Summer Decorating = Chaos

Summer time. We live for the hot days, dream of laying by the beach, and plan for that time-out vacation that will rejuvenate us, and sip ice cold lemonade on a lazy afternoon. I have to admit…that is not how the summers generally go in our house! Planning kid’s activities, family visits from out of town, managing child boredom, all while trying to run a business and actually “turn off” once in a while is a more realistic view of what our house looks like in summer! Some days are chill, and we sip the lemonade and while reading a book…but that only lasts for an hour at most! So for the last few years, we have kept the summer projects to a minimum; but this year we are embarking on new territory and we are finding that Summer Decorating = Chaos.

Now, I am not saying that we are all going crazy over here…no, no, no, I don’t mean it that way!  What I am talking about is the out of order-ness that comes with working on not one, but two areas of our home! AND all the other stuff I mentioned thrown in along with it!

 Summer is generally the time in our house where we attempt to tackle projects that we just don’t have time to work on during the year. Being that my husband is an elementary school teacher, his mind is all about work…and the little free time he has, generally doesn’t allow for too many honey-do items to get completed during the school year. With my Interior Design business, summer is sometimes really slow, and other times really busy—each year is different! This year I am in the finishing stages of two projects, so I have made some extra time to work on two areas of our home—refreshing our son’s room, and the laundry room and storage area. Three kids at home, and two parents working on summer decorating = chaos!

Laundry Room

You know how you start one project, and then it snowballs into another, and then another? That is totally our laundry area! As things stand right now, our basement family room is filled with items from the laundry/storage area because we decided to change out our ancient air conditioner (step 1). We had to move a couple of shelving units out of the way for the installation, which cleared off a wall of space.

That was back in May. It is now July.

This wall at times, has some moisture issues and we had done some small patches previously; with the shelves out of the way, we now had the blank wall available to be worked on. So, the shelves stayed in the family room while my husband worked on finishing the patches in that area (step 2). Well, we had a product we were using, but then we found another one that was better. So now the whole wall needs to be patched with the new stuff (step 3) …and we are week three into that. Once this patching is done, we want to paint the wall in a lovely fresh green (step 4), and then (finally) put the newly organized shelving back into place (step 5 and 6).

The family room, then has become the overflow room, as well as part of the area where do actually do the laundry. Counters are covered, floors space is limited; finding things is a challenge and if it’s a rainy day and the kids play downstairs, it is banana-rama! And when I have to actually fold laundry, no one has anywhere to go!

Summer Decorating Chaos!

Bedroom

The other area that we are working on is my son’s room. At the moment, our oldest son (S) and middle daughter (J) are sharing a room because the youngest’s (D) sleeping habits were all over the place and we wanted to give him time to settle before moving the two boys in together. We had painted the room when S turned 5 and at the time, he was very much into rocket ships. We had curtains made and painted the room Buxton Blue HC-149. We put up glow in the dark wall decals showing the solar system and called it a day. Now that S is 9 and D is 3, I needed something that would work for both of them. I am generally not a fan of a "THEME” room, so I wanted to use color to bring it all together and have chosen a darker Blue Heron CC-840 to bring contrast and work with the new duvet covers. (More on the décor details in a later post!) Anyhoo…the walls have been patched and the decals removed; the priming and painting is happening this weekend, and the entire space--and hall-- is completely upside down.

More summer decorating chaos!

Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like chaos…or things out of place…or tripping on things in places where they shouldn’t be…for an extended period of time? Ya, I am totally out of my comfort zone but it is part of the process that I know all of us face!!

It’s the nitty gritty.

The it-gets-worse-before-it-gets-better phase.

And I don’t like it one bit!

With having five people at home, the house in general is rarely tidy (not that I don’t work on it every day, but it just doesn’t last very long!). The kitchen is also a challenge to keep organized and this working momma has to fit things in her schedule in a creative way! This is the real life of a work at home mom…working on her own home…as work! Does that even make sense?

The truth is, in just a few weeks these projects will be completed, and everyone will head back to school. Order WILL resume, and all this summer decorating chaos will be a distant memory! Our progress is slow and steady, and when we are all finished, I will be so glad that we managed to get these projects off our to-do list!

So, what are YOU working on this summer? Any decorating or reorganizing projects on the go? Feel free to comment so I know I am not in this alone! I'd love to hear from you!

Happy Summer everyone…may your summer dreams and wishes come true!