A House is Not a Home...

... until you put some holes in the walls!

We are settling in to our new house.  One of the hardest things for me in our "church house" (the house we rented when we first moved to ND) was not being able to hang pictures on the wall.  I love being surrounded by our beautiful photos and framed kid drawings.  To me, it says home.  So here are some of the improvements I've been working on this week...


The Mud Room:

I've never lived in a house with a mudroom before and I was super excited about it... until this room literally became a dumping ground for everything!  It was pathetic!  My fantastic husband added several details this weekend, though, that has this room functioning exactly the way I want.  First, he added these clips to the wall over the heater.  They will serve as a great place to hang wet mittens, socks, and hats after a long day of playing in the snow!

He then hung our "key thing".  This has a picture of each of us adults and hooks underneath for our keys.  It also has a mirror for last minute looks at oneself on the way out the door.  Although, I have to admit, while scooting everyone out the door, I rarely care what I look like.  The cabinets below are for holding miscellaneous.  Right now the kiddos have put their bags loaded with snowpants and snowboots to take to school each day.

We had coat hooks for each child in our Indiana house, but here we decided to go with five hooks so Mom and Dad have somewhere to hang coats and purses as well.  There is also a boot tray for wet shoes and a small bench for sitting on while taking off boots as well as to hold dry mittens.

The Entryway:

This bench was one that the owner had in the mudroom.  With all the items needed in a mudroom for five people, it just would not fit.  I moved it to the entryway and hung three of our all-time favorite Jen Sherrick photos above it.  I love it for now, but I hope it will be a wall that will grow as time goes by.

The (upstairs) Hallway:

This is the hallway leading to all the kiddos rooms and the main bathroom.

Here is a close-up of the wall at the end of the hallway.  These Willow Trees were in the kitchen at first, and I had tried several other photos here.  In the end, this combo is by-far my favorite.

These are two views of the right side of the hallway-- another cluster of our favorite Jen Sherrick photos.  I'm usually all about symmetry, so this is way outside the box for me!

The Stairway (to the basement):

I have been swooning over stairway photos on Pintrest since before we lived in a house with a stairway.  I knew I would do something on this stairway, but I had to figure out just what.  The beige is seen from the kitchen, so I decided to start photos under the chair rail so they'd only be seen as you're going downstairs.  I also decided to stick with a particular photo session, rather than combining several random snapshots.  This was a red-white-and-blue session we did at our favorite park right before leaving Indiana.  These photos are more colorful and playful than the ones upstairs which combines well with the more playful nature of the basement.

The Family Room:

In Indiana we lived on "St. James Place" and therefore had quite a game theme going in our living room.  The hubs suggested the game items go in the basement family room, and although I wasn't convinced at first, I am now!  I love the game items clustered with my very favorite family picture over the couch.  We have large wooden dominoes and a large die on the mantle (forgot the photo of that, oops!).

Wow, I had a lot to say!  I hope you've enjoyed the partial tour of what is now truly our HOME!