Before and After -- Toy Room/Office Edition

There seems to be something about starring at paint samples that unleashes my inner overachiever. It's never enough to paint just one room at a time, I have to go ahead and turn half the house upside down when paintbrushes are pulled out. So in the spirit of all things chaotic I decided to redo the toy room/office at the same time as the downstairs bathroom. It's not like I had anything else to do. (Except get ready for a yard sale and pack for a family of 7 for a week and laundry and cleaning and serve meals and do homework and give baths and whatever else the world threw at me.)

The rest of my downstairs is all painted the same and will always remain neutral colors since it's kind of an open floor plan so I wanted to add some color to this room. I know, I know, all things neutral is where it's at these days but I really like some color in my life, especially if it's of the bright and cheery effect. So sorry 'style experts' I'm not following your advice this time. The good news is I probably won't get it painted again before bright and colored comes back around so then I'll be ahead of the game, right?

The {what were they thinking} BEFORE:

I like red, I really do, but this was a bit too orange-y, fire truck red. Not to mention it was a sad paint job to begin with and then my kids beat the tar out of it too.

We actually tore out the shelve pictured above. It seemed sort of foolish but with two windows and three doors and all those shelves (there is another set to the right of the door) there was no where left to put any furniture in there. We had a shelf with doors that close (think--hide the junk) in storage so we moved that in here instead.

Just for a few hours we had a really cool "Christmas Room."

O the chaos that we live with in between. Somehow in my head I always envision that it'll only take a day or two for these projects. One day I will learn that a month or two is more realistic.

And AFTER....

{the above picture is a more accurate color than the below}

I found this "fabric" in the shower curtain aisle at Target and fell in love. It matches my "Grapes Leaves" paint perfectly.

This comfy {but ugly} chair was a yard sale find. I {mistakenly} thought it would be no big deal to make a little slip cover for it. Let's just say it rarely looks this neat but it does make a great cozy reading corner. The pillow fabric I found at Hobby Lobby and then created a need for it. :)

If you remember this free-by-the-roadside chair ...

she cleaned up nicely!

For now we're just pretending not to notice that ugly old brown shag carpet. Truthfully, it's usually covered with an assortment of scattered toys and besides, I never have to worry about the kids spilling something on it.