the big-boy room: progress

This past fall, we started transitioning my son's nursery into a big-boy room. He turned three and it was time to give it a bit of an update. We switched out the toddler bed for a twin, made a headboard and changed up the artwork and a few other things to make the room fit this new phase of being a big kid.   

This room has definitely been done in stages. We bought the house in 2011, and the weekend we closed on it my husband got transferred to L.A. for six months. I ended up having to stay here (it was the weirdest situation), so I started little projects around the house to keep from getting too stir-crazy. This room was the first room I painted, and getting his nursery set up was what kept me sane that first month by myself! 

That's when phase 1 happened: I painted, made the roman shade (it was my first one and now that I know a better way to make them I kind of want to redo it, but for now it's great) and hung some things on the walls. My husband made all of the book ledges on a weekend visit home, we added the table and chairs, and left it for a while. 

After my husband got back from L.A. we found out we would be moving to Montana for seven months. While we were there I made the pouf, got the rug and rocker and a few other things I could use in his room when we came back here.

For the last few months I have been slowly changing things again, and it's almost at the point where I'm happy with it and probably won't change things up for a few more years. Here's where we're at: 

There used to be a gallery wall above the bed, but I switched it out for some cloud pictures I took when we were living in Montana (inspired by Amber's beautiful dining room). I had them blown up to poster-size at Costco and stuck them in big Ikea frames. It's an inexpensive way to add some large art, and the best part is that my little guy loves them. He always says he's flying in the sky when he jumps on his bed, it's pretty cute. 

Back in 2011 we strung some cable above his dresser to display his artwork. The boy loves to paint and color, so we are never short of art in here, and those pictures get switched out pretty regularly. I think it's special to frame his artwork, so I keep a frame on his dresser that we put his larger pieces in. He thinks it's pretty cool that his paintings are displayed for him to see all day. 

Sometimes I think about taking down the picture ledges, but I do love the color they add and how easy it is for him to find a book to snuggle up with. So for now they stay.

 

So that's basically where we're at. I'm happy with everything for now, decor-wise. We've got a few projects we are working on in here to be able to really say it's done for now, but it's a fun little room that is perfect for my little one. 

This is my favorite way to find this big-boy room, with my sweet little guy playing and bringing some life and noise to it. 

Still on the to-do list:

paint ceiling white (yeah, I never got around to that :)

add crown molding 

paint closet doors (all of our doors are an off-white and it drives me crazy in the bedrooms!)

paint trim white

paint inside closet (something fun?)

paint bedroom door

replace light fixture

So yeah, a whooole lot of painting is coming my way. But I can't wait to have it all done!

And because I always like seeing source lists:

wall color: Innocence by Benjamin Moore

rug: Urban Outfitters

shade: made by me

chair: Overstock

pouf: made by me

bedding: Target
headboard: made by me

table and chairs: Ikea

rocking moose: Ikea

P.S. That wrinkled bedding is kind of killing me, ha, but I guess that's just real-life, huh?

* Some links are affiliate links. These are products that I use and love and wouldn't recommend if I didn't! 

my master bedroom

I really, really love decorating and home decor, and I want to start sharing more of the decorating that I do in my home. Room by room, we are trying to change it from basic-builder to a place we love, and as a blog reader, I love watching others do that in their home. So we're bringing it over here!

We were able to build our home, but not in a custom we-choose-it-all way. We got to pick the lot and floorplan, the color package (the choices were, beige, beigy brown, and beige. LOTS of beige.), and make a few little changes to things. Houses and lots aren't huge in the Seattle area, and the ones that are were out of our price range when we bought our home! So we picked the best lot we could find, and went from there. 

Buying a new home, you would think there's not a ton of work to do, but to get it the way we want it there is quite a bit to be done. Our builder had taste different than ours, and had some weird ideas about tile pairings and such. In the kitchen we opted to go without the "upgraded" backsplash and tile counters because they were not our taste and we knew we would be ripping them out eventually. So we have basic tile until we change it ourselves. Our backyard did not come landscaped, so we have been sloooowly landscaping that. We changed our fireplace which made a HUGE difference in the living space downstairs, we added a bench/nook in our entry way, and have painted a few things and hung pictures, and I'm pretty content with our downstairs for now (except it's time to change up all my pillows again :).

The upstairs is a different story. All of the trim and molding in the house are a dark stained hemlock. It's really pretty downstairs, next to the wood floors, but upstairs next to the carpet it looks pretty dated, at least to me. It was a battle talking my husband into painting the trim in the bedroom. I wanted the room to be as light and bright as it could be, and dark trim just wasn't doing it. He finally broke down a while back and we painted the trim, then the walls. The difference was amazing. The room feels so much brighter and happier, it is a place we love to be!

Here's what it looked like when we moved in:

We have diy-ed a lot of this room. It's been such a labor of love, but it's not done yet! So here's a look at what we've done so far, and what we still plan to do:

We had the bed on the wall to the right for the first year of owning the home and it never seemed quite right, but I was determined to have paneling on that wall and make it a pretty accent wall. Then I read something that said your bed should always greet you when you walk in a room. Call me crazy, but I loved that sentiment, so we moved it under the window and love it there. It makes sure to greet us when we come in the room now, it's very polite like that. Haha. The flow in the room is so much better now, and I love sleeping under the open windows in the summer. 

I made the roman shades (tutorial coming soon!). I also made the pillows (they are double sided, what what!) using this beautiful Robert Allen fabric on one side. The fabric is double-sided, too (the colors are switched on the opposite side), I used the lighter side (obvs) for one side and the other side of the pillows are white with black trim. I'll show them another day. The bench is from Target, it's a really pretty blue velvet. The one I bought was an online purchase return so it was marked half-off. Sold!

We had to cut down and recover our headboard to accommodate the window, and we went from a diy tufted greyish blue headboard (that I never got around to posting) to a very simple silvery gray color. I kind of wanted it to just blend in and not compete with other elements in the room and am really happy with it. Sometimes I toy with adding a nailhead trim around the edges, but for now I like it simple.

The nightstands are an Ikea hack, using the Rast and some pretty brass pulls. I love them. The lamps were a Homegoods find, and the floral art is the cover of my Lulie Wallace calendar that I framed (LOVE her work).

My husband made the bed frame, and I lightly white-washed it. I think eventually we are either going to paint it white or upholster it, or maybe just add a skirt, but for now it's kind of a fun texture in the room. I kept the feet of the frame natural. I have a thing for natural feet on furniture, I love it (I did it on our ottoman, too). 

Here's where that piece I painted ended up. I actually painted another one, too, that was right next to it, but I moved it to the bathroom where I like it much better. So I'm on the hunt for something to hang to the left of this one.

I did a whole post about this dresser makeover, and I still need to add some more art around the TV to make it blend a bit. 

There are still a lot of things we need to do before we declare this room done. Actually, I'm not sure I'm a person who will ever have done rooms. I love changing out art and textiles, and the little things that make a room pretty seem to be always moving. But the bones usually stay in place, and we aren't quite there yet. 

Sometimes the room feels a little more masculine than I want, so I want to add some more pops of pink and floral to warm it up a bit. I have been on the hunt for fabric to make a lumbar pillow for the bed. I'm toying with Orangerie Rose, but I'm not positive yet. It's so pretty, but I'm not sure if I can pull the trigger! We'll see. 

So there you have it! That's our room. We're in a good spot, but there's still lots to find and do. And then we have the rest of the bedrooms! It's never-ending, but I love it!

PS The wall color is Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore. The trim color is off-the-shelf bright white from the Clark and Kensington trim and cabinet line. It is great paint for painting trim, I highly recommend it!

dresser makeover

A few months ago, I was on the hunt for a dresser for our bedroom. I didn't want to spend a lot since we are wanting to install a good closet system in our closet someday and completely do away with a dresser in the bedroom. But for now it's needed. 

My search took me to Ikea, the Tarva to be specific. The great thing about this dresser is that it's the perfect blank slate. With a little paint (or stain), some new pulls, and a few hours on a Saturday, this dresser can pretty much turn into whatever you want. 

I used Ace Cabinet, Door and Trim paint, colormatched to Benjamin Moore's Chelsea Gray, and Martha Stewart Bedford pulls (from Home Depot) for the hardware. I love these pulls so much, I'm sure I'll use them again for future projects. 

I have used Ace's Cabinet, Door and Trim paint for a number of projects, including painting our upstairs trim and molding, dressers, a bookshelf, and have even repainted a few past projects using this paint because it holds up so well.  I LOVE it. It dries rock-hard and super smooth, it's my favorite paint for projects like this. 

I love how it turned out. The only thing I might change in the future is the legs, they are a little skinny and don't quite go with the look I like. They look a little harsh to me or something? But until I find some other legs I like for it, I'm calling this project done. 

My original plan was to camouflage the TV with a small gallery wall (I know some people get crazy about TVs in bedrooms, but my husband and I are crazy about watching movies cuddled up in bed, so you gotta do what you gotta do, eh?), but I kind of like the layered look, too. Maybe layering another picture or two around the "L" will be enough? We'll see where it ends up. 

So for now, the dresser is done, the styling is a work in progress, and we have enough room for our clothes (hooray!). Our bedroom is slooooowly coming together!

Have you tackled any fun projects lately?

++UPDATE++

I get a lot of emails about this dresser, so I'll answer some of the most common questions to hopefully be a little more clear about my painting process.

The wood grain on this dresser is really pronounced and has a lot of texture, so even though I used a good, thick paint, it still shows through. I don't mind this (I even like it!), so I just painted one coat of paint and was done.

If you want to hide the wood grain a bit I would suggest sanding the dresser first, and then applying a primer. You might even want to use wood putty over some of the bigger knots to make them less obvious. I did none of this, however. I did not sand, use primer, or use a sealer at the end. I literally just painted the dresser using a foam roller and paintbrush, added the hardware once the paint was dry, and never looked back!

I've used this dresser daily for over a year now, and it's held up great. If you want a more glossy finish I would suggest sealing the paint, but mine has held up beautifully and looks just as good as it did the day I posted these pictures.

Hope that helps!

a diy faux boxwood wreath

I love boxwood wreaths. There is something so classic about them and they instantly freshen up a space. I've been on the hunt for one for a while now, but I'm a little picky, and finding one that is long-lasting without being spendy has not been easy. So I decided to try and make my own. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner, it was super easy and I love the results!

Here's the scoop:

You need:

1. A wreath form. I like grapevine wreaths, so that's what I went with. They are inexpensive and have that organic look that I love. (Michaels had them for $1.49 this week!)

2. Faux boxwood garland. I found mine at Michaels but this looks like the same stuff. I like a more natural, loose look, so I used one garland per wreath, but if you want a fuller look you should use more. 

3. Wire cutters

4. Floral wire (I used 22 gauge)

Here's where I feel silly explaining the process because it's so easy, but just humor me :)

Using your wire cutters, snip off all the undesirable ends of the garland, then lay it on the wreath to decide the placement you like. Cut a 3-4 inch piece of wire and secure the garland to the wreath by sliding one of the wire end under a thick, sturdy piece of the wreath, and bringing it back up. Twist the ends together as tight as you can to hold down the garland, and then hide the wire under some leaves. Repeat that every six inches or so, until the garland is secure. So simple, right?

Now is the fun part. You can either hang it up and admire your handy-work or you can add whatever embellishments you want. I chose to leave the one on my front door plain because I really like the look of plain old boxwood. It livens up my front porch and I love it. My husband even commented that he liked it and asked where I got it, which I always love. "What, this ole thing? Oh, I made it." :)

I decided to brighten up my second wreath with some paper flowers (more on those soon), and I love how they add just the right pop of color to my entrance. It's kind of fun to have some spring right there to greet me when I walk in the door.

diy upholstered ottoman

 

A few months ago my husband and I finally tackled a project I've been dying to do for years: an upholstered ottoman. It's silly how simple this project was, I don't know why we put it off for so long! originally I wanted it to be tufted, but this was much simpler and I'm just as happy with it in the end.

 

 

First, we decided how big to make it. To help us visualize it, I taped a rectangle on the rug using painters tape. I'm an extremely visual person, so it helps for me to see what the actual footprint will be. Next, my husband built a simple frame using 1x10 inch boards, with 4x4s in the corners for support, as well as to give us something to screw the legs in to.

 

 

Here's a shot from the inside. Everything is held together with screws. 

 

 

We bought the feet at Lowes. They were around $5 a piece, and I opted not to paint or stain them. I love the look of raw wood right now.

 

Next, he cut the top out of plywood and screwed it on. At this point I decided to change our furniture arrangement, and the original dimensions of the ottoman ended up being way too big. So my sweet husband had to do a little more sawing :) What a guy. It actually ended up being an easy fix, and in the end I'm really glad we (he) cut it down. The photo above is before he made it smaller. It was pretty big.

Next I bought 3" foam at Fred Meyer (the Kroger of the West Coast). I find they have the best deal on foam, it's so expensive to buy it at craft and fabric stores! For other projects I've even bought foam mattress pads at Walmart. I usually buy a full or queen size pad, fold it in half for extra cush, and then cut it to the size I need with a knife or scissors. either way saves you cash-ola.

Using spray adhesive I stuck the foam to the top. Then, I wrapped the top and sides with batting. Fabric stores sell batting meant for quilting that are huge if you buy the king or queen-size. I bought a queen-size so it would cover the whole thing easily a few times.



Next we covered the whole thing with the fabric. We just wrapped the ends like a present, stapled everything nice and tight, and it is holding up great.

The finished dimensions are 30"x42", and it's 15" tall, which for us, is the perfect footrest height.

 

And here's how she looks in the (freshly cleaned :) room. It's finally coming together, though not completely done. I still need to find an end table or two, some more art, bamboo blinds, etc., but I'm happy with where it's so far.

For the most part this was a quick, simple project, but here are a few things I would have done differently:

 

-wash your fabric first. I have a bad habit of not doing this and the fabric has stretched out a little bit; nothing too bad, but enough that I wish I would have preshrunk it first.

-cut the foam so there is about an inch of overhang on each side. this will keep the corners and edges soft. I didn't think about this, so our edges are a little hard still. again, no big deal, but if I was to do it again I would let the foam hang over a little bit.

 

I also sewed some new pillow covers using my trusty envelope cover tutorial. So easy! Boy has this room come a long way from last year! 

fireplace makeover

 

when my husband and i decided to buy a house, we knew building a new home was the best option for us. we like a certain style and certain finishes, and this home was the closest to what we would have picked out had we renovated an older home. it saved us a lot of work (and money!) to have it done our way from the beginning. there were a few things, however, that we didn't like but couldn't change. the fireplace is one of those things. i hated it in the model home, and i hated it in our home. so we picked the cheapest/easiest-to-remove tile at the tile shop and counted down the days until we could demo that baby and turn it into what we really wanted.

 

when we moved back from monatana the fireplace was at the top of the list for me. it had to be done by christmas!

 

we love to diy and my husband has a really good understanding and skillset when it comes to projects at home, so this might not be the "professional" way, but here's what worked for us:

 

 

 

 here's our starting point. one night we were staring at it and giving it the evil-eye, and i turned to my husband and said, "let's demo the fireplace." he said, "right now?" and i said, "absolutely right now!" so he got his hammer and a crowbar, and about an hour later we had this:

he was very careful not to damage the wall or molding that wouldn't be covered by the new finishes, and we were lucky that it came apart so easily. the previous tile was held on by little dabs of mortar and they popped off pretty easy. we made sure to use a blanket to protect our wood floors from falling tile.

next we drew up the plan (i'm not sure why i thought we should demo before we had a set plan!). i told him what i wanted and we looked through image after image of fireplaces we liked, and then he sketched up the final look.

we knew we wanted the woodwork to be built it out from the wall to give it some depth and seem like a real fireplace, not just wood on a wall. he used scrap wood to build a frame so the finished woodwork would stick out 2.5 inches.

he covered the frame with hardboard so we would have a smooth finish in the end. he used glue as much as possible and when nails were needed used them sparingly in places they would be hidden.

 

next came the trim work. we used white mdf for this, which saved so much time when i painted the finished product. again, these were glued and he used just a few nails that could be easily filled.

from this point everything is up to personal taste. i really wanted marble subway tile and we found just what we were looking for at lowes (i couldn't find a link online, but it's similar to this). cove and crown moldings were used to build up the mantle, and the mantle was made using select pine, cut to be eight inches deep. once everything was glued and nailed in place i caulked all the seams so they look flawless (do your best, caulk the rest!) and then painted it using sherwin williams ProClassic paint in marshmallow. (i have used this paint for a lot of projects and it is great. it's more expensive, but the finished look is worth it. no brush strokes, and it's as hard as enamel.)

this project came together pretty easily because my husband is a perfectionist when it comes to measuring and cutting angles. he understands how moulding and corners fit together, and what degree of angle will give him the right fit. i do not. so if this project was up to me it would be a mess! if you are tackling anything that deals with angles and corners, make sure you do your math and have a tool that can cut perfect angles for you. most of this was cut by hand using this tool.

we absolutely love how it turned out, it has changed the look and feel of our living space. it's so much more modern, and i LOVE the sparkle from the marble. every room needs a little sparkle, right? :)

i am a lucky girl to have a husband that is not only handy, but also willing to put up with my "just shave off a quarter-inch and it will be perfect!" anal-retentive ways, as well as my "hey! let's do another project!" bit that happens a few times a month. he told me i'm the his toughest project manager, and that's probably true :)

ps i took these photos after i decorated for christmas, i don't normally have gold balls on my vases :)
pps sneak peek of our diy ottoman in the fireplace glass!