Audrey's Room Reveal

I feel like we worked on this project for a hundred years.  And the truth is, it isn't quite finished yet.  But really, what in this house ever is?  Things are always evolving and changing as we get used to living in tighter spaces and with less stuff.  

Audrey was so surprised by her room transformation and we are very pleased with how it turned out. 

Especially since we started with this:

before

after

The most notable thing that we are still missing is the bedskirt.  My mom seamstress is still working on completing the box pleated skirt in the striped fabric.  I figure I can wait for the free labor. 

The fabric was super duper cheap.  It's from Ikea and comes in at a whopping $6.99 per metre.  When we found it, I was so surprised at the heavy weight of the fabric and the perfect colour palate it gave me to work with.  If you remember, Audrey wanted a riot of colour and I wanted calm, simple and more neutral.  I feel like we really struck a perfect balance here.

We both really love the desk wall.  Jay made the desk out of two brackets we bought and some wood he cut to fit the exact space.  I painted the brackets in the same aqua as the bed to unify the space.  I especially love how all the bright colours pop against the dark chalkboard wall here.  The desk is the perfect size for Audrey, although it doesn't offer any storage.  She isn't really one to put things away anyway ; )

This way, her pencils and markers are right out on display so she can keep things tidy (hopefully).

I also think this little hook system will help keep her things up off the floor.  It's funny, when I was spraying out all the frames I absolutely detested this lime green colour we used, but now it's one of my favourite parts of the room.  Audrey, of course, loves it.

So there you go.  One room looking good.  I'll talk about sources and paint colours in another post.

What do you think of Audrey's new room?

xo Meg

Project Surprise Room - Part 2

Last week, while our kids were away at the cottage with my parents, we did a major overhaul on Audrey's room. If you remember, it looked like this:

before

Poor kid.

  I have a few posts lined up about this project (there were lots of small DIYs in here) but for now, check out my girl's reaction to her new and improved bedroom:

She had no idea we were working on this while she was away. And the good news is that she loved it.

   Slowly, but surely, we are working away at this house.  Things are really starting to look like 'us' in a lot of rooms.  

    The basement is nearing completion - Elliott is now in his new room downstairs and loves having his own space. We even watched our first official family movie in the basement family room last night. I can't tell you how much happier I feel now that things are shaping up.  I'm a homebody and it's really important to me that our house feels like home. We've spent a lot of months with somebody else's decorating choices. And we will spend many more while we budget and work on the things that are important to us.   

Have a wonderful Monday!

xo Meg

Project Surprise Room

In about a week, my kids are heading to the cottage to spend a week with their Nanny, Grandpa and Auntie.  They are so looking forward going and love everything to do with cottage life - swinging in the hammock with a good book, playing on the beach, swimming and boating.  I've written about Cedar Beach before and what it means to me and my family.  It's my true north.

While they're gone, I have some big surprise plans for Audrey.  When we moved into our house, her room was one of the first ones we painted.  It's pale lilac, although I know she wishes it was a much brighter colour.  But that's all we've done.  I wrote about that here, you can check out the little bit of progress we've made.

The list of projects for this room was long. And sadly, we've yet to accomplish anything on the list. Not. A. Thing.  In all fairness, we have been working hard on other reno projects around here.  However, it's my goal to complete a few projects to make her room something special while she's gone.  And then surprise her when she gets back!

This is the fabric for her long pillow.  

 

It's been purchased and is just sitting there waiting to be sewn.

This is the bed:

She wants a brightly coloured room so we're going with turquoise.

We found her chandy in someone else's trash.  My favorite kind of treasure. We're planning to dress it up with a paint job. I have yet to choose a colour.  I will likely choose something pulled from the striped fabric we're using. Pink?  Any colour suggestions would be appreciated.

Additionally, a chalkboard wall is happening on the desk wall, a la:





I have a zillion ideas swirling around in my head.  I'm always good at making inspiration boards for a space - but it's somehow hard for me to commit the ideas to the actual room and actually get it done.  There are a few craft type projects I'd like to create for the space but we'll see what kind of time crunch I run up against.

Some things that also need to be addressed:

• hooks for hanging sweatshirts and pjs
• hooks/jewelry organization/display
• hang string lights?
• make a pompom garland/flower/paper/other creative garland 

Isn't planning a surprise FUN??

xo Meg 

On Blogging... And the House So Far

I'm not sure what has happened around here for the last little while.  I haven't been feeling very inspired to write.  I also haven't been finishing many projects lately.  I really can't say why.  I've certainly been working on lots of projects lately.

   Everything in the new house seems overwhelming to me.  There is so much to do in so many areas that I almost feel paralyzed! I thought I'd make a couple of lists here to help get me moving on some of the little projects.  I started this blog to chronicle the work we were doing on our last home and I'm hoping to get back to that as the focus of what I blog about.  You know, instead of my propensity to attempt to keep up with the blogging Jones'.

Here is an update of the changes we've made to our new house, and the stuff that still needs to get done in each.

before, obviously

Audrey's Room

Prep walls for Paint

Paint walls purple (yuck! but it's her room!)

Install curtain rod

Hem and trim turquoise curtains (pompoms? rickrack?)

Find bedskirt and add trim (pompoms? rickrack?)  OR

Make bedskirt out of striped fabric or co-ordinating fabric

Sew long pillow for her bed

Paint dingy trim

Closet Makeover - paint or wallpaper and organization

Gallery Wall / Art Installation

Find or Make a desk that fits!

Find a desk organization system that works for her  Thank you Ikea Raskog!

Install shelving above desk for books and treasures

Install mirror on back of door

Re-vamp and install chandy I found on the side of the road

perfect for organizing my little girl's odds and ends!

sneak peek of the purple walls and turquoise curtains

Dining Room

Lay out all artwork possible for the space above the sideboard

Choose art and frames from existing

Hang the darn things up!!!

Make and install barn door with slider or pocket door for closet

Re-Organize closet and maximize space in there

Make built-in bench with cushion for under window

Find dining chairs we like that are comfy

Find a fabric for short curtains

Install curtain rod

Master Bedroom

Paint walls and trim

Sew pillows

Edit Closet

Organize closet, under-bed storage

Find a bedskirt

Hang up some art

Hang mirror

   Currently, we are in the ugly phase of basement renovations.  I don't even want to think about the list for this one.  To be honest, I think we expected to have this project completed already.  We are no where near done.  In fact, Jay is taking advantage of his Monday off to complete a little more of the drywall work so that he can tape and mud the rooms.  As soon as that is complete, I can get out the primer.  We are making progress but it's sure slow going.

I'm hoping to share a couple of finished projects that I've been working on while Jay has been busy in the basement. I appreciate it that you're still reading.

 xo Meg

Fab Fabric Fail

So, when we last spoke about Audrey's room, I had the Kiki fabric by Robert Allen on order.  I really liked the way this fabric looked in the room Danielle Oakey designed for her daughter, Emory.

See the aqua colour in the headboard fabric?  See how the pink flowers are... well... pink?  The fabric appears to have all the colours I was planning to use for Audrey's room too.  I was really excited.

Then it arrived:

iphone picture, colours vary

The iphone picture doesn't really show the true life colour. It's really more cinnamon/brown/rust than I thought.  And the blue is more blue than aqua.  I still like the fabric.  But Audrey does not.  She tried to pretend that she did, so I wouldn't feel bad, but she doesn't.

Lesson learned:  order the swatch.  

I will say, mixing patterns and colours is really tough for me.  I think that's actually why I'm so very colour shy.  How can this fabric look so perfect in the space that Danielle designed and be so totally wrong for the design I had planned?

Just for reference, I'll show you the plan again:

Maybe I just don't know how to mix colours and patterns?  Maybe the colours don't have to match exactly?  It looks like it all goes together on the design board but it doesn't look that way in real life to me. I just don't know.   

So, I'm not quite sure where I'm going from here.  I know I want Audrey to love her room, and she doesn't really love the fabric.  Fortunately, I only ordered a yard so I'm not out tons of money on the mistake.  

If you want to see the inspiration for her room, you can check out my pinboard.  I'm looking at a few other fabrics now.

I couldn't possibly go wrong with the Schumacher, right?
I'm not sure it's in the budget though.

Considerably less expensive than the Schumacher at $21

Good colours to pull from in the Braemore one, I think.  

Please weigh in.  What do you think about the fabric choices?  Does anyone else have anxiety over fabric ordering???

xo Meg

Inspiration and Audrey's Room Fabic

I am feeling so inspired and excited about moving into our new house!  I have been trolling pinterest for ranch home inspiration and am working on pulling together schemes and design plans for each space.  It's tricky because we have too many furnishings to fit into the house so I'm doing a lot of editing.

Remember this mood board for Audrey's Room?

Well, yesterday I tweaked it and ordered the inspiration fabric.  It's Robert Allen's Kiki in Pinata.

Here's the revised version of the mood board:

Once the fabric comes in, I'll be able to select the colour to paint that bed we found on the side of the road.  We'll be using the turquoise/aqua colour most likely.

Danielle also used this fabric in Emory's big girl room.  Here's a picture of that so you can see how Danielle rocked it.  We are doing one long lumbar pillow for the bed in Kiki and using the bright colour palate for the rest of the room.

Cute, right?

Hopefully all this inspiration leads to more regular blog posting.  I've really been missing my blog but I just haven't felt much like writing with everything that's been going on.  Thank you for sticking with me, friends.

xo Meg

Project #1

As promised, I'm going to keep myself from wallowing about our home situation by doing some projects.  Today, I'm going to show you the bed I found at the side of the road for Audrey's room.

But first, how could I have a bad day when my favourite marble rye toast came out like this?

{at least my toast loves me!}

Here's the headboard of the bed:

 There are also two thick, carved rails that go on the sides and a footboard.  It's in pretty good shape, despite it's terrible orangey stain.  

This is really the only problem with it:

See the little curved piece of trim that's missing?  Luckily I know a guy who can probably fix this little section.  I'm just waiting for him to do it.  I'm hoping he gets to it soon.

In the meantime, I'll do a sanding and priming job on the rest of the bed.  Surprisingly (not at all) Audrey has chosen turquoise as the paint colour.  I'm off to pick up some more fabric to use as my jumping off point.

{a reminder of the direction we're going with her room}

inspiration!

I'm so excited to get started on this project!

xo Meg

A Riot of Colour

If there's one thing Audrey is certain of, it's that she LOVES colour.  Lots of bright, happy colours.

When we created her room in our house, we went with her all time fave, turquoise.  I was trying to make her room fit the overall look of our 125 year old home.  But it wasn't polished and the scheme never came together the way I envisioned.  It wasn't really the fun, happy space she wanted.  You can see for yourself, above.

We've been looking at some ideas for her room in our new house.  And she's not kidding when she says she wants it to be colourful.  These rooms are her favourites.

Apartment Therapy

House & Home

Lucy & Company

You can find all these rooms on my Kids Rooms pinboard.

Here's the inspiration board for Audrey's new space:

I think you all know that I'm a little colour shy.  The walls of her room will be an off white to dial it down a bit.  As will the furniture, except for maybe the bed.  She's currently trying to convince me that a rainbow chevron wall is the way to go.  Yikes!  A riot of colour!

Nothing like pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

xo Meg

Audrey's Room Progress

I know I've kept you in suspense about Audrey's room.  We did get a lot of work done in there over the Christmas break.  Jay had some time off work and that helped matters. Here's what we started with:

I was hesitant to post the after photos for you, not because I don't love how her room is shaping up, but because it's not really done.  I had a lot of trouble figuring out the window treatments for this room.  First I was going to make a pelmet but I didn't have a lot of success and it looked cheap and homemade.

   Then, we painted the room in Audrey's favourite colour.  Boy, is it aqua.  I mean, really bright aqua.  She loves it.  She says it makes her happy to wake up in there.  But it is a lot of colour for me.  Here it is:

We have left the iron bed white for now.  It's peeling and chipping so I will paint it but I'm giving it a little time first so we can think on the colour - maybe brown. The bedding is from Restoration Hardware and the pillows are in 'Sweet William' from Tonic Living.  I am hoping to find an off-white quilt and shams for here.

The orange-stained closet doors (yuck!) are being replaced with white panelled doors like in the rest of the house.

Jay is working on a built-in desk for this area.  The hutch will go up on top of the desk and the schoolhouse desk will be removed.  It isn't nearly enough storage space for Audrey, who loves to craft and create and generally make a mess.

The art will go up on this wall - gallery style.  Still working on collecting the frames and pieces that will go there.  The ones I do have are up on top of her hutch right now.  We also found a big curvy mirror on the side of the road yesterday.  I will be putting that up in here for sure when I've gotten a coat of white paint on it.  I am also painting the pink bulletin board white.

The little nook in the corner will eventually have a window seat.  Audrey can often be found on the beanbag chair reading a book.  It's a cozy little reading corner.  She calls it her 'book nook'.

I have decided to wait on the window treatments for the time being.  I'm thinking of just doing a plain off-white panel on a oil-rubbed bronze curtain rod over the bed but I'd like a more tailored roman on the book nook window.  I will most likely link the two with some turquoise trim.

I'll keep you posted about the progress!  I would welcome any comments or suggestions you have for pulling it together the rest of the way.

xo Meg

Moving Forward

With Christmas Day officially behind us, I am doing my second favourite holiday decorating activity today.  I know some of you are going to think I'm nuts but bear with me.

 Today, I took down all out Christmas decorations.

Every. Last. One.

I organized them all into their tidy bins and tucked them away into the basement storage cupboard.  I took the gigantic tree down and threw it onto our front porch (that's Jay's part of the job).  I cleaned up a ridiculous amount of Fraser Fir needles and vacuumed and dusted the whole living room.

I almost love this part as much as I love putting up the decorations in the first place!

I like our home to be tidy with minimal clutter around.  I find all the Christmas stuff to be overwhelming to my eyes and almost stressful to look at after a while.  Overstimulation maybe?  Either way, the house looks so clean and spare now that everything is put away.  I love it.

You know what I also love?  Jay is upstairs right now sanding down the mud coat on Audrey's room so I can prime that bad boy tonight.  Woooohooo!  I'm so excited about working on her room some more.  We are taking a little time off this week to do some projects around our own home (as opposed to other people's homes like usual).

(Bird's Egg, BM 2051-60)

I finally decided on the aqua colour I wanted to use in there.  It took me a bunch of paint samples but we are going with BM Bird's Egg.  Here are a couple of shots of the colour in other rooms:

via

via

I have to get back to painting now.  I can't leave Jay in there by himself forever.

Just so you know, I've really been missing my blog life lately.  We have been working against a really tight project deadline and things got a little hairy around here.  But I have lots of exciting plans for this blog over the next couple of months, including a fun guest series and some exciting reveals of rooms around this house.

xo Meg

Art: Maps & Globes

Let's face it.  Art, well, good art is expensive.  And we are not all artists.  Sometimes I wonder where artists get their inspiration to create something different.  Something no one else has done.

I am often on pinterest looking for inspiration.  There are so many cool ideas out there.  As I was looking over my DIY pinboard, I discovered that I really like maps and globes.  Tripped out maps and globes, anyway.
Here are a couple of ideas that I really loved:

Frame the maps of the places you were born or places you have travelled together.

Frame a city map, of a place you love.  

  I'm thinking of framing a map of the city of San Francisco.  My hubby and I went there for our honeymoon in1999.  We barely had a penny to our name so we walked and walked and walked!  I love that city and we hope to go back sometime soon.   I love that this one is framed with a vintage gold frame.

I love these globes with the chalkboard paint.  I'm thinking of combining the chalkboard paint with a cool saying or something decoupaged, like these:

art globes via imaginations

I got the chalkboard paint out this morning and am currently putting the first coat of the stuff on my globe.  I'll keep you posted!

xo Meg