Monday, February 22, 2016

5 Easy Ways to Complete Any Room

The nursery is pretty much complete...sometime in the future I would love to get a new rug for our son's room, but for now the room is done and I love how it turned out. 
With that said, I wanted to share some easy ways to add detail to any room and since the nursery is one of the rooms that's recently been finished, I'm going to use it as my example for this post.

 
1. Add artwork and/or personal photos.
In the nursery, I took one of our favorite photos of the kids and hung it up over the crib. It's absolutely perfect! I also added some Winnie-the-Pooh prints that have also been used in our girls' room when they were babies. All of these have added that extra special touch to the space and can be done in any room.


2. Add a pop (or two) of color.
If you are using neutral wall colors in your home, it's a good idea to add pops of color elsewhere. Go ahead and do it...if you don't like it, remember it can easily be changed! In the nursery, I did this by painting the colors doors a bold green (BM's Bunker Hill Green) and also by painting the changing table in a rich navy blue.


3. Make the rooms flow.
Since the reading room was painted in this bold green color first, I decided to try and tie that in with the nursery- hence that's why the closet doors were painted with the same color. And it was important to keep the nursery walls neutral so they didn't compete with the bold color in the adjacent room.

 4. Add something unexpected.
This is where I like to have a little fun in each room I decorate. Adding something unexpected, like the hanging globe or the tree branch mobile from the ceiling in the nursery not only gives the room some character, but it also adds a little surprise to the space.



5. Have fun with it and be true to your style.
This can be particularly tough to do because there are so many other "pretty and staged" photos out there online. It has taken me a while to find out what I like and what I don't like, but thru trial and error I think I've finally got it down. ;)


Tuesday, February 16, 2016

The Boy's Nursery

Our son's room has finally started coming together. Like usual, the room isn't finished- still would like to change out the rug in his room for something else, hang a photo of our kiddos over his crib, get some blinds for his windows, and recover the window bench seat (not pictured) with a more updated fabric. BUT, even though those things haven't been done yet, I decided to go ahead and share all of the progress that has been made so far. 

So come on in!




A photo of my little man and I (in the picture below)

You can also see, from the picture above, that the green doors tie in with the green color on the walls in the reading room.


My favorite part of this makeover are the green doors!!! I went with the same bold color as the reading room- BM's Bunker Hill Green and I have to say, this color is pretty amazing. If you are looking for that perfect "kelly green" than this is it. It's nice and rich and would look great painted on furniture too!
As an FYI, I have had all of these Benjamin Moore colors mixed at Lowe's using the SW brand. I had no idea that Lowes could even do that, but ever since finding out about that last year, it's where I go for paint colors now.




For the walls, I ended up mixing 4 different colors together. :)
And yes, you read that right.....4 different colors were used in this room!!
I mixed up BM's Early Morning Mist, BM's Halo, SW Alabaster, and a very small amount of SW Gauntlet Gray. The final color ended up being a little more gray than I was expecting (probably because of the Gauntlet Gray color which is pretty dark on its own), but it all worked out in the end.  These 4 colors were all samples sizes too- with each being less than $4 a piece...so the price to paint this room came in well under $15. That's a pretty good deal if you ask me! And I even had some leftover paint left (to my surprise) that I saved for some touch-ups. 


I cannot wait to add some of the other touches to the room I mentioned earlier- especially the large black and white photo that will go over his crib. And I have just the perfect picture picked out already!

In conclusion (do people ever say that anymore), this room ended up taking a different route than I was originally planning. I nixed the stripe idea after my hubby and I started measuring for it in the room. We both knew it would be a big time commitment to do, and I just didn't feel like the room needed them. That's why the doors were painted green because I wanted to tie in that bold color somehow to the room and I'm glad that I chose to paint the doors over doing stripes in the end. I think it all worked out! :)

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

A DIY Mobile for a Nursery

We have had some crazy weather changes here recently...and because of that, some of us have been feeling a little under the weather. Going from a high of 70 degrees one day to a high of 50 degrees the next doesn't give your body much time to adjust to the changes. Thankfully, we all seem to be on the mend and just hope we don't get hit with anything bigger this year. 
With that said, I haven't had much energy to conquer the nursery (which has been the next project on my mind to complete)- but I did manage to make a mobile for our son's room. It was a pretty simple project and I'm excited to share the details with you all.

First, I enlisted my helpers!

We gathered a few big sticks from the outdoors that we thought would look good hanging up in the nursery.

In the end, I gathered 3 sticks (even though only 2 are pictured below) and used twine to hold them together.
 For anyone wondering, our kitchen counter-tops are still holding up well!)

Then the girls and I started quickly cutting out circles (using our circle punch of course!) in a variety of colors.

We stuck with colors that would work with the new wall color that will be going up in here- yellow, green, blue, white, and even orange (which was a color one of my daughters demanded be used).  ;)
 
To hang the circles, I just used some sewing thread and tape. I thought about using twine to hang the circles, but am glad I didn't go down that road. It would have made the piece look and feel heavier.

I found an eye hook that was perfect for hanging the mobile from the ceiling.

Surprisingly, I think it turned out better than expected! The room is coming together and I'm hoping that with the new paint color going up in here, it will look even more finished.


Sunday, February 7, 2016

Boy's Room Nursery Ideas

I've been wanting to make over my son's room for a little while now and got to Pinning away some ideas on a board...but then everything just kind of stalled. I have the paint colors picked out and ready to go actually, but I'm not sure if I want to just paint the room all one color or add some interest to one wall with stripes or pattern. Here are some inspirational photos I have saved to get me started:

Amazing nursery with Scalamandre Zebra Print wallpapered accent wall features a red Jenny Lind Crib flanked by blue Senegalese hamper baskets and a Melissa & Doug Plush Giraffe atop a brown geometric rug.:  
I absolutely love the zebra wallpaper...but not sure I want to spend my time wallpapering his room. ;)

Lovely kid's bedroom features a black industrial bed dressed in pink and blue plaid sheet set, black and white monogram pillow by Jonathan Adler, a navy linen duvet and a navy linen pleated bedskirt placed in front of a window dressed in pink and blue striped curtains.:  
The wall of books has always been a go-to of mine and we have one in the reading room...thinking of putting some on one little wall in his room.

Young House Love | A Colorful Door and More Nursery Art | http://www.younghouselove.com:  
Loving this pop of color on the closet door...and in green! One of my favorite colors!

Made By Katy: our home:  
This room was one of the first Pins I saved to a board and I love pretty much everything about it! The stripes, duvets, and green doors- it all works so well together.

OTHER ROOM, LOVE THE STRIPES AND GRAYS Grey nursery - I would have to add touches of another color but I love the grey striped walls!:  
So this room is a little dark for me, but I like the wide stripes on the wall.

Fair Black And White Striped Lamp Shades Decor Ideas in Nursery Contemporary design ideas with Fair blue chevron throw pillow childrens room elephant gray walls ideas for baby:  
I know this is a girl's nursery, but what I like about it is the one wall of stripes and the pretty solid blue wall color on the rest of the walls. This is probably another one of my top favorite rooms.

Grey Stripes Baby Room Idea:  
This room says "classy" to me. I like the neutral stripes, the use of patterns and even the pops of yellow.

So who knows how I will exactly end up decorating and styling his room, but I have to say I'm pretty excited to get started...whenever that will be! :) Thankfully there is some great inspiration out there to help me out!!