Redecorating

Last week a few of my friends were here to help me redecorate. We had gotten some negative feedback about the basement being in a U shape vs one big room. We always liked that our basement was divided so Jason could use half for his office and still have half for the kids. But while our house was on the market, the half for the kids looked undefined (in the Kelly Weseli terms). Kelly and Kristy offered great suggestions on the basement/living room so away I went.

Jason didn't get home until 6:30 one night but by the time he came in, I had moved the train table and toys down to the basement and rearranged the living room. Although the living room looks a little bare, at least it is defined as a living room (as opposed to one big play room).

We wouldn't normally keep the living room like this as with three young kids, who sits and talks, but I think Kelly & Kristy were right with their suggestions. It looks great! Thank you so much ladies!

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I don't have any pics of the living room before but
there was a train table and the kids kitchen set.

Now:

An actual living room
It would be better if we had a couch like we
used to (before kids) but I think it is at
least defined as a living room now.

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The basement before:

Although I think it looked nice and clean, we never used it like this.



So I moved the futon and brought the train table down.
We have sold the TV, and it will be picked up this weekend
so not quite sure what to do with that table in the back.

I brought down some of our nicer kids' toys
down to the basement and put them by the steps

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Another negative comment we have gotten a fair amount is the odd shape of one of the bedrooms. I know a few people who have our house layout and we all liked the little nook but I think the way we had it decorated worked for us but people couldn't see past the bed in the corner. So we decided to switch the girls' rooms around.

Here is Laney's room before:

It is now the guest room below.
This is exactly how this room looked 4 years ago before we had Laney :)

We kept the girls' dresser on the other wall.
Ella sleeps in this room now.



Here is Ella's old room.
I thought the bed in the corner was cute but apparently I was the only one :)



Now it is Laney's new room.
We made the little nook look like a play area and added a Pottery Barn chair,
a few cute touches and moved the polka dots in.



I did need to get new window treatments but all of this redecorating only cost me the cost of the treatments (not bad for $40). Even Design to Sell would be happy.

Thanks again to Kelly and Kristy for giving me the motivation to update our house.