Family Room Reveal

Here's a quick update on the almost finished product. It's taken a long time to take photos since the moments of the house being quasi-clean, having good lighting, and having the toddler entertained elsewhere are few and far between. It's like a split-second utopia.

Overall, we love the house. We still have some nesting to do, but it will come (right??). The big stuff is complete, and making it ours is a work-in-progress. We are getting there slowly but surely. But, here's where we are today...

the little rocking chair was left with the house. i painted it & B loves having his own "big boy" space in the family room.

Need a reminder of the before? (shield your eyes from the shag carpet!)

The inspiration behind the transformation...

Favorites in this room:

• The black windows. Replacing all of the aluminum-framed casement windows throughout the house wasn't in the budget. Painting them black gave them an INSTANT update and we love it, despite the pain it was to get the painters to finish the job correctly.
• Natural light
• Fireplace - hubs did an amazing job installing the wood cladding. 
• Fireplace surround
• Shelving update - a little trim on the shelf fronts and paint on the rear wall is another instant update
• B's play area isn't as pretty or contained as the Sarah Richardson in me would like, but I wouldn't trade having him a place to hang out for all the designer fabric in the world.

Details:

• Rug: One Kings Lane
• Bench: Antique
• Mantel: Custom reclaimed Douglas Fir
• Fireplace surround: Absolute Black granite, honed
• Fireplace cladding: Custom
• Armoire: Crate & Barrel
• Curtains: Ikea
• Wall hanging: vintage
• Paint colors: see here

Renovation: Living Room Inspiration

With the renovation going so slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwly, I've had entirely too many nights to peruse Pinterest & Houzz. Of course it goes to reason that after spending endless hours pinning images, I find "the" inspiration pic I've been looking for while browsing the website of a home decor store that's less than two miles from my sofa. Stumbling upon it was like finding the Holy Grail. The skies parted, rainbows appeared, and a chorus of butterflies and angels echoed harmoniously. Okay, maybe not quite that dramatic.

And here she is:

originally from Stanton Home Furnishings

This room has a very similar layout as our living space, which is what proved so hard to find. The back door to the back porch creates a weird walkway that needs to be kept clear. The fireplace is centered on the opposite wall, but the room isn't all that wide, which makes furniture placement tricky. The room is about 15' wide (fireplace to opposite wall) and 21' deep from the windows to the built-ins/foyer entry.

For reference, here's what we're working with (apologies for the phone pics):

looking from foyer

looking from dining. foyer to the right

I know I want ample seating in this room. It's where we'll spend the majority of our time, and our previous den just felt cramped when we had anyone over to visit.

Using the furnishing we have, or that I've had my eye on for a while, here's my design "plan." Of course, once we get the furniture in place, there may be some shuffling. But at least there's a starting point. 

A sofa and a side chair just isn't enough seating for our family. I like the idea of a swivel on the far end of the room so we can play with B or swivel right around & be part of whatever's happening in the den. Jason says I tend to overpack a room with furniture. Is it too much? What do you think?

Nursery Progress 7: the bedding

Call it nesting, call it a DIY drive. I felt like I needed to make something for this nursery. And decided it should be the bedding.

I followed these simple tutorials for crib sheets and changing pad covers using fabric ordered from fabric.com.

In hindsight, these were easy except for the threading of the elastic. Hello carpal tunnel! Could I have purchased these ready-made? Certainly. But I guess it wouldn't have that "mom made it for me" feel, right? I'm sure he'll be thinking about that right before he poops or pukes all over it.

If you're not the DIYer, lucky for you Target now carries crib sheets in just about every pattern I made:
Mini elephants
Gray chevron
Navy polkadot (I've seen in-store)

And, they're currently on sale for $9 a piece. Knowing this, would I still have given myself carpal tunnel to craft my own? I'd like to think so, but probably not. However, I wouldn't have coordinating changing pad covers, so there. And I won't remind myself that I could've easily fashioned the changing pad covers from the sheets...

The skirt is super simple. I feel guilty calling it a skirt at all. Since I only need it on one side of the crib (the ends being solid & the back up against the wall), I only hemmed a large rectangle of fabric. Then, I attached to the spring frame with binder clips. This makes it easy to adjust as the crib mattress height changes as bambino grows. I like a longer skirt, but Cricket likes to see the floor (aren't those storage bins sexy?), so it's short...for now. I could've used hem tape instead of the machine and this would've taken 10 minutes instead of the 15 it actually took.

I have grand plans to sew a coordinating teething rail once he gets here. But we'll see. I have the fabric, the polyfill, and everything else...it just takes initiative.

Nursery Progress 6: the dresser

Again, we are working with limited space so we need furniture to pull double duty. Our dresser will also function as the changing table.

To work with the crib's clean white lines, we were looking for something white with straight lines.

While I liked this one from West Elm, I struggled with the idea if spending that much dough in a white dresser that was going in a child's room. I mean, let's be practical.

After some antique shopping, I found a potential score. The height was dead-on perfect for minimizing any hunching over during diaper changes. The width & depth were just enough to hold a changing pad and fit in our space. (The top even had a ledge to keep the pad in place.) The drawers could open with a single hand when holding a babe on the table. The dresser could also be repurposed in another room in the future. And the price was about half of the retail option.

We had a friend refinish & lacquer it to match the crib, and it looks awesome! It took some time for the lacquer smell to diffuse enough so I could move the babe's stuff into it, so be sure to allow ample time if going a similar route.

The actual paint "color" is simply white primer. We determined it matched the crib best without being too yellow, pink, gray, blue, etc.

Nursery Progress 5: curtains

So this was easy peasy. I wanted navy striped drapes to frame the existing roman shades on the windows and to close off the doorless closet. These are really intended to be more decorative than functional since we already have the shades on the windows, and I imagine the closet will be open most of the time.

Enter, these navy striped sheet sets from Target. These are available in solid colors, but I chose the navy pinstripe. Cheaper than buying the fabric, and already hemmed.

I simply split each flat sheet lengthwise and opened up the folded top edge to create a rod pocket. I hemmed along the split edge and done.

By hanging the new rods high enough, I avoided any need to hem.

Now, I need to figure out something to do with the fitted sheets and pillow cases. Each set came in a matching drawstring bag, which I expect to use in the diaper bag for little toys or soiled clothes or something purposeful. We shall see. But the extra yardage from the fitted sheets could make for crib sheets or changing covers or something else down the line.

Getting there!

Nursery Progress 4: the crib

With the chair off at the upholsterer, we could focus on the crib.

Neither of us are tall and our room isn't large, so we wanted a smaller profile crib.

Unfortunately, most of the local stores only carry the larger, grand furniture which just wasn't a fit. We didn't want to break the bank, but didn't want to skimp on quality. It was tough to find cribs we liked that we could touch & feel vs just view online.

We were liking both the Babyletto and Baby Mod lines, both manufactured by Million Dollar Baby and similar except price points.

At New Baby Products, we were able to check out the Babyletto Hudson.

[my mom, aka "Gran," modeling the Babyletto Hudson in gray]

We decided to take a risk on the Baby Mod Modena based on the strong reviews and ordered it online knowing we could return it. Gotta love free shipping! The reviews all said it was easy to assemble, so we chanced it.

Cricket was concerned about it because, well, it was really inexpensive relative to the others. (And we ordered it from Walmart, which he automatically hates. I'm an Arkansas girl and grew up on Walmart vs. Target, so I'm pretty open-minded. He, on the other hand, would swear a Coca-Cola tasted much worse, had more preservatives, and was probably otherwise damaged if purchased at Wally World versus a gas station.) They also sell the line via Amazon, Overstock, and other retailers. The pick-up in-store was a pain, I'll admit. Maybe because it was so close to the holidays and people were setting up their layaway plans --  they use the same counter for pick-up & layaway. It would be easier if you could just take your printed receipt around back to pick it up, but I digress...

Mom, Coco and I put it together in a few minutes (J was distracted with his Lego fire truck). We kept it up a few weeks to make sure it was stable & secure. We weren't sure how we felt about the ends being closed vs. slatted, but once we got it into position in the room, it really didn't matter for our room's layout.

As a bonus, the model name is the Modena. My grandmother's name. She watched me a LOT as a tot, so it's like she's watching over our babe while he sleeps.

Winner!

Nursery Progress 3: the trophy wall

One of my fave parts of the nursery, and the original inspiration for the entire room as a modern, modified, safari.

These paper mâché animal heads from West Elm add whimsy to this fella's room without being too babyish. We bought the elephant & the hippo. I think the giraffe is a little weird looking - like something from "Avatar." And the rhino is BIG! The others were a bit too harsh with their spiky horns and all. I found the smaller metal ones at Hobby Lobby and painted them to match.

Quite a trophy wall for a tot, eh? When he dreams of wild safari adventures, he'll wake up feeling quite accomplished. Don't worry, no animals were harmed in the process.

Originally, I was planning on going with this rug from West Elm, too. But, again, a white rug in a baby's room had me concerned. I love the rug, but found this alternate from Rugs USA during their after-Christmas sale.  At first, I was hesitant about going with chevron. I like chevron, but we already have the infamous DIY chevron rug in the neighboring bedroom, and I didn't want to overdo it. But, my frugality won the fight. 70% off = awesome. It cost about $100, free shipping, no tax. Hard to beat, that.

After letting the rug off-gas on the porch for a few days, we moved it into place with a cushy pad underneath to give those little knobby knees plenty of cushion when crawling days arrive. As stated in the rug reviews, it sheds a good bit during the first several vacuum jobs, so we got those out of the way and it seems to be fine now.

Nursery Progress 2: the chair

Well, the clock is ticking and we're making some progress in the babe's room.

This chair was a Craigslist score for $35. Loved the lines and scale of the swivel rocker, but the worn gold velvet? Not so much.

A few yards of white cotton duck and a skilled upholsterer...

Voila!

Good times ahead...

Sofa wall score

One of these days we'll surely hang something above the sofa. Lord knows we've talked about it for 2 years. And finished several projects in the process.

Lookie what I picked up a few weeks ago.

Salvage Show in Atlanta

I've been a bad blogger. Maybe I need inspiration. And I think this is just where I'll find it:

Salvage is hosted by the Indie Craft Experience and is billed as a "curated vintage marketplace...featuring vintage clothes, decor, home goods, books, furniture, and more!" It's coming up in Atlanta on April 14, 2012 and will feature all sorts of cool vendors showcasing their vintage modern masterpieces. And food trucks.


And did you know....they are having a MASON JAR COMPETITION!!! WHAT?!?! I cannot wait to see what some of these genius artists come up with!

$5 at the door. Cannot wait!

bedroom switched

as i mentioned a few weeks ago, we decided to give our master bedroom a big switch-a-roo. you saw the before pics + the state of chaos that our bedroom commonly is was. yes, i believe in being genuine, so you got to see the real mess.

before, when you walked into the room, you saw this...

now, you see this:

and on the other side of the closet door, where you once saw this...

you now see this:

do you remember these shelves from my New Year's Day 2011 score? well, they were a little beat up + we'd had plans to whip them back into shape. the switch-a-roo motivated that project, which i'll post about later this week. don't they look a zillion times better with the added shelves in the center?

the move of the entertainment center/shelves also required a rewiring. we had to run cable from one side of the closet to the other, and we had to move a light switch since we still needed the closet light to be functional and all. i'll tell you about that later this week, too.

and where the bed once was...

...is now our "gym". we have plans to do some fun stuff in this currently blah space, so stay tuned.

and where's the dresser you ask? well, it's tucked behind the door here:

that's my grandma O's chair that I need to recover...but I can't decide what to do with it. i love the tufting + the trim of the pink brocade chair. and that's lula's mountainous bed of fluff next to it. the dog has more pillows + blankets than the queen of sheba. thanks to her Aunt Coco for the diy fleece blankie!

we still have some things to finish out this room--big + small. until that big reveal, rest assured we're sleeping a little better.

necklace hanger tutorial

for christmas, my sister gave me an adorable earring holder to hold my hook-backed jewels that i'm guilty of leaving to be forgotten in my jewelry box. unfortunately, i left it at my mom's house and had to wait for it to be shipped to me. it was a DIY project from a backless frame + hardware cloth. GENIUS, right?

[sister's christmas gift to me]

while i waited for the hanger to arrive, i decided i needed to figure out something to better manage my longer necklaces. i was inspired by this ballard design hooks + i figured it'd be the perfect use for some hooks i already had, and it'd be much cheaper than the $70-90 retail. OUCH!

i'd planned to stop by a local salvage place for some reclaimed trim, but they were closed. and i wanted to get my project on. i picked up a few pieces of lumber + trim and was on my way.

supplies:
trim [as decorative as you'd like] the length of your wall space; i used 2 pieces
1x6 the length of your wall space
wood glue
clamps
paint - base color, darker glaze, metallic finish
hooks
hanger


1. Apply thin bead of wood glue along bottom edge. Attach bottom trip to 1x6 and clamp. Let dry for at least 30 minutes.

2.  Run a squiggle [yes, it's a technical term] of wood glue along top edge of 1x6. Attach trim + clamp. Let dry for at least 30 minutes. [If you have enough clamps, you could theoretically do steps #1 + #2 simultaneously to cut down your drying time.]

3. With all trim attached to the 1x6, cut the board to desired length. I opted for a 45-degree angle. Sand rough edges until smooth.

4. Apply 2-3 coats of base color paint, being sure to cover all edges. I used Martha Stewart's Hosta matched to Glidden satin. [I bought a tester-sized bottle, and it was more than plenty.]

5. Once base color coats have dried, mix water with a dark brown acrylic for your glaze. I used Delta Ceramcoat Burnt Umber. Lightly brush onto the boards, highlighting knots + crevices as desired. Use a dry paper towel to lighten any spots. Continue to add glaze until you have the aged effect you desire.

6. Once the glaze has dried, use a dry brush apply metallic finish paint. I used Martha Stewart Thundercloud metallic. Add as many LIGHT coats of the metallic finish as you'd like. Be sure to let it dry between coats so you can see the actual glisten, as it appears much more metallic when wet.

7. Now that you've achieved the desired finish, attach your hooks.

8. Attach small hangers to the back of your boards and hang on the wall. The trim I used created a little ledge - perfect for my cuffs, bangles + brooches.

[the accessory center: smaller necklaces in the pouches, more delicate ones on the hooks]