Twin's nursery

I have had the privilege of helping some friends design some rooms lately.  April and I spent lots of time creating a space that she loves for their sweet new additions, Addyson and Kynley.

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I started this entry close to two years ago.  What an awesomely consistent blogger I am.  Ha!  Back to the nursery for the twins.  Brandon is an amazingly helpful and detail oriented husband.  He also loves NEUTRALS.  He is all over anything khaki, khaki, or more khaki.  So, when we broached the subject of pink walls, he was pretty hesitant, and not sure he was ever going to speak to me again.  While painting, he was sure there were holes burning through his retinas. 

this pink definitely has more spunk than Brandon's preferred khaki...

April and I concurred that a favorite part was the fabric for the curtains.  Home run.  I had the privilege of seeing them somewhat recently in DC, and we still agree.  Three cheers for the curtains!  Rocker is from April's childhood.  Twin owl pillow looks on :)

sweet hats from Etsy...I gave the girls these antlers after giving them a good coat of white paint...

 more paint chip art...

I made them birth art and designed art for a quote that April wanted to make sure to incorporate into the nursery.  The owls are copies of precious onesies for the girls.

Gotta love Brandon - he was so super exact when hanging the gallery wall.  I need to hire him to fix all my wonky gallery walls.

Love the whimsical NY art...and the curtains.  We took off closet door and added a curtain.  Much more practical with space constraints.

April and Brandon's utensils from their childhoods.  Love the history.

 April just LOVES me for trying to make her have living plants in their house.  Many plants have rested in peace, but we will forge ahead. 

This was such a fun adventure, all done out of love. 

The fun part is they have baby #4 on the way - and a BOY!  Time to start talking new nursery :)

Inspiration - West Bottoms

My friend clued me into the West Bottoms...once a month, a dozen or so stores open up for a weekend of treasure hunting.  I was lucky to get some time to myself yesterday, so I went and soaked it all in.  My little brain was on overload from so many inspiring little pretties. 

My ebay and CL search lists have just exploded with all the things I will be looking for :)

Here were a few of the things that got me going...

 old flashcards...

 have been wanting to try this....like PB kids...

 can't seem to get enough of MCM lamps...

 Swoon.  I will never stop loving these.  Wish I could get one for a STEAL!

 the architectural elements were some of the most beautiful things I saw yesterday...

 love the pool balls...my mom did a fun display with some mini ones at her house...

 Yes.  I am looking for a large disco ball.

 lockers on the brain.  Potential bookshelf for sean - then could be toy storage later?!

 vintage tool bag - awesome toy storage?  want one for under my coffee table.

 Krissy - this reminded me of your grandma :)

 always a sucker for a white display.

 checking out these metal spacers as potential risers for bookshelves?

 loved the globe display.

 I couldn't stop coming back to check out this art deco fixture...

 this whole set was only $30!

 liked the deer covered in maps...

 if there was one totally useless but drop dead gorgeous thing I would have bought, it would have been this bottle.  A-MAZING.

 still thinking about this tray - should have bought it.

 really have a thing for silver bowls with a pretty color lining...

 perfect.

Craigslist find - Eames Chairs/Tulip Table

My tolerant husband high-tailed it out to an estate sale with me on one of our last days on vacation in Michigan.  We snatched up a tulip table and four Eames style chairs.  I was wishing for a white tulip table and white chairs, but for the price, we could not pass this up.  Good thing we already had to get a u-Haul :)

I contemplated painting the table, but because of the different surfaces, I decided I would probably ruin it in the process, so we will embrace the table as is :)

I spent too much time searching for fabrics...of course immediately drawn to geometrics, but then wanting something easy to wipe clean with kids (faux leather, vinyl, oil cloth), then looked into laminating the fabric either by a service or by myself.  UGH.  Too difficult.  Just want them to be ready when we get to Kansas.

Randomly stopped in at a Jo-Ann fabrics yesterday and stumbled upon some houndstooth suiting fabric. After seeing my friend's houndstooth upholstered chairs, I have been hooked and wanting something on houndstooth ever since.  I liked the large scale of this print as it made it feel a little more modern to me.

My mom helped me this morning, and I couldn't be more happy that they are done.  Now...stain proofing this material....hmmm, I see a lot of moments of frustration with myself in the future as I know these won't be fun to clean.  That's why I bought extra fabric :)

Metal Cabinet Stripping

Okay.  Now it all makes sense why the lady only charged me $15 for this cabinet.  I practically ran out of the store with it b/c I thought it was such a steal...little did I know that this 'what was supposed to be 3 nap project' was going to turn into such a time suck.

After lots of sanding and ZERO progress, I decided I might have to strip the several layers of paint off.  My dad had a bottle of Citistrip, so I gave it a go.  It took me quite a while to get the hang of this stuff, but I found that it worked the very best on the hottest days.  And, I learned to goop it on...at first I did a very thin coat and barely made any progress.

It took round after round after round of Citistrip, washing, steel wooling, mineral spiriting, washing, scraping, etc.   After all that, I did use a rust remover (this worked wonders on the huge rust spot on the enamel top!) and did more steel wooling and washing.  It seemed at every turn, there was another tool or product that I needed.  Thankfully, my dad's stocked work room was full of most of the things I needed.  Phew.

In short, If I don't do another stripping project ever again, I won't be sad. 

And...at the end, there were still paint spots that I couldn't get off and scratches around the piece.  I was torn on whether to leave it as is, or cave and paint it two different tones of cream.  In the end, I settled for clear gloss paint, and I will live with it for a while.

Original...the women we bought this from in Sharon Springs, NY (where the Beekman 1802 store is) said it had just been pulled out of an old barn.  It was filthy, but we loved it.

After sanding and attempt at scraping...not much different...

 After some Citistrip...

 I intended to leave the inside alone, but then I couldn't help myself.  

Had.to.get.that.paint.out.of.there.

 Final...

DIY Vertical Succulent Garden

I really wanted to incorporate some sort of living wall into the new place (on a budget, that is ;)).  I found an old frame for $2 at a garage sale, and figured that would be perfect.  It has been fun being home and getting to work on projects with my dad - I am very thankful for all his help on this!

I followed this tutorial (check out the follow up pictures...big lush success!)...and here is where we deviated a bit...

1.  We still used the 2x2 pieces of wood, even though Luna-See said she would have used more shallow pieces.  Once we saw how successful her garden has been - Sean encouraged me to stick with 2x2s b/c he figured the plants may just need that much soil. 

2.  We added metal L brackets to the back of the frame on all 4 corners.  Then, my sweet dad notched out the 2x2s so that they would sit flush against the frame.  We thought this may provide additional support.

3.  After seeing that Luna-See used 4 coats of urethane and the paint looks to be flaking off a lot after a year, I figured I wasn't going to break my back to prevent peeling.  I only did two coats.

4.  We did use screws instead of nails (lots of them).

5.  I stapled a black contractor trash bag across the back of the frame after it was filled with the moss/soil just as a small buffer for the plywood.  Not sure that it will help at all, but figured it couldn't hurt.

I forgot to put hanging hardware on the back before I planted the succulents, so we still need to do that.  It is VERY heavy.  I am hoping to put on a wall in the new house; however, if it seems too heavy, I will prop it somewhere.

I planted some of the succulents that I already had, and I intend to get some more varieties for additional color, but I will do that once we settle.  Let's hope these little plants make it in the car/u-Haul :)

Fingers crossed that this takes...

We glued and screwed the 2x2s in...

Ready for plants...

Let the planting begin!

Take 1...

Kansas, here we come...

Hmmm....I wonder how long this blogging attempt will last.  Bets?

Quick recap - We said goodbye to West Point and oodles of fond memories and dear friends.  I became way more attached than I had anticipated.  We trekked to IL for time with family, trip to the cottage, time with family, trip to Colorado Springs, more time with family, trip to Indiana, and more time with family.  I am beyond thankful that my parents have welcomed us for such an extended period of time.

Next stop...Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  Due to a shortage of on post housing, we have to wait a few extra weeks to get our house.  We will now be there for ~ 9 months before heading to our next home (location TBD).

So, thus begins the design challenge....
1.  I want to get the house up and running as quickly as possible due to our very short stay in Kansas.
2.  I have never lived in a new house...this is a newer home with an open floor plan.  As I was sketching out rooms and furniture placement, I am shocked at how much furniture won't fit, despite this being the biggest house we have lived in.  Good thing that there will be storage room in the garage :)
3.  I have chosen to not paint...so I need to figure out other inexpensive ways to bring in color...

I have very high hopes for Kansas.  I have heard nothing but great things about it, and I am chomping at the bit to get out there, settle in, explore as much as we can, and soak up every second of family time.  I personally hope to focus on my interior design class and also simplifying/organizing our home (Sommer gave me this book recommendation...loved it!).  We will see how that goes (along with the 50 other goals floating around in my head!)  :)

This summer, I have managed to fill up a lot of my parents' garage with new finds/projects...which I probably shouldn't have b/c of #2 above.  I thought, as always, that there would be more downtime than there has been, so now, I am in crunch time with all these endeavors.  Hopefully the pressure will help :)

A few things that I need to hop to...

 recover these seats...

finish cleaning this up...

finish DIY vertical succulent garden....

clean up this old beauty...

Lamp Love

I'm pretty sure the that I am the only one that is completely in love with this lamp, but I am.  My sweet friend Jen picked it up for me on a thrift store run, and I am smitten.  I just need to decide what to do with it.  The sweet 70's colors match my current decor, but the gold flecks could probably go :)  I like the shape of the shade, but it could use some updating...was hoping I could follow Jenny's DIY instructions for painting a shade...

Since buying these, I seem to have a new obsession with honeycomb lamps.  Most I have found since this one have been very expensive, though!

 It has a little crack at the bottom that doesn't bother me...but check out the gold flecks :)  genuine 70s, right?

Saw this pair last week in DC while out with Hallie....so fun!