry! I had a post up of my kitchen refresh and I'm having some technical difficulties with the links and had to take it down to fix it! Check back and hopefully I'll have things working again and my post back up soon! Technical issues! One of my very favorite things about […]
The post Technical Issues! appeared first on The Sunny Side Up Blog.
Children who inherit property from their loved ones may be set for a tax break from the new Government.
According to a report in today's Irish Times, tax changes promised in the Government programme for partnership will be sharply cut or eliminated completely.
Under the changes, once they are implemented, children inheriting the family home will not pay tax on the first €500,000 value of the estate, which should mean the majority of bequests will not prompt tax demands.
However, while the Government is planning to raise the threshold, it is not proposing to cut the 33 per cent tax rate applied to bequests over the threshold. This rate increased in 2009 from 20 per cent.
In the last budget, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan increased the thresholds – which had fallen after the economic crisis broke in 2008 – from €225,000 to €280,000.
However, given the rise in the price of property in recent years – particularly in urban areas such as Dublin – this meant that families were left with large tax bills following the passing of their loved ones.
While the increase to €500,000 will take many out of the firing line, those who are left more expensive properties will still pay inheritance tax, albeit on a lesser amount than they would have up to now.
In its manifesto, Fine Gael said: “We will improve the tax treatment of gifts and inheritances from parents to young adults, by increasing the capital acquisitions group-A threshold to €500,000.”
In a nod to the new arithmetic in the Dáil, the Government programme for partnership emphasises the need for cross-party agreement.
“Finally, we will work with the Oireachtas to raise the band-A capital acquisitions tax threshold (including all gifts and inheritances from parents to their children) to €500,000,” it says.
However, the Government will not change the thresholds that apply to bequests given to or by brothers or sisters, uncles or aunts, or grandparents – nor the smaller thresholds for people who are not related.
The tax-free threshold for those belonging to “group B” – a parent, brother, sister, niece, nephew or grandchild, will remain at €30,150. Similarly, “group C”, all other relationships, will inherit €15,075 tax-free. The threshold covers all bequests cumulatively. A senior Fine Gael source said there were no plans to raise the threshold of non-parental gifts, as the “main political issue” was family homes generating substantial tax liability when passed on.
The inheritance tax thresholds have been a sore point for some time. In 2009 a parent could leave each son or daughter €542,000 without them paying tax but this sum has fallen steadily over the years to as little as €225,000 in 2012.
This meant that some children were forced to sell the family home to meet the inheritance tax liability.
Let us know what you think of the proposed changes.
Have your say below…
The post Children could be set to benefit from inheritance tax break on parent's homes appeared first on MyHome.ie Advice & Blog.
We're sort of at a loss for how to write this post. We could approach it as your typical makeover post, complete with befores, afters, and a budget breakdown. But the room we're sharing with you today isn't about how dramatically it changed, how quickly it happened, or how affordable the transformation was. It's about something much more important than any design or DIY could ever be. Which is maybe why we fear we won't find the right words to tell you about it.
But here it goes anyway.
A family in our community experienced the unthinkable: their son Mason passed away very suddenly last month. He was 4. He loved preschool and superheroes. His older brother Hudson, who is almost 6, was his best friend. But after falling ill with a respiratory virus, Mason passed away in his sleep.
We didn't know the Newton family personally but learned of their story through a friend who was involved in the incredible effort to rally around this family in their time of need. And I guess that's where we came in…
Understandably, their home had become a tough place for the Newtons to stay. In particular, the bedroom that Mason and Hudson shared needed addressing because Hudson hadn't felt comfortable sleeping in there anymore. Robbie and Chrissy knew that helping their son move forward and helping everyone in the family get some much-needed rest depended on transitioning that room into a dedicated space for Hudson, as sad as that sounds. They also knew it would be a task that was too painful to do themselves.
So their friends, neighbors, and members of their church swooped in to help give the house a refresh, and they called us to see if we could take on Hudson's bedroom. I basically cry-shouted “Of course!” into the phone before we heard any of the details.
We found out last Monday morning that the Newtons were leaving town that night and returning a few days later on Thursday afternoon (someone had offered up a quick stay at a beach house so they could get away). This gave us a small-but-workable window to make this happen, especially given their incredible army of supporters. So we rolled up our sleeves, cleared our schedules, and got to work.
Our first step was to create our game plan thanks to lots of details about Hudson. We learned that he loves outer space, science, planets, and superheroes and the Newtons were hoping for some fresh paint, a loft bed, a comfy reading chair, and a desk.
With the family away at the beach, a neighbor had lined up some painters, so we selected Benjamin Moore's Simply White (semi-gloss on the doors and trim, flat on the ceiling, eggshell on three of the walls) and Benjamin Moore's Hale Navy for the fourth wall to create an accent behind the bed. Our local Home Depot color matched and generously donated all of the paint when they heard about the project.
Here's what it looked like on Tuesday morning, after it had been cleared out by friends & neighbors, and the painters were working away.
By Wednesday morning the paint was dry and the room was ready to be filled.
And here's what that wall looked like 30 hours later on Thursday afternoon, just waiting for the Newtons to come home.
One of the biggest challenges was sourcing furniture with such a quick turnaround time. Their church had donated funds to purchase most of the new items for the room, and we pitched in some more funds to round out the budget, but we were limited to things that were available for purchase straight from a store – which meant that hunting for deals online or casually perusing craigslist & thrift stores over the course of a few weeks was out of the question. Thankfully we did have some time to call in a few favors, but more on that in a minute.
Since the room was being painted on Tuesday, we spent most of that day planning and shopping. Then on Wednesday we got to dive into creating the “Constellation Wall” behind the bed, which turned out to be one of our favorite projects – both for the final results and the process.
John referenced a map of the night sky on his phone as he went, while joking that nobody should take an astronomy test based on his drawings. He made the line segments with a silver Sharpie paint pen and a yard stick. We drew on our own walls with a Sharpie paint pen for a project in our second book, so we can vouch for the paint pen's durability (and paint-over-ability for whenever Hudson outgrows it).
I followed behind him with a second paint pen and added circles to form the stars at any point where the lines end or meet.
The last step was both of us going in and hitting the entire wall with more stars around and between the constellations to make it feel filled in. Working in some larger and some smaller dots gave it extra dimension, and a few clusters and swarms of dots mimicked the ones we saw on constellation maps.
All in all, it took us about 2.5 hours to create the wall of constellations. One of our favorite parts was hiding a big H in the stars for Hudson, and an M on the other side for Mason. It was awesome to hear that Hudson ran in and loved his new wall – and noticed both of the hidden initials right away!
The loft bed was from Rooms-to-Go Kids (since we literally needed things to go) and we were able to get it for a great price since it was a floor model. Even better, after hearing what we'd been up to, our friends at Biringer Builders pitched in enough to cover the entire cost of the bed. It was such a lucky find, because we knew Hudson had really wanted a loft bed (and most of them seemed to be out of stock or “order only” in our area, meaning they'd take weeks to come in).
The star bedding is from Pottery Barn Kids, and after debating a duvet and a big fluffy comforter, we opted just to fold a white quilt at the foot of the bed for simplicity (we learned firsthand that making a loft bed can be a little tricky).
We originally planned to put a desk under the bed, but decided that a bean bag and some toy baskets created more of a casual play space/hideout (although the desk that we bought fits under there if the Newtons ever want to move it). Oh, and the star marquee is battery operated – so three cheers for no visible cords.
Turning our attention back to the other side of the room…
The 8 x 10′ rug was a HomeGoods find, and it was actually an 11th hour switch. We had originally found a similar one that was green & navy, but after seeing things come together it was waaaaay too demanding. So we made the exchange for this one, which layered in a lot more easily in the big, open play space.
Since the Newtons use the double-doored closet for clothes, they didn't need a dresser, but they did ask for a desk, and this wood & metal one fit nicely next to the window. Adding a blue fabric chair and a soft green desk lamp from Target along with a colorful fan & navy curtains from HomeGoods tied in the colors in the artwork. Speaking of the art, that's a Help Ink print that we popped into a simple wood frame. We've had it for a while and knew immediately when we heard that Hudson loves space and exploring that we had to find a spot for it in his room.
Just beyond the desk, tucked in the corner that you see when you enter the room is one of our favorite pieces: the rocket ship shelf, or rocketshelf, as we lovingly dubbed it. Jesse and Tyler, some friends of the Newtons, wanted to contribute their carpentry skills to the room and they whipped this up late one night based on a photo we found on Pinterest. It's like we blinked our eyes and it was done. It was amazing. The stain color is one coat of Minwax Jacobean followed by one coat of Mixwax Classic Gray, which we picked to relate to the various other dark finishes in the room like some of the frames and the dark desk legs.
The frames you can see along the right wall are pages John cut out of one of his favorite books – Things Come Apart. It's filled with nerd-tastic pictures of machines and technology that have been taken apart and photographed. When John heard that Hudson loves science/space/experiments, he immediately grabbed the book and we chose two photos of a telescope (one with the pieces meticulously organized in a grid and the other with the parts beautifully exploded across the page) along with a third image of a deconstructed model airplane that we hung between them (to remove each page we just ran a craft knife along the spine and popped them into two of these frames and one of these frames). John and Hudson's dad had a great time talking about them, and they even sparked him to run downstairs and bring up Hudson's telescope.
Back in the reading corner, we were able to anchor it with this super comfortable gray chair that LaDiff (an awesome local furniture company) donated when we told them about this project for the Newtons. They actually offered up our choice of three chairs, so I went all Goldilocks in their showroom and declared this one juuuuust right after sitting (and re-sitting) in all three. The solar system mobile is another Pottery Barn Kids find, which instantly perked up that recessed nook while adding some good color (and planets!) to the space. Pun intended.
Hudson and Mason had lots of dress-up stuff (Mason wore superhero costumes to church almost every week) so we added this cool hook rail (a HomeGoods find) on the little slice of wall next to the closet. Above it hangs another Help Ink print, which they generously donated (and overnight shipped!) specifically for this project. They're all around good people (they donate $1 for every $5 spent on their site) and I almost can't believe how perfectly their prints fit into this room.
Since the Newtons said they never used the old ceiling fan (and a lofted bed + spinning blades made us nervous!) we switched it out for a ceiling-mounted shade pendant light that we recently designed with Shades of Light, which they kindly donated. It has two bulbs for plenty of light, and we made sure they were LEDs so the Newtons won't have to worry about replacing them anytime soon.
That pretty much covers the things that went into the room, but again, that's not really what this makeover was about for us. It was really the effort, selflessness, and love of all the friends, family, and neighbors that made such an impression on us. We should all be so lucky to have people in our lives that will be there when we need it most.
So please indulge me as we take a second to thank Jenn, Jamie, Jesse, Tyler, Matt, Joe, Stephanie, Crystal, Emily, Kristin, Laura, and many many others who helped us clear the room, organize the closet, and assisted me as I wrestled a particularly defiant bunkie board into place while John took an un-reschedule-able conference call from the car (aka, his “mobile office”). And one more big thanks to everyone who donated to the project: La Diff, Biringer Builders, Shades of Light, Help Ink, Journey Christian Church, and even my mom, who happened to be in town and slipped money into my pocket mid-hug as I told her why she and the kids would be getting lots of quality time together while we ran around.
When the Newton family pulled into their driveway last Thursday evening, we gathered outside along with friends and neighbors to welcome them – but we stayed outside so they could take in their “refreshed” home as a family. In addition to Hudson's bedroom, there were lots of other updates and organization that friends and relatives had tackled on the first floor, in the garage, and in the hall bathroom. After a little while we were invited in to introduce ourselves, spend some time with everyone, exchange some hugs and some tears, and tell the Newtons how grateful we were to be involved. Getting a big hug from Hudson and watching him play up in the loft bed with his friends was the highlight of the evening.
After so many days on hyper-speed, it wasn't until we got home that night that our brains started to catch up with it all. We just sort of sat around quietly processing, and found ourselves wondering if Hudson slept in his room that night. Lo and behold, the next morning we had our answer. His mom shared that “Hudson willingly went into his room and played… and slept. He had no reservations. Just peace.”
Cue all of the feelings.
Psst – If you'd like to help this family in some way, they're graciously donating all of the money they raise in a GoFundMe account towards a new play area/preschool for their church that will be created in Mason's honor. I can't think of a nicer family to lift up with love and kindness.
The post A Bedroom Full Of Stars, Planets, & Love appeared first on Young House Love.
