Design Challenge: January Cure, Week Three Recap
In case you're just joining me, I'm following along with Apartment Therapy's January Cure and documenting the process. You can find week two's recap here.
Getting through the third week of anything feels momentous, you've stuck with it long enough to (hopefully) see some results and in this case are past the halfway mark!
This past weekend was the kitchen cleanup, and much like the floors, I was still working on it into Wednesday. I was excited to have the three day weekend to power through it and catch up on a few other things but then life happened, and I got sick instead. The remainder of the week was one big case of catch-up but Friday is here, and I'm finally back on track. The kitchen, btw, is back to being one of my favorite rooms of the house and while it was a beast to organize, it is the room the household revolves around, and it feels so good to have it cleaned up, decluttered and functional again.
Day Ten
and it's time to invite some people over for a get-together. While we're still ironing out the details and figuring out an exact date, I'm planning on bringing back a collaboration we affectionately used to call, "Creative Fridays" and hosting a couple of my amazing friends to hang out and hone our skills together to create work we're excited about. It has been longer than I care to admit and to be honest, I've just been too overwhelmed both by life events in the past year and the state on my home, but I'm happy for the excuse to gather up some like-minded people (and really good friends).
Day Eleven
was to pare down the living room. Ha, yeah, if you've been to my place recently (or checked out last week's Insta-tour), you would know that my living room is pretty bare, to begin with, thanks to baby-proofing the house last year. I have a penchant for things like glass tables and sharp corners so for sanity's sake (and my child's precious noggin) I donated or passed on most of it. I thought there was nothing left to remove but apparently I was wrong, because in the process of cleaning up the kitchen I "borrowed" the one candle and a plant, and when I tackled the project I chose this month, I ended up "trying out" the living room rug in the nursery and leaving it there. Nothing like a clean slate, right? We have some shopping to do for this space but seeing the bare bones of it, I do have a much clearer idea of the direction I'm wanting go in, and for now, I'm embracing living with some simplicity.
Day Twelve
and we're finally diving into the project we selected last week based on the list from week one and the photo tour from week two. I choose to work on the nursery because it has always felt like a bit of an unfinished project to me, and because my daughter has grown and changed so much in the past year, it's time to make sure the space fits her current needs. I spent the first part of this getting a little Pinterest happy (you can check out my nursery inspiration board here) then gave the space a proper cleanup, sorting and organizing as much as possible, though, I need a good toy storage system. Once I finished, I pared down the decorative items and rearranged the room a bit to create more space for her to play, then brought in the aforementioned living room rug to layer with the existing one. This update helped me figure out what I needed to add (I'm a big proponent of working with what you have whenever possible), then I started my shopping list. So far I've ordered her some new "big girl" bedding from the ne Justina Blakeney x PBK line and these blackout curtains from Design Love Fest x Target to replace the temporary paper shades we currently have taped up, so we can finally let some natural light in during the day.
Day Thirteen
is all about decluttering one of the first places we spend time every day, the bathroom. If anyone can use a more streamlined space in their foggy morning state it's me, I'm a total night owl but barely functional when the sun comes up. Cleaning out the bathroom was thankfully much less involved than the kitchen but nearly as satisfying. Just purging the expired items opened up a lot of space (please tell me I'm not the only one that never even considers checking the dates on products) and once that was done I rearranged the shelf height a bit and sorted things neatly into baskets and bags for easy access. A quick clearing of the countertop leaving out to just the essentials and I finished that half of the room. Next, I pared down the mess of bottles in the shower as much as possible and contemplated the overflowing caddy of bath toys, a necessary annoyance I'm sure most parents are familiar with. After a bit of internet digging (more Pinterest), I uncovered this brilliant idea from Remodelista and ordered my own "French net market bag" to hopefully contain those colorful bit of plastic with a bit more panache.
Day Fourteen
will be picking up some Friday flowers then tackling the bedroom over the weekend. To be honest, my first reaction was, "I change the sheets over the weekend anyway, what else is there to do?" Then, "Rotating the mattress? Yeah, heard of that but don't think I've ever done it." and "I had noticed the windowsills are getting dusty, wait, is that mold?" Clearly, I do have some work to do.
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