Patrick and Ellen's equally comparable sanctuaries...

No children + 4-bedroom house = 1 Master, 1 Guest Room, 1 Sanctuary for Patrick, and 1 Sanctuary for Ellen.

PATRICK'S SANCTUARY:

Patrick chose to turn his sanctuary room into a video game room. As you can see, we've put a lot of work into his room, including carefully maintaining the car/truck/plane decals that were left from the little boy who lived here before us.

His sanctuary also sometimes doubles as our laundry dumping room, so he really has an added bonus to his room...

I'm sure you are thinking, "How could Ellen's room possibly top that amazing video game room?" Try to keep an open mind for my room, as we tried to put equal energy into both.

ELLEN'S SANCTUARY:

I decided to turn my room into a closet. Obviously it can't compare to a video game room, but I did my best. I got the idea to turn a bedroom into a closet from Pinterest, but don't expect to see a lot of Pinterest-esqu DIY-type projects in my house. The only thing I like to Do Myself is to press "Submit Order" online.

This project was surprisingly easy for me considering Patrick did all the work. The drawers/shelves/etc. are Martha Stewart for Home Depot. You can design whatever system you want, and they have a cool design tool online. There is even a laundry hamper built into the bottom of the drawers.

We turned the closet in my closet into a room for my shoes. They are displayed on a bookshelf from our old house. It's important to re-purpose things so that they will actually be useful to you.

We got my vanity from Overstock.com. I LOVE Overstock.com. As with everything else when online shopping, you have to do your research, but you can get some great things. The chandelier for this room also came from Overstock.  

Pretty much everything on my vanity besides the actual make-up came from TJ Maxx or Home Goods, obviously.

This shelf has traveled with me all the way from Lexington. It was in my nursery. Now it displays things from my room when I was a little girl. 

We turned the old kitchen table from our last house into my jewelry station. Again, we always try to re-purpose anything that is not useful.

We kept everything black and white so that my favorite colors, Hermes and Cartier can really pop. I also have my wedding shoes on display and a painting that was in my room that I shared with my sister when we were little. I love it because I used to stare at it all the time. The girl with long hair was my sister, and the younger girl with short hair was me. I was pissed that I always had to be the girl with short hair. It would have been only fair if we had rotated who got to be the girl with the long hair.

Thankfully, this experience really taught me a valuable long-term lesson, as I always try to be fair and equitable in my adult life.