Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (Turn and Face the Strange)

I don't know if you're the same way, but once I start redecorating in one or two rooms, I want to redo my whole house. It's not that I don't like my house, I do, but some rooms are ready for a change. The rooms are just getting tired looking. I'm ready to paint in my living room and dining room. I've been ready to paint for a while because we haven't painted in there since we bought the house. It's time for a change. If I wasn't such I terrible painter, I'd buy paint and start painting one day. Well, because I'm a terrible painter and the fact that it would take me forever to paint even a small room because I'd have to keep stopping and resting.

If you think about it, paint is almost magical. It can transform the look and feel of a room for about $25 a gallon. It can make you feel like you have a whole new space. Take our room switch, for example. My daughter's room used to be our room. I've been looking for photos of the “before”, but I don't think I ever took one in our room upstairs. Picture, if you will, a room with toast colored walls, and black trim. I found a couple, actually. 

This is what it looks like now that it's my daughter's room:

It feels like a totally different room. Light, airy, beautiful.

Our current room (my daughter's old room) used to be purple. I was laying down watching television last night, and my daughter came in the room. Of course, she's seen the room a billion times since we switched, but last night she said, “It looks really nice in here, Mom. It's like a movie theater”.

I only have photos of when she still had the loft bed in her room, but you can get an idea of the before:

This is what it looks like now:

Even without painting my son's room, just changing out beds and putting a different comforter on the bed renewed the feel of his room. It's funny; the smallest person in the house (for the time being anyway), has the largest bed.

There's something about new. Even when it's not brand-new, only new to you, it makes you feel good. I think that's another trait I inherited from my mother, and possibly my grandmother. I remember my grandmother would have certain things sitting on her buffet/sideboard. Every so often, she and my mom would swap the pieces, and we'd put them in our house, and whatever we had out would go to my grandma's house for a while.

My mom would get tired of certain things very quickly. When my sister and I were unsure of what to buy her, we knew we could always buy her dishes. My mom got tired of dishes so fast, it sort of boggles my mind.

Years ago, I belonged to a block club, and we had a neighborhood-wide rummage sale. Every person who sold stuff got to keep a portion of the money. It was based on your price tags. Anyway, my mom decided to sell some things, including a couple of sets of dishes. Of course, they sold. Fast forward to when my mom first came to stay with us. My husband and I would go to my mom's house for a few hours a week to start cleaning out her house. We found two more sets of dishes. That's not including her current set of dishes still in the cupboard, china that once belonged to my grandma in the china cabinet, her china that my dad had bought her, the china that belongs to my sister that my sister lent to my mom because it matched my mom's china or my mom's Christmas china. Boy did she like her dishes.

As I said, there's something about new. Different. Change. Every so often, I need it to reinvigorate me.