Projects for the busy working mom

So, remember in my last post, where I said I don't have enough time? Yeah. Yeah, I said that.

Well, here's the list of projects I'm currently obsessing about, in addition to the day-to-day struggles to get everyone up/fed/dressed/on the way/go to work/get everyone home/fed/bathed/tucked in. Right.

Bedroom:
1. Finish window quilts for bedroom
2. Make curtains for bedroom closets

Dining room:
3. Strip and stain mini-dresser
4. Strip and stain dining room chairs
5. Paint coat closet door

Kitchen/entryway:
6. Make little bookshelf for under kitchen counter
7. Knock down bricks. Replace with something functional/attractive
8. Declutter the kitchen. Get rid of things we don’t use.
9. Figure out a way to keep kitchen counter from becoming the dumping zone for clutter.

Living room:
10. New couch/chairs for living room
11. New glass-front bookcase for living room


And that's just the beginning.




Some notes

Bedroom: We recently painted this bright-freaking yellow, and then I wanted everything to be yellow or white to match it. The old closet doors were really, truly, awful - giant heavy sliding things that hung from the door opening and moved left/right, so you could never access more than 1/2 of the closet at once, remnants of the original '50's aesthetic. We yanked them off, and I have some great white and yellow denim just waiting for me to sew into hanging panels I can suspend from suspension rods just inside the closet.


The window quilts are basically Roman shades - 2 per wide window (4 total) since we have casement windows on which the left half can swing open and the right can't. Since they're the original, single-pane windows, I'm adding a layer of batting to the shades to make them window quilts, insulating as well as screening the light. I found this wonderful white-on-white swirl pattern cotton for the fronts, which gives a nice subtle flair to them.


Dining room: as mentioned before, I seem to be going for the Swedish country look, so all the furniture's going from old thrift-shop wood stain to painted white, light green, yellow, etc or white stain. (We've got gorgeous dust-blue silk dupioni drapes and coordinating seat fabric already). The last few pieces bothering me are a wood-tone closet door that interrupts the flow, and a small wooden dresser that came out of our bedroom and is now holding candles and linens. I've also meant to strip and stain the chairs in white, but didn't get around to it this summer.







Kitchen/entryway: we have no foyer. To get into the house, you walk through the carport, where you can see into the living room, and open the front door. About 3 feet in front of you is a gigantic brick planter (about 4ft wide by 12"deep by 3 ft high). To the left is the living room, to the right the dining room, and straight ahead you're looking through the kitchen and out the window at the fence on the side of the property. (That's right, our "front" door is on the side of the house. mmph.) I really want to knock that sucker down with a sledgehammer and replace it with an elegant little white glass-fronted bookcase, or shoe storage, or SOMETHING that says, "hey, this is where you come in. You're not really IN a room right now, even though it seems like you're in 3 rooms at once."


The kitchen itself is quite a challenge, since it has very old, all-metal cabinets. And imitation wood-grain formica. (shudders)


Living room: since visiting some friends in Portland with picture-perfect, clutter-free, Pottery barn-type decor in their little restored Craftsmen (despite having 3 children under age 6), I want a New Look in the living room. Don't know if we'll actually manage it, since it's also the toddler's primary play area, but I'll keep trying. I have my eye right now on a couple of sofas from http://www.funkysofa.com/.