Re-Re-Re-Decorate

With a new baby joining our family this summer, there's quite a bit of re-organizing needed to ready our little home. Our small spare bedroom will become a nursery and Chloe's room (the space above our garage) will transition into a spare bedroom. Housing our guests in the garage is not the most ideal circumstance, but that's our only option for now. I'm choosing to view it as a distinguished mother-in-law apartment, minus the comforts of a kitchen or bathroom.

Our spare bedroom/future nursery still sports the original green wall color from the previous owner. I've never even changed the curtains. For us, it's just that - a spare room we use to store all of Andi's clothes, his many sets of bags and his camera equipment. I literally refer to it as "his" room; whenever I'm tired of looking at his bags or work papers laying on the table, I set them in there for him to sort out later. I'm not sure where I'll put all of his stuff when the baby arrives. Maybe he can put his stuff away in the first place? Now, there's an idea ...

Spare Bedroom

The room above the garage is in need of attention too. We built the garage during the summer of 2007, painted the walls and put in hardwood floors. Since then, it's been home to Andi's home office, my sister-in-law Lindsay's apartment and finally Chloe's hang-out space while we're at work during the day. We added a bed out there a few years ago and a few visitors have stayed there including my brother and 3 of his 20-year-old friends during their visit to the Twin Cities last summer. The room's got potential (it's heated and air-conditioned so it's not as rustic as you think), but I've never taken the time (or money) to make it into anything other than what it is: a hodge podge.

Garage Space

I'm not planning to make any changes until after we learn the baby's gender in April, but I started researching decorating ideas this week. For the baby's room, I took to Pottery Barn Kids' website to scout out some overall design ideas. I'm not interested in having a theme for the room; you won't see any trains or pink butterflies here. I envision a soothing and welcoming space for our baby, especially if I'm going to be spending A LOT of my time there in the next few years.

For our new mother-in-law apartment, I'm using a bed and breakfast we stayed at in Vancouver as inspiration. We spent a night or two here for our one-year anniversary last year and I remember it being simple and peaceful. I think it'll be pretty easy to recreate with our own spin.

Vancouver B and B

This weekend, Andi ordered a new headboard and bed frame from Amazon, as well as a wooden desk for the new spare room. Soon enough, it'll be time to pull it all together as we get ready for baby!