Semi-DIY Silhouettes!

I LOVE silhouettes. I think they are super classy, and I love how they are a reminder of the beauty and individuality of your loved one. I saw these pretty frames at a stand when we were at Downtown Disney. They are made of plastic but look like wood, and decided I would finally try to get some silhouettes. I looked all over on Etsy and they sold for over $30 each. Some were up to $75! Whoa! Way too much for us! I happened upon one shop where she provided you with a digital silhouette for just $5. I figured it was worth a try. So far, I've had good success with using my printer to create high-resolution images/artwork for my house. Often people can't tell the difference. You can buy lots of digital art on Etsy at a great price. So I sent in my pictures of the girls and they came back within a few days. I printed them out on cardstock paper in high quality. They turned out great, and you would never know they were printed off from my own computer! They look just like they had been painted or cut out. I hung them on the wall in the hallway and I love seeing the girls when I walk by! Yay!

Making a Wall Collage

I've been wanting to make a collage for our master bedroom for a while now. The ones  I like combine pictures and art and are visually interesting and appealing. I decided to try my hand at it. I always have old frames lying around, so I combined them together, trying to make the best formation. I tried to make some frames line up so there would be a few clean lines, but overall I experimented with different mismatched placements. I chose pieces that were varying in (coordinating) colors and textures to keep it interesting. Here's what I came up with. I did this on the floor of my bedroom.

Then, in order to see how it would look on the wall, I cut out pieces of paper that fit each frame using paper from the girls' art roll. I used masking tape to move them around on the wall until I was happy with how they looked. 

Then I took one piece down at a time, and hung it up directly over the paper. I used a level to keep everything straight. This is how it turned out. I love it!!!!

Girls' Room Redo

I've been wanting to redo the girls' room for so long, and when we were able to transition Kimmie to a big girl bed with her sister, we could finally get rid of that crib! It makes the small room look so much bigger and less crowded. I always try to re-use things that I have in other rooms, freshen something up a little, or move things around instead of spending a lot of money. For this room, I wanted to change the paint color. It's hard to tell here, but it turned out more Easter-eggy than we preferred. After some thought, I decided to save the time, hassle, and money, and try to soften the color with other items. Sorry for the dark shadows. I took these pictures with my phone.

I wanted to keep the room looking 'young' but not baby-ish, so that the girls wouldn't outgrow the decor, and when they got older, things could just be tweaked a bit. I replaced the blackout curtains that my mother had made, because we no longer needed them. For this small window, I bought one curtain panel from Target and cut it in half. Two panels would have been too much fabric (and twice the cost), but one panel worked beautifully. Trying to keep things as less-crowded as possible, I nixed the dresser that was already in the room and put it in the closet instead. It was old and ugly, and it's convenient to have all clothing in one place. Plus it frees up room for something a little nicer looking. This is a hall tree but I thought it would look cute in the bedroom. There are some of my favorite pictures, the shells that the girls were baptized with, their Rosie and Lily dolls, a lampshade that I covered a few years back, and baskets of nighttime books. The little chair from Ikea was a gift from my mother, and so was the handmade pillow. I have some lacing boards and beads in a basket there, too.

Here is the bed the girls share; it's my old one from college. It's low to the ground so it's easy to get in and out of, and there is not much damage to be had by a possible roll-off. The birdcage frames used to be gold and on the family room wall, but I never liked the way they looked. They also contained 4x6 prints, and something about small print 'collages' on a family room wall reminds me of dorm-room college days. Instead I took the frames, spray painted them white, and filled them with pretty scrapbook paper. It's hard to see but the paper is bright and beautiful.

This is the other wall. Some art pieces that I thought were beautiful and reminded me of a fantasy land- from the Christmas Tree Shop, the best store ever for extremely inexpensive home decor.

I printed this off from the computer and framed it. It's kind of hard to see:

And lastly, the dresser that I stuffed in the closet. It really is convenient.

Pretty hair bows all in a row:

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and how I was able to repurpose things. The room looks much softer and spacious now.

Home makeover: Living room, one-hour valences, and the end of the story.

I am finally ready to post the last room in the house that suffered through a makeover! Good thing because I'm getting burnt out on these posts. Here is the living room. Nothing much about this room but it's comfortable and cozy.

(I blacked our name out in these pictures for privacy's sake)

 

 

I don't love this beigey-yellow color but we weren't about to tackle twenty-foot ceilings so it had to stay. If I could paint the room it would probably be a cream or cream-gray. The color isn't too bad.

 

 

I know gliders are typically reserved for baby rooms but they are more comfortable to me than armchairs so I figured, why not put it in the living room? Almost all of our furniture is hand-me-down or consigned, so we don't sweat if things get spilled or dropped since we have zero attachment to this furniture.  I'm not the kind of person to get frustrated at Anna when she has an accident anyway: my mom used to label me as the dog's personal chef because of all the food I dropped on the floor.

 

 

 

This is my favorite thing in the house. I wanted the main focus of the room to be something that emphasized our family's priorities, but I'm old fashioned and didn't want to put a big picture of us on the wall as the focal point. This wood sign is a constant reminder of the things we hold most important in life. Each word was carefully thought out. We got this idea from a fellow blogger.

 

We ditched our coffee table because I like the extra open space and it wasn't a necessary piece of furniture.

 

 

 

 

I chose to use the bookcase to display favorite family photos instead of the wall. Our wedding album and family albums are also kept here, plus some of Anna's toys. In the three bins are books, and the basket holds Legos.

 

 

 

I found this ottoman at a consignment store. I love it because it is solid wood with a ton of storage space. It holds all our games and cards.

 

 

 

The house has this random corner nook-thing that I couldn't figure out. My mom gave us this corner shelf to make some sense of it.

I did move some of Anna's toys to take these pictures. I know many people like to keep certain rooms toy-free, but I prefer to have some toys throughout the house. Not a million toys but a few special things in each room for the girls to enjoy. We keep it minimal. I don't mind that toys are around because they are a sign that life is being lived. It helps that we choose toys that are quality and nice to look at rather than piles of plastic. 

 

 

How to make a one-hour valence

I wanted some sort of curtain on these windows but long curtains didn't make sense in the space. I did not want to block any natural light with shades or valences that hung down. I decided to try my hand at making some pseudo-valences that would hit at the very top of the window without blocking any of the window itself. It was fairly easy and inexpensive.


First I used masking tape to mark off the section of the window I wanted the valence to cover. Then I measured it:

I purchased one sheet of drywall insulation from Lowes which we cut to size with an exacto knife. I cut my fabric about three inches longer on each side, and staple-gunned the fabric to the insulation:

The corners are the trickiest:

I put two pieces of heavy-duty Velcro strips from Lowes on either side of the board.

I placed the boards on the wall using the Velcro and voila! Done. They don't block any light whatsoever, but the windows still look finished. I would recommend using an upholstery fabric for this rather than a light cotton. I used a less expensive fabric myself because I wanted to get 'er done and didn't have the time to peruse, but a more expensive, dimensional fabric would look better, and I can always change the fabric up down the line.

 

 

 

Home makeover: Girls' room

I painted this room this past weekend, all by myself! I don't love this room but I love what it's purpose is. The furniture is my old college furniture, it's crowded and matchy-matchy, but this is the room where hugs are given, tears are cried, and prayers are prayed.

I wanted the room to look less like a baby room/nursery and more of a room that could grow with the girls.



Girls' Room Before:

 

 

After:

 

 

 

 

The color I chose was Spring Mint by Benjamin Moore. Choosing paint is hard. The lighting in each room is different at different times of day, and paint chips are notoriously poor in estimating how a color will look on your wall. So far I've been on target with my paint colors by going light (paint usually turns out darker than you think). However, this room ended up being my least favorite paint choice. You can't tell at all in the picture, but I think it's too dark.  The color is a blue-green, kind of like a seafoam, which isn't the easiest color to pick out and one that could easily go bad. It's also a budget paint job. I finished the first coat and one-third of the second coat before I started running out of paint. I conserved the remaining paint by completing a second coat only on the areas that would be most exposed, leaving patchier areas behind the furniture and on the bottom portion of the walls. Oh well. I didn't want to buy a second gallon :)

 

 

 

I would have preferred to place this directly across from the door but I wasn't about to put that heavy stuff over the crib. I painted those wooden flowers from Hobby Lobby, and the rompers were handed down from my mother-in-law. The shelves hold two of my favorite pictures of the girls:

 

This is Anna's bed. I know, such a big girl! She loves sleeping in this bed and she can get up and down herself. Because it's a double bed it can function as an extra guest bed in a pinch. When Kimberly outgrows her crib they will both sleep here together.

 

 

For now, she's happy in her crib.

 

 

These are the framed Christian nursery rhymes I made here from the Christian Mother Goose Book. They always make me laugh.

 

 

My mom sewed these curtains herself along blackout fabric so they completely block the light. I made that lamp shade. We throw her dirty clothes in the white bucket and keep clean sheets in the hamper underneath.

 

A portion of one of my favorite poems.

 

I have this double mailbox I intend to screw up so I can 'send' little notes and treats to the girls (thanks for the idea Sarah Forbes!).

Well, that's about it for the home makeover. I think I only have the living room left, and the yard. Someday I will get around to those. They are currently being well-lived in!

 



Home makeover: Playroom

 

This is a bad picture but the wall color is actually a very light blue.

 

 

 

I took the closet doors off to create a reading nook and painted the inside a pale lilac.

Dress-up clothes



I covered these diapers boxes with wrapping paper.

 

 

 

Home Makeover: Master Bedroom

BEFORE:

(old owner's stuff pictured here)

 

Love that pea green, huh?

 

 

 

 

AFTER:

 

 

View from the master bathroom.

I feel like a broken record, but similar to the other rooms, the master bedroom is small. This was fine for Ben and I because we knew we wouldn't spend a ton of time in here. We would rather have more living space like an extra bedroom to use as a play room. It was a challenge, however, because there is really no room for dressers without making the room crowded. We had to find other ways to store things.

 

We decided to go with a gray-black-white-yellow color scheme, similar to the gray-black-white-red of the kitchen and dining room (keeping some uniformity here). We like light colors because they open up the room. So we painted over that horrid green with another (surprise) gray. This gray was Bunny Gray by Benjamin Moore, and I am obsessed with the color! Unlike the true gray used in the kitchen and dining room, this is a blue-gray. It is beautiful and serene, and looks more blue or gray depending on the time of day.

 



Our furniture just happened to work really well- the bed and mattress are both from Ikea. We ended up getting this bed way back when because we loved that it was low enough to the ground that we could hang out with the kids on it and wouldn't have to worry about anyone falling off and getting injured- I love hanging out with the girls on our bed in the morning! You can't really see but in front of the bed is one of those leather ottomans that opens up. We also use that for storage space (blankets and things), and Anna climbs up and down off the bed from it. To make up for lack of dresser space, we fit most of our clothes in the closet (it's a good size) and used the drawers in the nightstands for some extra things.

 

The duvet cover is from Target. The little shelves are from the Christmas Tree Shop and the vases are the recycled wedding centerpieces I keep using (hey, I have 17 of them!). Eventually I will replace those with something a little more interesting.

 

The room has two windows- one massive and one small. I had two pairs of curtains from Ikea and I decided to split up the panels. I used three panels on the big window, and one panel cut in half on the smaller window. Worked well. The curtain rods are from Hobby Lobby- have I mentioned that is the best place to get inexpensive curtain rods?



 

 

Here is the view into the bathroom. The corner bookcase worked great because it made use of an otherwise unused space, and we had nowhere else to store our books. We pared down our book collection to books worth keeping and re-reading. I always love an excuse to get rid of unused things!

 

 

 

The wall collage was a gift from my sister for our wedding. I filled it with family pictures that were edited on PicMonkey (free online editing website) to look vintage.  I used the 'dusk' feature.

 

 

 

One of these is a picture of our wedding. The other is a charcoal drawing Ben made me before we got married. It's one of my favorite things! The frames were reused ones that used to hold my two degrees. I have no use for a framed diploma these days!

 

 
 





Paint (Bunny Gray by Benjamin Moore): Gift

Duvet cover (Target) = $40

Shelves (Christmas Tree Shop) = $15

Curtains (Ikea) = $20

Curtain rods (Hobby Lobby) = $25

Hanging collage = gift

Other stuff- frames, bed, etc. = had

 

Total = $100

 

 

Lastly, we completely finished the dining room. There were a few things we still had left to do. Our picture from the last post:

 

 

 

 

And completely finished:

 

We added some curtains and some shelves. Recognize them? They are the same ones from the bedroom. I really liked them (a great way to display some knick-knacks you love) so I spray painted a few from black to white using the leftover chandelier spray paint. I used them to hold a wooden elephant from our stay in India and a wooden bowl my mom brought home from Costa Rica.