IN THE NAME OF GOOD DESIGN

Hi there! I hope you all had a great week.  My day was terrible yesterday.  Bren had a fever of 106 due to an ear infection.  After coming home from his doctor’s appointment, he went to sleep.  While he slept, I decided to work on their car wall.  A few minutes into painting, I heard a strange noise and I turned around to find that Brendan was having a seizure.  I can not tell you how scared I was.  It all came down to how when he went to sleep, he bundled up in his covers and it brought the fever back up.  The paramedics came and told me that having a seizure with a fever is the bodies way of trying to cool itself off. And to keep giving him a rotation of Tylenol and Motrin every three hours along with his antibiotics.  I have three kids and I’ve seen a lot when it comes to their illness’s, but to see your child jerking and eyes rolling in the back of their head is an entirely different story.  All in all he is doing fine now and a few hours after his fever broke, he asked to go outside! Boy do they bounce back fast (of course he didn’t get to go outside!).

Today I wanted to discuss being daring in design.  A lot of you liked the idea of the cars being on the wall  in the Big Boy room, but you didn’t agree with gluing them to the wall.  Some said that the wall should be interactive.  Some said that I should try Velcro or magnets.  Okay let me address those suggestions:

Letting them play on the wall with the cars would be a good idea except for the fact that the cars are the length of your hand and are a little rougher than the usual Hot Wheels.    Therefore if they played with those cars on the wall, that would damage the walls.

Then with the Velcro, I thought of that too, but the cars would probably not go back on the walls.

Magnets wouldn't work because again, unlike Hot Wheels, under the car is plastic.  So it wouldn’t attach to the magnets anyway. 

I think I look at this project different.  This is more of art to me.  When I thought of the idea for the wall, my first thought was 3-D art on the wall.  It’s not meant to be touched by the boys.  I know that may sound mean, but my boys are car fanatics! Therefore, they already have these cars to play with.  I went and purchased these specifically for the wall.

 

If they do decide to pull the cars from the wall, yes it will tear the sheet rock, but its nothing major that can’t be fixed.  I realized that people panic when it comes to doing something that may require a few fixes when the design is no longer wanted.

 

For example, Janell recently built a headboard for her bedroom

and what did she use to hold this headboard to the wall?

 

I absolutely love this headboard.  I am actually trying to come up with a way to do my own version of it! Yes, when its time to remove the headboard, there will be damage to the wall.  But, in the name of great design that’s a risk that deserves to be taken.  When I start on a project (now anyway) I think about long term.  Will I like this next year?  Will it still serve the purpose after I’m done and have moved on to another project?  And if you answer yes then by all means “GO FOR IT”!!!

I turned a closet in what is now TJ’s room into a closet office

People (including my husband) questioned my decision to take away a closet.  It’s been over a year now and we don’t miss the closet.  In fact, my son uses it now to do his homework

 

and I also turned my coat closet that is in my dining room next to my kitchen into a pantry

My husband was not feeling this makeover at all! And this was a year ago too.  To this day, he still says he misses the coat closet.  I don’t! I mean have you seen my kitchen?  There is not a lot of storage in there!

All in all, decorate your home for you.  If you LOVE something or feel as if a certain space would get better use as something else, go for it! You can always get it back to how it was before!

 

What are your thoughts on this topic? 

Stay tuned next week for more updates in the boys room and tips on shopping Black Friday sales!!!