Dining Room Plans

This is my inspiration

 Not the colors, just the simplicity of it.  I have 1 window in my dining room and it's open to my kitchen and the living room.  Of course the dining room will also house my husbands massive computer (the gaming monster).  I think we can make it work though.  We are one of those families that doesn't eat at the dinner table.  I'm sure this will change (I would like it to) once Aaron is eating meals at the same time as we do.  So, I'm choosing a table that can be used not only for dining, but for crafting and working on my laptop as well.  I'm choosing chairs that can be folded and put away or moved around where extra seating is needed.  The color we will paint the walls will be the same as the living room.  We picked it out this weekend and it's a silver/gray/blue color.  It will look great with black, red, and white furniture and accessories.

Table from Ikea.  $69.99.  I'd probably paint it either red or black.

Folding chair from Ikea.  $39.99 These would be painted red or black as well.

I'm thinking a photo like this would make great dining room artwork.  It's a $10 poster from Ikea, but I think I could DIY/PIY this myself.  And edit the picture to be black and white and the fruit (red fruit of course) I would color to make it POP!

So, that's what's on my mind now for my dining room.  We'll be painting everything after Easter but it will be a while before I can put the furnishings into action but I'll refer back to this as we go along.

New Home Decor Plans & Ideas Part 1

As I've mentioned before our family will be moving back to our home in May.  Let me tell you a little bit about this home of ours.  We purchased this mobile home 3.5 years ago for $7,000.  No, that's not a typo, I didn't forget a zero (or 2).  $7,000.  It's a 3 bedroom 2 bath home.  My grandparents purchased it at an auction and we then purchased it from them.  At this time we were living with my mother and were in search of a place to live.  It was perfect timing.  It needed a lot of work.  There were 2 layers of carpet throughout the house, everything was covered in nicotine, the bathrooms seemed like they had NEVER been cleaned, the roof needed to be fixed and the kitchen was (still is) very outdated.  We replaced the carpet with laminate wood flooring, painted all the walls white (not my first choice, but was what we had on hand at the time) and did a lot of cleaning and disinfecting in the bathrooms.  Actually while we lived there the master bathroom was never used, I gave up on trying to clean the shower and the toilet was broken so we removed both and never got around to fixing it.

When I found out that we were going to have a baby we decided that there were so many much needed repairs that still needed to be done before we could bring a baby into that home.  My mom decided to live there (she was looking for a place) and instead of paying rent she would do all of the repairs.

Now that the major repairs are complete (and with some much needed storage added) we are ready to move back.  Tired of apartment living and paying rent when we have a home that is paid off, we're begging for May to hurry up and get here. 

My mother will still be staying with us for a while until she gets some more money saved up to build her a house on some property that she purchased not far from us.  This post is going to be the 1st of many posts that I will be making about our plans.  As I find decor/remodeling ideas I'll be adding more posts to this series.  Here's some of our plans and dilemmas, if you have a solution to any of these problems (or suggestions) please, SHARE!

DILEMMAS
Just because it's 3 bed 2 bath it's still a VERY small home!  I don't know the square footage, but just take my word for it.  If I were to put a full size bed in either of the 2 smaller bedrooms you wouldn't be able to fit any other furniture in them and have room to walk and get dressed.

• 3 Bedrooms - 4 people - and we need a place to put a work station
• No coat closet or foyer area - I'd like to utilize our front porch for shoes and coat storage.
• Need to redo kitchen on the cheap (new cabinets and possibly new appliances)

PLANS

• Hubby wants the living room to be Atlanta Falcons colors.  I have no problem with that because I can make red, black and white look pretty darn classy without being too girly.
• Painting Aaron's room.  His room will be only his room!  I want to install a second bar in his closet to hang all of his clothes, make him a toy box, curtains, and a boy-ish rug.  I also want to decorate his walls with book pages.  I'm leaning towards Dr. Sues.
• My mother has done so much for us I want her to have a nice, comfy room.  We'll need to get her a comfortable mattress for a twin sized bed, a comfy chair and an extra matress that can fit underneath the bed for when her other grandkids come to stay the night with a place to stash their toys.  Pictures of the family surrounding her.
• Dining room will match the kitchen in decor.  I'm thinking we'll have to utilize a corner (as if there is a corner in here) for David's computer and desk.  Still debating.  It will either be here or in our bedroom (which I really don't think will work out in the end).
• Our bedroom I'd like to be a sanctuary.  Browns and blues.  Fluffy bed with lots of cute (handmade) pillows, and lots of accessories and memories.

Part 2 coming soon!