Let's Begin--Boy's Shared Room

1/2(UO Tapestry)/3/4(vintage plaid throws)/5/6/7(vintage dresser)/8(DIY constellation art)/9(vintage plant hanger)/10/11

You know those beautiful end-of-summer days when you should be outside?  Or those Saturdays when you have a lot of work you actually need to get done because the class you are teaching starts in 2 days?  Or how about those days when your kids just play and don't fight and you're able to get a lot done, so really you should be productive?

Yeah, today could have been and should have been any of those listed days.  But, guess what?  I planned and then created a mood board for the boys' room instead!  Go me.  Yeah, I'm practically still in my pajamas and it's 3 PM.  I guess I should feel guilty for wasting the day, and I'm sure tonight when I actually have to work I will be annoyed, but hey--I have been really itching to get the boys room all figured out and I had fun, so what the hell.

My goal is to get this together the month of September.  Leland will turn 3 around then, and it seems like a perfect surprise to get him out of his crib and into a big boy bed.  This room requires a bunch of big item purchases like a mattress and bunk bed and rug and arm chair, but hopefully the rest I can keep to a minimum.  Some of the items I already actually have, so that should help.

Overall, I want this room to be practical and functional.  I'd like it to be cute, but without the extra frills that can drive me crazy--throw pillows, I'm talking to you!  OK, you're right.  There actually might be one throw pillow thrown in the mix, but that is it!!  ;)

Da Floors

Oh how to explain my many, many, many thoughts on these kitchen floors?  Guess I'll just dive right in?

Here's what I like.

I really love when there is a cohesive look throughout the house.  My dream would be to have our beautiful, old hardwoods running throughout our entire floor.  I've really grown to love these hardwoods--I love the lighter-medium color and that each plank has so much variation.  But here's the deal:  these floors can not be sanded down and refinished again.  Although they still look beautiful, there are on their last leg.  There are cracks here and there in the joints.  So it's not like we could put down hardwood in the kitchen/entry and then have it all refinished to flow together.  Bummer.

That option is out.

Our other idea was to put in newer hardwoods, that maybe wouldn't be an exact match, but that would still flow and perhaps lay the opposite way so that they ran perpendicular to our other hardwoods.  But, we worried  that doing this would then make our old hardwoods LOOK like old hardwoods.

So, after nixing that idea, we moved on to tile.

Our kitchen and entry sit central in the house--with the living/dining off to one side and then the bedrooms off to the other side.  I don't know why, but I would like the idea of tile better if our kitchen was off in a corner or something.  BUT, it's not.  And this isn't our dream kitchen, and we plan on redoing it in 5-10 years--and at that point, we'll have to address our hardwoods too.  It just never ends, does it? 

So, Tile it is. 

I left work early the other day (but before I had to pick the boys up from daycare) and scoured the valley for tile samples.  Trying to keep in mind that I wanted something to flow as best as possible with the hardwoods + be reasonably priced.

Which one is the winner?

In the end, we are going with the lighter travertine.  I really do love it.  The tone really goes well with the neighboring hardwoods.  I love the natural variations, and how no two tiles will be the same.  Of the ceramic and porcelain tiles none really stood up to the travertine.  The tones were off, and honestly just looked fake.

Lighter travertine first 2 tiles on left

But, I know, I know.  Travertine is high maintenance.  It cracks, and is pourous.  No, I don't want to spend money and a year later regret my choice.  Yet, I have hated these linoleum floors for so long that I really don't want to settle for something I don't love.  So we're doing travertine and hoping for the best!

Of the samples I picked, most run around $3 sq/ft.  But, I was at Home Depot today, and wouldn't you know it, they have a special right now for $1.66 sq/ft if you buy a whole pallet/crate/whatever.  It's a little more square footage than we need, but even so, the total cost comes to a couple hundred less than the other travertine samples.  Pretty stoked on that!

Travertine is large tile bottom right

We are having the tile installed by a contractor/handyman and we are scheduled to start Wednesday.  EEK!  He is a family friend, and it's awesome because A) my dad has agreed to help him and B) we completely trust him in our house while we are not there--so that means demo can begin while we are at work, and I can take the kids out to play the other days instead of just having to sequester them outside or something.  THIS IS HUGE and well worth paying someone vs. DIYing it ourselves. 

So, here we go!  What are your thoughts?  Have your heard nightmare stories about travertine?  I sorta want to hear if you have, but then again, I sorta don't... ;)

Welkomen

I dunno why, but I like titling posts in other languages.  This one I actually know--from my Dutch days, and it's in reference to my aforementioned blank slate. Two months later, I'm happy to report a finished product.  

For this wall, I wanted someone standing on the porch to be drawn in past the entry way and on into our home.  I like to think of it as our welcoming wall.  And I do find it pretty welcoming. 

Much like our gallery wall, it is mostly a bunch of family photos.  Which I lurve.  I've said it before, but it feels soooo damn good to get these things off of the screen, and onto something real.  These photos give a visitor a glimpse into life at our home...that, and probably the kajillion cars, puzzle pieces, trains, sippy cups, and Tupperware lids lining the floor along the way.  It gets messy here folks, real quick.

Some other things that made the cut this round:

A reminder to live simply--cardstock and a sharpie and I was done.  
A beautiful butterfly that my dad brought back from South America when I was little.
A little painted pot for a fake succulent in real dirt. ;) 
My little hanging plant holder that took me two tries to get it right.
And a giant canvas of me and my babe--It's grainy, and textural, and figured I'd love seeing this my whole life--Leland all small and perfectly melded into my arms--so I splurged.  It's 24 x 36, and helps add much needed visual height to the room.

So, now that this is all up, and Dave is all done with school, I guess I have no more excuses.  Let's get surrrrrrious about the elephant in the room.  It's time to pick out some kitchen/entry flooring...

Worth it: My Gallery Wall

One hundred percent glad I finally did this.  Lots of baby pics, my little family, little bits of what our life is centered on in these years, the baby years.  And one hundred percent nothing I'd rather look at.  Staring at this wall is just better now.  And, gosh, it would be fun to expand, here and there, to showcase different moments.  But for now, I'm beaming.

The view from our cave of a galley kitchen

The view standing in our living room (and near our front door).

And Up Close & Personal

 

 As my usual, I stayed up way too late putting the photos into the frames.  Jude kept coming out--half asleep--just to stare.  He thinks Dave's film pic is one of when "Dad is building me my trains??"  Took me a minute to figure out he thinks the snapper (technical term??) looks like a railroad crossing.  And Leland can't stop pointing out all the "ba-by!" pics.  Dave came up from studying and gleamed at all the pictures as well.  I even got a "Well done, Lis."  So, ya know, feeling the love.

Gallery Wall In the Mix

Via Emily Henderson

Feel like I have lots of little decor projects in the mix right now, but none at the complete stage.  So it goes.  We have a graduation (HELL YES!) party planned for Dave coming up in the next couple of weeks, so feel like it's a great excuse to ready the house and make it look purdy, even though I know in reality no one's really gonna care.  Right guys??

One of the things I've been working on is a gallery wall over the dining table.  For the past almost 2 years it's just been another blank slate, but it's a wall I look at frequently since you see it from the kitchen and the livingroom.  And for the past 2 years, I've known that I've wanted a bunch of family pics on this wall, but never pulled the trigger because well, even though I just bought Ikea frames, the prices add up + choosing the right pictures takes a boat load of time + I thought choosing the right frames was gonna be tricky + a billion other little things.  But, I decided to just go with the wild hair I have right now.  I was randomly at Ikea, and just started throwing frames in my cart. 

First go 'round, I picked a mix of frames, but after consultation with the sis & my pinterest account, I went back to Ikea (dang it!), and traded them for all white.  I'm just a sucker for how the white pops against our calm gray walls. Much like my inspiration image above.

Then, one night, after the kiddos were asleep, I put on some 30Rock, grabbed my tape measure, and came up with a lay-out on my living room floor.  I'm real technical.  And I made this step 10,000 steps harder in my mind than it had to be.  Loose-goosey is the way I like things, and I should just trust that.  Anyway, I snapped a few pics of the layout, then Dave and I hung them up another night while referring to my phone pics.  Easy enough, about a 30 minute project. 

That was a few weeks ago, and that is where we are at to this night.  But, I'm proud to say that all photos are picked out, and waiting in my cart at mpix.com.  So I'm just waiting for a good coupon to pop up!  Come on mpix, annnnny day now!

 *Guess what.  Think I'm headed back to Ikea for a larger frame, bottom left.  Yeah?  To even it out.  Damn.  And damn again. 

**At Rachel's suggestion, I've been ordering my prints from mpix because the quality is soooo good compared to Costco or Walmart.  Colors are rich and dynamic, and worth the extra money. 

Entree vous

 

No idea what that means, but come on in.  I'm gonna show you my entry.  Just sitting here watching a late night episode of Mad Men--you know, season 1...blame it on a dreamy dream about Jon Hamm to finally get me on board. Annnyway,  have this post in the works, so here we go.  Multi-tasking. 

This last December, I tackled our entry space to make it more our style...or you know, any style really.   I originally was wanting to do some fun wallpaper (money, money), and then was thinking stencil (time, time) and in the end painted it Benjamin Moore's Hale Navy and loved the color so much I just called it good.

When we first moved in, we switched out the light fixture with one of the original chandeliers from the hall bath. Isn't it awesome? Besides the hardwood floors, it's one of the only keepers from the house. I started Apartment Therapy's January Cure and was feeling like a total success story creating a nice "landing space" (mirror, coat racks, art) and then they totally lost me with the next assignment to clean out my fridge?!? Need = high. Motivation = zero.

Anyway, I put up this print my sis got me from Christmas, a quick ampersand craft I did from pinterest, and a blown up iphone photo from when we went air ballooning.  Still need to find something for above that ampersand, but want it to be something not framed/square shaped--like antlers, a clock, a flying bird...something. Ideas??

On the other side, we hacked an Ikea mirror, and put up some cute coat knobs from CB2...and I painted our doorbell thing. Putting up coat hooks totally makes this space 10x more functional and awesome. Even though there is a coat closet right next to the entry, it makes it easier for me to throw the kids jackets on and off as they come in and out of the house, and also better when peeps come over.

One project down, 8,000 more to go.  What do ya think?  Are you in love with my tilted style of photography?  I'm still on the hunt for an entry bench, and some sort of art---I was serious when I was asking for ideas, if you have them.  Oh yes, and shiny new floors.  Someday soon, please.  

Blank Slate

Well, now I remember what it is about blogging that made me stop...allllllll that time spent making a inspiration board, when I could be ummm, let's see:  making my lunch for work tomorrow, picking out my outfit, brushing my teeth, sleeping!?! But, whatever.  A picture is worth a thousand words, and truthfully, did help me get a feel for what I actually want.

Here we go.

When we first moved in, the view from the front door was like this: 

 

Hi, that's me.  Allll the way back there in the pink master bath mirror.  

We filled in that wall, and eventually, it looked like this:

 It's been blank and painted for way too long, as I thought over ideas of what to put there.  Since you see this wall from the doorstep, I want it to look cozy, and inviting--and not too personal (like say, a giant wedding picture or something).  For a while, I really wanted to put in a big photo mural--like a woodsy scene, or the mountains?  Gah, I still really like that idea.  Am I crazy?  Just thought it would open it up.  But the wall is textured, so those all would be difficult.  This wall is also a heavily used walkway, so I couldn't have anything jutting out into the space too much--i.e. no open shelves.  And no to a plain old gallery wall because someday, I'm going to put one up in my dining room.  

In the end I settled on two rows of picture ledges.  I'm planning on putting up a BIG black and white photo canvas  of me holding Leland (just see my arms, though!) on the right side (sorta above where Jude stands).  Then I'd like to fill the ledges with natural wood/warm toned frames of artwork + photos + little knick knacks.  And add a hanging planter, top right near the cabinets. 

I'm really loving that dang cork USA board, and think it'd be fun to pin a string across it and use it as a sunglasses holder--sorta like this. But...at $50, I'll probably come up with something similar? 

I can't tell you how good it feels to be putting my ideas to use.  Sometimes, I let ideas swirl in my head for so long.  Too long, really.  When Dave put up these shelves the other week, I was beaming.  Honestly, it's dumb how much I love this stuff, but I do.  Happy to bust this one out!