What’s on the Docket for 2022
Planned Projects for 2022
Now that I’ve covered all the projects we accomplished (and what’s still left unfinished) in 2021, I can focus on all the projects we want to tackle in 2022!
Lucius and I have an exceptionally difficult time throttling our urge to renovate new spaces before completely finishing up projects that are already in progress. The thought of renovating a new room is just. so. exciting! But I’m officially declaring 2022 the year of getting ish done!
This is the perfect year to finish all the outstanding projects we already have in flux - the master bedroom, hallway, loft, and laundry room - for several reasons:
Simply put, we have a lot of projects to finish up! And as finished as each project we’ve done may seem, there’s a handful of tiny things to do in every room. It’ll feel good to focus on tying up the loose ends and not thinking about them anymore. The devil really is in the details.
Lucius is having foot surgery sometime in the near future. He already had surgery on his left foot in November, which has required us to slow down on our heavy-hitter projects for a while. In fact, he’s just now (2+ months later) getting around without crutches, a boot, or a knee scooter. I don’t expect him to be back to his normal weight-bearing self for a few months after his next surgery.
We have a couple of expensive projects coming up in the first half of the year that we need to budget for. Like…
Windows
One big project that’s happening REALLY soon is that we’re getting new windows throughout the house! This is definitely not going to be a DIY and is honestly not that exciting for anyone except my crazy husband who incessantly walks around the house feeling the existing windows for drafts.
New Roof
We just found out a few days ago that we have to get a new roof, ugh.
We recently discovered a leak in our (almost finished) hallway. After removing the drywall, the source of the leak was obvious and we could tell it would be an easy fix. Unfortunately, when the roofers came to fix the issue, they discovered several unrelated issues.
As we wait for a quote on how much it’ll cost to replace, we’re bracing ourselves for the worst and hoping for the best. BUT, there are still some other, smaller projects we plan on tackling in the meantime.
Master Bedroom Closets
Somehow, for the 2021 to-do list, I completely excluded finishing both Lucius’ and my closets. I shared a while back how I installed wallpaper in my closet… and since then the only purpose it has served is storing stuff from the loft during the renovation. Since we started our master suite renovation in July 2020, my clothes have lived in my office. And Lucius’ closet simply has his dresser shoved in it. No hanging racks. No storage systems. Nada. Pretty glamorous.
So this year, I’m anxious to build out both closets using a combination of hanging racks and storage systems from IKEA Pax systems and DIY builds, as long as supply issues don’t thwart our plans. When it’s all said and done, I’m envisioning a closet similar to this beauty:
By contrast, Lucius’ closet will be pretty run-of-the-mill because he’s a dude and doesn’t care.
Staircase
“What? The staircase?” you say. “Didn’t you already finish that?”
Well, dear reader, the answer is, “Ehhhh…. sort of”.
If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you may have read about when I stripped the carpet off the staircase and painted it right after we moved in. But with the hallway renovation taking shape, I’m now re-thinking the color of the banister, which is making me re-think the color of the stairs, which is making me consider adding a new carpet runner, and now I’m thinking of repainting the foyer, and now do you see how we end up with so many projects going at once!?
I’ve shared some inspiration photos for the banister/staircase in the hallway update posts. But my latest inspiration is something along the lines of these staircases:
Image 1 Source | Image 2 Source
Plus, we still need to replace the landing… which we’ve ordered and can drive the 2.5 hours to pick up soon! (Only took us 2 years to get here!)
Outside Areas
While we made some great progress with the outside areas of our home last year, there are still some things I’d like to accomplish on my list.
First, as mentioned previously, I’d like to start filling the garden beds with plants! For being such a plant lover, I’ve actually been really hesitant to go nuts buying plants for the garden beds for fear that they won’t survive. Indoor plants are pretty manageable, but outdoor plants are a little intimidating!
So, I plan on slowly adding to each of the garden beds year over year and seeing how the plants develop over time. No need to go all-in in one summer and blow loads of money if I kill them all.
Second, I’d like to convert our raised garden bed to a sandbox. Last year, per my older daughter’s request, we “grew” a garden. We built a raised garden bed and planted carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries, and probably something else I forgot about because… we only harvested three tomatoes and two zucchini, HA! Our yard is simply too shady for any good gardening. So I’ll be searching for somewhere to transplant the soil and fill the garden bed with sand instead.
We’ll also need to build some sort of cover to keep out any critters and the copious amounts of acorns and tree debris that fall into our yard.
Third: Compost pit! It kills me to throw away compostable items, so I’d really like to build a compost pit. And on that note, I might try to add a rain barrel, too!
Toddler Room
When we moved into this house, I set up the nursery for our 6-month-old, and… haven’t touched it since. When I say I set it up, I mean I put our daughter’s things in the existing room and that’s it (aside from testing out a bunch of paint colors on the wall).
But our (now) toddler’s room desperately needs a paint color that isn’t so light-sucking as the existing color and definitely needs some storage solutions as she’s starting to play in there more and more. Kids’ rooms are so much fun, and my wheels are definitely turning!
I previously posted about the trend of color blocking, and I think this room would be the perfect space to give it a go. I’m picturing something like the room below, with the pink covering the top portion of the walls and ceiling and even cascading across the doors, trim, and anything else in the way - really cutting the room straight in two.
Pipe Dream Projects
If we get through the above list and still have a budget and time to play with, here are a few more spaces I’d love to tackle:
Mudroom
One of the reasons I leaned towards buying this house rather than the other one we considered was the mudroom. I was so excited to have a dedicated space for our coats, shoes, and backpacks. Unfortunately, we haven’t actually been able to utilize our mudroom with the other renovations going on.
As I mentioned in my last post, to install the plumbing for the master bathroom, we removed a big chunk of drywall RIGHT where the mudroom cubbies would go (the blue drywall in the picture above) and have since been using the foyer to store our coats. Now the foyer is incredibly cluttered and it drives me nuts. I can’t wait to free it up for when we have guests!
I’d love to build a dedicated space for all our stuff and paint it a deep color to tie into some of the other pops of contrast throughout our house.
Playroom
Since we moved in, the playroom has felt like the red-headed stepchild of the house. The odd footprint makes space planning tricky, and it simply hasn’t been a priority. But as we renovate the surrounding rooms, this room looks more and more out of place. This year might just be the year we actually take some action on it.
Our main hesitation with this room has been the fact that we’ll be rebuilding the built-ins and the fireplace surround, which is going to take some work. I’d love to do some sort of faux plaster on the fireplace like this:
Source Unknown
Rather than dark blue on the back wall of the bookshelves, I’d carry a shade of the blue/green color from the dining room that is adjacent to the playroom to tie them together.
The rest of the room would be outfitted with strategic toy storage, crafting areas, and fun ways to display kid art.
Half Bath
And last but not least on my wishlist for 2022 projects is the half bath.
This room wasn’t on our radar anytime soon until one day I got a vision in my head that I just couldn’t shake, and I quickly developed an entire design scheme! I don’t want to spill all the beans just yet, but here’s one of the inspiration pictures:
I’m picturing something bold, dark, and quirky. I mean, if you’re gonna take a risk, might as well be in a half bath, right!?
Although the space is small, it’ll be an entire gut job considering the walls have a texture to them that I’m pretty sure was created by someone making swirls in wet drywall mud with their fingers…
It all has to go! Including the outdoor lantern that for some reason is on a dimmer switch, the oddly short vanity, and the seashell sink. (Classiest bathroom for the win!) I’m crossing my fingers we can get to this renovation this year because I’m so excited about it!
Final Thoughts
Woo! That’s a big list!
I know we likely won’t get to everything over the next year. Things come up, plans change, priorities shift. But no matter how it shakes out, it’s still fun to make a plan and dream about how we want to transform our home to really make it feel like us. What room are you most looking forward to seeing change?