Building a Man Cave

A few weeks ago, I made a huge change in our home.  I turned my photo studio into my husband's man-cave! After a year of having my own home-studio, I realized I was wasting a lot of space in our home.  Having only 2 or so sessions per month inside my home (most clients seem to prefer on-location), and considering my entire studio is portable, the space wasn't as necessary as I had originally anticipated.  We were also expecting to put our house up for sale over the next few months...a portrait studio would have been a confusing space for potential buyers, though now I'm not so sure we'll be moving...welcome to the army life!  Anyways, with the hubs headed home soon, I wanted to do something really special for him.  So I took out the studio equipment and flipped the room to a man-cave/home theater.  I began by removing all my equipment and props, painting the walls a more neutral color, hung some photos of my Reds baseball team and other "manly" decor.  I purchased a leather couch and carried it into my home BY MYSELF!-Again, welcome to the Army (wife) life.  Next I purchased a projector, ceiling bracket, and screen.  I went to work for 2 days hanging and hooking everything up.  If you don't believe I did the work, my son so kindly snapped a photo of me hooking up the surround sound (shown below).  Because the basement floor is not level, I had to hang curtains around the screen and place a shelf below.  Basically, the screen was level, but the space surrounding it was uneven...it's a 30 year old basement floor, what do you expect? Anyhow, the hardest part has been hiding all the cords.  I drilled a hole in the wall and fed the cords into a closet where all the equipment (playstation, cable box, surround sound, etc) is being stored.  However, it still leaves about a foot and a half of visible cord going into the wall.  Currently, I have few ideas on camouflaging these cables, but surely I'll come up with something permanent soon.  Anyhow, the hubs was completely surprised and LOVED his new room.  We've spent about 75% of his in-home time in that room, playing video games and watching movies together.  The good news is, our living room upstairs is gathering dust.  So when I book a photo shoot, I'll just bring my equipment upstairs, it's about the same size room.  Thankfully, I still have my office, and NO I'm not turning it into his weight room anytime soon. ;)

Zen Pillows and other preparations...

Since I was in High School, my room has always been decorated with a tropical theme.  I love to feel like I'm in a beachfront hotel all the time.  It was always the same idea, just different decor.  Even once we were married, we had a tropical bedroom.  Well, for the first time in 10 years, I took the palm tree plant out of the bedroom and replaced it with something different...Bamboo.  I decided on an Asian theme because I wanted my home to have a lot of relaxing and natural colors.  I painted the walls gold, purchased a white comforter & a bamboo plant from Ikea, and added some browns, tans, reds, and beige colors throughout the room.  I didn't like the original throw pillows on the bed, so I've been on a hunt to replace them for months.  Well, the hubs is coming home soon and I'm running out of time to make this house perfect.  So I decided I'd just make my own.  I absolutely love the pillows I found over at Dear Lillie, so I used them as my motivation.  I purchased some iron-on printer paper, muslin fabric and covered some old pillows I had in my studio. I printed Chinese symbols on 3 pillows.  The symbols supposedly say, "Love, Friend, and Goodnight", but I don't speak Chinese, so who knows if they are accurate.  I chose these phrases because my husband and I always tell eachother "I love you, you're my best friend, goodnight" every night before we fall asleep.  It's a long story how this came about, but trust me, it's our thang!  Anyhow,  If you decide you want to partake in this project, remember to flip your image before printing because you iron it face down.   I'm not going to do a tutorial because it's pretty cut and dry.  But here's a photo step-by-step just in case you need a visual.

Some fellow Army wives/girlfriends and I went to the nail salon today to get our nails and eyebrows done in preparation for the homecomings this month.  My son was so kind to snap a photo for me.

I just have a few more tasks to take care of this week (repainting the coffee table, highlight my hair, detail his truck inside and out, etc) and I should be all set for the hubby!!

{RE}Decorating-What to do when there's nothing to do PART 1

With my husband deployed and myself stuck at freezing Fort Drum, watching snow fill up over my window sills, it's no surprise that I spend little time outside of my home right now.  I absolutely hate it.  I am an outdoors type of person and spending my days inside my home in an attempt to keep my body temperature above 10 is very depressing.  I have recently found some sanctity in crocheting and photo sessions can keep me busy with editing for a few days or so.  But when I ran out of yarn last week and I had no photo session in site for several days, I wasn't sure what to do with my time.  Luckily, my sis-in-law came to keep me busy for a few weeks.  I took advantage of the rare opportunity of a babysitter to paint my living room and sew some new curtains.  Without my sis-in-law around to entertain my toddler, I can't imagine how difficult it would have been to even attempt some of my living room makeover projects.  I'm so glad it's finished though. I mean, since I'm going to be spending so much time in this house, it's nice to actually enjoy my surroundings.

When we first purchased the home...

Original decorating. This green was not the color I picked out on the swatch.

After I watched HGTV for a month at my parent's home.  I painted the green wall gray, sewed new curtains and pillows, painted the coffee table white, rearranged my furniture, and added a rug. LOVE IT!