Light me Up

Now that the nursery isn't looking like this any more...

(I apparently sneezed while taking this picture? And it's the only before)

It's time to update that old square cover. In all honesty, that came down when I was painting, and I have no idea where it went, so we currently rocked the exposed bulbs for a while in there. (as well as most other places) Beautiful, I know, hence why we needed to update. I found a light I really liked, for a good price, except it was a table lamp...

It's by Allen & Roth, form Lowes, and at $74 it's within budget. It's not too difficult to hard-wire a lamp as an overhead fixture, so I figured we could do it. I made Jason come to the store to look at it, and he said he liked it, and agreed that it would be no big deal to throw it up on the ceiling. I saw somewhere a little while ago a similar fixture that the person had painted blue, which got my wheels spinning. To paint it, or leave it ORB. I was originally leaning more towards paint it, but once we got it in there, I really like the look of the oil rubbed bronze. It matches the new door handle and hinges, as well as the vent covers, and it also ties in to the dark patches in the floor. So I believe she'll be staying ORB.

It was super easy to do. All I had to do was take it apart - take the weighted base off, and the longer extension rod, and screw the shorted rod into the cover plate. Then we had to buy some bigger bolts and washers so the rod would be a bit more secure, and one of those chandelier, long screw thingies...

They're super cheap, but essential. This little baby is what is taking all the weight of the light, taking the pressure off the wiring. I don't have any pictures of the process, because Jason got a little chop happy when he was cutting the excess cord, and barely left enough room to wire it in, so it took four sets of hands haha. It's so nice to have a nice looking fixture up in at least one of the rooms hehe.

Tada! And look at that...a bonus sneak peek at the ceiling fun! I love it, and Jason really likes it too...and as an added bonus he keeps telling people I made it hehe.

New Floors in the Nursery

I'm a little overdue for this post, so, sorry. But there's floor down in the nursery now! And it looks really good! It's the same floor as in the dining room, but it looks so different in the nursery - you know, different lighting and such. Jason, Eric and I banged it all out in a few hours, and then my glutes and hammies hurt for three days. As a reminder we painted the walls and the ceiling in Behr's "Gentle Rain", colour matched to Dulux Xpert paint. And by we, I mean me, because Jason wouldn't have anything to do with it haha.

This is probably the closets representation of colour, it's a great warm grey and it works well with the South facing room. We've since changed out all the outlets and put in nice new grate covers, and all the base and trim should hopefully be going on this weekend, then it'll actually be finished, and just needing to be decorating. This room has come along the quickest, and I can't wait to start the decorating process.

The closet has also since changed appearance. I can't wait to get goin' on the reading nook, and closet organizer and start putting the three totes of baby clothes I've managed to amass over the years. I shared this sneak peak on Instagram of what the closet colour will be.

It's called Thermal Spring, by Sherwin Willaims. It's a pretty great teal colour, all dark and moody, it looks sweet in the closet, and I totally want to curl up in there with a book - too uncomfortable currently though. The room is coming together nicely, I'll update pictures of the trim and closet as soon as I can.

And The Walls Came Tumbling Down!

Do you remember when I mentioned a little while ago that we were planning on making the closet in the blue room/nursery bigger?  Well guess what I came home to on Tuesday?

A giant mess! I was torn between exasperation about the mess, and excitement that the closet is now bigger. There was this giant, naily, dusty mess in the hall and bedroom - I almost broke my neck climbing over it to get this picture haha - plus drywall dust foot prints all over the nice new kitchen floor. It was a little overwhelming, but the early stages of a demo project usually are.
    Jason did clean up his mess after he got home - he took the windows out, and threw everything out the gaping window less holes into the backyard haha. He had to build a header on the left hand side, and he put up some drywall and attempted to slap some tape & mud up. Now it's looking a little less overwhelming, and a little more like a closet.

I say he attempted to mud, because the mud was like soup. Because our air conditioner decided to crap out during the most humid and rainy weeks our basement was super damp and warm, apparently the bucket 'o' mud thought it was its job to act as a dehumidifier and suck up all the moisture in the air. So Jason was essentially trying to make the tape stay up with mushroom soup. Now that the weather has decided to back away a bit from Hades, and be a bit more reasonable, we're hoping the mud will thicken back up a bit, making like a bit easier.
   We still have to close off the old opening of the linen closet from the hallway, as well as a number of patches here and there, but Jason is motoring right along, and he tells me I should be able to paint by this weekend. We knew we wanted a light, warmer toned gray, something subtle so we could have fun with accents and accessories. We landed on "Gentle Rain" by Behr.

I really like the swatch, so I'm hoping it translates well to the walls. We need to get the paint up asap, so we can put the floor down and have it actually look like a bedroom for our final visit. (two weeks, yikes)

Bye Bye Blue Room

The room in the back corner of the house that has been destined to be the nursery since we moved in has been known to all as the blue room. Because it had a heinous blue carpet. Here's what it looked like on our final walk through (sorry for the craptastic dark, grainy cell phone picture)

That's what it looked like when we moved in, and that's what it's looked like since; although it has been kind enough to allow copious amounts of junk to squat in there over this past year and a half. As well as being our dumping ground, Kai used it as a literal dumping ground when she was sick. Blegh! So this room was in dire need of some lovin' before we could move a child into it. Those lacy granny curtains had to go, so did the stained blue carpet.

So, this weekend, while Jason (and Mitch) was doing so plumbing on Mitch & Miche's house they're building, us girls got down and dirty in the blue room. The boys enjoyed our innuendo breakdown of how we ripped that sucker out and got the room prepped. It was sweaty, and dirty, but it took us hardly any time at all to go from that, to this...

To this...

Yeah baby! It only took us about 45min to get the carpet out, all the tack strips up, the base & quarter round up, and all the staples up. And we got a great workout in haha. It was all the original baseboard and trim in there, and man oh man, were some of them stuck on the wall. They were attached with the biggest finishing nails I've ever seen! Some of the little pieces could only be coaxed off with some choice words.

The closet we're planning on making bigger (adding a little reading nook in there), so that's what the tape is up there for, to how big the opening will be. We're closing of the linen closet in the hallway to accommodate the larger closet. Our reasoning behind doing that, is we can't do anything to this room to make it bigger (it's not particularly small at 10' x 11'6", but it's not large) we would maximize the closet space, and make it much more functional to perhaps keep a dresser out of the room, allowing for a larger bed down the road. Also, we don't use the linen closet now (since we also have one in our bedroom), and we plan on adding a built-in to the bathroom when we get to renovating it, so anything we will need to store down the line will be housed in that.

So yay! Bigger closet in there, with a space where our avid little reader can go to chill out. (I used to love reading in my closet, or in the little nook that was just outside my bedroom door when I was little) I couldn't get this closet door off for some reason, I struggled with the other one when we were ripping up the carpet, and it fell on me, but this one just wouldn't give. So Jason has to remove that as well as the old baseboard heater unit, and I apparently missed some door trim haha, so that'll have to come down. But it's basically just take that boarder down, and spackle a few nail holes then we're good to paint. Can you see the swatches up there...I think I've got it narrowed down to four colours.


So, huzzah! Although now it seems rather hospital with the dated white floors and white walls, and the question was asked, is it still the blue room now that there's no blue? Probably, I mean the Lion King room was always the Lion King room. My sister and I will hopefully get the wallpaper down before Wednesday, and if I hurry up and make a paint colour decision, I can paint and we could potentially be ready to install the floors by the weekend.

Listy McGhee

Since our last assessment got pushed back yet again (this time it wasn't our fault) we have more time to get rooms actually finished. (Well at least get finishes done, even if the rooms won't be completely done.) So I did what comes naturally for a crazy person, and wrote out about 6 different lists of what we have to do before that time. So here's the list of what we're hoping going to get done by July 21.

 BLUE ROOM

o   Clean out

o   Rip up carpet

o   Remove wallpaper

o   Paint

o   Install floor

o   Cut out bigger closet

o   Make closet doors

o   Get dresser for change table

o   Upholster chair

DINING ROOM

o   3^rd coat of paint

o   get picture ledge up and painted

o   picture moulds

o   base/window and door casing

o   pick up buffet

o   get electrical sorted out

o   Install Octa

o   Finish hutch project

KITCHEN

o   Case and base

o   Make sure all outlets and switches are in working order

o   Mud holes

o   Touch up paint

o   Bottle storage shelf

o   Coffee/tea shelf

o   Open shelving by stove

o   Finish toe kick

o   Counters on peninsula cabinets

BEIGE ROOM/LAUNDRY

o   Tidy

o   Remove  electrical wires

o   Cut out “step”

o   Organize closet

  (how is it I still have no pictures of our living room?!)

LIVING ROOM

o   Get rid of shower

o   Take out built-in

o   Move TV

o   Get rid of couches

o   Bring brown couch over

o   Put switches at doors

o   Organize

o   Pick up chest for shoe storage

UPSTAIRS

o   Finish painting hall

o   Base in bath

o   Shelf in bath

o   Curtains (dye & install)

o   Paint closet

o   Install closet organizer

o   Put up canvas in bathroom

o   Art in hallway

Nursery Mood Board: Gold Glam

It's been a while since I posted a nursery mood board, and the last one that went up while being gender neutral, was still leaning more towards the masculine way of life. What can I say, that's how I roll, I'm not a girly girl. That being said, coming up with this super girly room was rather fun. The thing I encountered most with a "gold glam" nursery was the price of things. Holy Camoly can you pay a lot of money for certain things. (Which I guess is true for anything you do, it just seemed to crop up more with this board) So without further ado, here's my take on a glamorous girly nursery.

1. The colour is called Rainstorm and it's by Sherwin Williams, and I think it's what makes this room more palatable for me, because I'm really not a fan of pink. It's moody, and cozy, but with the pink and gold accents it's still girly.

2. An inexpensive "gold" pendant overhead light.

3. An accent wall with some randomized gold dots.

4. So they'll always know what letter their name starts with. Leave it as is, or spray it gold, or pink, or another fun colour.

5. A great gold foil message for the baby to learn.

6. Some sparkly hangers to display special things. Another simple DIY involving some gold (or any colour) sparkles or sequins, and some pant hangers.

7. Another message baby should learn. These could also be DIYed with gold paint, or gold leaf.

8. I love the Stella floor lamp, she's got vintage lines to her, but she's still modern enough to fit into this glam room. Plus she comes in a bunch of different colours, so she'd fit in many different spaces.

9. Because a gray elephant isn't cool enough, spray mama and baby in pink, and dip them in gold! This would be a super cheap and easy DIY, there's all sorts of animal toy DIY's out there.

10. A little floating shelf is great if you're short on space and have a ton of stuff to hold. Which lets face it, when it comes to babies, there's tons of stuff.

11. I've loved ampersands ever since grade 1, when I learned the word. So pass on the love with this little gold leafed one. Or if you're more into letters, they've got the whole alphabet there too.

12. Cute little cast iron golden birdy. Doesn't serve a purpose, but is pretty cute.

13. I love this gold faceted table lamp. It would work in a multitude of different rooms.

14. Nothing says glamorous like a mirror where you can narcissisticly check yourself 100 times before breakfast, so why not slap some on a dresser? While I'm not inclined to pay the outlandishly high price of the one from Pottery Barn, I'm not opposed to toning it down, and doing a DIY version, where you only mirror the front.

15. A simple white slipper chair is a neutral base to build some of the girlier accents off of, and is something that can grow up and be a reading chair in her room later in life.

16. Speaking of some girlier accents, a velvety pink round, a soft lace edged, and a subtle gold leaf are all good pillow options.

17. Some glitter garland strung above the crib announces this is where the princess sleeps.

18. This pink rug is made from recycled materials, and since there's a bit of white, and blue in it, it's not going to compete with the wall colour.

19. Lay to rest on some gold polka dotted bed sheets.

20. A lovely quilt with some hot pink bands.

21. After a long hard day of pooping and crying baby wants to rest her head in a modern white crib.

Nursery Mood Board: Scottish Bairn

It's been a little while since I've posted a mood board about a fun nursery. This one is one of my favourites, Jason and I both really like it, and could totally see our child taking up residence in a room like this. We both would love love love to go to Scotland, we've got a trip planned for when we meet certain goals in our life (and save up enough money). So until that time I'll live vicariously through pictures of the gorgeousness that is Scotland, and this cute little nursery.

1. This overhead light looks like it's wearing a sweater knit by your grandma!
2. A beautiful fine art oil painting of the Scottish Highlands. Oh how I'd love to be there.
3. Haud Yer Wheesht! Means Hold your quiet, or Hush, be quiet. Perfectly fitting for a nursery, no?
4. Along with rugby and Nessie, Shetland Ponies always make me think of Scotland. If you're not lucky enough to have a bunch of these weird little creatures tromping around in pastures near you to take a picture of, that's sad. Just google them, there's a ton of great pictures you could frame.
5. A branch lamp base paired with a simple white shade; rustic and charming, just like any Scot who opens his mouth.
6. It can't be a Scottish room without a nod to rugby...they love their rugby. We also love rugby, I picked up this ball from a 7's tournament Jase was in in NYC a couple years ago, and it's totally going in our child's room. Jason has said on more than one occasion he wants enough kids to outfit at least a 7's team.
7. A room deriving inspiration form Scotland isn't complete without something related to Nessie. There's so many cute prints on Etsy, like this one, or this one, or this one.
8. A flag shield to protect yourself from all those English invaders. This would be a pretty easy DIY with some leftover pieces of wood, or even a piece of ply.
9. I love postcards. We've collected a few from every trip we've been on, and I love when people send us postcards, so a vintage postcard would be a great addition to an art wall.
10. A vintage map of Scotland, to talk over all the places we'll go visit when we're there.
11. I once heard a Scottish comedian making fun of the fact that the thistle is the Scot's national symbol, and how they must've shown up dead last to pick that one, right behind us Canadians who get a leaf. Funny. These little thistle buttons would look really cute pinned together in a group of four in a shadow box on a fabric backing.
12. The cutest little sheep bookends ever, and since I couldn't really justify spending $135 (plus who knows how much to ship to Canada - if they even do) you could make your own (or rope a talented friend into doing it) (Use a cute crochet pattern like this one then stuff it with something to weight it down)
13. Refinish an old dresser into something that looks great, and will serve double duty as a changing area.
14. Keep the toes warm in the winter with this furry sheep like rug. Also would be fun to roll around in and run your face in...baby would probably like to do the same.
15. The Strandmon chair from Ikea, so lovely. This is what we plan to do with one of our wing backs that we'll use in our nursery.
16. Coordinate with some cute pillows, like this cute hounds-tooth one, or this plaid tartan one.
17. Hello adorable Nessie plush. I can't decide if I'd want to use this as a plush toy for baby, or stuff it full of something heaving to use it as a cute door stop. Either way, she's super cute and soft looking.
18. Dirty laundry should not have to be ugly, especially when it's cute little baby clothes. A woven basket would make a great laundry hamper.
19. Prop your feet up on this little plaid ottoman after a long hard day
20. The Sparrow by Oeuf.
21. Get some cute gingham sheets for the crib, and pair it with a quilt in your family tartan. Or just any tartan that you think looks good.

Nursery Mood Board: Around the World in 80 Days

Here's round two of nursery mood board inspiration. We're inching closer to having the floor laid in there, which makes my heart go pitter patter. This board was inspired by our love to travel (and my near obsession with maps), and then I found this great vintage Around the World in 80 Days movie poster and it used it as a sort of jumping off point.

Here's what I came up with.

1. Crisp Linen by Ben Moore with yellow, red and blue accents
2. Map Wallpaper by Wallpapered
3. Can't find the original link but here's a cool DIY version of an orb pendant
4. Blue striped reclaimed wood clock (could totally be a DIY project)
5. If you don't have a street sign laying around from your younger days, Etsy's got your back.
6. Water through the porthole looking print
7. A cute vintage bicycle riding dude
8. No vintage travel room is complete without a pair of vintage driving goggles.
9. A wooden mirror for baby to look at themselves (you could easily frame out an existing mirror)
10. Another print, this time of an 1899 car
12. A vintage ship print (this would be another simple DIY)
13. Just in case baby is wondering what letter their name starts with
14. A super cute elephant hook to hang...well whatever
15. A great brass floor lamp for those late night reading sessions
16. My most favourite rocker ever (I want to make our wingback look like that)
17. A simple blue pillow
18. Revamp a mid-century dresser to use as a change table (there's all sorts on kijiji)
19. A ship in a bottle always amazes me
20. Side table lamp for when the overhead light is just too bright
21. Who wants a piggy bank, when you could have a lion bank, and pretend you're on safari!
22. A red Moroccan pouf to rest your feet
24. A cool "magical thinking" rug from Urban Outfitters
25. There's no reason a laundry basket has to be ugly, this one from West Elm sure isn't
26. Cute little suitcases to house toys when not in use.
27. Little rocking bird (comes in different colours)
28. A fun vintage toy train to push around
29. A cool airplane mobile to help baby fall asleep (this is another one that one could DIY)
30. A lovely brown and white crib
31. Simple star sheets
32. A great red and gray quilt to keep the little one warm

Inspired By: Nursery Spaces

I've been having so much fun taking in all the different fabulous nurseries there are out there, in preparation of what we will do in our own house. I've put together a bunch of moodboards of different looks that I think are fun, but it's just not quite as fun as seeing a completed space. I've had these nurseries pinned for quite some time, they're all so fantastic. Even Jason thought a few of them were pretty cool, and that's saying something.

This fabulous small space nursery featured on apartment therapy shows off how to get the most out of a small footprint. I've seen that giant pelican poster used in a bunch of different rooms, but I like it the best in this nursery. Jason liked it too, it reminded us both of our honeymoon to Peru, where we had a run in with a few pelicans.

I love the that this is a giraffe themed nursery, but is so subtle, you'd hardly tell, it's so light and airy feeling. Not at all a cliche space. It also features a great chalkboard wall area (we're thinking of incorporating a chalk wall or area in ours), and an awesome newspaper elephant mount.

I love the pallet focal wall in this room. I know it's super trendy right now, and while I would love to put a wall like this in, Jason wouldn't be on board. I like to think I was ahead of the whole pallet trend, when I used them in wedding decor and some apartment decor. The giant D above the bed is also pretty great, I'm not sure how it's made, but you could totally DIY with a piece of plywood and a bunch of paint chip samples.

I love the chevron focal wall, here it looks like they used some sort of wall paper, or panel to achieve the look, but it wouldn't be at all hard to accomplish with some tape and paint. We are also thinking of including some sort of geometric focal wall. Yet another room that features Sharon Montrose prints, it's funny that after I came across her work, I realized that a large number of my inspiration pictures also include them.

 A different view of another beautiful, calm nursery. I like the art and the mirror above the dresser change table. We're planning on using a dresser as a change table (with a bit of a twist), I think it's a great use of space, if you need a dresser in the room, why not make it do double duty? A dresser's also much easier to grown along with the child than a change table.

 

Look. At. That. Ceiling. It's fabulous isn't it? I love the juxtaposition of the black wall, and white; it's like night and day. Did I mention how great that ceiling is? It's fantastic! I've been tossing around the idea of doing a fun ceiling for quite some time, spurred on of course, but this picture.

I can't wait to get on with the nursery in our house, and bring an adorable little bambino to live in it. There's so much to do before then though, I wish finishing a room was as simple as looking at a picture you like, and POOF, there it is! We should have the gross blue floor ripped out this week though, and then we'll be putting in the nice new hardwood next week. Woot to the woot!

Nursery Mood Board: Calm & Serene

Since we had no heat last week, I had far too much time on my hands to put together some nursery mood boards. Since we can probably have little one by the Fall, it's like we just found out we're pregnant and I can start planning all the fun baby stuff. So be prepared for a considerable upswing on the baby post front. Since we're hopefully going to be installing the floor in our future baby room within the next few weeks (it's the same floor that's going in the dining room so we plan on doing the two rooms at the same time.) I came up with a few different possibilities of what I could do to make a gender neutral baby room. We have a pretty blank slate, and have to get most everything for the babe (who doesn't when it's your first right?) So, without further ado, here's my take on a calm and serene nursery.

I feel calmer already, don't you? I feel like it would be easy for a child to sleep in here. Since we've got no clue on age or sex of the child, I'm trying to keep them as neutral as possible.

1. The flooring is an engineered hardwood from Armstrong, as for the walls, either paper them all with Farrow & Ball's Lattice wallpaper, or just do one wall behind the crib and paint the rest of the walls white, or a soft gray. I really love the look of this paper, with it's soft subtle wave, going from this to thick.

2. A simple white & soft gray curtain from Ikea, with a patter that sort of mimics the wallpaper with a vertical pattern.

3. This great light is one I've had saved for a while now. I'm not sure where you could buy it, but you could probably DIY it with some marginal effort. Some leather strips, or painted rope perhaps?

4. I'm all for having art above the changing area gives baby something to look at, as well as you when you're half asleep putting the diaper on backwards or upside down.

5. A great zebra watercolour, that would go in a white frame.

6. Another thing I think is good to have above the changing station is a mirror, I find they can help to distract baby (especially when they're a little older and in that facial recognition stage). Any mirror would do, you could even DIY a frame around an existing mirror, or just paint a current one white.

7. Another super simple DIY project you could whip up. An embroidery hoop, and some gradient thread, and you've got something that could be tailor made to fit any room. (Inspiration from Etsy)

8. I love clocks, old school, digital, funky, traditional, clocks. I think there should be at least one in every room. (As long as they're quiet, few things I hate more than loudly ticking clocks) Why not start teaching the importance of punctuality early?

9. I love llamas even more than I love clocks. They're pretty awesome, after having met a few on our honeymoon, I love them even more. Therefore a picture of a llama seems very fitting for our child.

10. There's no such thing as too much storage when it comes to a nursery. Put up a floating shelf to house some cute animals, nic-nacs, books, or anything that may not be great for tiny inquisitive hands.

11. Books play a very important roll in our lives, and we plan to instill their value in our children as well. The love of books starts with a great pair of book ends, like these from Restoration Hardware. Okay, so maybe that's not where it starts, but it certainly doesn't hurt right? 

12. A lamp is a good thing to have near the changing area for late nights when you may not want to turn on the overhead light, but still need to be able to see.

13. This stuffed mouse, is so adorable, and is sure to become a favourite. It reminds me of a silk rabbit that I had as a child that my Nan made me. (the shop has rabbits too)

14. A modular storage system (like this one) can be a handy place to store toys that aren't cute enough to be displayed, or more books. They're low enough to the ground that baby can access things by themselves, which can be great for when they're a little.

15. We're going to reupholster one of our wing back chairs for the nursery, but it doesn't mean I can't covet other sleek great looking rockers. I love the look of the walnut legs on this option.

16. Pillows (especially a long one like this) are great things to have laying around, so you can have something to beat your husband with. Kidding, he'll probably want to beat you because you have so much.

17. I like the idea of using a dresser as a changing table, because it gives you that added storage for necessities like extra diapers, and wipes, and the 50 different outfits you may want to change them into. (here's a similar looking option for considerably less)

18. This super cute mobile, would literally help the wee one count their sheep to fall asleep. 

19. I love the lines of this midcentury looking crib from Dwell Studios. All the look of times gone past, without the negative effects of not being up to date with safety standards.

20. Keep the crib looking great with some simple grey bedding.

21. I love a good rocking horse, my grandpa made the one that I'll be using in our nursery, but this one sort of reminds me of the one he made.

22. Who says a laundry basket can't be cute? Since little people clothes take up less room, just use a large weaved basket to store the pint sized dirty clothes.

23. Jason isn't a huge fan of rugs, but I like having one underfoot. Especially in a nursery, where the inhabitants tend to spend a fair amount of time of the floor. And one that


So there's my take a calm and serene nursery. When I'm putting together a board like this it's mostly for inspiration, I wouldn't necessarily choose every option in here. I know my bank account definitely wouldn't choose every option in here. When I go into any room, I find something I like, then either search and search and search for something similar, or get something from a thrift store, or find something I can do myself. I think it's great to have something as a jumping off point though. Stay tuned for more nursery boards.