The Sports Room

Behold, the Sports Room.  You may be wondering...what is it?  The Sports Room has the same function as a man cave, so you get the general idea as to why we have it. Another reason is that Matt is obsessed with sports. Crazy for sports...some of you can probably relate and are either obsessed yourself or have a family member with the illness. While it is a completely foreign concept to me, I love my man and therefore he gets an entire room devoted to his love of athletics.
The problem with the Sports Room now is the fact that it looks like a college dorm. No offense to anyone living in a dorm, but you understand what I am saying. You know, the mismatch furniture that is either "found" or was a hand-me-down from upperclassmen or your siblings. Instead of frames on the walls there are posters taped up. In addition to the posters, Matt is a collector of "things." A lot of it is sports memorabilia: signed jerseys, footballs, basketballs, etc, but also it includes an innumerate amount of bobble heads, baseball cards, and pennants. 

My thought is that with the rest of the house coming together and looking a little more "grown up" we want the Sports Room to fit in with the over all feel.  So here is the number break down...

1. Two words: Sofa Bed.  We gifted our guest room bed and are hoping to turn our guest room into a nursery in the near future, so our family and friends will need somewhere to stay when they visit.  I'm not crazy enough to put guests in the same room as a baby, so the Sports Room will need to function part-time as a guest room.  This particular model is from Ikea and comes with a full/queen mattress.  It's a good size and our guests will not be too cramped on it. 

2. A low profile television console and a very large television.   The console is small enough for the space and has clean simple lines. As for the TV, Matt wants a flat screen in the Sports Room more than anything, but I am holding out until the current television dies.  It's not happening soon enough for Matt and he's threatening to pour water down the back of it.  He's desperate. 

3.  Paint colors!  I love the taupey-grey hues on either side of the picture, and the dark blue for accessories. 

4. Side table.  I loved this side table, and it reminded me of the modern touches that Matt wants in the room.  His design aesthetic is "leather, steel, and pointy edges."  That is exactly what he says. 

5. Nice sports memorabilia. and accessories.  Matt has some great pieces that are signed and deserve to be on display.  I am looking for nice display boxes for them as well as frames for his jerseys to go in.  Also, Matt hunts (boo, I know) but as an alternative to an actual animal head, Z Gallerie has a plaster cast substitute that I think is pretty cute.

So, there you have it!  That is the new Sports Room.  Now I have to start cleaning, organizing, shopping, and getting ready to switch things up. 

Dining room dream

Behold...the hopes for our dining room!  I do not have experience putting together mood boards for rooms, but with several comments from friends about wanting to know how I put rooms together, I whipped this up.  This is basically a mock up of images that float around in my mind of what I want for the dining room.  First, I want to say that I try to decorate any room spending as little money as possible, it's kind of a game to see how small of an amount we can spend on any given room or project.  Secondly, I almost always have something on hand, and rarely ever have to start from scratch.  Take the dining room for example: we already have the dining room table, a side board, hutch and the shelving (#5).  Speaking of numbers, allow me to break down the picture for you...

#1: represents the camel paint color already on the walls in the dining room. 

#2: these are the two types of chairs that I am wanting for the dining room.  The amazingly awesome completely clear chairs are called Ghost Chairs.  They are made entirely of acrylic which makes them modern, but their traditional shape make them oh so adorable to me.  The white chairs are from Ikea that I want (4 please) to go with the Ghost Chairs. 

#3: These are white Ribba frames from Ikea.  I have a lot of pictures and prints that I want to display on the the floating shelves.  I like the idea of the frames all being the same and letting the pictures be the "star." 

#4: This is the color palette that I am decorating with.  A sort of cornflower blue, bright green, and grayish brown.   Oh, and white...of course.

#5: These are the floating Lack shelves from Ikea that we already have installed in the dining room.  Don't let the picture fool you, the are over five feet long leaving us plenty of display place.

#6: These are the fabulous prints that I want from Crate and Barrel...I love them...sigh.  I am considering making something similiar, but I am hunting these two down (on clearance right now and I have a discount code from Crate and Barrel). 

Finally, #7: These are just representative of some of the accessories that I want for the space.  I love the idea of filling hurricanes with strange items.  Right now I have them filled with conversation hearts for valentines day with a candle in the middle (Matt keeps trying to eat them).  I love the blue bottles, well any bottles for that matter.  I think I've said before that I like to decorate with found, or non-traditional items. 

So, that's it.  This is how I plan a room.  I look at what the function of the space needs to be, look at what I have, and plan out what I need.  Hope that helps!

*Image from Polyvore - by Mary Baker