Inspiration Board for My Little Girl's Room

Here's the inspiration board for my little girl's room.  It's coming together slowly but surely.  I'll definitely share pics once it's done! 

1.  Wildflower toss pillow from PBTeen.  (bought on clearance and discontinued)

2.  Robins Nest from Benjamin Moore

3.  Scalloped Ceiling inspiration from here.

4.  Maskros from IKEA

5.  ABC Print from Petit Collage

6.  Wildflower sheeting from Pottery Barn Kids.  (will use fabric for toss pillows or maybe valance)

7.   Suite Ribbon Drape from PBTeen

8.  ROXO Easy Chair from IKEA

9.  Melamine Bird plates from West Elm

You can check out HOW TOs  for the MASKROS transformation and the ceiling paint here and here.  :)

WHY IT WORKS - A Fresh Gingham Dining Room

Every once in awhile, I'll run across a bold photo that will make me stop and think..."hmmm maybe that COULD really work in real life.  That's what I thought when I saw this photo in House and Home.




• Updated Classics.  Gingham is classic and will never go out of style.  I love taking more traditional lines and patterns and giving them an updated feel with either scale or color.  This gingham wall is fresh, AND classic.  I think it's really a show stopper.  You can tell that the person who lives here definitely has some style and is willing to take some risks.
• Balancing Bold.  Whenever you do a bold wall or have a bold piece of furniture, you want that to take center stage so build around that with items that are more neutral and simple.  The white dining table and bentwood chairs do just that in this room.
• This wall treatment was a diy project that takes quite a bit of work.  With 3 shades of blue, and drawing and taping out grids, you are replicating the look of gingham.  Rather than do this project exactly as is, consider painting stripes, applying wall paper or just covering a piece of canvas with fabric.  I think a yard of this BERTA RUTA fabric from IKEA might just do the trick!  ($8.99/yard)  Nice!

IKEA FRIDAYS - Meet LEDBERG

We made this purchase just a couple of weeks ago and love it.  It's simple, but has added so much to our boys' room.  It's the LEDBERG light strip... a strip of LED lights... get it?  :)

We were inspired to add lights to the underside of our bunkbed after seeing it at a friend's house.  It makes the bed so cozy and perfect for cuddling up for some reading time at night.  I love these strips because they are so thin and very easy to install.  The cords and the switch are just the right length and we used 3M Command hooks and adhesives to stick them to the posts so there wouldn't be any tucking on them. 

If you have a bunkbed, I'd say they are the way to go!  It's $14.99 well spent. 

Have a great weekend!  I'm off to do the Seattle Rock n Roll Half Marathon on Saturday!   It'll be my first Rock n Roll race so I'm excited to see what it's all about!

A DIY Flower Chandelier: My MASKROS Makeover

Good Morning!  I'm very excited to post pics of my 2nd DIY project for my daughter's room.  I'm so happy with the result and all it took was some time and a few craft store supplies.  No artistic experience needed.  :)

Be warned... this is a long post as I wanted to share the details of each step.  Without further adieu...

Here's how it went down:

Step 1:  I wanted to cut down the flowers.  Nothing wrong with them and you can easily do this project leaving the paper flowers as is.  Personally, I wanted the flowers to be a little bit more structured and not so floppy and I thought this would be another way make this lamp truly custom.

All marked and ready to cut!

Step 2:  After  trimming off the ends on all the flowers (all 84 of them), we move onto the fun part, painting!  My vision for this project from the very beginning was to create something with an ombre effect, using one color and going from light to dark.  To do that, I bought 3 different shades of pink and used the white paint left over from the scalloped ceiling border.  I created 6 different shades of pink by mixing white with each of the pink paints.  I painted both sides of the flower, one color at a time.

** This step took a few days since I did most of my painting while the kids were asleep and I needed to wait for the paint to dry between sides.

Step 3:  After painting a couple of layers, I started assembling the chandelier little by little.  I couldn't wait to see it come together!

Step 4:  Touch up painting.  After putting the first couple of layers up, I realized the white backs of each flower and the white ribs of the chandelier were taking away from the pink of the flowers.  It was a little too visually distracting.  So... I began to paint the backs of each flower button and the ribs.  Oops, an afterthought.

**I would totally recommend doing this FIRST if you're going to be doing this project.  MUCH easier!  Lesson learned.  :)

Step 5:  Final install.  It's coming together beautifully!

And... DONE!

I really love it!  It's so much fun to look at and of course, so gratifying to know that it's one of a kind! 

Hope this inspires you to do your own makeovers!  I'd love to see your projects too!

WHY IT WORKS - Serena and Lily Does It Again

It feels like it's been awhile since I did a proper WHY IT WORKS post so I'm making up for lost time by posting 3 gorgeous photos today.  These are from the newest Serena and Lily catalog.  Drool worthy once again!  What I love about Serena and Lily's look is that it always feels well traveled, collected, fresh and approachable.

Here are a few more specifics about what I love!

Living Room: 

• Unexpected chandelier.  I'm a sucker for great lighting! 
• Color Palette.  Coral, pale yellow, soft blue and lavender.  Gorgeous!
• Mix of textures.  Ceramic lamp, silk shade, weathered wood console table, metallic coffee table mixed with great textiles.  Perfection.

 Bedroom:

• What a great example of that white 4 poster bed I talked about a few weeks back.  Simple, but adds just a hint of drama.
• White.  I'm really drawn to the freshness of this all white room.  Walls, window treatments and furniture.  White does not have to feel cold.  This room feels airy and calming. 
• Finishing touches.  Loving the gorgeous chandlier, artwork and bed linens.
• Color Palette.  Orange, white and soft aqua.  Love it.

Playroom:

• Saturated colors.  Blues, teals, and greens all broken up with just the right amount of white.
• Wall art placement.  Kids need to have art hung at their level.  These pictures are placed for perfect viewing for the kids who will be hanging out in here.
• Texture.  Love the woven stools and the metal lantern.  Style belongs in kid spaces too!
• By the way... love the floor?  Serena painted it!

So seriously, do you think these rooms are as beautiful as I do?  :)

Oh Joy in Portland

On Saturday, the whole family boarded a train in Seattle and spent the weekend in Portland.  The main purpose was for me to attend a blogging workshop taught by a blogger I really admire, Joy, from the blog, Oh Joy!  My dear husband took the kids to the Oregon Zoo on Father's Day while I attended my class Sunday morning.  If you attended that class and are visiting me for the first time,  WELCOME!  :)

Joy was so great in person and shared many wonderful nuggets of information and inspiration.  It's always refreshing to meet bloggers in person, especially more established bloggers.  It really is true that every blogger is simply a regular person sitting in front of their computer sharing what they are passionate about.  Granted, some have AMAZING style, like Joy.  I now want to revamp my whole blog!  :P  I have to admit, it is humbling to be a small fish in a big pond, but no better way to learn how to swim, than from the big fish, right?  :)

If you are an aspiring bloggers yourself, here are a few more great resources I've come across this year.

Here's a link to a really useful post by Nicole of Making It Lovely.  She gave great pointers on how to get beautiful interior shots of your home.

I've taken 2 classes from Nicole's classes, one on Photoshop and the other on Illustrator.  They are great!  The instructors teach in a way that is is very hands on and helps you dive into your own projects right away.   I hope to take some mini courses this summer.

Lastly, this spring, I took the e-course, Blogging Your Way, taught by Holly Becker of Decor8 and Leslie Shewring of  A Creative Mint.   BYW is a jam packed 4 week class that teaches you everything you'd want to know about blogging.  I'd totally recommend it!

The blogging community has been great and many seasoned bloggers like Joy, Holly and Leslie are so good about helping newbies get started.  It's all about encouraging people to find their voice and passion and giving people a platform to share their gifts and talents with the world.  How awesome is that?

I'll be back with our usual WHY IT WORKS post tomorrow.

Happy Fathers Day!

For Father's Day, I wanted to share one of my all time favorite songs, I Want To Be Just Like You, by Phillips, Craig and Dean.  My heart just melts when I hear the words, the voice and the music.  This song serves as a great reminder of the great blessing and responsibility of raising our kids.  Our children and our time with them is so precious and fleeting, let's make the most of it.

I used this song to make this Father's Day video 3 years ago (using imovie).  We only had our 2 boys at the time and I have yet to do another video as they are a lot of work, but I oh how I  treasure the finished product.   Daddys are so special and play such a vital and important role.  May you be able to take time this weekend to celebrate the blessings of dads, children and family.   

Lord, I want to be just like You

'Cause he wants to be just like me

Want to be a holy example

For his innocent eyes to see

Help me be a living Bible, Lord

That my little boy can read

I want to be just like You

'Cause he wants to be like me

AMEN!

MASKROS Under Construction

My DIY project for this week is transforming my MASKROS chandelier from IKEA.  Here's a sneak peak: 

I'm adding this:

and this:

I'm hoping to finish this project in the next couple of days and be able to share it with you next week!  :D

In the meantime, check out another incredibly inspiring transformation of MASKROS by Jenny of Little Green Notebook.  I just love her!  Click here for the full post.  Amazing!

How To Paint a Scalloped Border

So here it goes, pictures of Evie's ceiling project.  I love how the final product turned out.  It's fresh, a little whimsical and just happy.  Again, the color is Robins Nest from Benjamin Moore.  The final picture doesn't quite do it justice.  It looks much better in person, and there are many more projects left to do.  You'll notice that the ceiling light is next on my list.  :)

This project was fairly easy.  I broke it down into several steps and each step took about an hour and a half.  Most of time I started around 11 and ended up in bed at a somewhat reasonable hour.  :P  The actual painting part was pretty easy and surprisingly relaxing, especially with the house being so quiet.  I used a 1 1/2 in. stiff angled brush.  Worked great!

Here's how I did it:

The white trim was actually an after thought.  I was not completely sold on the scalloping initially and was a little worried.  I was hoping that a little white paint would jazz it up and it totally did the trick!

WHY IT WORKS - Norah's Nursery

I'm happy to report we made great progress on Evie's room last week!  We painted the ceiling and the scalloped border.  I'll be posting pictures tomorrow.

This photo of Norah's Nursery was one of inspirations for the color palette for Evie's room.  This one of the first photos I saw on ohdeedoh and always thought I would come back to it.  Here's what else I love about this room!


WHY IT WORKS:

• The wall color, Robins Nest by Benjamin Moore is really beautiful!  This was one of the few times that I did not do a test patch before buying a whole can.  I just fell in love with the color.  We used it on the ceiling only and left the wall color as is, a creamy off white.  It did not dissapoint, I love the color in Evie's room.  It looks soft, bright and happy, perfect for a kids room.  I'd totally recommend this color if you're considering it.
• Yellow accents.  Did you see that adorable crib?  That bright yellow is the perfect complement to the soft blue/green.  I'm hoping to put in some bright accents into Evie's room through some accent painting on furniture and maybe bright yellow grosgrain ribbon on a white lampshade.
• Window treatment.  I love the simple valances that can be made from any fabric slipped through a simple rod.  I'd just need to finish off the edges and sew a little pocket for the rod.

(via ohdeedoh)

Click here for the full tour of Norah's lovely space.

WHY IT WORKS - A non example

Hello there!

This post will be a little different from the typical WHY IT WORKS posts. I'm going to be taking a little break from blogging this week so that we can focus on some projects that we have not been able to get to in months! I was giving someone a housetour this weekend and was so embarrased at what a mess our upstairs has become. We have so many unfinished projects!

So the time after the kids go to bed that I would normally spend blogging, will be spent prepping and painting and moving furniture. Hopefully I will have some improved "after" shots by the end of the week. Nothing like a deadline to keep us going!

Here's a WHY IT DOES NOT WORK example for our house. It's our guest room that we're going to turn into my daughter's room.  There are so many things that are not working in this space, I won't take the time to break it down.  :)

The first step will be paint.  Here's my inspiration:  I want to create a scallop border ceiling like in this photo.



(via)



Using Robin's Nest from Benjamin Moore.

I'll be back soon with some updates!

IKEA FRIDAYS - Meet EDLAND 4 Poster Bed

TGIF! Inspired by the 4 poster bed from Monday's post, here's a great one from IKEA. The lines of this bed are so classic and clean that you can purchase this bed and rest assured that it will last you for many years. Here's the EDLAND bed frame for $299. An amazing price for ANY bedframe let alone a 4 poster one.

If you have a large master bedroom or one with vaulted ceilings this is the perfect bed for you. It creates intimacy, coziness and a special place to rest.

Enjoy your weekend and see you Monday!

Fireflies

(via ohdeedoh.com)

How cute are these? Fireflies that actually light up!  This craft project was posted on ohdeedoh yesterday. I love it, especially because it uses those plastic easter eggs that I never know what to do with. I'm thinking this would be a great camping project or for a little unit on bugs/insects this summer. Hmm... the wheels are turning!

Click here for the full post.