STORY OF MY NURSERY...THUS FAR

It's funny how much my home changes from year to year. I don't feel like I'm always working on a project or buying new furniture, but as I look back on pictures from past years, each year almost every room in my home has changed quite a bit. I guess that's what happens when your family grows and changes so much during the years when your kids are small.

Once we found out we were having our third girl, we moved my daughter out of her room to share with her sister to make room for our new baby. It was time to redecorate it as our nursery.

I started out with an eclectic, organic nursery like this in mind...

(you can see links to these products and more ideas I had for the nursery on my Pinterest board)

But then my sweet and stylish grandma passed away and I inherited this chair. I wanted to use it in the new nursery, and thought about recovering it, but the fabric is retro and girly and I liked the uniqueness of it.

This chair changed my plan quite drastically. Nothing in my original plan really worked anymore, except the Jenny Lind crib and gold wreath. I also needed to find the bedding I wanted for her crib.

I found this crib sheet at Bohem at their Designer's open house and loved the block-print and soft blue color. It's created an eclectic vibe, which is what I really wanted in her nursery.

For the walls I loved the striped Farrow & Ball wallpaper and really wanted to use it, but the cost was more than I wanted to spend at the time, and I didn't feel like it worked as well now that I had the new chair and crib sheet.

So now I needed to decide whether to leave my blush pink walls or paint them. I took the decision to Instagram and my nice followers chimed in, helping me make the decision to paint the walls navy blue. I chose Farrow & Ball's Hague Blue, which I was more than happy with. My new go-to navy blue.

This gold medallion replaced the wreath from my board because I also inherited it from my grandma. The medallion was even better than the wreath because it hung in my grandma's home and reminds me of her every time I look at. A more thoughtful decoration.

I would have loved to get a new dresser for the changing table and storage, but with all of the expenses of a new baby, Christmas, and other things, we decided to wait and just use what we had. I have had our changing table since my first daughter, and it was too shabby chic for me. I needed to update it and saw these knobs at Anthropologie that were gorgeous and perfect.

And then I got bored one afternoon and bought some gold paint and glamed up the changing table because everything looks better with gold on it, right?

I kept my sisal rug (that I've had in this room from the beginning) from Ikea, but I plan on eventually changing that out as well. My rug has a navy blue border and is no longer available, but they sell a similar one.

I am currently working on more art for the walls, curtains, and finishing touches. As soon as I feel like it's where I want it, I will share the pictures of it for a more complete view of the room. Until then...

IKEA PICKS FROM THE FALL CATALOG

I love Ikea but I always need a game plan before I venture out to my local Ikea and brave the winding pathways through the endless affordable furniture/home decor items. I get lost, overwhelmed, and frankly annoyed with Ikea so when I get their ginormous catalog twice a year I rip out my favs and take a trip out there.

I thought these might help you in your excursions to Ikea too! I see some great hack ideas...

 

RATTAN BOWL - $9.99 

ROUND MIRROR - $99 

(would love it with the inside lip painted bright white + attach a tie of some sort to hang it)

BATHROOM VANITY + TOP - $379

if you are doing a small remodel this sink is PERFECT! And the price for the top and the cabinet is amazing. You can always change out the knobs for a more custom look.

GIRLS BEDDING DUVET - $40

so vintage and fresh! love this duvet!

CHEST OF DRAWERS - $179

WOOD DINING TABLE - $599

This might be one of the more pricy tables they offer, but I love the legs and walnut top. Very mid-century modern chic.

 STICK-ON HANGERS - $7.99

genius solution for the bath!

GREEN VELVET SOFA - $999

when purchasing a colored sofa it's hard to commit, but for this price I would buy a green velvet sofa!

  SIDEBOARD - $429

this is super chic and paint the legs white, gold, or even black would really dress it up. Or even paint the sides white and leave the doors wood for a fresh mid-century look.

 ROLLING CART - $79.99

A no-brainer hack. Paint the legs gold, red, green, mint, (really any color) and use in the bathroom, office, as toy storage, wherever! Top tray is an organizer perfect for jewelry or makeup/toiletries.

I would love to hear what your favorites are, if I missed some great new Ikea products, or if you own any of these! Look for a hack of the rolling cart from me soon :)

IKEA HACK - MALM TABLE TO GRASSCLOTH CONSOLE

 As you know I'm not really a DIYer but I get so inspired when I go to Ikea. The low prices, clean lines, and easy to refinish furniture gets me every time!

Have you seen one of their newest furniture pieces, the Malm Occassional Table? This piece has wheels on the bottom so it slides over your bed to be used for reading, breakfast in bed, whatever. But when I saw it I knew it would make the perfect console table for my entry! I had been searching for so long but didn't want to spend a lot of $$ so when I found this I was super excited.

Here is the piece in real life.
(excuse the piece of the box left behind)

I considered leaving the table as is, but this piece isn't the glossy white finish a lot of their pieces are, and I would like it a LOT better if it was the lacquer finish.  I also don't love how the sides have a big seam (see pic below) and the fact that there are plastic caps on the inside of each leg that covers the screws. Other than that, the piece itself is really solid and worth every penny of the $129. (BTW, I didn't install the wheels that come with this piece)

But this table needed something more...

And it just so happened that I had some Thibaut Grasscloth laying around from a project. So I knew just what to do - cover this bad boy with grasscloth wallpaper! Here is what I used...

 WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1. A single roll of grasscloth wallpaper.

2. Something to cut with (I used scissors, but I think an exacto knife or something like that would be really effective and precise) Grasscloth is a little tricky because the grass strips make it more cumbersome to cut clean lines. The scissors worked great for me.

2. 1 can of Spray Adhesive + 2 rolls of Permanent Double-Sided Tape

3. Newspaper (to cut templates)

This DIY was easy, yet really time consuming (a lot of cutting and measuring). I think it took me a total of 4 hours, but some of that time included trial and error and cutting 2 pieces that didn't quite match up right. I am an impatient DIYer and I pay for that mistake :)

I recommend using the spray adhesive AND the double-sided tape because the tape helps the edges stay put and the spray adhesive ensures the middle of the wallpaper sticks to the console. I have to be honest, in some places I just used the tape and in others I just used the spray adhesive and I ended up going back a few days later and putting both on there. It really needs both.

I used newspaper to cut templates of the sheets needed to cover the legs and top. This didn't really work for the top piece since it's so long. The top piece I just cut the straightest line I could down the center of my wallpaper sheet. I had to do some trimming after I applied it, but that's the fun of DIY! 

I then for each sheet of wallpaper lined all the edges of the table (where the sheet would be going) with the double-sided tape, sprayed the adhesive on the back of the wallpaper and pressed it on the table. You need to be quick with this process to make sure the tape and the spray glue doesn't dry out before you adhere it.

And after applying 11 sheets of wallpaper you now have a finished product!

Notice how I laid the grasscloth so the lines were running horizontally on the top and it continued down the side of the console for a clean continuous look. I did a separate strip of wallpaper for the top and the side, and the side of the leg but they look almost like one piece.

I styled the table a couple of different ways. Here I have the big Bladet glass vases from Ikea filled with white rocks from West Elm (wish they were from the beach or something meaningful :) and the sticks are bamboo sticks I bought at World Market years ago.

I had this gold tray from One Kings Lane that works perfectly as a holder of my mail. I have a mail slot in my front door so the mail drops on the floor in my entry and I just pick it up, sort it, and set it in the tray! It's a lot better than setting it on my dining room table :)

Here you can see the inside of the legs. I had the wallpaper running horizontally again, but you could do vertical and I think it would look nice as well.

This is my "I just walked in the front door and set down my hat and scarf" pic. Don't you love staging areas for a photo?! But seriously, I love that picture of my husband and our daughter and while I'm not sure how I want to style this table, I kind of like this photo there.

In this photo I put my West Elm silver branch in the center for a very "branchy" decor look.

Here I took the branches out of the vase and just set them across the table. I think I may need to slowly collect things over time that I want to put on this table. I would love to eventually put a couple of stools underneath and maybe get a rug. This post should probably end as a "to be continued...."
But for now I think I've given you enough "versions" of the same Ikea hack Malm table, so this is it until next time. BTW, in "real life" I have a basket underneath this table filled with shoes! 

I would love to hear which styling you liked best for this table. And as always, if you have an Ikea hack you would like to share - please send it on!

And have a great weekend! I will be hanging with Leo at the theater watching The Great Gatsby with the hubby and some friends (how excited are some of you about this movie!)

A NEW AFFORDABLE ART SOURCE - MINTED

I'm always on the lookout for affordable art. I have used Minted for cards a couple of times (my christmas card this year was a minted card) but I never realized they also offered art prints! For those of you who aren't familiar with Minted, it's a community of thousands of designers who create card designs that you can customize, add photos, etc. In my opinion this is the best online source for custom cards. And guess what?! Now some of those graphic designers have designed some really great prints for your wall!

Print prices start at $35 for a 5 x 7 and go all the way up to $425 for a 44 x 60. Now that's a big print!! Another great thing about Minted art is that a lot of it is customizable. Like this fantastic cat print with a place underneath for your cat's name!

 (if we had this print Little Gordon Mittens would be the name on it - that was the name of my husband's cat growing up - kind of think it's the cutest cat name I've ever heard).

And here are a few of my personal favorites...

If you are looking for other great art prints and accessories for your home, make sure to follow my ACCESSORIES board on Pinterest. Here are some great finds I have pinned...

COZAMIA PRINT

MY FAV AFFORDABLE METAL FRAMES

GREG HARGREAVES ON ETSY

Nothing makes a home feel more complete than some great art. It is worth investing in - even if it's only $50 prints with an Ikea frame - it makes a room. I know when I see that Cozamia print I say to myself "you complete me". Yep, I'm that corny :)

If you have a favorite Etsy art shop or another affordable art source you love, please share!!

OFFICE UPGRADE

Do you remember the real estate brokerage office space I designed a little while back? Below is a picture of the conference room I took right after we finished getting everything in the office (don't mind the tiny funny looking plant on that big table! It didn't stay there long :)

CONFERENCE ROOM

All of the conference room furniture is from Ikea. These guys were on a budget and didn't want to spend more money on their office although I strongly urged them to do so. One of the owners already had that table and we bought the plastic chairs as extra seating. These chairs were never intended to be the chairs for the conference table! But they felt they had spent enough money and sent me on my way.

HOWEVER after spending more and more time in the conference room and hosting clients in there they saw that they needed a more professional look and asked me back to help them buy some big boy furniture :)

I am still looking for some other chairs to replace the plastic Ikea side chairs, but what a difference some nice furniture made, right?! And I love that carrara marble top with the walnut base. The leather chairs are from West Elm and are super comfy. Now if they could just keep their plants from dying we might be in business ;)

Lesson learned - spend the money the first time (if you can) and get the furniture the space deserves!