20 June 2014

Mila's Room


It seems like forever ago I posted the mood board for Mila's nursery. Her room was actually finished before she even arrived, I just never took the time to take photos and share the room. When planning her room I had a few specific details I wanted to incorporate, but beyond that I kept the design fairly simple. I don't have shelves of books or toys like I do in Lucy's room. At this point we don't use Mila's room for more than a diaper change and to get her dressed. She sleeps in a bassinet in our room since I'm nursing her at night.

When we moved into our house, Mila's room was bright blue with green stripes. It was staged as a nursery when our house was on the market and the bright wall color along with the way they staged the crib made her room feel so tiny. This was the first room I wanted to tackle as soon as we moved in. Thankfully my father-in-law came over the morning after we moved and got to work repairing, priming, and painting. 

Here's a photo of the room before we moved in:


And this is how Mila's room looks now:


What was done:
- walls repainted Benjamin Moore 'Moonshine'
- new vents installed
- window sills, closet doors, and trim painted semi-gloss white
- wood blinds installed
- closet interior painted, new knobs and shelving installed
- door knob changed from brass to oil rubbed bronze


Both the crib and dresser were part of Lucy's nursery in our old house. They worked so well together, plus with Lucy transitioning to a big girl bed, I opted to pass them down to Mila's room. 

The two zebra prints are my favorite part of this room. They have the Dr. Seuss quote: "Today you are you that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you." I bought the prints from Society6.com. The frames were purchased from a separate website (I can't remember where) and I assembled and framed the prints myself.


The teddy bear was Jordan's when he was a baby.


I bought the butterflies off Etsy back when I was pregnant with Lucy. I had originally planned on using them in her nursery, but scrapped that idea and held onto the butterflies to use later. 


The Moroccan floor pouf was purchased for a steal off Overstock.com (for less than $100 when many of them go for close to $300) and the rug was an Ebay win. I searched long and hard for the perfect vintage rug for her room and fell in love with this one as soon as I saw it. I watched it like a hawk and put my bid in a second before it ended and won!


Mila has a pretty roomy closet, the photo below doesn't do it justice as the closet itself stretches past where the doors end. Imagine both of Lucy's closets combined to make one. That's how large this closet is. 


When we moved in the closet was a mess. Not only was it painted blue like the rest of the room, but the shelving was half installed/falling apart. My father in law removed all the pieces, then installed new wire shelving so we had plenty of space to store clothes, diapers, shoes, blankets, etc.


I'm able to fit so much in that space that I can even store all Lucy's hand-me-down clothes on the floor without cluttering the closet.


While I didn't buy a bunch of toys for Mila to put in her room (Lucy has plenty for both of them), I did want to pick up a few dolls that she could call her own.


One of my favorite details of this room is that her bedroom door is on it's own angled wall between the wall where the closet it and the wall where the dresser is. I feel it brings some character to the shape of the room. 


Once Mila grows bigger and we start using her room more, I see myself making some changes and adding a few more custom pieces as well as some toys and books. For now, this room is just perfect.

18 June 2014

Living Room - In Progress

Even though I would consider it far from finished, I thought I should take a few photos and share how our living room is coming along since we've made a lot of changes over the past few weeks. I have the 'before' photos to compare. 

This is the room that greets you when you first walk in our front door. First, the fireplace. I am so excited to finally have a fireplace to use during the winter.


Below is how the fireplace looked before moving in. It was painted a creamy color similar to the beige on the walls. I gave the fireplace a fresh coat of white semi-glass paint. You'd be amazed how much brighter the living room is after that simple update.


BEFORE view from the front door:


And AFTER:


I'm hoping that adding two fabric accent chairs will balance out the room against the leather couch, metal coffee table and brick fireplace. I think the fireplace needs something to soften up the space a bit since that corner of the room feels a bit masculine. It also needs a pop of color to liven it up - like a bold, bright printed vase with a house plant where the horse print now sits (it's blocking the front of a black storage door). 


BEFORE view towards the front door from the fireplace:


AFTER view:


Yes, the wall behind the stairs hasn't been painted yet. Since it stretches to the ceiling of our second floor we are waiting until we tackle the upstairs hallway to paint that wall. I think one of us will need to get the guts to stand on a ladder on the steps to reach the top of that wall. 

I've been wanting to do a gallery wall like this since I saw this one on Pinterest. I'm still picking photos trying to find the perfect ones to print and fill the frames. The 'bench' below the frames is actually Lucy's toy box. We have larger toys (princess castles, tents, etc.) stored in the coat closet under the stairs. The rest of her toys are in her bedroom (see before and after photos of Lucy's bedroom here). There is a large beige area rug behind the leather couch which is where Lucy takes her toys out to play. 


This couch. Jordan and I talked about owning a leather couch forever, but the price of them had always kept it a dream. A few weeks after moving in we received an unexpected refund from the last mortgage payment on our townhouse. Since the refund was almost the exact amount of the couch we saw it as a sign to go ahead and treat ourselves. I found this couch on sale on Overstock and scored and additional 10% off since I had previously made a number of furniture purchases for the new house. Overstock is great about constantly sending coupons after you make a purchase. 


We also wanted to purchase a new coffee table. I found this box frame coffee table from West Elm. While $350 is more than we wanted to spend, we received some Pottery Barn gift cards for Christmas and held onto them knowing we'd need to make some furniture purchases after moving in. We also received an additional 10% off by signing up for their emails. I love, love, love this coffee table. The cowhide rug was an Amazon purchase I made when we were still in the townhouse. We sold the house soon after it arrived so it never made it out of the box until recently. 


Hooray for grocery store peonies!


Here is a before shot of the view towards the living room from the kitchen.


And an after shot. I haven't decided for sure, but the plan is to put two white accent chairs either side by side in front of the window, or opposite each other on either side of the coffee table (window side and kitchen side). I'm planning Ektorp Tullsta chairs in white since they come with washable slipcovers. 


And one more photo facing the kitchen. Kitchen tour coming soon.


You might have noticed that the vintage dresser turned bar from our previous dining room now serves as an entry table in the living room. Disregard the silly paper towels under the legs. Until I can find a way to remove them I want to avoid scratching up the floor with the rusty wheels. The dresser styling also needs some work (the frames don't even have photos), but like I said this room is still in progress.


I'm definitely happy with our progress in this room, but it still doesn't feel finished when I'm standing in it.

What we've completed:
- repainted the walls Benjamin Moore 'Moonshine'
- changed out the door knob on the coat closet and front door
- repainted the fireplace a semi-gloss white

Still to do:
- add crown molding and possible casing to doorways
- finish painting far wall behind stairs
- purchase chairs to put by fireplace
- fill frames with photos
- style entry table and fireplace 

04 June 2014

Mila Jane & Lucy James


Yesterday Mila turned 6 weeks old. I want to cry at the thought of my maternity leave being halfway over. With 6 weeks to go, I've started to wonder if I have been documenting and taking photos like I did with Lucy. I did take 1 month photos of Mila two weekends ago with the intention of doing the same monthly photos and milestones I did with Lucy. Granted, I haven't posted those photos yet... Maybe with the 2 month ones.

By some luck (and a few bribes that may or may not have included ice cream for lunch), Lucy agreed to pose for some pictures yesterday. We only had a few arguments over her outfit (she wanted to wear a purple Minnie Mouse shirt and Disney Princess crocs), but she agreed when I told her she could pick and wear two of my necklaces. Mila is wearing the same tutu I used with Lucy when she was born. I'm shocked to get so many great photos. More often than not, if Lucy sees me bring out a camera she pouts and refuses to pose. I have to either sneak a photo or catch her in a good moment to get her to smile. She's been so enamored with her sister that any chance to snuggle up and hold Mila's hand and she's on board. I snapped until Mila was over it.

Please enjoy my kid overload!


and the photo shoot is over...


Back to house updates soon! We just painted two more rooms over the past week and are putting things back together. Once I get some photos I'll be sharing for sure.