It's coming together

The painting bug I caught from somewhere seems to be going into a slow remission. (I do have 7 things laying in the garage waiting for some spray paint. But spray paint is so easy it shouldn't really count.) In the past month I painted a bathroom, a bedroom, a desk, a nightstand and a bed frame. Whew! That's a lot.

Over the summer I read something about decorating that really stuck me. It was something to the effect of this: "Stop making excuses for the way your house looks. If you find yourself giving huge narratives to visitors about the carpet or paint colors that you hate, it's time to do something."

My house is really fantastic. It was mostly that way when we bought it, but there was one room that I always explained. "Well, it's purple because the previous owners had 3 girls. See that big ugly thing? I thought the huge red filing cabinet would fit INTO the closet, but it doesn't. I know nothing matches....this is a totally random room....I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it" I was embarrassed of our guest room/ office.

I decided it was time to do something, and I gave myself a 2 month time line to complete it before my in-laws came to visit. Then I realized that my mom would be coming a month before them, and it would be so nice to have it ready for her too! There's nothing like a dead line to get me moving!

This is the old desk I salvaged from our basement and painted black.

This is the nightstand I grabbed from the basement and painted.
BEFORE: our open shelved desk in the office. There's just no way to make it look clutter free.
AFTER: the desk/ nightstand combo gives us junk drawer storage. I'm hoping we'll keep the junk off it better than before!
I painted the bed frame black. There's no big WOW factor, but it matches the other furniture now. I'm trying to decide what to put on the wall. HELP! My MIL is coming on Friday and I'd like to have things hanging before she arrives. I love this scrolly thing that I painted black. My MIL didn't want it and gave it to me.

When Brian and I were dating, he felt embarrassed about his apartment. It was a classic bachelor pad with no decorative touches anywhere. I helped him pick out a couple Adam Ansel black and white prints and we've kept them every since. I pulled them out recently (from the basement, of course) I'm sticking with green, black and white color scheme in this room. What do you think about them stacked up over the bed? I feel unsure.....which probably means it's not the best setup.

Tell me your thoughts....she's coming on Friday! I promise to put away the tools before she arrives.