baby boy room reveal

We finally finished the room for the new baby! Notice I didn't say "nursery." Does anyone else get a creepy, Flowers in the Attic vibe from that word?



I digress. The space is small (8 x 10 feet) and so was our budget. We had to tackle some basics - adding heat (the room was unheated), moving an electrical outlet, adding a wall light switch (again...old house), fixing the plaster in some areas, etc. This work, plus the twin bed we bought for June, ate up some serious cash.

Based on our budget, we worked with a mix of things we already had and some new stuff.

Already Had
crib
curtain fabric (Amy Butler honeycomb in green)
cherry wood rocking chair

New Items
rocker cushions
dresser/changing table
art and wall decor

We bounced around a few design ideas but my husband is the design skeptic. Nothing too nautical or soft or modern or glam (i.e. no baby blue zebra print curtains). Very picky for a man who wanted to name our son Geronimo. Nick envisioned a "tough, bold, 70's room." This was his inspiration.

source

In college we owned a cherry red Subaru brat so this go-kart tugs at our heart strings. But dirt brown and 70's orange? No thanks. Okay, how can we make this work and still use the Amy Butler fabric?

Then Nick found this image online and wanted to replicate the red, orange and yellow stripes about midway up the accent wall. "Whatever you think is best, dear," I said, doing my best Betty Draper inpression, while suppressing my design dictator personality.

source

Turns out...no like. Too circus-y. Nick thought it looked like a Burger King circa 1985. Bold, bright colors are great but this was just wrong. And no, I didn't take any pictures of the disaster. Imagine a fast food joint and you'll get the picture.

Plan B - use a more subdued color for the stripes (*cough*...my original idea). But that meant we had to re-prime, re-paint, re-tape, and then re-stripe the wall. Oh and re-mud and sand the wall because we could see the raised outline of the stripes through the first coat of primer.

In the end, we extended the horizontal stripes from floor to ceiling (see tutorial here), I finished the curtain, and Nick hung a new closet door and room door. Again, my hero - he had to cut, prime, paint, fit with hardware, and hang the doors. Added all the fixings and we were done!





Here's the rundown on sources...

Paint: walls are Navajo White from Olympic at Lowes. A great low-VOC paint we used in June's room. The stripes are a custom match, also in Olympic, of Benjamin Moore's Woodlawn Blue.

Crib: Graco Tuscon, a model which is discontinued. It's a fixed side crib though, so it wasn't recalled.

Dresser: Ikea Tromheim

Curtain: DIY lined curtain using Amy Butler fabric (tutorial here)

Nightlight: Kinderglo

Tote: 3 sprouts

Rocker Cushions: black, ikat cushions on sale here

Elephant Stool: family piece passed down from my stepmom. This pachyderm got airlifted out of Vietnam.

Wall Art: red painted H from Joann Fabrics, Charley Harper memory game collage by me, and a lovely fox print from my blogging partner in crime and uber-cool cousin, Bridget.

All in all, we're quite happy with how the room turned out. Somehow the design concept went from Bold 70's to Burger King to...what is it now? Preppy/ethnic? I can't tell. Clearly, the Bambino will care less, but June loves it in there, so I'll take that as the seal of approval.

DIY wall stripes

We decided to do a striped accent wall in the baby's room. Uncharted territory for us. Originally I wanted stripes on the floor, in the form of a Dash and Albert striped rug to lay down over the carpet. But given how small the room is (8 x 10 feet), my husband thought the door would keep catch on it and annoy the snot out of us. He's probably right.

Here's the wall before the stripes - the room is painted in Navajo White from Olympic, a great low-VOC paint from Lowes.

BEFORE

We wanted about 4 or 5 colored stripes on the wall, plus equal-sized "negative space" with the wall color. So based on that and the wall height, we went with 10 inch wide horizontal stripes. I used this great tutorial from Young House Love as our guidance.


The stripe color is a custom match of Benjamin Moore's Woodlawn Blue in Olympic paint from Lowes. Gotta love that they have the colors for designer fan decks in their computer.

AFTER - daytime

AFTER - nighttime

Not too shabby. We did remove the tape while the paint was still wet, as recommended by Young House Love. A little scary, especially with a toddler underfoot, but it was definitely the right move.

More on the baby's room to come!!!

baby boy's room teaser

Here's a glimpse of what I've been up to lately....

public bikes

founder of design within reach, rob forbes, recently focused his design eye on the biking world with his new project public bikes. read more about it HERE. his vision is to make biking more comfortable, chic and enjoyable. personally, I *love* these bikes. they are beautiful and I want one.

we currently have beach cruisers that are heavy and without gear shifts making them impossible to ride in hilly northern california. I want the look without the weight. but good grief, look at the price tag.

white, wood, metal

I have always believed I wanted a very eclectic home. a sort of anthropolgie-style house decorate with furniture, artwork, rugs and accessories from our travels, our friends, our memories, etc. but, being a hater of clutter and a lover of the very clean and simple, I am wondering if maybe this isn't what I really want. after seeing kerri russell's house in elle decor recently, I love the idea of paring down to the basic elements of whites, woods and metals.

feast your eyes on this:

love the wood on these cabinets; espresso stained reclaimed fir. never thought I wanted a darker wood cabinet in my kitchen until I saw these bad boys.

(and I love that her husband basically built the home and all the wood furnishings while she decorated to match his earthy style. amazing talent).

memory

I stole a brilliant idea from fellow blogger dandee for a certain toddler's upcoming birthday. the game of memory. instructions HERE (my bag is not as cool).

total work time was about 30 minutes (maybe a little longer because I have never been good at making a star).

trough sink

I am sick of sharing the bathroom sink with my husband. we are like WWF wrestlers that have to tag in in order to brush, floss, and wash every night before going to bed. but I hate double sinks. there's something so irritating about them (maybe all those saturdays growing up when my mom would demand, "just clean the sinks" before guests came over). the more sink, the more I dislike. however, the trough sink trend is emerging rapidly and I find myself digging it. I want.

(apartment therapy)

(site)

I especially enjoy when the trough steers away from being too modern.

(a spot in the sun)

waverly modern essentials

I was at Joann Fabrics the other day and spotted the new Modern Essentials collection from Waverly. Pretty sure I said "ooooo" out loud and walked over in a trance.

It's so yummy - the weave on the fabric feels great and the patterns and colors are gorgeous.

make it pink?

today we decided to paint the front entryway. I had been toying with the idea of a dirty, sort of california in the 70s polaroid picture pink but couldn't find any colors that came close to that description - and I was nervous about painting our entryway any version of pink. I thought the idea was brilliant but there was no way to really get what I saw in my head. every sample was too girly. so, we both agreed on a soft latte type taupe color as a perfectly warm and inviting choice and went with oat cake by behr.

but guess what. it still turned out in the pink family. I think I love it but am not sure. what do you think?

(ugh, ugly blue front door. curse you.)

DIY duvet cover

It's time to move June into a twin bed - not sure I'm ready for the transition but we're forging ahead. On the upside, I get to start hatching a plan for her bedding and was shocked to find out how expensive duvet covers are. So I decided to make my own using two flat sheets, loosely following the directions found here at Prudent Baby. The sheet design had brown, pink and orange polka dots. Pretty cute and not too girly.



Here's the breakdown....
Twin down-alternative comforter from Target
Two full size flat sheets from Walmart
Snap kit from here
Water-soluble pen from Joann Fabrics
Prayers that I don't swear too much while making this thing

Mind you, when I say loosely following the directions, I mean it. Hence the swearing. Flying by the seat of your pants and sewing often don't mix. :)

Our sheets were long enough for the finished product to have an inch of wiggle room. But we had to trim the width a little to get the right measurement, where we had a 1/2 inch seam allowance on each side, plus a little wiggle room. The double folded 4" hem at the top of the sheet is a perfect place to put the snaps. The Prudent Baby version calls for putting the snaps through only 1 layer of fabric but my husband thought 2 layers would be better. So we folded down the top hem and started marking things off with the fabric pen.


We measured in 10 inches from the edge before starting the "snap line." With the 4" hem, we measured down 2" and put the snaps in the middle, spacing them about 5 inches apart.


We did the same on the other sheet's top hem and did some serious double checking that the snaps would line up. While this project isn't rocket science, it's a little tricky if you haven't done it before. In the middle of helping with the snaps, my husband got annoyed and said I should have just bought one online. Hello, Garnet Hill!

But we persevered, matching the Right Sides of the fabric together and pinning it, starting a few inches in from the snap line on either side. Then I sewed all around, starting at one end of the snap line and going all the way around. Cut the points off the corners, flipped it inside out....Voila!

Now let's just hope Junebug stays in her new bed. I have visions of seeing her crazy curls standing next to our bed.

emersonmade ... me want to be a better person

emersonmade, once a one-woman fabric flower shop, has exploded into a clothing, home and accessory boutique of unique, handcrafted work. if it weren't for the talent, I might just hate the wife and husband team, emerson and ryan (respectively), for being so damn beautiful and successful. (she models, he photographs - yes, I did just throw up a little in my mouth.)

here are some of my favorites from their latest collection.

*love* these belts.

and if that isn't enough, take a look at photos from their new hampshire home (love the crisp whiteness of it), which they moved into two years ago after vacating manhattan, as featured on design*sponge:

I think this pantry might be one of my all-time favorites.

when I read about people like this, I sometimes wonder what it is I do with an average day? how can they have accomplished so much and I am still working on sewing a handbag from two weeks ago?