Let's Begin

I have several running checklists right now. Books, home improvement projects, recipes, workouts, TV shows to catch up on, restaurants to eat at, cocktails to make, stuff to sell... I'm drowning in to-do lists and, to be honest, I kind of like it that way. I'm not the most organized  person, but making to-do lists puts my priorities in perspective, all while reminding me that my time is not best spent watching "House Hunters: International" again. My boyfriend would eagerly testify that despite any on-going checklists, there is still far too much HGTV being watched on a nightly basis.

But hey, I consider it ultimately productive.

One big project we have coming up this weekend is painting my father's office. Or, for the time being, my office (since I'm working at home). Painting is the first step to a complete overhaul. It's easy to see why when, up until about two weeks ago, it was looking like this:

Yep. Those are red walls. But what you sadly don't see here (since Jon tore them down the moment I gave him the go-ahead) were the half dozen or so movie posters for Academy Award-winning greats from 1996 to 2003. This even includes the 3 Lord of the Rings posters which, due to lack of wall space, were unceremoniously stapled to the ceiling.

Oh yeah. You read that right: stapled. To the ceiling. We were classy teenagers.

Now I know what you're thinking: But Stacy! This room looks like total horse turdies! How can you even bare to admit this room exists?

Good question, friend. You see, I'm working on being less of a perfectionist and control freak, which means I need to admit when (and be OK with) things not being exactly how I want them. Showing the pitiful beginnings of a project I've had brewing for years now is the first step to actually, you know... finishing said project. Every room re-do starts somewhere, and even though it pains me to show you this messy clutter bucket (not to mention my terrible photography skills), it's the first step to transforming what you see above into something more like this:

via Apartment Therapy

... or this:

via Design*Sponge

... and maybe a little of this:

via Vogue

Or, you know, I don't know. Maybe it won't look anything like that. We'll see. The possibilities are endless!

When my family moved to this house in 2003, this bedroom acted as my sister's and my movie and computer room. (Hence the ever-changing selection of posters.) It was dark, it was moody, it had a big cushy futon, and it was perfect for watching movies or playing video games late at night when my parents were asleep. However, when we went off to college, this room was never used. No one slept in it when we returned from school, and as my parents transitioned to using laptops instead of their desktop computer, this room became nothing more than a catch-all for boxes of old books, filing and storage cabinets, printers and shredders, and an "overflow" area for my dad's insanely large library (most of which lives in the garage).

Frankly, it's a clutter nightmare.

It took some convincing to get my parents to agree that investing actual money into making a nice office space would eventually be worth every penny. My mom, usually my accomplice in anything "decor" related, doesn't really use the space, so it wasn't high on her priority list of things to change. My dad, though, doesn't care about decorating at all, and wasn't quite convinced that, even if it were a really nice space, he'd ever really use it.

But they did finally agree, probably because I pointed out the fact that my father has taken over the dining room table and claimed it as his office with piles of paper.

So we did what anyone in our position would do: we bought paint. Buying paint is a commitment and it's a great excuse to gut a room of all the crap it's accumulated over the years. Both of my parents came with us to Lowe's and we scoured the paint chips. Amazingly, my dad and I agreed on a paint color, which is a good sign. He trusts me.

So that's this weekend. Step 1 in revamping my parent's house.

I can't wait to show you how it turns out.