Presley's nursery

Now that sweet thing is almost a year-old and we are about to change the nursery for baby #4, I figured I should take some pictures of her room. I loved working with the Navy walls that we had from Colton's nursery.  When I decorated Colton's nursery and I chose the navy walls I knew that if we had a girl in the nursery I would use fuchsia and turquoise with the navy. I spent well under $100 for the update and I am so glad as this nursery will be changed back to a boy nursery in the next couple months (different than Colton's decor because I like change). This room will be 3 styles in 3 years. That is exactly why I do not spend much on my decorating. Even if we didn't keep adding children, I love changing up decorations so I do my best to spend as little money as possible. 

Here are more pics from the room and I will break down the few items I purchased or made throughout the post.

The rug is Target clearance, the throw is HomeGoods (one of my favorite places for throws), crib sheet is Target too and fabric for Pelmet box is Ikea.

The canvas with her initials and the framed scripture were both gifts from girlfriends.

The little rabbit was actually from my nursery as a baby and has my birth information on the bottom.

A few of my favorite projects on this shelf were the color blocked antlers and the gold glittery owl. My husband (the hunter) looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for some small antlers and pulled out bright colored paint. The owl was from a friend who was cleaning out a foreclosure home. He gave it to me for Colton's nursery and it was a trivet that was all rusted. Nothing a little gold spray paint couldn't fix. The block is a custom gift from a friend and on different sides it has all of Presley's birth information on it. 

 

The paper mobile was a beast to do. I am not sure if I would do it again. I was at a girlfriends Christmas craft party over a year ago (right before P was born) and she had a huge scrapbook collection. So instead of making a holiday craft, I spent the whole evening punching out circles to sew together. I do loved how it turned out.

I had the mirror and the lamp was a target clearance and I made the shade from a Hobby Lobby shade kit that I added white linen to. 

The frames were reused from previous nursery I just added some pics from Presley's newborn session. 

Table, lamp, frame and ball are all reused from different rooms. This ball (and the ones of the wall shelves) were actually part of my Christmas decor. The frame with the P was in Payton's room. The table was green and got a fresh coat of spray paint. 

The "PS" were in Payton's nursery (you can see below). It worked well to use again for Presley but I wanted to add a little design to them. I got out stencils and paint that I already had and did the P first and did not like how it turned out. So I went to see if I could wipe off the wet paint and ended up liking the paint job so much better when it looked "worn" that I tried to duplicate the look for the S.

Here is the evolution of the room

Payton's room 5 years ago

Colton's room

Presley's room

My thoughts for Stetson's nursery are the colors below, but we will see what I find in person. It will probably have some dead animal on the wall if my husband has anything to say about it.

 

Baby Girl Nursery

One of the exciting things about having a girl is that I have a reason to redecorate the nursery. If it was a boy, I would have stayed with the same decor that Colton has. I knew when I painted those walls navy that no matter if we had a girl next, the navy was staying.

This is Colton's room

That was actually his room when he came home, it has been adjusted some as he has gotten older and I have had to make some things safer.

My new favorite colors right now are Navy and Bright Pink/Fuchsia. A sweet lady from church is making this little girl a baby quilt and wanted colors. I knew immediately I wanted the navy/pink combo, but wanted one more color for a fun mix. I went with a light turquoise. 

I was about tickled that when I started looking on pinterest for navy/pink combo and room ideas, the most popular color added was turquoise. I was on to something. I didn't find rooms with the colors, but check out these 2 outfits.

These pictures convinced me to add a little gold to the room too. I have a great gold mirror that might replace the brown one now (I was just going to spray paint it pink, but the fancy gold might be a nice touch).

Since I have the navy walls and white furniture to work with, I am just on the hunt for some good bedding (actually fabric to make my own dust ruffle and curtains), rug and fun accessories!

By the way, I am referring to this baby as baby girl, not because we are keeping the name secret, but because we do not have a name yet. I have a favorite in mine, but Steve hasn't agreed to it yet but hasn't found anything he likes better. We will take any suggestions. Both Payton and Colton end with a "N" (actually they both have "ton") and the boys name we had picked out ends the same way, but I am having a hard time finding a girls name that I like that ends with a "N." I am not stuck on having it that way, but I do like 2 syllable names. I know weird quirks :)

Family room decorating updates

One of my favorite things to do is check out decorating books from the library. Since most good decorating books run between $30-$50, free from the library works better for my budget.

One of my reads earlier this year was "The Imperfectly Perfect Home"

A couple of the areas that stuck out to me that I wanted to improve on from this book is my lighting and area rug in the family room.

First for the area rug, I really went back and forth on colored pattern or more natural. I ended up with a natural looking jute/wool blend because quite frankly I didn't want to commit to a color and pattern. I like pattern to be in smaller pieces (like pillows) because I change so much. I ended up finding a great deal for about $200 for an 8x10 area rug.

  At first I wasn't sure because it was such a subtle difference from the carpet, but it really does define the space without adding too much distraction, just some texture. I went with the jute/wool blend because I wanted it to stand up to the traffic but not be too rough because the kids play around on the floor in the family room. Overall I am pretty pleased. My only complaint is some of the wool loops have have come loose.

Below you can see why I decided on more of a natural look, the slipper chair on the right and the covered ottoman on the left have enough pattern.

(I will take a picture of the whole room soon as both the chair and ottoman cover are new, just didn't want to clean everything up)

This little girl kept trying to get in the pictures.

The second area was the lamps. I have had floor lamps that shot the light up towards the ceiling ever since we got married. I think my mom get them from a garage sale for $10. The book was talking about how terrible these lights were because they really didn't light much, just the ceiling. So I was on the hunt for some table lamps and a floor lamp. I have had the table lamps for about 8 months, and got the floor lamp from a garage sale today and fixed it up this afternoon. Again, since I don't like commitment to expensive decorating items, the table lamps were a couple dollars from Goodwill and the floor lamp was $3 from a garage sale. I did have to purchase DIY shades from Hobby Lobby for the table lamps, but had all the supplies for the floor lamp.

Before
&
After

Here is sister bear trying out the lamp. The only problem I realized once the shade was recovered with the same linen I had recovered the table lamps with is that the original shade was very yellow in the inside. So instead of shining clean and white like the table lamps, it is yellow due to the interior lining. This is also a problem because the way the lamp shade is angled, you can see the yucky yellow interior, so I might be on the hunt for a new shade, but since the project only cost me $3, I have some wiggle room for a new shade.

Dreaming

We have had amazing weather here in Kansas, especially for March (this post was written over a week ago). When it is nice here, I literally want to live outside. We go out as much as we can. With this weather I want to spend some quiet time out in nature. I considered a few places to go, but started dreaming too. 

Steve has the desire to live on land one day. He grew up on land and loves the freedom (and even the work) that is brings. I grew up in a subdivision and we often joke about different things with each other relating to those different upbringings.  Maybe it is his dreams rubbing off on my, but I have started thinking about living on land. We know that reality would be probably 10 years away (for financial and relational reasons) but it is fun to dream.

I have the dream of designing my own house. He picks the land, I design the house. Currently I only have a few priorities for my house. I really don't want a huge house, that is a lot to clean. I want a good use of space. The kitchen, mudroom/laundry room and outdoor living are what I dream about. 

In regards to outdoor living, I would love a front porch, a sunroom (enjoy the outside year round), and back porch/deck. I want my back-yard to be my oasis, my place I go to enjoy the outdoors. I probably will have to recruit my mother-in-law who grows gardens that belong in magazines to help. 

Dreaming of Sun Rooms
 (I apologize for the weird formatting)

Dreaming of a deep front porch

Dreaming of Backyards

A girl can dream

DIY Artwork and Master bedroom updates

I am 4 days away from turning 30. I still have a goals on my 30 Before Thirty list that I haven't accomplished. Some of the crafty ones are just waiting to be done. I have had the supplies, just not the time. Well, I crossed one off this week. I did my "Paint an artistic piece."

Our master bedroom has had a large bare wall for a long time.  I have changed things since the post on our master bedroom makeover, you can see HERE, that the mirror was moved and I had a blank wall starting at me every morning when I woke up.

I bought a 36x48 canvas from Michael's awhile back for really cheap. I asked my neighbor Hil who is an actual artist some tips on technique and supplies. I looked for a long time online for inspiration. I knew I wanted circles and multiple colors, but wasn't sure what else. Long story short, I ended up using my a Martha Stewart stencil (from Michael's) because I didn't trust my free hand. I was so excited with the results. If you are a real artist, you might cringe and not call this artwork, but it is to me :)

I couldn't be happier with what it adds to my bedroom.

Speaking of my bedroom, I never posted pictures of changing from jewel tone colors to yellow as my accent in the grey room. I resisted yellow in my initial make-over because I felt like it was so overused, but after spending time with the other colors, I see why it is used so much, because it is so cute. Yes those are Dwell Studio pillows from Target that you see ALL over blogland. You will also notice I brought more beach decor (shells, coral reef and some weird thing on my bedside table). I accented the yellow/grey with sea green and light turquoise (colors I used in my painting).

These crosses got a spray painted face lift too. They were originally mossy green, have been white for a long time, and just got a little more punch. I am still considering what to put where the frame it, I threw that up there for the time being.

One more close up of my artwork. For fun I added pink in the top corner. It is a bright pink, the picture doesn't show the color well.

Thanks for checking my updates. I have so many other house projects in my mind right now. The big one is reupholstering my chair that will not be done before I turn 30 Monday, but I will be starting on that soon. 

Steve is hunting in Texas, so the kids are I are leaving for my in-laws in St. Louis today for the weekend. I am thankful we will be able to spend time with them. Sister can't wait to see Uncle Benny