WE HAVE A SUNROOM!!!

Are you as excited as I am?!?!

Probably not, but I’m ok with it. The sunroom has been a long time coming for us. The way I’m talking about it makes it sound like we build it on ourselves, but we didn't.  It was already part of the house when we bought it, but it wasn't doing anything more than acting as a storage area for random stuff.

With such beautiful floor to ceiling windows on three sides and a 1924 brick floor, this room was destined to be awesome…just not right away. If you remember, we moved in from a 2/2 apartment to our 3/2 house with a sunroom and entry room. We didn't quite have the furniture to fill the place. No worries, I've been secretly collecting items here and there J

One main item missing from the sunroom was a loveseat. We looked for a while and re-visited most stores until we finally picked this:

Looks comfey huh? Before the couch went into the sunroom it had to be painted, so actually getting the couch in the house inspired us to get the room together.

The back wall is wainscot panel which was just not my favorite as bare wood. Since I loved how the front entry turned out after a coat of white paint, I was excited to do the same for the sunroom wall. I cleared some space to work and gave the walls a once-over to dust/clean them before the primer. I also pulled a good number of nails form the wall and patched holes.

I taped the floor and used an angled brush to do all the trim. I then came back and primed the rest of the wall with my brush. Yup, with my brush. I tried to use a roller when I did the front entry way, but I couldn't quite get all the way into the grooves with the roller. So, for the primer and first coat of paint, I used a brush. Yes, It was time consuming.

The Engineer helped me put the first coat of white on which was a huge relief because it goes so much faster with two people when you aren't using a roller.

I did the edges one last time with the brush and then broke out the roller to get a good even coat. Fifteen minutes for the final coat compared to two or three hours for the previous coats with the brush was awesome! I was also pleased that I only needed one coat with the roller; mostly because that coat took all the white paint I had left! As the final coat of paint dried we cleared everything from the room that wasn’t supposed to stay there and gave the floor a good cleaning before setting everything up.

We started with the rug I got for my birthday (specifically picked out for the sunroom months ago). We thought it might be nice to have a little cushion under it since the brick floor was so uneven. We happened to have this old workout mat that we weren't using and after trimming about a foot off, it was a perfect fit! I’m so glad we did this because it is so much more comfortable to walk on with the extra layer than without!

We unwrapped the couch and brought in and nestled it into its little nook. This is probably the point when I fell in love.

Bringing the rest of the items back into the room was easy and fast. The room has come together so nicely!

To give you a little tour of the goods:

The chest we are using as a coffee table is from The Engineer’s grandmother and we were saving for this exact purpose once we got a loveseat.

The Engineer snagged the side table next to the couch from the side of the road that someone was throwing away. I just cleaned it and gave the surface a fresh coat of paint and we had a new end table for that loveseat too.

While hitting up garage sales one weekend we found that awesome artists easel for $15 and snagged it knowing we would use it in the sunroom to display art. Though, the jury is still out on what piece we will keep up there.

I bought the blue vase by the desk from home goods because I loved it and the little squiggly stick thingys are from Ikea.

The wire bikes were from our bicycle themed wedding and I love having that reminder when I look at them. The empty pots in the wire bikes are from TJ Max and I knew that the color of the flowers combined with the blue vase above would give the room some color splashes (these were some of the original things I had stashed for the sunroom).

For my birthday I asked for a few other items for the sunroom. The desk, rug, and lamp are all from Target and I love all of them. I leaned on white a lot because I knew it would pop off the dark floor very nicely. I also specifically wanted a shaggy rug to provide a contrast to the hard brick floor.

We hung some art on the wall…

We started a tradition when we got engaged in Paris (ridiculous I know, but my hubby spoils me, what can I say?) that we buy a canvas print everywhere we travel and will grow a collage out of it. So far we have two prints from Paris, one from St. Martin, and one from Dominican Republic (both stops on our honeymoon). Can’t wait to add another!

So what is missing from the room?

Nothing, it is amazing! Almost…we are still in search of a desk chair. It might be a little awkward to work at the desk without one. I have what I want in mind, I’m just waiting to find it for the right price!

We also have another table to go on that empty wall over there on the left.

Shortly after the side table snag, we also nabbed this cool table from the side of the road. I've started to revamp it, but it’s still in the middle of the process so we will have to imagine him filling his space for now. The plan is to put him back in that exact spot.

If it would stop raining every time I go outside to work on it maybe it would be done by now. True story.

With the sunroom complete the house feels so much bigger. It is the first portion of the extra space in our new house that we can actually use. We have already enjoyed some weekend cappuccinos out there and done some trip planning ;-)

Getting this space organized has also inspired us to tackle the other two rooms that are drowning in a sea of nothingness. On to the next!