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Decluttering in the Fall

Living room with Repose Grey walls

Who knew that paint would be just the thing I needed to get bit by the fall decluttering bug. Did you see and hear that I got new paint around here?

My sweet kids painted my living room and dining room for me, and I could not be more excited about it.

The walls went from dark and dreary gold color to a nice, bright grey. Sherwin Williams Repose Grey to be exact.

The process of clearing out the living room and dining room to make space for painting was just what I needed to rethink what I keep in each room and get rid of clutter.

I was in a bit of a rut with what I kept out on my shelves for decor and items I had hanging on the wall.

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Decorating/ FAMILY/ Frugal/ HOME/ Homemaking/ Kids/Family

Family Room Basement Makeover With The Help Of Credit Card Points

Basement Makeover With Credit Card Points

My husband Todd is someone who has taught me many times what it looks like to live intentionally.  He is a thinker, planner, and is very strategic in making decisions.

He is wise and intentional when it comes to our family decisions and how we spend our money, including what credit cards we use. Thanks to carefully saving up our credit card points for 2 (almost 3) years, we were able to pay off our recent family room basement makeover.

Family Basement Makeover Paid For With Credit Card Points

We use the MasterCard Citi Thank You Preferred Card and earn ‘thank you’ points when we do. We use the credit card for everything that we can. Todd is careful to pay it off, in full, each month. The points add up, allowing us to do extra things that we normally would not be able to do, like makeover our basement.

family basement before and afte3r

Our girls are 13, 16 & almost 18. We wanted to create not just a family space to enjoy the little time we have left with them, but also a space that they could bring their friends (and boyfriends) to hang out and be comfortable (but not TOO comfortable…boyfriends..ahem..) in.

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We finished off our basement 10 years ago when we moved in, but it needed updating. The paint color needed to be changed, the couch was sad and sunken with so much wear and tear that holes were starting to form, and our TV was too small for the space. A bigger TV meant a larger TV console. We also wanted a table with 6 chairs for playing board/ card games and a ping-pong table.

Family Room Game Playing

Our Basement Family Room Makeover Wish List

  • paint
  • new couches
  • large television for movies and video games
  • television console with storage
  • table + 6 chairs for board/card games
  • ping pong table

Thanks to the help of credit card rewards/points, our wishes came true.

We changed the bright orange paint to a warm blue. We found gray couches that were firm but cozy. The table and chairs were hard to find since we were adamant about having 6 chairs but the space we had to fit them in was pretty small. Todd’s intentionality came in handy when measuring the space and making sure the table and chairs would fit. We have made some great family memories around that table already!

Family Basement Makeover Paid For With Credit Card Points

We have so enjoyed our larger TV during family movie nights and the storage in the new console is amazing. It hides all our video games and controllers. The ping pong table is very popular when friends come over.

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Family Room Games

We have so enjoyed our new family room basement makeover and are very thankful for the credit card we use, the rewards we receive and how it is the perfect match for our lifestyle!

Finding The Perfect Credit Card

There are so many types of credit card reward programs out there. There are some reward programs that literally give you cash back, others give travel points, and some even give gift cards to your favorite stores. Some have an annual fee, some don’t.

It can be overwhelming to decide which card is best for your particular lifestyle, but it doesn’t have to be. Creditcards.com believes in empowering people to make smart choices around their credit cards, which means using the right card for you in the right way.

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Their CardMatch tool helps you find the perfect credit card match. It is easy to use and securely matches you with offers in less than 60 seconds. Did you know that 10% of your credit score is determined by the number of inquiries you make to new credit cards? This is why the CardMatch tool is so amazing, you can get matched up with several cards in seconds without your credit score being impacted in any way.

CardMatch Landing Page

Using a credit card responsibly can be a great way to make life easier, and being intentional in saving the rewards or making sure the benefits fit your lifestyle can add much value to your life. It sure has ours.

A basement makeover is great, but the memories we are making and continue to make with family and friends in that new space are amazing. Intentionality pays off!

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CREDIT CARD? DO YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF REWARDS?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Decorating/ HOME/ Homemaking

New Plans For Our Family Room & Smart Shopping Online

Shopswell-collage

{Some of my Family Room List items. All items can be found on Shopswell}

Our family room is in our basement.  We use this area to watch recorded television as a family, to workout, play games &  to play ping-pong.  It is long overdue for some attention.  The couches were given to us and are at least 15 years old.  They are sagging and worn down with holes starting to form! Our TV is nice, but I know my husband is dreaming of one a bit larger. The basement family room in general has been very neglected by me and needs my cleaning, organizing and decorating touch.

Basement-before

{our basement that needs some updating & attention}

We have 3 girls, 12, 14 & 16.  We really like to encourage them to have friends over and this space is where they like to take their friends.  We decided it was time to create a comfortable and beautiful space that they would be proud of & love to bring their friends to just hang out.  We also decided it needs to be done ASAP because our girls are growing older and before we know it they will be up and gone.  Now is the time to invest in our living space and create the priceless memories with them before it is too late!

I started decluttering the space about a month ago.  All that is left to declutter is our crazy board game shelves and our bookshelves.  Many of the games on the shelves right now are for kids and our girls have outgrown them. It is time to minimalize! Todd will have to minimalize the bookshelves as most of the books on them are his.

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Here is my list to- do for the basement family room:

  1. Minimalize the game shelves.
  2. Minimalize the book shelves.
  3. Get carpets cleaned
  4. Paint. Change red wall paint color to a nice mellow blue.
  5. Create office space for Todd
  6. Decorate

Here is my list of things to shop for:

  1. New treadmill (our’s is old and the motor is SO LOUD!)
  2. New television
  3. New window treatments. (Right now we have pillows stuffed in the window. Ugh.)
  4. A rug
  5. New couch & love seat
  6. A mini refrigerator for drinks
  7. Some end tables to set drinks.
  8. A game table
  9. Lamps for cozy lighting
  10. Pillows & soft throws
  11. A few accessories to add some character and warmth.

It is a lot, and some things may need to wait as we save, but it is never too late to clean, dust, organize, dream and start shopping for what we can buy right now!

I have found the greatest site to do some organizing, dreaming and SHOPPING! It is a site called Shopswell.  You all know that I love Pinterest, and Shopswell is like Pinterest for shopping!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on Pinterest, went to click on an item I’d like to buy, and the link is broken or the item is not for sale. On Shopswell you will never have that issue!  They show only items that are for sale, and their price.

The site is super easy to use.  You set up an account, which is where you can create and keep as many lists as you want.  I, of course, made a list simply called “Family Room” because I’m a simple girl like that! You can get as creative as you want for your own lists. I am keeping items that inspire me and items that I would like to purchase for our basement family room.

I’m eager to make more lists.  I made a second list called “Household” and of course, I have to have one called Wish List! There is so much that you can shop for on Shopswell. Home decor, fashion and tech are just a few of the categories.  They even have food you can shop for!

Shopswell-Lists

You can share your lists and look at other peoples lists for more ideas and inspiration. My “Households” list was inspired by looking at others household items & their lists.  If you find something on a list that you like, you can put it right on your list.  They have turned shopping into a community experience.

Another feature that is very cool is their Priced Tracker.  Once you add a item to a list you can then click the “track” button to add it to you Price tracker list. It will stay in your Price tracker with the current price, and can be set to alert you when its gets to the price your willing to spend on the item.

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Don’t forget to enter the Shop.Share.Win. Program where you curate and create lists then share them. Each month they give $10,000 back to the Shopswell community based on credits earned for helping others. You can get the full details and rules on how to play and win HERE.  You can also track the top earners, its updated every 24 hours.

I will keep you updated on our basement progress.  Let me know if you create a Shopswell account so I can come follow you!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Decorating/ HOME/ Homemaking

Transitioning A Room From Young Girl To Teen

TEEN-GIRL-ROOM

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sauder. The opinions and text are all mine.

My Colsie is now 14 years old and it was more than time to update her room to reflect her growth both in stature and in character.  She has made her Dad and I so proud in the person she is becoming.  She is such a talented, fun girl, full of energy and sweetness, and it has been great to change-up her room a bit to reflect more of who she is.

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When Colsie was younger, her room was all pastels and sweet. Now that she is older, it was time to make it her own and put her personality into it.

Photograph

See what I mean by personality?  Colsie is an amazing photographer, is learning guitar and piano and has expressed interest in learning the violin.  She is very creative minded and has great taste that is very much her own. Oh how I love my cute Colsie!

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Colsie made her room design pretty easy on us.  For her birthday, she received a gift card to our local craft and hobby store, and this awesome and colorful bulldog painting caught her eye and she fell head over heels in love with it.  She grabbed it and brought it home, immediately hanging it up on her wall.  Isn’t it awesome?  I love that it looks like he has been eating a bowl of blueberries.  It is a quirky painting, and although my girl now rolls her eyes when I call her quirky, she really is in the greatest of ways.  She is her own person and I have always loved that about her.

FIGURE OUT YOUR COLOR INSPIRATION

It is always great to take an object for color inspiration in a room and build a room around it.  Whether it is a painting like the one above, a pillow, a bedspread or a rug– one object is enough to pull colors from and use them to decorate the rest of the room.  This painting gave us lots of options, and we took advantage of that!

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THINK OF THEIR PERSONALITY AND REFLECT IT IN THE DESIGN

This pillow on her bed is another great example of one object that you could pull from to decorate the rest of the room.  We used this RELAX pillow and her bull-dog painting to give the room a fun but relaxed personality.  That is my Colsie.  She is super colorful and fun, but also loves to have her chill time alone in her room.

ADD TEXTURE

We bought a new bed spread and added some texture with a super soft, fuzzy grey pillow.  Grey is a great way to give the eye a break from all of the bright colors of the room, and add some texture, as every room can use texture for interest.  Plants are a great way to add texture, weaved baskets or even frames with interest, like the one framing the mirror in the below picture.  The mirror was taken from another room in  the house, but was not the right color. It was boring brown and matched the brown of the dresser which was, well… boring! We painted it white, again bringing in a simple color to ground all of the other bright colors in the room.  It looks great against the pale grey walls.

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USE TRAYS TO CORRAL THE LITTLE THINGS

I still cannot believe my middle girl is a teenager, but one look at her dresser gives me a reality check.  Makeup, hair straightener, perfumes and lip balms.  Lots of girly things corralled in cute trays and containers for organization.

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DISPLAY NECESSITIES IN AN ARTFUL WAY

In the above picture is Colsie’s beloved guitar, which I think looks like art.  I love it displayed in it’s stand, close to her bed, ready when she is to be picked up and played.  If she had less windows and more wall space, her guitar would also look great hanging on the wall.

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SAUDER FURNITURE, AFFORDABLE FURNITURE, STYLISH FURNITURE

Have you noticed this great bedside table?  It is from Sauder and is the first time I have ordered a piece of furniture from their company, but it certainly won’t be the last.  I was super happy with how quickly it arrived.  It was so easy to put together that Colsie did it by herself!  It is the perfect height, size and color for her room, and I love how it offsets the turquoise of her lamp and rug.  The lamp used to have a pastel polka-dot shade.  We updated the shade to match her rug and it made her room look more grown up in an instant!

Sauder offers a variety of designs and styles and believes that furniture should be affordable without sacrificing style, as you will see when you check out their website.  There is a ‘put//together look book‘ on their website, that shows how everyday people use their amazing furniture. Visit them and look closely as New Nostalgia is lucky to be one of their awesome features at the look book.  Make sure to check it out, especially if you would like to see other ways this fun table has been used.

Sauder furniture enables you to create, enhance or complete your personal style so your home is a unique reflection of you. . It certainly helped do just that here in Colsie’s room.  For more great ideas, visit Sauder’s Pinterest boards.

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Colsie uses her Sauder accent table every night when lying in bed, whether to hold a drink of water or her iPod, and of course her bedside books.  The top book is her photography journal, where she dreams up photo shoots and jots her ideas down.

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The art piece above her bed is one of my most favorite things in her room.  It has one of my favorite Proverbs on it. Proverbs 31:5 “She is clothes with strength and dignity, and can laugh without fear of the future. ” Yes, I claim this verse for our sweet Colsie and all the amazing things that her future holds.

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USE PLENTY OF SHELVES AND STORAGE

Not pictured but across the room from her bed is a tall, white book shelf that provides extra storage for all of the stuff a teen girls needs.  The above little owl is sitting on it, as is the little yellow and grey suitcase in the first picture, which holds some art supplies, and the yellow bird bank where she keeps her extra change.

USE ITEMS IN UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS

Remember that it is ok to use items in unconventional ways.  This little owl candle holder becomes a guitar pic holder when in my Colsie’s room.

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MIX UP THE FURNITURE

It is ok to make the room yours and steer away from matchy-matchy. This dresser is an older mid-century modern piece.  It was given to Colsie by her Aunt Kathy.  It has 6 drawers and has been perfect for her room.  The top two drawers hold all of Colsie’s hair accessories and jewelry… all those girly teenage things that need a home! The last 4 drawers hold her clothes.  It looks great paired with our simple, modern accent table. Mixing it up brings personality to a room.

ADD FUN LIGHTING

A simple string of lights above her mirror adds another element of fun that reflects Colsie’s bubbly personality, and gives the room great ambience at night.

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I hope you enjoyed seeing my girls new room.  I just love seeing her spend time in there and I love that she helped make it her own.

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What about you?

Where do you look for style inspiration? What is your best advice for readers in creating their own style?  Have you had to take a child’s room and update it to teen status?  How did it go?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sauder. The opinions and text are all mine.

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