Vroom Room

This is just a little quickie quick update to what I've been doing in the boys room.  The last time I talked about this we were moving Hunter into Jagger's room and converting everyone into a toddler bed.  Well after a spontaneous trip to home goods, I walked out with a theme and a better understanding of what I want going on in there.  It all started with this beauty I found

If you at all know me, you know I'm terrified of hanging things on the wall.  TERRIFIED.  So actually buying a piece of "art" and hanging it was a big step.  I have a feeling once more things start happening in this room this canvas might get moved to the striped wall...but for now it's amazing that it's just UP.

I also decided to bring the boys car rug and bean bag chairs up into their room, regardless of the protests of my husband.  I TOTALLY get that we have a big ol' basement that they can use for their playroom so why clutter their room with toys and such.  The answer is simple....because we adults also deserve some space in this house.  I find it unfair that we have a teeny space for our computer, I sew at the kitchen table, and we use the ENTIRE basement purely for mass amounts of toys.  NO MORE!!  Time to SHARE the house....after all....we stress sharing all the time.  Why not start with us.  So bean bags UPSTAIRS.  Besides, it really does make a nice little reading nook and it's great to be able for them to play while I do the laundry or whatever and not have to worry about being 2 floors away from them, fearing that one is poking the other's eye out.  It has happened.  The poking of the eye...not the actually "out" part....

I also got them some little auto and train throw pillows for their beds.  I'm DYING to get 2 twin size big boy beds in here...but see those cribs?  Yes they are the convertible kind that you can use as a headboard and foot board and all that jazz.  Which is FANTASTIC...but not for someone like me who changes their mind every 2 years.  So husband is determined to use them...and I keep stressing that we will store them and in the next house, when they have their own rooms, we will upgrade those twins that I want to full size for them and all will be good so peace be with you.  That man takes alot of convincing, and I'm still not there.  Not to mention, 2 full size beds will NOT fit in this room.  Anyway...I also have to figure out what to do with that center curtain in the car pattern...nix it? Add a panel to the bottom? Maybe switch it with the panels that are above the bean bags? Who knows....but you know it will be 8 months before I get to it.  #lazytiredmom.

Happy Thursday y'all!

Stripey stripes

I love that all of my most recent posts are mainly “Hey, I told you about this months ago, but never finished it until now.”  Hey…that’s like my life motto!
So bedroom curtains.  I showed you how I painted these here…but it took awhile to get around to hanging them for sure!  With me going back to work, Craig and I are certainly tired at the end of the day…but we made time on a Sunday to make sure we got this done.  Since both of us are busier than ever now, we have definitely dedicated ourselves to 2 things…the family and the house.  So after having an awesome morning taking the kids to our favorite breakfast spot, they went to nap and we got busy hanging stuff!  Here’s our bedroom window a la cart:

I sort of regret getting blinds…but c’est la vie.  they always look off…

I mean there’s not much to say about hanging curtains.  I think Craig and I have been out of it for awhile because we both agreed that it took us WAY too long to do this task…but here’s the final result!

I REALLY like them.  They were a little stiff when we put them up…put since they’ve been up for awhile they have actually softened.  The air has gotten cool enough to where we can open the windows at night, which seriously tops my all time favorites list, right next to Rita’s water ice, cartoons, and my kids. I hated keeping the window open in this room, though, because my neighbors behind us keep their porch light on all night and it shines RIGHT IN MY EYES.  But…with these curtains now….it’s GLORIOUS!  It’s dark, cool, and I’m in sleep heaven.
Also loving on how the black looks pretty solid from far away…but it still lets some nice light in during the day

Craig likes it too….he’s tired from curtain hanging.  I told you, we are busy peeps now.  Sometimes I feel like we are always on the move and rarely resting…so it’s nice to see him rest in our new room (although I did holler at him after taking this pic to clean up the drill and trash and THEN take a nap)
What’s left to do in this room?  A LOT.  On the top of the list are a better side table for Craig, a vanity side table for me, art on the walls, and figure out if I really want this bedding or not.  But I’m really loving all the awesome changes that are happening!

Coral Me Happy

In continuing efforts to get our master bedroom decorated, I of course had to do something about the bed!  It’s the main focus in the bedroom…not to mention the item that gets used the most (bow chicky bow wow….more like zzzzzzzzzzzz). 

Noooooooot so exciting.  I really wanted to add some pops of coral in this room as I’m just over the moon for the turquoise and coral color scheme.  I found this duvet at Homegoods and thought it might be perfect!

I really love it with the rug too!  Its just fun and vibrant.  However (and there’s always a however with me) I’m not 100% sold on it yet.  I don’t know if it’s TOOOOO much of what I want.  But, it’s so soft and lovely and just gives the room that color it needs for right now that I’m perfectly happy with it.  I’m trying to think of ways to maybe keep it but tone it down a bit, like maybe with a white throw, or making the bed a little different so it’s more of an accent.  And those yellow pillows are a no…it’s just what we have right now.  I really want to hack this bed, too, and create an upholstered headboard and perhaps paint the frame….but the chocolate is fine right now.  Although it may not stay or may change slightly, I’m loving sleeping in my new coral layers….and so are the 2 little duders

Rug me Tender…

Hahaha…I don’t know why that title make me laugh, but it does.
True story….I have never bought a rug.  No never, not ever.  But when I saw that Rugs USA was having a sale, like an up to 75% off sale, and I had a coupon from Facebook when I “liked” them, I figured it was about time that I tried my hand at a rug.  The perfect place?  The bedroom that I’m currently working on, of course!  Let’s re-visit one of my inspiration pics for our bedroom:

I know that inspiration pics aren’t necessarily supposed to be taken literally.  I mean, if that were the case then I’d be sleeping in a crib right now, and tossing my underwear in that diaper genie there.  But anyway…when I saw this black and white chevron rug for $89 (before my FB coupon) I had to jump on it.  Had to had to had to.

Oh glorious day!!!  I snagged this little beauty for $71 when all was said and done!  WHAT!  I know!!!  And it’s an 8x10, by the way.  From all my rug window shopping, but never buying….I knew that was a KILLER deal!  About a week and a half later I had this bad boy on my front door step, and knew that during my first days off from work, this baby would be going under my bed!!!  I had one problem though…I have a super annoying, super heavy, super cumbersome platform bed.

Oh yeah, don’t mind my uber messy bedroom.  It’s gradually getting better and better.  Just concentrate on the rug for right now.  So I had to find a way to get this bad boy UNDER the bed.  First things first….mattress and box springs off:

I am SUPER WOMAN!  Do you know how heavy those mattresses are?!?!!  Well, they are heavy.  Next up was figuring out how to lay this rug out.  I originally intended for the rug to go long ways….with the chevron pattern oriented like the inspiration picture above.  But as you can see…that would have meant that the overhang on the sides would have been puny…like only a couple inches.  The only solution was to go sideways.

Ok so now I was stuck.  I couldn’t figure out how to lift the bed enough to roll the rug underneath and platform area.  Yes, waiting for the hubs to come home would have, ideally, been the best way….but I have zero patience.  So I had to figure this out.  I don’t have pictures, or really a process to explain this as it all just kind of happened out of sweat, sheer will power, and a little insanity.  Somehow I ended up at this point:

You know how people in certain situations can lift a car because of pure adrenaline?  Well…as soon as I saw the chevron laid out in all it’s glory on my floor (fully realizing that this was all UNDER the mattress) I somehow got that super hero strength from my own adrenaline and finally ended up with the rug how I intended under my bed


Oh My Gawd I love it!  What a difference it makes to the whole room!  It’s slightly unbelievable.  Even Craig asked “how did you manage to do this??”  Really…if you knew the weight of this bed, you’d be asking the same thing.  Heck…I’ve been waking up the past couple days asking myself the same thing.  But I don’t dwell…I just rub my feet on it and stare at its beauty.  Totally my favorite thing I’ve ever done in decorating.  My never-rug-buying-self has totally turned a corner!!  So glad I popped that cherry!!!!  Sorry….maybe that was gross….

And then a week goes by

Wow….when you’re a working mom time certainly does fly!!  I never realized how much you can get done in a day until I added more responsibility to my life!  Haha!  Heather and I have said that we actually get MORE done because if we don’t….it will NEVER happen.
So anyway…just like any dedicated DIY-er….I haven’t stopped thinking of the house.  Remember I told the hubs that I wouldn’t do anything (major) until I finished our bedroom to completion….so this was part of that promise.  Our room needs curtains and this was the perfect time to test the new limited amount of hours in the day.  I still wanted to make them myself, but wanted to make it as easy as possible.  I’ve been loving bold patterns in graphic black and white, and I kept coming back to these pics on Pinterest


Ooooo I just love it.  I have seen a couple of different tutorials around about how to go about making these, and it seemed easy enough.  I chose to go the “paint the black stripes on the white material” method, mainly because time is precious right now (I don’t think I can say that enough) and I didn’t want to get hung up on exact measurements and sewing panels and such. So the first chance I got, I went out to our local big box hardware store and picked this up.

That’s right people…painter's drop cloths.  Why you ask?  Because 1) I wanted to use canvas…and this was already hemmed for me. 2) It’s actually cheaper than buying canvas at my fabric store, even with a coupon.  This is 6x9, enough for one hearty curtain panel (no wimps allowed!) and cost only $9.99.  Then I sauntered over to the oops paint…and lo and behold there was a whole quart of black paint!  Whhhaaaattt?  My luck amazes me sometimes….mainly because I NEVER have it.  And trust me on this, you will need a quart.  The canvas really sucks up the paint.  So after a quick sew to get the length right, I taped off some lines (I hope no further explanation required…..tape….lines…..) I started slapping on some paint.

Ok I guess a little explanation might be in order.  So scratch that….reverse it (Name that movie!).  I first measured the length of the canvas, and I then determined how big I wanted my stripes, and how many I wanted, and fudged it until I found a number that came closest to both of those.  Sounds back-asswards?  Because it is. What can I say….I do things the hard way.  I knew I wanted an odd number and I knew I wanted thicker stripes.  Anyways….back to painting!  I thought I’d use a roller and it would go super easy and super fast….I was wrong.

It was taking FORRRREEEEEVVVVEEERRR.  So I turned to the handiest and cheapest tool I had at my disposal.  The sponge brush.

Surprisingly this little tool made the job go SO MUCH FASTER.  Oh and little tip.  BACK YOUR CANVAS.  I used plastic dropcloths to protect the carpet.  Everything seeped through, so back it up back it up back it up.
So now I have 2 of these babies….minus the tape of course!  I can’t wait to hang them up!! 

Oh, and I know that these canvases aren’t white white…and I was a little ehhhhhh about it at first, but I’m actually a little glad. I love the stark black and white look, but being that this is my first time experimenting with such graphic details, I like how the of whited-ness makes it a bit muted. But we’ll see when I hang them!

Two become One

I don’t really understand how I don’t have pictures of my kids rooms.  Most people…most NORMAL people…take such pride in their kids nurseries and take a gazillion pics.  How do I have NONE???  I don’t really get it.  Well…this is what I could find in the ways of Hunter’s nursery..

 

I know I know….horrible right???  But you can kinda see the paint job, that we have a crib, a highboy dresser next to it, and a shelf/changing table piece.  I am awful!!!  Wednesday resolution…take better before pictures.  And how the heck aam I that skinny at 6 months out with Hunter but still a chubbo 2 years out with Jagger?  Another Wednesday resolution…start getting in shape…it’s about damn time woman.

So we’ve now decided that it’s about time our boys shared a room and that Hunter’s room become an office/guest room.  Right now I do all my sewing on the kitchen table…which is just annoying and awful, and Craig has a teeny tiny corner in the basement for his desk.  It’s pretty inefficient and awful.  Oh and when guests come we have to bunk the boys together anyway.  So when my parents came just recently and we had to bunk the boys…we decided to just move Hunter’s bed into Jagger’s room…and never move it back!  And yes…I don’t have a before picture of Jagger’s room either.  WHAT KIND OF A MOTHER AM I!!!!!!  jeez…

And I didn’t really realize what a task this would be….

 

Notice how close the crib comes to the walls?  That’s because we didn’t realize how HUGE this crib was.  It was put together in the room and we haven’t moved it for 4 years….so…again…bigger task than we thought…

Best course of action…take the door off Jaggers room!

This turned out to be simpler than we thought.  Bang a few pins out of the hinges and voila!!  But the thing you have to always remind Sonny….DON’T FORCE IT.  When we went to take it out it got just a little stuck…and my husband thinks that forcing things a little always gets the job done.  I had visions in my head of him ripping out the hinge from the frame, or bending it so that we couldn’t get the door back on.  So while these pics were being snapped there was a lot of verbal snapping as well…

Door off, crib slid in…and now we are in limbo!  Ha!  We are currently in the process of switching out furniture (Hunter’s is 100% nicer than Jagger’s so we are going to use Jagger’s in the office or in other places in the house), creating more closet space, and making this room truly THEIRS.  I’m excited!  I eventually want them to have 2 twin beds, but being that Jagger hasn’t tried once to crawl out of his crib, I have no intentions of forcing him into a bed he can easily get out of.  So we are going to attempt to have 2 cribs/toddler beds in this room for now…then upgrade it down the road.  But I have big plans for this room.  I want to make bedding, do new curtains, organize their closet…I’ll have to come up with a to do list and I’ll share that on here with you all.

New projects are a flurry in this house!!  I’m going to snap some “now” pics today so that I can really show you guys the room and we can all see how it transforms! 

Quilting Bee

In continuing on with doing my bedroom, I have been on the hunt for a quilt.  I have never been a quilt type person, but being that it’s almost summer and our down comforter is not going to really be an option…I’m putting the duvet on hold in favor of lighter dressings.  My problem is I CANNOT find one that I like.  So….I’ve decided to make one!  EEE!!!  Lets take another look at my in progress bedroom

I have since cleaned it up…just apparently have not taken an updated picture.  I apologize.  I really need to get more organized….

So I’ve always thought of quilts as really cottage style and that’s never been my thing…but for some reason I’m loving (and pinning) more and more cottage-esque interiors.  That’s another great thing about Pinterest….you start looking at your pins and saying “Why the heck am I pinning THIS?  I thought that I was all about THAT.”  Voila…you realize your design taste is evolving.  Granted I’m totally still into the geometrics and clean lines…but maybe with three boys in the house I’m feeling a little femininity is essential.  Just look at some of the things that I’m loooooving

Of course Sarah Richardson is in the mix (the top 2)…but check out all the florals too, what?  I hate florals!  Or I thought I did anyway.  But I guess its creeping into my life based on my previous projects…

Really who knew?

So…back on track here….I am totally into the whole quilt thing, yet I still want something a bit geometric and modern.  I found this…which I’m totally sold on doing!  It’s modern, but will look great mixed with some floral pillows on the bed or even some chevron (yes I still love it) or other geometrics too! (click the pic for source)

 

Don’t you love it?  I’m even digging the general color scheme.  In fact…these are the “maybe” fabrics I’ve chosen

 

Thinking of switching up the yellow and the blue on the original pattern.  But the best part is, depending on how you turn these blocks…you can make all different kinds of patterns!

How cool is this?  I’m really excited to get started in making it.  I’m not 100% sold on the colors/patterns…not sure if I just want to keep everything gray or what…but I plan on adding bold accents on the bed pillows like a huge pattern black and white chevron, and definitely throwing in some pinks and aquas.  Trust me…I can see it coming together in my head.  I think.    It may take me a few tries!  If you guys have any tips and tricks on sewing a quilt I’d love the help!  This will be my second….but the biggest!  The first was for my nephew and I thought that was huge!  King size should be interesting!