The Boys' Room & Renting Rant

Renting has just got to be the thing that most regularly upsets my apple cart. I'll be strolling along nicely, packing away laundry, reading to my babies in their bedroom, i'll look up at the wall and BANG! I want to paint, desperately. Its not that its horrendous as it is, its neutral in fact - but in my opinion 70% of what makes a room look great,the thing that pulls it out of the average and really just sets it apart and a thing of beauty in my heart, is what on those walls! Colour, pictures, mirrors, bunting, photos... you get the picture.

Cushions for the boys's room. One for Levi's bed, one for Ash's cot - bargain from Primark £6 ($9).

Where we live, in the UK, you cant even knock a picture hook into the wall of a rented home. You can paint subject to landlords permission, but hey - Mike is right, why add value to their property for the sake of 12 months living in a slightly different shade of cream.

I had an overwhelming conviction washing over me this past week about how fortunate we are to have what we have, I felt guilty that my heart has been so full of discontentment. I have made excuses to get myself out of doing WHAT I CAN. Yeah, ok so it may not be IDEAL and perfect, but I've GOT to learn to work with what I have. I used to be VERY good at that - Im not sure what happened. Im no longer going to put projects off until I can make my "dream room" happen. Im going to find balance.

The boys' new bookshelf/toy shelves for their room. £5.50 ($8) off ebay, collected from under a mile away this morning, currently sitting in the hall. 

Im going to do the most I can do with what I have, spend only what I need to on the practical things and a few fun pieces, repurpose what I have around that I dont use and SELL everything else. Ok well, not everything. But there are lots of things I have around that have SOME value that is not being realised. Lots of baby things we no longer have a purpose for.

So Im starting the boys' room. I'll be stealing from the grocery budget left overs and the change Mike leaves lying around the house to do some charity shop bargain hunting. Im going to try and sell more than I spend on ebay this month...

AND im going to be happy with it!