The World Of Woodbury: My favorite room

You might think it's up for debate which is my favorite room, and currently the baby's room might win out just because I'm in love with all the pink and red, but truthfully this room is my favorite.

I tried to search through old pictures to give you a before shot (since I was crazy and didn't take before reno pictures) and sadly this is the best I could come up with on short notice. We inherited everything except the toys and cute kid from Taylor's parents- and what a blessing to have all the furniture we needed, but it was their used furniture and then we used it (our kids aren't that clean either) and it was time for a change.

The rug on the floor covered (and hid) the really nasty carpet. The couches didn't match. And the walls were a very dingy, dirty off-white. This room was an addition someone did in the past 50 years. It used to be an outside deck. We know because the walls are painted brick and the openings are where windows and old large glass doors used to be. We're glad to have the extra space but ready for an update.

Our choices in paint were somewhat limited. We could paint the brick white again, or pick a whole new color that would still just be painted brick. Neither option was that appealing especially after having lived in the east where so many old homes have beautiful red brick exposed walls in them. So after much discussion and much trial and error (and many sample color buckets tested) we settled on this. We sprayed all the bricks a dark gray and then hand-painted the tops red. Most people are fooled by it. Those who aren't ask if we sealed the bricks or put some kind of a protective coat on them. They're shinier than normal bricks is all. But I LOVE the effect. I'm slightly color obsessed if you can't tell after seeing 1 yellow, 1 blue, 1 green and tan bedroom and of course you can see the yellow office in the background. I like color on walls.

Here's a closer-up shot for you.

This room is my favorite room because of all the windows. It's actually the perfect location for a sunroom in the north. The windows are south and west facing. In the summer when the sun is directly above us not a single ray of direct sunlight comes in. I can lay on the couch in the afternoon and be perfectly cool. But from October through April because the suns goes so far south, there is direct sunlight that reaches more than halfway into the room and really warms the place up- PERFECT. This room is always 5-10 degrees warmer in the winter and absolutely the perfect afternoon napping place in the sun. Plus it's nice to really be surrounded by views and sunlight in the dreariness of winter. I also love this room because it's right off the office and right off the dining room. It's where my kids want to play while I cook and clean and get things done. It's so nice to have them close by instead of all the way downstairs. It's also nice to not have their toys dragged all over the main floor- they can all stay here!

In addition to carpet and paint and furniture we finally indulged in blinds. The bedrooms all had blinds when we moved in but the rest of the house didn't. And the rest of the house is ALL windows. Don't get me wrong- I love windows but it kind of felt like living in a fish bowl especially since our 2 story house on the hill overlooks the neighbors 1 story house.
Taylor really wanted to turn this room into more of a family room and less of a toy room. For now I don't want to do that since it's so nice to have toys upstairs and in a contained space. In a few years when they're older I'll probably give in and this can be a nice family hang out spot. But since I got to keep the toys, I let Taylor get the huge-o couch he wants down the road. He remembers fondly bringing homes tons of friends for lunch or on Friday nights to hang out and because he had the "cool" house all his friends were happy to come over. He's convinced we need this much couch space. We'll see. For now of course we don't but it is nice to have.

To make this less of a toy room we tried to hide the toys as much as possible. Not much we could do about the larger toys which they really do use all the time, but at least all the little pieces and people are hidden in boxes. One random added benefit has been that since they can't SEE the toys without pulling out the boxes, they kind of forget that they're all there and they've stopped dumping multiple buckets. Mostly they grab a bucket and dump it and play with what's inside. I rarely have to sort or put more than 1 bucket away. How nice is that?

It's been kind of funny to watch the couch get used. Even with almost 12 feet of couch space, these cute brothers prefer to sit together. This is ALWAYS how I find them. Sunday morning our routine is to get up leisurely, eventually have family breakfast, then get baths, dressed, clean up, etc. But inevitably one kid is done before another. When they're ready (and so we can get ready and they won't destroy their outfits while unsupervised) they get to watch a movie. Most often Miles is first, then Ethan, then Isaac and every time I come out I find them sitting like this, all clumped together!