I got a teary call from my sister last Friday and I quickly made plans to visit her this week (Tuesday through Friday). In addition to helping with the cooking, cleaning, and taking care of my sis; I set out to organize and decorate one room in her house. How can a person recover if the space they are in isn't bright and comforting. I decided to tackle her basement/family room. I cleaned, organized and decorated. It was a big project, but well worth it!
The first area I tackled was the office. I rearranged the furniture, took the posters off the walls, created a gallery wall with framed art work the owned, organized the desk, created a giant pin board, and brought in some new lighting. To hide the cluttered storage on the wire shelves (below) I created a slip cover for the unit using the existing curtains in the room. I also found a new home for the mailing tubes - an unused planter I found in the yard (cleaned and spray painted of course).
Next, I focused on the area between the office and the living area. We brought a large bookcase down from their dining room, styled and organized the bookcase, and swapped out the concert poster with some wall hangings I found stacked on a shelf by the fire place. In addition to wanting to visual separate the office from the living area, I wanted to make the space more kid friendly. I found the perfect solution in a play tent. I used two twin flat sheets and a hula hoop to make this tent. Check out my "sew easy" pattern here.
front of the play tent |
view from the living area to the office area |
The living area felt a bit crowded with all of those bookcases and curtains around the TV. I moved the long bookcase on the left to a spot behind the couch and moved the one with the drawer to the laundry room. To add a little color to the room I painted the remaining bookcase a glossy green. A small stool/ottoman was placed by the TV to keep the little one from getting to the wires and a toy chest (a thrift store find I sewed a liner for) was brought in to store toys.
the toy bin (don't worry they'll baby proof the outlet) |
bookcase behind the couch |
The last area I addressed was the fire place...
I didn't really do much here. Just cleaned and organized. I used art and other objects I found around the house to dress up the mantle. The sliding door by the mantle (not pictured in the before photo) also had dark brown curtains. I whipped up some much lighter curtains (with flat sheets!) and hung them at the same level as the tops of the windows. I swear this instantly added a foot of height to the ceiling.
I am really glad that I was able to help my sister and her family. I loved working on her basement and its got me thinking about a possible career as a professional organizer. Hopefully the next time I visit my sis we will be able to tackle a design project together.
my darling niece and her favorite new thing in the room |
3 comments:
Best room ever! thank you so much!! Love ya sis!
Wowza!!
Awesome work; you're a great sis!
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