{Upstairs} Mini Gallery Wall

Hello! 

I finally got around to taking photos of a little gallery wall I've been working on upstairs. It needs something else to finish it off to the top left between the wooden frame and the circle art but I haven't found it yet. But, I think it looks better than an empty wall, right?!?!

I already had the framed photo of the mountain from a trip we went on years ago to Colorado. You can see it on the table, below. The frame with the kids' pictures was bought at TJ Maxx and I had it laying around, waiting for the right photos. The canvas was blank and I painted it with blues, greens and white to give it an ocean type feel. It may have some work done on it but it's a nice bit of color for now. The round flower art is a trivet my grandmother had from a trip to Europe. It's beautiful in person and I never knew how to display it. I simply put some command strips on the back and put it up there. 

What do you think? Better? It needs some more color but I'm still adding in blues and greens. The other side of the window needs help too but this room is the last room on our list, even though its all a part of our master suite. You can see this wall as soon as you come up the stairs, which is our entire master bedroom area. This little area is our TV area but has been boring until now. 

{Upstairs} TV Area

I'm working with my new camera (Canon 5D) on taking updated photos of the house. However, I think my white balance needs help and the rainy weather hasn't helped either. Anyway, here are two shots of our upstairs TV area. It still needs decorations, a new lampshade, and some other help but some day it'll get there. 

If you remember, or are new to the blog, it used to look like this (below) before we gutted everything, added spray foam insulation, new drywall, new windows, new trim, and painted everything.  While getting a new HVAC system  through the whole house, we had the guys add in two vents upstairs as there were none. The broken heater was removed and blocked off with a built in shelving unit. We did keep the carpet as it was in good condition and neutral enough to live with, plus we did not want to deal with that additional expense on top of everything else.

It may have room to grow but it's come a long way!

Two toned (and super dark) with wood trim from the previous homeowners. Insulation was practically non-existant in this attic turned bedroom.

The brick wall that had to go, along with Doug's closet (that's still there). The TV area is right behind the wall of his closet and the chairs (shown above) are near where Doug is standing. That's the same window (well, area, as we replaced all the windows) as shown above.

We added additional wood stripes to help make the walls thicker and hired out the spray foam insulation. It has a super high R value and has worked great for our upstairs room! 

By the way, we were sad to see the brick go but by covering it up, we gained more insulation so that this room actually became useable. By using the room, we've gained a master suite... we have our king sized bed in the middle, I have a walk in closet/dressing area, Doug has a good size walk in closet, there's a small bathroom, the TV area, and my office. Talk about a lot of space that once was impossible to enjoy due to the high heat in the summer and the miserable cold in the winter. Now it's great! 

{Upstairs} TV Area

Although it's still a work in progress, our TV area got a nice addition after Christmas that I forgot to blog about. Before Christmas, we had ordered two club chairs from Target. They came in covered in white mildew/mold. It was horrible and made my living room smell so bad until we could return them. After that, we were a little nervous about ordering from Target again, so we checked other places. We went to Ashley's Homestore, where we have bought many other things before (like our TV room's sectional, our master bedroom's furniture, and where the previous homeowner bought our living room set and dining room set that we bought with the house). So, we are happy with them and continue to return. We bought these two black chairs with one ottoman because we figured one ottoman would be plenty and it's a smaller space and two would be overkill. Don't they look great?!

This is the rocking chair that my dad restored for me when I was pregnant with Lily. It's a family piece that looks great against our tannish walls. 

Here's a closer view of the sparkly pillow. 

The pillows are from Target. The teal lamp and giraffe print lampshade are from World Market. The wooden spool table was made by my dad many, many years ago. I still want to add some artwork on the walls by the window. I'm also thinking of adding a small area rug to define the area more. After I get all that done, or at least the artwork, I'll take some more photos and we'll call the upstairs done!!! 

{Upstairs} TV Area

The *future* TV area...

This side of the upstairs is on the East side of the house, facing the street. It's a good size area and it's next to Doug's closet (between the 2x4 posts and the furnace in the photo below). But check out this mess...

See how dark the color was? I'm so glad I chose a bright color with white trim instead of dark reddish and a dark mustard-ish brown with a brown trim. The brick walls were nice but dark and not insulated at all!

See the furnace? It didn't work. We had our electrician and HVAC guys completely shut off the gas supplies and we took it out. Well, most of it. The guts of the thing are still there as there's a brick chimney in there. To the right of what's there in the photo below is where the new duct work went in and we boxed around it and added two shelving units. One is in place of the the furnace exterior that you see below and one is on the other side of the new duct work, facing the stairs. I'll get photos of that part later. The smaller built in shelves are pictured below.



Now this is what it looks like today. We moved our old TV unit from our TV room upstairs when I bought the antique dresser for downstairs. This piece has been with us since we moved in together ans is from Target. Although not the prettiest thing, it's free for now and will be replaced at a later date when I feel like it and/or when I find a really short two drawer chest (to store items TV related and blankets or such). This is definitely not a working area right now but we are going to hook up the old TV to our Wii so we can play games if we feel up to it or work out up there. I'm in the process of looking for two leather club chairs to put on the opposite wall.



Here's the small built in that my dad made. He built the entire thing from scratch in his garage and installed it in the wall. That way it's nice and even (nothing upstairs is level) and it seemed easier to do it this way. Don't you like the bead board background? I thought it was a nice touch and it matches the two crawl space doors.

The knick knacks are just what I had lying around. The two angels are from Hallmark that have been gifts from Doug. One is holding a dog and one is holding a cat. I'd like one that's family related at some point! Next to the angels is a hippo made from stone (soap stone I think) for Doug's love of hippos. The two rock lamp like items are actually candle holders that I found at Marshalls. We have a rock lamp in our dining room that I really like. Three of the incense holders were my grandmother's and one is mine from about 16 years ago. The two boxes are random auction buys (well, the small one might have been a gift, I can't remember). I have a small box collection that my aunt and mom have been giving me for years. My aunt travels all over the place and used to bring me back ones from other countries. Some day I may have to display them all on this shelf! The little one is carved. The frame on the bottom is a framed wedding invitation. I had it framed in a shadow box at Hobby Lobby after we got married... almost 6 months ago! I kind of wish I hadn't done white but maybe it'll meet a can of spray paint later....



If you look closely, you'll see that the carpet is slightly cut out away from the trim. That was from the previous unit being there and we haven't dealt with it. It's one of those things I only think about when vacuuming and cleaning upstairs. We have a piece that can go there that just needs cut and placed... but that's just one item that can be added to the list.