Big Girl Room

I guess it must be the first child syndrome or something, but with Arielle with many things including sleeping in her bed, we have been very lenient..even possibly negligent just to avoid upsetting her and maybe ourselves. So as a baby, her crib was really only used for naps here and there and for night sleeping a bit but as soon as she found our bed, she never left until a few weeks ago! She had a toddle bed which she barely slept in at night but pretended to sleep in while playing. When Evalie was about to be born, we had gotten very uncomfortable and tried to get her to sleep in her bed but it was tough to not make her feel like the new baby was taking her place. 

After Evalie was born she mentioned how much nicer Evalie's room was than hers. She promised she would move back to her room if it were pink so last week we finally did it. I gave into pink! We bought the final stage in her convertible crib/bed series and got to painting. I was a bit nervous about the "pinkness" but closed my eyes, held my breath and went for. 

 The room had previously been a subdued orange and cream two toned paint with a silly monkey bed set from when she was a baby. It transformed into a toddler room and accumulated a few more pieces of furniture and toys. It became a bit chaotic but "lived in"(or so we thought..) So now we were faced with getting rid of a bunch of her baby stuff and replacing it with a few things that may be a bit more appropriate to a 4.5 years old. 

We set her bed up in our room which made her really happy, emptied out all the toys and moved the dressers into the middle of the room. That took much longer than actually painting. It felt great to get the paint on the wall and see what the antique pink would really feel like in the space.I was afraid it might look like Pepto Bismol. 

The original nursery had carpet and an accent rug on top, changing table, diaper genie and loads of color. I thought it was a cute..non pink room for a girl but this time around, I felt really neutral while decorating Evalie's room. Obviously the neutrals allow the baby to grow into the room and make it easier to change the look with accents, so I was looking for a pink that wouldn't overwhelm the room. 

. The original room...circa 2008

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1. The toddler room..circa 2011

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Although we retained most of the furniture, it looks dramatically empty different! It's definitely nice, but seems very bare. I like it though. The bed rails conversion kit was a bit pricey from Roberto at Casa Kids but I was pleased with it when we put it together. The twin bed gives her so much more room to roll around and I can even sleep in there too.

Baby's Nursery-Part II

Once the baby shower was over and we opened up all the gifts at home, I was really excited and decided we  needed to take the plunge and finish setting up the nursery. It had the Mid Century crib, the Eames rocker and the Pax wardrobe in it which provided the bones but was still lacking the details to impart some character and warmth. So off I went to the home goods, target and poking around our house to find little things I could use I the room. The dresser was not in yet but would be delivered much earlier than mid-June as originally expected. So, we found a few things like the hanging monogram letter over the Eames rocker, the Ribba frames which will hold black and white photographs of the littlest one when she arrives, the frames on the shelf, the pink scroll bookends etc. I'm really loving the Chevron trend so when I spotted the yellow chevron rug at the Homes Goods for under twenty bucks I knew, it would give the room a bit of color without overwhelming it.We changed out the big grey fan and replaced it with a small chandelier ( not the one I wanted but still ok) and we replaced the brown curtains with white linen curtains instead of the ruffle sheers I originally wanted because it does get really bright in there.

Over the crib there is a Flenstead sheep mobile; the baby blanket is an organic cotton with sheep embroidered into it. On top of the crib (for now) is the lovely Serena and Lily Moses basket . I chose the Oeuf changing tray in walnut instead of having an actual changing table in the room, it sits atop the Mid Century dresser. I bought the a few woven baskets from Ikea to store things in without cluttering the room. I had had my eye on this over sized ruler for a while and finally purchased one and it arrived just when we were starting to put things together.

'I Think I Canvas Hamper' HACK

My 'Land Of Nod' I think I Canvas Hamper hack.

After the unfortunate demise of my daughters plastic laundry bin (long story..), we have been making due with piles and a hanging laundry bag to put all her dirty clothing in and for me to get them down to the basement where I do the laundry. It not only got to be annoying but also, its teaching her a bad habit..throwing her clothes on the floor because she couldn't reach where the bag hung. Although  I am still working on getting her putting her toys away but at least she was really into putting her clothing in a hamper at bath time and putting her shoes in her room in a nice neat line in the corner, and I saw that all starting to change.

It was partially my fault as well because I haven't been able to put away the laundry fast enough so she sees laundry piles in every room; me, being a 'good example' hasn't been so great. Anyway, after looking for some simple hampers and not really finding what I wanted, I gave in and decided I needed something..anything, I also needed one our new little one as well. So the project began..

I found one at PB kids which I almost ordered embroidered with their names but they got mediocre reviews,  then I found one I liked at Restoration Hardware but it seemed too rugged and it was $79, its a bit expensive at least for Laundry hamper, so I then found these beige (plain) canvas hampers at the Land of Nod for $16.95 and decided it may be fun to try to personalize them with some stencils and paint. It initially began as just wanting to put a standard stencil letter for each one but my lovely husband suggested actually spelling their names out on the hampers as well, sort of like the RH hampers. 

Land of Nod's I think I Canvas Hamper

Restoration Hardware's Salvaged Tarp Laundry Hamper

Process: 

Homemade stencil

We found 4" stencils at Michael's to spell their names out and I decided to make my own stencils for the bigger letters because they didn't have anything I liked or anything big enough at Michael's. I printed the letter on card stock and cut it out with an X-acto knife.

We decided to use a matte grey spray paint and some masking tape to basically try to achieve a slightly uneven, 'standard issue' type effect on each bag. 

Stencils from Michael's

Firstly we taped all the letters together spaced as tight as I wanted them to read, then taped them to a piece of scrap paper to keep the spray paint form getting all over the rest of the bag. At this point we discovered the text was a bit to big and wouldn't fit on the bag as 'Arielle' so since we call her 'Arie' quite a bit we cropped it to say 'Arie'. 

We then taped the entire template to the bag, laid it  down and just sprayed it. 

We did run into some problems because the bags weren't able to be completely flattened due to built in piping (good for making it stand up and bad for trying to mount a stencil).

Stencil after we sprayed the first hamper

Stencil taped to the hamper

Hamper after removing the stencil

I was a bit shocked by the result initially, the flatter the bag is, the more control you will have over the spread of the spray paint, the better (neater) it would have looked but once I got over the initial result, I actually liked the imperfections. It took about 20 minutes to dry and then we filpped it and did the other side with a big 'A'. We also made one for the baby but I won't show this until we have actually officially named her and shared the name with our family and everyone (currently only the three of us know what it is). Obviously, if we stick to the name we have, then she has a cool hamper but as of now you can see that it begins with the letter 'E', if we change it, we can always toss the hamper!

Finished 

Baby's Nursery-Part I

On Friday, we came home from work to a big box on the doorstep and it was the crib we ordered! Can I just say that Amazon.com is quite a place, they shipped it to us in 3 days and because the dresser was out of stock they went to great lengths to get me one of the two dressers left in stock from Giggle.com, with a tax and shipping discount as well. That hasn't shipped but it says it will arrive this week which is still very quick for an item I was told would not be here until June 4th, so needless to say, I am very pleased.

I had mixed feelings about the crib but my sweet girl was extremely excited to set it up so we did. We cleared out the room (we had a futon in there for guests) and began the set up. Last week, I had already started sorting, washing and folding clothes from the basement so we had purchased a wardrobe to start which was already set up.

The crib was fairly easy to set up, it came in a few pieces with graphically illustrated instructions (ikea style) but the entire hardware package came affixed to one piece and that did scratch the paint off a bit, luckily it was off the piece which hold the mattress so you cant see it..but we know its there.

The details are quite nice, the cross bars have metal trimmings and the ends are almost solid except for one little slit on either side. The design is simple with clean lines; I think I may just hold off on buying the crib sheet set and use a minimal fitted sheet and neutral blanket without a bumper of course.
My father in law bought us the necessary items for the nursery as well and they arrived last week. So the crib mounted changing table by Ouef is set up as well, we also received the baby monitor, organic mattress and car seat (unopened in garage). All of a sudden I feel completely relaxed about the baby coming and I still have 9.5 weeks to go. This is not to say I am not anxious about the actual delivery part but at least she has a place to sleep (a pretty nice one!)

Beige.

Four years ago when I was expecting my first daughter, I spent a lot of time planning and designing her nursery/room. I am an architect so of course I had drawings and photorealistic renderings of the room before we bought anything and everything that we selected had been researched and deliberated on. The process is no different this time around maybe except for my timing- I will probably order the crib and dresser this weekend but theres a 6-8 week shipping delay so I wont be setting it up until mid-May. What is different is my taste in decor and clothing, my daughters room is orange and cream (which we painted several times before we settled on a the shade) and filled with very colorful stuffed animals and modern decor. The entire room was designed around this Litto Silly Owl Crib Set which is orange ad brown. This time around, I am planning a nursery which will remain the color it currently is (taupe) and be filled with antique white mid century inspired furniture, frilly white curtains, chandelier, neutral colored piillows and crib set. I also purchased some newborn clothing all in off white and neutrals, of course a few things are pink because its almost impossible to avoid when shopping for girls but even still, I am not only staying away from color this time, I am also staying away from pattern.

The funny part is that my daughter's silly and colorful personality fits with her room so well that I cant help but feel like the baby I am carrying must have something to do with my new design sensibility..is that strange or what? Is she telling me she's going to be an extremely easy going, quiet baby with a sort of 'beige' personality? or even better have I become 'beige'? I like to think I'm pretty funny and outgoing..ok who am I kidding, no I'm not. I hate talking on the phone, it can be hard to get me to attend social events, I rarely order any other flavor ice cream other than vanilla, I wear black and grey most days...maybe I am really beige..My husbands calls me a 'Plain Jane' sometimes. This is something I need to give a little more thought but in the meantime, heres my design palette for the babys nursery. Too beige?

A. Baby Nursery Design

List of Items

• Pax Birkeland
• Oeuf changing station
• Mid-Century Dresser
• Mid-Century Crib
• Jellycat Bashful Beige Bunny
• Je T'aime 12x20 pillow cover
• Eames Molded Plastic rocker
• Tiered ruffle Sheer Panel
• Mia Chandelier
• Counting Sheep Organic Crib Bedding
• Jellycat Truffles Dog
• Oversize Growth ruler