A Simple Guest Room

We've rearranged the boys room configuration, and are left with a guest room. We had guests coming so I pulled a few things together to make a simple guest room spending not even a dime.

The duvet was from my middle boy's old bed, the curtains from my old craft room, I sewed up some pillows from fabric remnants, the chairs were hand-me-downs from my husband's grandmother. and the room was pretty much done.

Our Last Nursery

While pregnant with our last baby, we were in the midst of building a new home, selling our old home, and living with in-laws in between. That yearning to nest was replaced with packing and dreaming. We closed on our home on a Friday, moved in on Saturday, and baby came the next day, Sunday. The last thing I wanted to do after just having a baby, and readjusting to having a newborn schedule, was unpack and decorate, yet all I wanted was to feel settled and at home. It was a balance I was trying to figure out.

 Eventually, things came together, and it is now one of my favorite rooms in the house- not necessarily because it is the most decorated, but because of the sentiment behind the room. This was our last baby, thus, this is the last nursery. The last crib, the last rocker . . . So every time I walk in the room, I take in the details, the tiny elements, the sweetness. I just laid my baby (okay, he's 21 months, but he will always be my baby) down for a nap. Placing his heavy body down in his crib, I am realizing that these baby moments are fleeting. That the transition to a big boy room is pending, though I joke that I may keep him in a crib until he is FIVE! I've already started accumulating items for his big boy room, but for now I want to cherish the nursery.

There are scatterings of mountain and woodland animals throughout the room- miniatures, stuffies, prints . . .

My mom always makes each new grand baby a blanket. I knew I wanted a striped blanket like one I saw on The Purl Bee. We picked out colors and my mom remastered her knitting skills and made my babe this fun, modern, and super soft blanket. It is definitely a treasure.

The art prints above the crib came from The Caravan Shoppe. Super easy to buy, download, then print. Instant gratification! The rest of the art and wall decor was made by yours truly. Digital designs, an embroidered fox constellation, faux pewter initial, photos, and even some fun felt arrows.

My dad had some antlers laying around, and I asked if his grandson could inherit them- he can't say no to his grand babies! I wanted a playful modern take on an antler mount so I cut a triangle and painted it bright blue for the background.

Some scrap pallet wood I had leftover from another project got repurposed into a wall banner. That along with the dreamcatcher were my wishes for sweet dreams for our little one. The dreamcatcher was made using left over yarn from the blanket my mom knit.

Sitting rocking my baby, during the day with the sun pouring in, or in the wee hours of the night, were treasured this time around especially.

For his first birthday, my dad made some wood cuts. His name was on top of his cake, and later added to his collage wall because I couldn't part with it.

The mobile was a labor of love while I was pregnant. 10 crochet little stars in white and natural yarn, later joined, stuffed, and hung from a ring of twigs gathered from our yard. Every night as I put him to bed we sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star as I make the stars dance above him. He loves it, and I cherish those moments.

Sources:
Crib & Dresser- BuyBuy Baby
Rocker- Target
Side Table- Homegoods
Striped rug- Crate & Barrel
Curtains- Ikea
Curtain Rod- Target
Basket- Target
White Frames- Ikea
Tribal B&W Pillow- Ikea
Watercolored Animal Prints- Caravan Shoppe
Large Stuffed Fox- Anthropologie (similar)
Raccoon & Fox- Jellycat
Knit Raccoon- Blabla Kids

Our Entry & Playroom

I have started the dreaded packing process and the first things to get packed up are those little touches that have made this house into our home. The pictures, the accents, and the cheery words. Kind of like the one you find when you first walk in our home- a cheery HELLO that always welcomed you. See the HELLO post here. I decided to finally post pictures of the other areas of our home so that I could reminisce from time to time on our first home. To onto the Entry & Playroom mini tour.

After saying "Hello" you will see my craft room (you can see a sliver of it in this picture.)

There is a long wall in the entryway. A wall so long that it was hard to find something to fit the space.

 I considered a super long bench for a while, but determined that a table would give me more decorating surfaces, and that idea won. Finding a long entry table in the style that I wanted, was proving to be expensive, so I built my own using salvaged balusters, and some wood from the home improvement store. See the full post here. The window is also salvaged, and was originally a window on SMU's campus. I did a post about the lamp here. The heart state prints are ones I made that show where we were all born.

Just beyond the craft room entry way and across from that long wall, is our playroom.

I made the curtains using Premier Prints Suzani print in the Titan Birch color. I was looking for a fabric that helped tie in the hand-me-down chairs that we inherited from my husbands grandmother. It's a heavy weight nubby fabric, and I love it in there.

I had wanted a piano to fill in that big nook, and found this one on craigslist. I wanted one in a dark non-glossy wood, that I wouldn't mind the kids banging around on. This one fit the bill and I love tinkering around on it (and wish I had kept up with lessons in my youth...)

This is the cleanest you'll see the playroom. We live in that room and books, cars, and games are always spread across the floor. The Ikea Expedit bookcase does a great job at wrangling in the toys. I bought the canvas bins at The Container Store, and designed labels for each one. Even my 18 month old helps put the toys away in their proper bins thanks to the pictures on each label. 

The pendant light is from Crate & Barrel and came as a surprise from my husband- I guess he does pay attention when I browse through their catalogs.

Being open to the entry and house, I didn't want the room to be decorated too kid-like. I stuck to a fun print for the curtains, and neutral colors all around to balance our the overload of toys. It's simple and I love the way it turned out.

DIY Salvage Entry Table

In our home, we have a long entry wall. One so long that it dwarfed most entry tables. I found this one on Pottery Barn that I loved, but I would have to be crazy to pay that much for it. The main reason I browse most furniture catalogs is to merely get inspiration, and this table was the inspiration for the table I was to make.

One Saturday, we ventured to downtown Fort Worth to see if the architectural salvage warehouse, Discount Home Warehouse, had some balusters. I found some nice bulky ones and got four. They sat in my garage for a long time until I finally figured out what I wanted the top to look like, and how to make it. 

I made a little digital rendition of how I was going to attach the legs to the table. Since these weren't made to be table legs, they have a round top instead a a squared out one. So I adapted and it worked out great. I was going to have aprons that completely surrounded the table with the legs set behind the aprons. I mitered the corners and screwed them to the table top from the bottom side of each apron board with long wood screws. 

I used 1x6 whitewood boards to make the top. I pieced three boards together, wood gluing the first two, and then glued the third on. I then used a few metal brackets (called mending plates) and short wood screws on the underside to secure the three boards together even more. 

I had to sand down each leg to get rid of their glossy poly finish. Each leg had holes and notches from where they were attached- I decided to leave the holes to add character and remember that they were salvaged not store bought. Then, I painted primed them, let dry, then painted them. 

After the table top's glue dried, I cut and mitered the aprons and attached them to the table top. Then, following what I did in my digital sketch above, I cut some corner braces and screwed them into the aprons and then into each leg twice.  Once it was all together, I painted the top and aprons. I did a few coats and when they were thoroughly dry, I distressed the edges of everything. I let it all cure and then moved it inside.

Here's where it sits today:

I think it's fitting that a salvaged window from SMU hangs above it- salvaged friends. The table fits the space great and I have fun re-decorating it as each holiday comes along.

My Daughter's Bedroom

I posted the boys shared room a while back, and figured it was about time to post a few pictures of my daughter's room. I didn't really have a theme in mind- so it's a combination of girly pinks and greens, horse lover, shabby, and playful elements.

I made her bedding back when she was turning two and moving into a twin bed from the crib. See the original quilt post HERE. When we moved into this home, I could finally decorate a room, since before she was sharing it with baby brother.

I painted the back walls of this built in shelf area pink (Martha Stewart Living, Hollyhock Pink MSL007) to set it apart (and to compromise with my daughter since she wanted the whole room painted pink!)

Her blessing dress was the same dress me and my two sisters wore. It is too beautiful with so much history and sentiment behind it. We love seeing it each day.

The mirrors are cheap Ikea mirrors that were originally raw pine or dark stained wood. I gathered 9 from my unused home decor box and decided to paint them with wide stripes. I used extra pink paint from the shelves wall- so they coordinate perfectly.

I made the little dream catcher back when she was a baby. You can see details from the original post on it HERE.

I got her bed frame at a yard sale. That thing seemed like 100 years old, the rails were attached with some heavy-duty iron mechanism. I stripped the paint (I think there were at least 6 different colors on it from over the years.) It took some time, but it made the new antique white paint much smoother.

Her room is definitely girly and pink, but it was a lot of fun to put together. I mostly wanted it to be a room that SHE loved, and she does so it makes it all worth it!

Some art prints info from her room:

I Love to See the Temple- Have Joy designs on Etsy

Country Barn photo- Spencer Johnson on Etsy

New Lamp Revamp

After building my new entry table, I was on the hunt for a lamp. I had a vision in mind, but the lamps I kept falling in love with were way out of my price range. Like these:

Restoration Hardware: on sale for $145 not including the shade.

Pottery Barn: $269

I knew just what to do. I headed over to HomeGoods where I knew they would have something that I could work with at a much better price. I found this lamp for $49. Yes, that price was a bit high still, but compared to the designer options, and the fact that I save money by building the entry table myself, I decided to splurge.

The shade was not what I wanted at all. I had another spare shade up in the attic- I think I paid $10 for it originally. I pulled it down and stuck it on. The shape was good, but the color wasn't working.

I had some extra burlap, and got to work recovering my lamp shade.

Using spray adhesive, I stuck the burlap to the shade and cut as I went. I left about an inch extra on the top and bottom that I would use to fold over afterwards. I also left about 2 inches extra to overlap the seams on the back of the shade. Using hot glue I folded over the seam edges and glued it down.

 

Then I used hot glue to fold over the top and bottom edges into the inside of the shade.

 I cut slits to fit around the shade supports.

I could have been a little more perfect, or added some ribbon to finish it off cleaner, but I'm lazy and figured it didn't really matter. In the end, it turned out exactly as I envisioned. In my opinion, it looks just as good as the expensive designer ones.

Let's do one last comparison:

A Ghosty Pillow

We love Halloween, mostly because it ushers in all of the holidays. I don't love the spooky aspect of Halloween, but the kids enjoy a little ghost, bat, or spider here and there. I went into my fabric stash, grabbed a pillow form I had in the closet, and made this friendly little ghost pillow.

 I kept the colors neutral, making it match the rest of my home decor a bit better.

Subtly spooky!

Sorry there isn't an in-depth tutorial, but I didn't take pictures as I went. But here's what I did: I cut out a simple ghost silhouette, used heat n' bond to adhere it to the fabric for the front side of the pillow, zig-zag stitched around the ghost, and made an envelope closure pillow cover. Here's a great tutorial from Freshly Picked for how to make an envelope pillow cover.

Simple Pumpkin Canvas

Today the weather has been amazing. It's cool, there's a light breeze, and this just feel more like fall. I told myself I wasn't going to decorate for fall until October arrived, but with the weather today, I couldn't hold out any longer. I went up in the attic and pulled down what little we have for Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. It was minimal at most. So I rummaged through my wood scrap pile and pulled out some leftover orange burlap to whip up this quick little project. (Sorry no pictures of the process.)

      What you'll need:

• Piece of wood, any size you want.
• Burlap to wrap around wood.
• Staple gun & staples.
• Contact paper.
• Pumpkin outline printable (see below).
• Scissors or exacto knife.
• White craft paint.
• Paint brush- I actually used a circular sponge stamper brush...

      How to:

1. Iron any big creases out of burlap.
2. Lay burlap on floor, and place wood on top of it.
3. Wrap burlap to the back of your wood and staple in place. I staple parallel sides one after the other, and then switch to the other parallel sides, pulling taut as you go, but not too hard since burlap is a loose weave.
4. Print out pumpkin to fit on your canvas with border room.
5. Cut a piece of contact paper to fit the size of your board, trace pumpkin onto contact paper, cut out pumpkin, and set aside. Using the left behind contact paper, peel off backing and adhere to your burlap wrapped board. Make sure to press down well especially around the inner edges.
6. Paint the negative space with white paint. With my circular sponge brush I dabbed paint, do not brush from side to side or the paint may seep under the edges of your contact paper.
7. Once painted you can carefully remove contact paper.
8. Set project aside to dry.

Enjoy!

Click on pumpkin above or HERE to download your pumpkin outline.