Andrew's Nursery Udpate

Emily's Nursery

When we put Emily’s nursery together, we made the “base” of the nursery very neutral so that we wouldn’t have to make a lot of changes to the room if we had a boy in the future. Emily’s nursery was cute…we painted the walls a soft sage green and then on the wall behind the crib, we painted wide stripes with the same sage green color…only it was a different finish: flat/semi-gloss. In my opinion, it was the perfect subtle touch to the nursery. The furniture was a cherry finish and the crib set was a done with gender-neutral colors: greens, creams, and brown. To add the “girly” touches, we added hints of lavender color through accessories that could easily be changed out if we had a boy in the future.

Enter Andrew…and three years later…I became bored with the nursery and wanted to change a lot more than I needed to. In order to keep Craig happy, I had to make the changes in a budget friendly way…so off to my sewing machine to dust it off. 

I found a couple of great tutorials for making a new crib set as well as a super cute contoured changing pad cover. Here are the links along with pictures of my finished projects. 

This tutorial was very easy to follow for someone who is a "beginner" sewer. I found this on the "SEW4HOME" website, which offers many step-by-step tutorials. I completed my bumpers slightly differently. Instead of sewing each individual bumper, I made one super long tube for the bumpers. As I sewed it, I inserted each bumper, and then sewed the tube more, and then inserted another bumper. Between each bumper, I sewed a seam down the middle of the tube so that it could easily bend around the corners of the crib. I was SUPER happy with the end result. As for the ties...I simple hand stitched satin ribbons between each bumper. It turned out perfectly!!!

 

As for the crib skirt, I didn't have a tutorial to follow, but I did have a couple of pictures that I wanted to model my skirt after.  This was the "look" that I was going for (minus the ruffles...after all it is for a boy's room). So, with my mother's help, we put the crib skirt together and I couldn't have been happier with the end result. We used a super big bowl to make the rounded edges in the front. Then I used a pre-made biased tape for the edges around the front, sides and back. As for the peek-a-boo portion, I used a small rope with the brown polk-a-dot fabric (the same that I used for the top of the bumpers) on the bottom.

Now, as for the window in the nursery. For Emily's room we had a short valence and baby-proof blinds to block the light out. Unfortunately, due to the position of the window...when the sun would set the light would pierce through the perimeter of the window and landed directly in the crib. Craig's solution to this problem...pin up a black bed sheet. It was so ugly, but as long as it was functional, Craig didn't care.
Fixing this problem was on the top of my to-do list for updating the nursery. I saw this picture on Pinterest, however it wasn't a tutorial. I liked how the window matched the style of the window in the nursery: tall and thin. I also liked how it gathered on one side of the window in order to let some light in.

Those were the major updates to Andrew's nursery. You can see that we switched out Emily's butterfly's above the crib for letters of the alphabet. Once we finish with the decorations, I'll post pictures of the completed nursery. I can't wait for it to come together.

Craft Room Closet

FINALLY...my traveling craft room has found a permanent home. Ever since we moved into this house...my craft room has moved to multiple locations. Before Emily was here, I started to set up shop in one of the bedrooms on the main floor. I found a desk on Craigslist and purchased a number of organizing boxes from Michaels and then waited patiently for Craig to hang up my shelves so that I could place my pretty IKEA boxes on them. The shelves didn't get hung until a number of years later...which was my excuse for not "crafting". For the most part, I did all of my crafting at my mom's house. She has the craft room of all craft rooms set up in, what used to be my own bedroom.

Now, as my craft room began piling up "stuff" on it...I began to try and convince Craig to let me turn the front closet into my "new" craft room. My reasoning was because we would eventually need to move Emily into the room where my crafts currently resided...in hopes that we would still need to use our nursery for another child (fingers crossed...lots of prayers). This convincing was not easy to do. Because I didn't really use my current craft room, Craig didn't see why I needed a craft room at all. He didn't want to go through all of the work of painting and hanging shelves again after he had already done it in the previous room and I did nothing with it. So...after some sweet and loving "husband and wife" discussion, we finally came to a mutual agreement. I would paint the room and move all of my crafts myself, and Craig agreed to hang shelves for me...once again.

So, this last summer, I did my part of the agreement and Craig attempted his part, however, it isn't very easy to hang shelves on walls made of plaster and lathe. After several attempts, and many holes in the wall, the progress came to a stop and my walls were bare.

Fast forward four months. This last weekend, Craig and I started talking about Christmas lists and what we wanted to buy for others and what we wanted on our own lists. I was "kidding" around (kind of...but not really), and I said that I wanted shelves to be hung in my craft room. I don't know what got into Craig, but he made it his mission that very weekend to get shelves hung for me...and POOF...shelves were hung, and I couldn't wait to organize my crafts and find a that perfect spot for everything.

So, without further adieu...here is  my new craft room.

Living Room/Dining Room Update: Part 2

After Craig finished the pillars between the two rooms, it was time to paint. Craig and I struggled in agreeing on the wall color. Currently we had two different colors for the rooms: the living room was a light coffee color and the dining room was a dusty yellow color. We brought the two colors together through accessories throughout both rooms, however...I felt that since the two rooms were so open to each other that it would be best to paint the rooms the same color...Craig felt otherwise. He liked keeping the two rooms separate. Back and forth we went...we could not agree at all...it was extremely frustrating!!! With each friend or family member that came to visit, we sought out their advice...and the consensus was to paint them the same color, thus hoping to give off a feeling of a larger room all together rather than two smaller rooms next to each other.
  
Craig still felt strongly about keeping the rooms different colors, so our compromise was this: we would paint the second room with "half the formula" of the other room. What does that mean? We found a paint color that we agreed on for one room. We then took that paint "formula" to the paint center at Lowes and asked for "half the formula"...basically they divided the color in half and then equaled it out with white, so essentially it is the same color just a shade lighter. The funny thing is that YOU CANNOT TELL AT ALL!!! Because we have the pillars dividing the two rooms and the walls...the color is so close that, since the walls aren't touching, you can't tell that there is a difference. However, Craig has peace of mind  that the rooms are still a "different" color.
  
So, why would you want to use "half the formula" when painting? A couple of summers ago, I visited a family friend's house in California. Their house was BEAUTIFUL!!! One of the things that stood out to me, in a subtle way, was that they painted their ceilings with "half of the formula" then their wall color. It was stunning...subtle, yet stunning. It actually seemed to give off this sense of higher ceilings as a result.

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After we completed the painting, the next step was to try to agree on decorating. Needless to say we were butting heads with every suggestion. It was so bad, that Craig suggested a "design challenge" where we each had $500 to spend on redecorating. We would take turns transforming the living and dining room and then we would bring our friends and family over to judge. Not that it didn't sound fun...it was very intriguing, however...none of them had to actually live in the house, and with Craig and I on opposite ends of the design wheel, I didn't want to leave the big decision to my friends and family...of whom I may not share the same design taste.

As a result, we agreed to find an affordable interior design team to come in and do a consultation. After researching the design companies in the surrounding area, we agreed on "Calla Lily Designs". This was a mother and daughter team that would come in for one hour and rearrange our furniture, and create a list of suggestions for each room. They were WONDERFUL!!! The thing I liked most about them, is that they didn't always agree with each other, so it was as though I was getting two designers for the price of one. They went around the living and dining room, measuring the walls, the windows, etc and explaining the type of furniture we needed to look for, the type of curtains and fabric that we should keep an eye open for, and how to bring in the finishing touches with accessories. They were great at explaining why their ideas would work and they weren't afraid to tell us if something we had wouldn't work...and why it wouldn't work. They also didn't pressure us into making purchases from their store, though we would be able to get a 20% discount.

DIY Kitchen Cabinets

After completing our large living/dining project, Craig moved all of his tools into the kitchen...joy!! Our kitchen cabinets are in such desperate need of a makeover! First of all, they have no design to them whatsoever. They are flat, they don't close smoothly, and let's not forget how there just isn't enough "Mr. Clean Magic Eraser" to clean them up and make them sparkle.

Since Craig and I started our remodel, I have started to hear this strange noise in my head, "cha-ching...cha-ching". Hmm...trying not to drain our savings account is going to be a challenge...HOWEVER, when you have a handy-dandy man like mine, Craig laughs in the face of a wood working challenge. YEAH me for finding a man who inherited some amazing craftsmanship from his grandpa.     Before I knew it, Craig was off and running to Lowe's to pick up some trim pieces. Craig sanded down the doors, fit the trim pieces around the perimeter and then asked me what I thought. "It looks great"...I said, even though I really wasn't feeling it. I have absolutely no ability to visualize somethings potential without being able to see the finished product. Luckily Craig had just finished some amazing wood work in our living room so I was in a trusting mood.

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It wasn't until "tag team" went into motion and it was my turn to add the primer and paint. HOLY TOLEDO!!! I couldn't believe the final transformation. In looking at the cabinets above, the only thing that we added was two pieces of trim around the perimeter, the trim around the base of the cabinets, and then the knobs. It looks like a brand new kitchen...I just love it!
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Our next project, coming up soon, will be a set of glass cabinets on the wall opposite of what you are looking at in the pictures above. Our idea is to have my brother do some simple stained glass design and then to have Craig add a small detail of trim! Come back to watch the progress!!

Living Room/Dining Room Update: Part 1

After living in our new"er" house for five years now...we have come to the conclusion that it is LONG overdue to make some much needed improvements around the house. Now...Craig and I rarely ever agree on "changes" right away. We both have our own idea of how things should look, where things should be placed, and if things need to be changed. I knew that moving forward with "change" was not going to be an easy task, nor would it be much fun...but I we both knew that it HAD to get done.

Craig and I scheduled some time to sit down and go room to room as we created a wish-list of what we would like to see happen in each room. Now, I have to admit, I am a pretty lucky woman when it comes to Craig...once he sets his mind on something...the job gets done!!! Once we were able to agree on some cosmetic changes around the house, Craig was off and running to Lowe's for supplies.

First on his list of changes to be made, Craig decided to work on dividing wall between our living and dining room. The divider comes our from the wall about three feet on each side and creates a large arched way between the two rooms. We decided that since most of the doorways are outlined with detailed wood trim, that we would create half wall with square pillars and wood detail in hopes that would match the rest of the house better.

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