mrsmogun's Profile

So... I visited the blog. Very nice. My above comments, really, boil down to praise for the home, but a little constructive criticism for the AT contributor, Chris Perez. Hopefully, he'll take the input and make some changes before his next house tour shoot.

Nessa... your home is lovely. Truly. And so is your family.

I really like your entry. I would have loved to have seen more of the children's bedroom. I'm working on a bedroom for my 7 yo daughter and 5yo son, so I jump at any boy/girl shared bedroom that pops up.

THANK you! I have been looking and looking for *real* inspiration pictures for our home, but coming up short all too often. We have 5 children, and most of the house tours (although lovely) just don't fit with the "lovely but lived in look" I'm after. Most are too minimalist or too overly orderly for my tastes. I'm thrilled to see your home featured :) And I ***love*** that the kids' dresser were left unstyled.

Great house tour!

isn't that one photo in the running for the small cool contest? seems a little shady to feature one of the contestant rooms.

Well, I like the idea. BUT - in reality, I don't even think organizing my books by color would look good. We homeschool 5 children and the books are a mess. But we love them. LOVE them! Looking at them right now, very few have bindings that I would actually consider attractive... lots of maroons, burgundy, pale yellow. Not my favorite colors at all. Oh, well. I'm over it. The mismatched and completely unstylsih bookcases are a small price to pay for all they add to our lives.

I agree with everyone else. For a little baby, a black and white nursery would be fine... the contrast is stimulating enough for them without color.

But, let's be honest, most children 2 and up aren't going to pick black and white for a color scheme. Kids don't generally like gray, black, and white in my experience... especially gray. We have a lot of white/neutrals in our house and my kids are always pushing for more color... and they usually get it :)

I'm currently doing 2 bedrooms for my kids, and it *can* be unsettling when they tell you they want neon orange walls or the millenium falcon all over... well, everything. But, there are ways to work together... to make decisions that really reflect what they love and still have staying power (I'm certain the neon would last a year at most). I wouldn't want to leave them out of the process, though, or try to convince them that they liked what I wanted. These rooms and overly designed rooms seem to say at least one of three things to me... either the child really wanted a page straight out of a magazine, the child spends very little time in that room, or mama couldn't let go of the reigns enough. I'm not saying it's *easy* to strike a balance with kid's desires and something other than complete bedroom mayhem, but these rooms just don't seem like a kid's dream. They seem like a great photo opp.