A Look at My 2015 Home Goals

The new year always brings a fresh start.  I love the feeling of a blank calendar and a renewed since of will power.  I don’t really make New Year’s Resolutions, but I do like the newness of January 1st to lay out some goals that I want to accomplish this year.

Personally, I want to be better, faster and physically stronger.  That means working out more and being more conscious about what I am eating.  It means making a plan for the next day and getting a good night’s sleep.  It also means pushing myself outside of my comfort zone even more than I did in 2014.

But my home has its own unique set of goals, too.  I like to think of them as Home Goals.  In the first part of 2015, I’m going to refocus my efforts on updating my son’s bedroom.  In its current state, it feels dark and uncomfortable.  His bed is getting to be too small and the walls scream a little too Nick Jr. for a third grader.  Last year, I put together a mood board for his room that both he and I love, but the longest project ever got in the way of me working on it.

Instead of just saying that my goal is to finish his room in the first six months of the year, I have made a list of some of the projects I want to tackle:

1. Prime and repaint the walls – To cover the existing mural, I’m likely going to have to paint two coats of primer.  I love the thought of a teal blue going about 3/4 of the way up the wall and blending into Lindsay White for the top of the wall and the ceiling.  His room has one Northern facing window, so I’m hoping that the white paint will really brighten things up.  I haven’t exactly figured out how I’m going to do the blended effect, so it might end up looking like ombre or even just a straight line.
2. Refinish the bed and nightstand – I bought a mid-century double bed and nightstand from someone on Craigslist (who turned out to be someone I knew in real life!).  They have a fabulous style, but they need a little TLC.  Instead of painting it, I’m going to try and restore it’s natural wood color or maybe deepen it a bit.  I’ve been doing some research on various mid-century modern furniture refinishing sites, so hopefully I’ll be able to have some success with it.  I also have my great grandmother’s dresser for his room, but I think it’s in good enough shape that I won’t need to do anything to it.
3. Create Jaws poster artwork – Zack really wants a shark themed room, so I’m trying to give him sharks without going over board.  I love the modern styled version of the Jaws poster in the mood board above, so I will recreate that on a piece of MDF or plywood to hang above his bed.
4. Build a cool bedside lamp – I want to have the challenge of creating a lamp like the one pictured above instead of just buying one.  At $150, the one pictured above is likely out of my budget for a kid’s room, but I want to have something similar on his nightstand.
5. Buy a chandelier – On the other hand, I’m completely smitten with the chandelier pictured.  It’s currently $348 at Shades of Light, but I am desperate for it.  I’ll need to keep my eyes peeled for a good sale, because it is my one must-have item in the room.
6. Sew curtain panels – Since the room only has one little window, sewing curtain panels should be an easy task.  A friend of mine gave me a huge swag of navy blue velvet that she no longer needed for her home, so I am hopefully that I can easily turn it into a pair of panels.
7. Build a curtain rod – I love the wood/brass finish curtain rod shown above, but it is $99.  I am pretty sure I can build my own for cheaper than that.
8. Make LEGO storage table – Man, the LEGO is taking over our house.  He has a nook in his room that I think is supposed to house a desk, but I want to build in some storage to that space, install open shelving for him to display his creations, and make a LEGO building table that folds down to hide the storage.

There will end up being many more projects for this space (I know myself too well), but these are the eight big ones that I know I want to work on.  I also have made a promise to myself to not be as solely focused on getting this room and only this room finished before doing something else – I made that mistake with my downstairs feature walls.  I’m going to give myself more leeway to be creative and follow my inspirations.  I think that will help me with the project burnout.

As I said, I’m going to try to get this room finished in the first half of the year.  I work fairly slowly, so that’s why I’m budgeting for six months of work.  I’m not going to set a goal for the second half of the year until Zack’s room is done.  Knowing that I’ll get to set a new goal will make me work harder on this first one when I get tired of focusing on it!

What home goals do you have for 2015?  Are you focusing on decorating or working on something more like organizing?

Happy New Year!