Whoa!  We had a busy month at Casa Petrie.

My parents and brother visited us. This was the first time my brother met Miss Petrie Deux.

We played in the sun.

We rearranged the living room.

Miss Petrie graduated from her preschool class.

We went to the zoo with friends.

And rode horses.

But what we spent the most time on was our backyard.  Here’s a peek at our tomato box.

Have a productive day.

Start with the first installment of My Parent’s House: The Front Yard.

When I was a kid, my brother and I would play handball against the wall in this room.  Man, we had no respect!  The room looks quite different now: beautiful rich furniture and interesting art.  My parent’s home is approaching 100 years old and the architectural details are really strong.

Welcome!

This painting of Michael hangs left of the front door.

The ceilings in this room are at least 15 feet high.

The barrel vaulted ceiling is an architectural detail I have never seen in another home.

My mom says this painting reminds her of my brother and me. It hangs above the fireplace.

I've always loved the symmetry of this octogonal table.

A close-up of the greyhounds that flank the fireplace. My parents had two beloved greyhound brothers.

The plantation shutters are so classic and crisp looking. They have them all over the house.

An ox blood chaise is great for reading.

A lady's desk, grandfather clock and large mirror make for a striking entry into the home.

An ottoman sits under the lady's desk.

I loved to sit and read in here when I was a teenager.  It was so peaceful and quiet.  I hope you are enjoying the tour.  I’ll see you with the next installment tomorrow!

We’re featured today at

This great website is devoted to home makeovers!  Our living room makeover is featured. Go check out the transformations and if you have re-vamped something at your house, send it off to the site.

Woo-hoo!  Happy Thursday.

When we moved into Casa Petrie 3 1/2 years ago, the living room had a very outdated fan, tanish-olive colored walls, and beige carpet.

We’ve since painted the walls in chocolate and latte, installed wood flooring, changed the fan for a more contemporary one, and switched out the blinds for a roman shade and panels.  We also put up meaningful art, installed bookshelves, and organized.  Check out this post to learn more about the bookshelves and this post to learn more about the credenza.

We have used a chocolate, latte, and light blue throughout the house to give our cozy home cohesiveness.  The entire house also has the same wood flooring.  I think it really does help give the house better flow.

Thanks to The Lettered Cottage for hosting this room re-do blog party.  Have a great time reading all the other transformational posts!

Thanks to The Stories of A to Z for hosting the Mantel Party.

After the Christmas avalanche of presents for little Miss Petrie, I realized I needed to go through my daughter’s books and move out some of the “baby” books (because she is a whopping 4 years old!) to make room for more age-appropriate books.

I truly believe that if you don’t know what you have, it’s easy to forget your options.  This is especially true for children.  If I don’t rotate Miss Petrie’s toys and books, she tends to play with a few toys and ignore the others.  And some of the toys and books she ignores are so awesome, I believe it is my motherly duty to point her in the right direction.

Here are the living room bookshelves.  Some of Miss Petrie’s books and toys live in this space.  I had already pulled out a ton of books when I took this picture.

Before

I like my living room to look pretty and neat and not like a toy bomb exploded.  Luckily, Miss Petrie and Mr. Petrie  agreed that we needed to work as a team to decide what stuff should stay and what should go and we accomplished organizing four bookshelves in a couple of hours.  The fourth shelf was in Miss Petrie’s room and I did not have time to beautify the area for photos.

After

What was bothering me the most about this space was that everything looked shoved in.  I didn’t have objects grouped by size.  I also had about 50 magazines in one of those baskets and they needed to be recycled.  The shelves also needed a good dusting and there is no better time for that then when you are reorganizing.

I put all the photo boxes together.  They hold videos and dvds.  I placed the magazines next to the boxes where they are easy to see and read.  On the bottom shelf I put all of Miss Petrie’s games and puzzles together.  The basket holds smaller games and puzzles that quickly can look like clutter.

After-right shelf

The middle, and most visible shelf, needed some symmetry to balance out all the stuff.  I placed the books in a pyramid shape, which I think looks sculptural.  My mom sent me the ceramic bird balls and I think they help the balanced look I am going for.

After-middle shelf

I didn’t do very much to the last shelf.  The top houses some favorite books.  The bottom contains our music organized in three cd books (to save space, of course) and Mr. Petrie’s video games in the basket.  I’ll be going through his video games soon, but don’t tell him.

After- left shelf

Check out some of my other organizing endeavors:

Organizing the Kitchen So It Works for Me

Spring Organizing: Drawer Makeover

Spring Organizing: Gift Cabinet

Spring Organizing: Home Library

Have a wonderful Friday!

Thank you to The Shabby Nest for hosting Frugal Friday!

***Before you go, enter our Casa Petrie Giveaway!  Click here.***

As you can see from the picture of our wooden blinds, our dog Ralph had ruined them defending our home from strangers. At night, our house looked a little haunted.

Miss Petrie shows her clear dismay over the before treatments

I’ve been looking for new window treatments that were both affordable and congruent with the style of our home. I found the white, tab-top curtains at Goodwill still in their original package. I bought two packages which included two panels in each package. A few days later I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to look for a curtain rod and found a deeply discounted roman shade in chocolate brown. All of the bedrooms in the house have chocolate brown roman shades. Yay!

Miss Petrie loves the new window treatments!

Mr. Petrie put up the roman shade first, then layered the cotton curtains over the shade. He placed the curtain rod half-way between the window and the ceiling. I like how the white curtains look so bright and welcome the spring sun into the house. The roman shade keeps light out when it is closed and apparently there is some kind of special fabric or treatment on the back of the shade that keeps the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Here is the project cost:

4 white tab-top curtains @ $10

1 roman shade @ $20

1 curtain rod @ $30

Total cost: $60

The curtain rod was the most expensive element of the project, but alas I could not find one at the thrift stores.  

(This was my second blog post and I think mostly my friends and family checked it out, so I’m happy to share it with you via The Shabby Nest!)

If you liked this post, check out these posts:

Spring Organizing: Home Library

Organizing the Kitchen So It Works for Me

Spring Organizing: Living Room Shelves