2012 Decorating/Organizing Projects

Decorating and organizing the house always seems to be a never ending project list. As soon as one item is crossed off the list another three appear.

We have a number of items that I've been "meaning" to get to for the last couple of years. These aren't major projects but they require time and money, neither of which are in such abundant supply around our house we don't know what to do with.

I've decided that I'm going to start 2012 with a list of projects that I'm going to get accomplished. This is a combination of organizational projects that I haven't gotten to as well as some decorating projects that I keep putting off.

To accomplish this list I need to do two things. The first is to budget some money. I've decided to create a "decorating" savings account, similar to our Christmas club. My plan is to use an account that will be "out of sight" but I can easily move it back to an account linked to a debit card so it will be fairly easy to use when I get ready to start a project.

The second thing that I need to accomplish this list is some dedicated time to the projects. This is much harder for me than finding the money. Some of these items I've already spent some time looking for the "right" pieces without much success. My plan is that since I'll be giving monthly updates (similar to my monthly financial updates) so that I'll be motivated to make the time.

So, now that I have a plan, here is the list of decorating/organizing projects I intend to accomplish this year.

Living Room
 Our living room is sorely in need of an update. It's not the pattern on the couch and love seat that is the problem, it's the wear and tear that they are seeing. I've priced new cushions and they are VERY expensive so I am making them myself. I'm almost done with the sewing, a few days of really kicking it should get me there.

The biggest problem for me is the window treatments. These are the treatments that we purchased when we first bought the house. They are outdated and need to be replaced.

Paint is badly needed in this living room as well. We still have the original white from when we built 18 years ago. The paint has held up incredibly well (primer and three coats will do that for you) but it's white and I prefer something a little warmer.

At some point we need to replace the TV and entertainment center but that is lowest on the priority list.


Wall Connecting the Kitchen and Living Room

We haven't had a working house phone in over two years but we still have a phone on the wall.  Even worse, it's a green phone one a burgundy wall.  Unfortunately it's not as easy as "just taking it off the wall" since there's a big cream colored phone jack behind it.  I have a short term and a long term plan for the wall.

The short term plan is to take the phone down and replace it with a decorative metal sign.  I've been looking but I haven't found just the right thing yet.  The long term plan will be for my husband to remove the phone jack, patch the whole and paint the wall.  You may seem the long term plan on the 2013 or 2014 list :)


Update:  You an read about the finished project here


Desk area in family room

We haven't used the desk area in our family room for anything other than junk collecting for years.  My plan is to get rid of it and replace it with a bookcase that we can store mementos from our vacations.  I will then bring up the living room chair that has been hanging out down there and replace it with two black leather chairs and a table.  This should really warm the room up and make the space more usable.

Belle's make-up area

This fall Belle decided she didn't want a dresser in her room any longer and thought a make-up table would be a better use of the space.  The dresser wasn't working that well so we agreed to her plan.  However, finding a make-up table hasn't been as easy as we thought it would be.  Finding the perfect solution needs to be higher on the priority list.

Update:  You can read about the finished project here

Belle's Closet

This has been on the list a lot longer than the make-up table but has become more critical since she no longer has a dresser.  The closet in her room is pretty small, I'd like to get a wooden semi-customized organization system in there that contains drawers, shelves and an area for hanging clothes.


Master Bedroom Wall

When I re-decorated our bedroom a few years ago I wasn't able to find anything I liked for one of the walls.  This isn't a huge deal, but I'd like to find some kind of picture to warm up the wall.  I've been debating between a framed print or family pictures. 

Update:  You can read about the finished project here

Master Bedroom Closet

Somehow I ended up with the short end of the closet stick.  For the last 18 years I have had over a foot less of closet space than my husband.  When we organized the laundry we bought him two racks to hang up his clothes so I've decided that I'm taking back the closet.  The plan is to purge items as well as to get a better hanging system that what is in there.  We have a lot of wasted space that I think can be better utilized.

Utensil Drawer

My utensil drawer is a mess and needs some attention.  I think that I may look for a hanging system for some of the larger, less used pieces to get them out of the drawer.

Corner kitchen cabinet

No matter how many times I organize this space it always looks messy.  For some reason everyone (including me sometimes) just throws items in there haphazardly.  This cabinet is one of the most used in our kitchen and the one voted "most likely to kill someone" since it's not unusual for the contents to fall out on our heads.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do differently but I need to come up with something.

Bathroom light fixture

A couple of years ago I was watching House Hunters, the couple was touring a house that was a little outdated.  The bathroom had the same light fixture that was in our house, both the couple and the realtor commented on how out of date the fixture was.  That was an eye opener for me but I still haven't done anything about it. 

De-clutter Movie Room Credenza

When we finished the basement we bought a beautiful credenza that I absolutely love.  Right now it's stuffed to the gills with VHS movies that never get watched.  This really isn't an eyesore but I do think that the space could be used much better than it currently is being used.

Yet to Be Determined

I'm going to leave the last one open.  At this time I don't have any other pressing issues I want to tackle but I'm sure that something will come up throughout the year that will be worthy of getting added to this list.  Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of areas that I want to improve the organization of and will provide me with plenty of fodder for posts, but those are fairly small projects.  I wanted this list to be the larger projects that just keep getting put off.

Everything month I'll be writing about the progress I'm making on the list so be sure and check back.

Do you have any decorating/organization goals for 2012?  Feel free to share a link in comments.

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