Settled In September FREE PRINTABLES!

This post is simply full of every printable you might want from this months series- Settled In September. Click the image to download the printable For FREE! If I missed something, just comment to let me know 😀

Living Room: Mantel:

Homeland

Eating Spaces: Kitchen Decor:

fall printable

Fall

Laundry: Hanging Laundry Basket Shelf:

laundry basket labels:
blank template

Blank Basket Label 2

our labels

Basket Label TOWELS

School Room Organization:

Labeled Chore Chart cards and the tutorial

Toy Basket blank Template for Labels

blank tags

Our Toy Basket Labels

tags3

Boy's Room:

Sometime Being a Brother is Even Better Than Being a Superhero

Being A Brother

Master Bedroom:

Saying to paint on the wall-
I will Love you my whole life. You and No Other. And I you, You and not other.

I'll Love You My Whole Life

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Master Bedroom {Settled In September}

I love our Master bedroom. We've gone from small, to tiny, to a little less tiny, to HUGE, and now to "just right". It's right off the living room on the same side of the house as the kids rooms but not connected to the same hall. A lot of people may not like that but for us, it gives enough distance but not too much ground to cover in the middle of the night when someone needs something.
The MASTER Bedroom

It also has a "hall bath" like feel to the bathroom BUT I like it because it keeps my clutter to a minimum and guest feel comfortable using either our bathroom or the "kids" bathroom which are both easily accessible. I don't like having rooms that are useless space, and for me that means not used daily. I felt wasteful in our last house with certain rooms because even if they were used daily, it was only for either for guest occasionally, a nap or bedtime baths.before pics of dressersThere are still some things I'd like to finish in this room but for now, we're settled. We sold our comforter set I bought just a couple of years ago when we moved into big blue. I loved the idea of a nice-looking bed spread but after we got it I realized the fabric was NOT comfortable, it was too hot and crunchy to sleep under, and a major hassle to make the bed with the bedding we slept with and then add on top the cutesiness. It rarely got used. Again with the wastefulness.

When we moved here, I decided since we had nothing really to have to match, I would start all over with something simple. Matt has a "no flower" policy in our room as well as nothing else too girly. I chose not to buy and new bedding and stick with the solid white down comforter we already have. I'd been wanting to paint our dark wooden dresser set {from Matt's childhood} for a while now but couldn't commit.

I took the plung after a date night with my hubby where we walked around target talking. I'd fallen in love with what I started calling the "target green color". I'd seen it on a cute picture frame there as well as a couple other random items. When we were parusing I also noticed I was drawn to dark navys. There we have it. I'm going crazy and painted the dressers GREEN!

Master Bedroom Makeover{furniture & lamp TUTORIALS to come}

I think this is a good compromise: fun but not necessarily masculine or feminine.

Then I took all of our black frames {sets & otherwise} we've collected over years and painted them navy blue along with an old green lamp that was in the girls room. In our last house(s) we decided to only put pictures of Matt & I in our master bedroom. Since our kids, friends and family are plastered everywhere else, we thought it might be sweet to have just us in our room. This also encourages us to take pictures together more often as well. Don't pay attention too close...some of these are OLD. 🙂 We also chose to make all the pictures black and white to make them feel more uniform. I love it.

I like the idea of having something red in every room and also think red goes well with the navy and green, just not too much of it. I was going to paint a could of the frames red just for fun but after starting...I realized I didn't have enough paint left in the can to finish the 2 I chose... oops. I decided to do the same technician on these as I did the table in Jamin's room. It didn't work as well but its okay for now.
spray painted picture framesThe big mirror on my dresser is one we've had floating around for a long time in different areas of the house. I think I may end up painting it red or navy as well.
decor on dresser after

Here's our closet organization:
Master Bedroom Closet Panoramic LABELED

Thanks for taking a tour around our master bedroom! 😀

Here's a side-by-side just for a better idea of the dresser transformationBefore and After pics of Master Bedroom furniture makeover

 

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Girls’ Room {Settled In September}

I talked earlier about purposely "theming" the kids' room for genders. This will eventually be the bedroom for all 3 princesses. I think this general girliness will last for years.
The Girls' Room

On the large blank wall, we have 2 twin beds in each corner. The post bed {that matches the dresser} was given to us by my sweet aunt after my cousin outgrew it. The trundle bed was my bed growing up and was my mom's and her sister's before that. It started as a medium brown wood before I painted it off-white for our guest room and then white for the girls room.We've always used the trundle part {not popped up} as the next step/toddler bed before moving into a tall twin bed.

Hope you enjoyed it. Oh, and yes, that is a black out curtain. It helps with naps and bedtime. I do have really cute colored sheers that are going to be hung as soon as I go buy a cheap curtain rod. 😀

Eventually, there will be a large "princess" tower in the middle of this wall. Magdalene means "high tower". The castle will have a banner on the top that reads, "Devoted Promise" for our Isabella {devoted to God} and Elizabeth {oath of God}. I am now waiting to let our awesome artistic friend do their castle/tower as well because, for real, you can't have J's room next to my sad tower now. lol

{castle for inspirational affect}
The General Idea for the Girls' RoomThis dresser was given to us with the post bed. The shelves are simple wood cut to the length we wanted it, painted and attached to the shelf braces I found at a yard sale years ago. I was going to paint them white but ended up leaving them yellow & think the extra color is fun.

I'm not gonna lie. This part of the room feels cluttered. We purposely keep their rooms simple and don't have toys in the kids room because

  1. we want them to sleep without the temptation to play with toys
  2. we know there needs to be plenty of room for beds/dress(es) in the long run

Girls' Room Dresser & ShelvesThey are getting older and have random "stuff" and I've slowly let it leak into their rooms. More high school era frames with pictures of just the kids who share the room, painting the girls did with our sweet "Ms Biwee", piggy banks, iPod with sleep time music, and hair things both in and on the "headband holder" as well as the matching jewelry boxes their Uncle Andrew gave them that were cluttering up their bathroom which is also the guest bath have moved in here. I'm not sure if it will all stay or not.

Here's the dresser organization:
Girls' Room DresserCurrently, both girls pretty much wear the same size which makes it easy to do laundry as well as purchase clothes. I know this won't always be the case so we are practicing minimalism already. The girls do have their own drawers for PJs and shorts/pants since those seem to matter more than the size of shirts or dresses.
the girls' room closet

We also have the awesome wire shelves from the pantry installed in here for the girl's bed linens! Love it!!! This keeps them easily accessible and make the higher shelf open for larder-sized hand-me-downs and other randomness. {these are the kind of shelves that will be in J's closet as well}
The Girls' Room Linen ShelvingOn the back of their door we have a simple shoe divider used for just that, sorting shoes and other accessories. Larger things like boots remain in the corner of the closet but it keeps most shoes/flip flops tucked away.
Girls' Room Closet DoorOutside the closet is this adorable princess crown our artistic student from the valley made the girls. I added a dowel rod with ribbons hanging off of it so we could use it as a bow holder instead of the sad one I made along time ago.
how to make a princess bow hangerThe same awkward wall that pokes out when you come into this bedroom we also used for decoration. The long white shelf came from our living room and the smaller one was part of another black set and I painted it white to match the other stuff in this room. Elephants were sweet gifts and Ellie will get one when she arrives. Letters are already for all 3 girls even though it will be awhile before El joins the girls in here.
Girls' Room Decor Wall That's the girly room!

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Laundry: Hanging Laundry Basket Shelf {Settled In September}

Yesterday, I told you about the madness that was the moving of the shelves in the laundry room. Today, I wanna show you the awesome hanging laundry basket shelf my hubs made me.

Hanging Laundry Baskets tutorialThe Laundry Basket Shelf: THIS was inspired by an image I saw on Pinterest but my amazing hubs just worked with what we had and created a perfect, unique shelving unit for my laundry room. I’ll explain the details of that more tomorrow.

This is my loving hubs hooking the dryer back up after building my cool shelves. He Loves Me! 😉

Built-In Hanging Laundry Basket ShelvesHere are the basic steps he took to make our specific shelves in which I wanted 4 baskets in a box from the floor all the way up to the bottom of the cabinets:

  1. measure the space you have available to determine how many baskets can fit {height & depth}
  2. measure the baskets using {length, width, height} Dimentions of our large baskets
    • our largest basket is 18" wide
    • 26" long
    • 12" deep
    • Our largest basket is an 18x18 square and same depth
  3. determine how much wood is needed
    • 1 sheet of plywood for the side, floor bottom, front, & top
    • 1x2s for the basket rails {horizontal to sides}
    • 1x2s for the braces for the rails {parallel to side}
    • 1x2 scraps for the extra space to make the shelves a bit deeper
  4. cut boards
    • we did 2 71.5" sides
    • 25.5" deep
    • top shelf 5.5" down from the top
    • each is 14.72" apart giving us 16" between each basket
    • 19.5" wide
  5. using a nail gun and nailed the first side to the bottom of the shelf as a support {since the bottom of the cabinet would be part of the top of the shelf}
  6. nailed the braces {parallel} and the rails {horizontal} to the first side braces and rails brace & rail that holds the hanging laundry baskets
  7. nailed the other 1/2 of the top to that side
  8. build the box bottom and nailed to the side Base to the hanging laundry baskets
  9. nailed on the braces and rails to the 2nd side
  10. attached the 2nd side to the existing "box"

Love this shelving!!! It makes sorting laundry so quick so I spend less time with laundry piled all over the house while trying to sort & fold. Here, I can just open the drier door, fold something quickly on the top of the drier, and then stick it in the appropriate basket.

easy sorting with hanging laundry basketsWe have labels on each basket to help with sorting and that basket returns to that spot after its emptied. {I plan to add these labels to the "Printables" post at the end of the month.

Laundry Basket LabelsI do at least 1 load a night and the kids are able to do their "laundry chore" daily but often wait until the basket is about to overflow at the end of the week before putting it away. Our rule is, "If it's not hanging in your closet or in your dresser, its not an option to wear". This helps get stuff put away more regularly...or at least, if there's something they want to wear, they have to put Everything away before they can wear that item {after its put away}. lol

The other item I requested was a “Mud Room”. LOL This being the evil room my family enters through daily {or at least after I completely clean up the garage after all these projects} and guest enter occasionally, I need it to function as more than a laundry. I plan to share more about this aspect of the room later this week as well...and maybe we'll finish the bench before then. hehe

Now for the details of this shelf moving business. I decided to leave off the big heavy doors and go for open shelving. For me, open shelves MAKES me at least try to keep things organized and neat since everyone can see...everything. I also thought those hefty pieces of wood could better be used as shelving in the garage in the long run.

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Laundry: Moving & Organizing Shelves {Settled In September}

Yes. I’m going THERE.

The room we would all like to shut the door to and act like doesn’t exist. The place we air all our dirty laundry, literally. The Laundry Room.

The Laundry Before

I’ve always hated laundry rooms stuck between the kitchen and garage but since the majority of houses now have the layout set up this way, I kinda had to get over it. I’m sure there are a huge number of you with this same scenario. With this room basically a hallway between the garage and kitchen, I wanted it to function really well, have simple ways for me to keep it clean, as well as be slightly attractive.

I needed to be able to do laundry nightly, have adequate storage, as well as this not be terribly ugly to guest who come home with us via the garage. You know, no undies laying around, piles of sorting, or baby stained…whatever for them to sneak past acting as if they didn’t see it.

In order to accomplish this I had to enlist my hubs. But not for his normal assistance. This one had to be nearly ALL him. We have a long, decent sized laundry room which already had amazing, big, heavy shelving units hung on the wall. I chose to ask my hubs to move them…

Okay, you may be thinking the same things as my poor hubs and all his pals – she be crazy. “Move those up, that down, build what, and another huh?” Yeah, maybe a little nutty…but “moving the shelves” made my life TONS easier and this space a gazillion times more functional.

Here are the "in progress" pictures. These shelves were at a terrible height. They weren’t high enough to be for long term storage but they weren’t low enough to be used practically for daily storage items.

The Laundry in progress The Laundry in progress...the other sideI’ve mentioned before, the world is not made for short people and at just 5’2” these shelves weren’t gonna cut it for my nightly laundry routine. I ask begged my husband to move the 1st set of shelves lower to I could easily access the lowest shelf where I wanted to store my detergents and stuff.

The Laundry one side moved Down The Laundry one set painted, moving other set Up The Laundry I hope you can tell how heavy these were The Laundry mammoth shelvesI ended up having him also more the second set as high as they could go, eliminating the useless space above them and the unnatural space below them.

Now for the details of this shelf moving business. I decided to leave off the big heavy doors and go for open shelving. For me, open shelves MAKES me at least try and keep things organized and neat since everyone can see...everything. I also thought those hefty pieces of wood could better be used as shelving in the garage in the long run. Painting them white {simple simi-gloss, not tinted, can of random we already had} made the room look brighter, cleaner, and larger as well.

The Laundry moved shelving The Laundry in progress...the other side The Laundry moved shelving another angle

Temporary clean basket storage and "mud room"The Laundry temporary Mud RoomWell, that the huge progress we made just by moving and painting the shelves!

Here is the cleaning supply shelf; the one I had Matt lower:

The Laundry cleaning supply shelves

  • Lowest Shelf: detergent, color catchers, fabric softener, drier sheets, pic, fuzz-buster, and other random cleaning tools in a basket
  • Middle Shelf: sprays for stains, tub of air fresheners, tub of window & floor cleaner, swiffer pads, tub of other cleaners
  • Top Shelf: bin of fabric scraps, sewing box, bin of other sewing things, ribbon organizer, basket of loose toilet paper
  • Above Shelf: basket of "mending" to be done, sewing machine, basket of paper towels

Here is the longer term storage shelving I had Matt raise:

  • The Laundry storage shelvesBottom Shelf: giant trash bags, iron, tissue, shelf liner, brown paper bags, party napkins, wet ones, everyday napkins
  • Middle Shelf: Sewing Machine, iron {don't ask...we don't even iron}, toilet paper
  • Top Shelf: big boxes/bottles of cleaners, hubs random protein powders, poly-fil

In the next few days, I'll share the other project that came about in the overall "vision" for this space to make it function to its fullest potential:

  • Laundry Basket Shelf
  • Mud Room

Hope to see ya for the rest of the home tour!

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