Playroom

I've been helping my sister fix up my nephew and niece's playroom.  It all started with our crazy trip to Ikea.  She found this table, chairs, and toy holders.  The colors were perfect for both a boy and girl. 



My cousin had painted these graphic squares to match my nephew's nursery.  Now that he is in his big boy room, they no longer matched and were sitting in his closet. 

So I changed the brown and beige to lime and pink.  I think they are so cute.

I found some frames at Goodwill and wanted to create an art wall. My nephew loves to "pinta" and is always coloring and drawing.   He's two and draws a person, with a body and legs. So I bought Rustoleum Key Lime spray paint and went at it.

I had my 2 year old nephew and just turned 1 year old niece over for painting.  We had them in the backyard (it's still 80 degrees here) in their diapers.  We used a paintbrush and some cut up sponges.  I had some acrylic paint from some old projects and let them paint. The first picture is my nephew.  Notice the band aids, he has one on both arms for no reason.

This is my niece with a paintbrush.  I love it.

For one of the frames, I wanted to make a corkboard like the one I did for my office.  I tried using corkboard tiles this time.  They were easier to work with, but don't look as nice on the finished board. 

In order to attach the Corkboard and cardboard backing to the frame, I actually used a staple gun.  This frame did not have the little bendable attachments to put the picture in place. 

Here is the finished wall. It looks so cute and my nephew is so proud of his art.

My sister still needs to paint the room and work on decluttering some of the areas, but I think this is great inspiration for her.  I love it and most of all the kids love it.

Office Inspiration

I've been looking for inspiration for my office.  The three pictures below have a common element that I think will work for us, the long table top.  I am loving this idea for multiple reasons.  We would have plenty of work room and space for the DJ equipment (can't forget that).



cheyennemillwork

Apartment Therapy (above and below)

I am loving the white in the last room.  Our office is currently painted Sherwin Williams Waterscape.  It's a pretty color, but I think I'm over it.  I would probably paint this room myself.  It's looking like the colors in the room are going to be black (couch and office chair), white (walls, bookshelf, accessories), and beige (chandelier). 

Ikea and Side Table

My crazy sister and I headed off to Ikea at 5:00 p.m. after working all day, with her two kids in tow.  I was determined to come home with a new rug for my office.  That didn't happen, but I found some cushion covers that I love.  My office is finally coming together. 

I found this table on the side of the road last week.  The size is perfect for my office.  It's an outdoor plastic table, which I don't love so much.  I figured I will keep it inside until I find what I really want and then it can go outside.  Being that it was free, I figured why not.

I cleaned the table and used Rustoleum White Lacquer Spray paint

We are working on some ideas for my niece's birthday party.  I will post some of our projects soon.


Edit:  I joined a linky party at

Rug Ideas

I am in search of a rug for my office.  I am looking for something black and white, maybe stripes, and economical.  I am a little nervous about pattern on a rug, I haven't done that before. 

Here are some ideas.

Ikea Sveje $12.99.  I can put two together and it would be the perfect size.  The price is more than perfect, but its not available at my Ikea and they don't carry it online.

 Ikea Stockholm Rand  I like this one, I think it may be too big and too much pattern for me.  It's also more than I want to pay for an office rug.

 

Target Dwell Baroque rug Collection there is something about this one I like, but again I am not sure.

Overstock Hand-tufted World Classic Grey Wool Rug (5' x 8')  I really like this one, but it's not the right colors.

My search will continue.  Let's see what I figure out.

Office Chandelier

I finally got my husband to hang the chandelier in the office..I mean take it down, and rehang it again with the new drum lampshade.  He was not very happy, but I begged and pleaded and he agreed.

Here is the before...

And here is the after...

I am so happy with it.  I spent my weekend working on a bunch of projects.  I am working on uploading pictures and will be posting soon.

***Edit Post-This lovely chandelier has been added to a linky party at:

Funky Junk Interiors

Back and Exhausted

We are back from San Francisco.  We had an amazing week, but I am paying the price today.  We came back on the red eye this morning, and despite sleeping for 4 of the 5 hours, I can't seem to get myself together today.  Hopefully, I can recover this weekend.

I love this picture, my husband took it of me.   I love photography, but I don't really know too much about it, other than that I love to take pictures.  I will post some of my favorite spots soon.  For now, I must get some sleep.

San Francisco

We are heading to San Francisco tomorrow for a few days with some friends.  I have never been.  I am trying to pack and celebrate two birthdays today.  It will be an interesting night.
Be back in a few days.

Built in Bookshelves

We created this built in bookshelf to divide the office and laundry room.  We had it custom built with minimal detailing to keep within our modern tastes.  Some of the shelves I am happy with the styling, others need work.  Which will all be worked on now that I am redoing this room. 

This Paris licence plate is sitting on top of our door frame.  My husband proposed to me in Paris in 2003.  Yes, very romantic.  So needless to say, I LOVE Paris.  We bought this off a guy in a little flea market selling licence plates during that trip. The color is off in the picture, it's more mustard in person. 

 A little more Paris in the room.

This clay water "porron" was given to me by grandmother.  It belonged to her parents over 65 years ago.  My great grandparents were originally from England and ended up in Cuba for about 20 years.  They took it with them when they left Cuba to Canada.  My grandmother then brought here when they passed away. This water jug was made from Cuban red dirt.  The rolled up paper is my grandmothers note to us explaining what it is. 

Here is the "porron" with David.

This ceramic pot was made by my other grandmother, Mamama.  She was a seamstress, painter, and so much fun.

These are some of the things that will be staying in my office.  They are also my inspiration.

Office Before

Now that I've decided to redo our office, I want to show you some before pictures.  This first one is the office the day we got the house.  Notice the paint on the walls, baseboards, and the ceiling.  The previous owner was not renovating, this is how she lived.  She was using this as her master bedroom.  The only difference was the flooring. She had a remnant piece of red wall to wall carpeting that she was using as an area rug. 

This niched area was were she had her bed.  We decided to close off this area and make it a laundry room.  Something about the 40 year old washer and dryer in the shed out back were not working for me. Laundry is not fun as it is, imagine walking through the wet grass in 90 degree weather to see if my load is dry yet.

Here is the room during the construction.  We had framing done for the laundry room, AC closet, and pocket door.

Here is the office completed.  We have used the space like this for the past 6 years.  The intention was good, but aesthetically not so good.  Originally, we were each going to have a side of the desk.  We had this piece of marble that belonged to my in-laws and we bought 5, yes 5 filing cabinets to hold the desktop.  The big grey box you see below is my husband's DJ equipment.  This equipment has been on loan to him from a friend, since the day he decided to take DJ lessons. My husband is a hobby guy, loves to try new things...accentuate NEW things.  This DJ equipment has not been used in over a year, yet it lovingly hangs out in my house for inspiration, maybe.  The black ultra modern leather love seat is there for convenience.



Here is the desk side/dungeon.  The scattered goods you see everywhere are typical as this room serves as the dumping ground for everything.  Really why wouldn't it, it's a dungeon remember.  



So I've decided to redo this room.  I do have some limitations, the filing cabinets are in perfect shape.  It would be so wasteful to just toss them.  Can Formica be painted?   Money, I don't want to spend too much.  As much as I love modern, I don't love the ultra modern, black leather, chrome finishes type modern.  The love seat was lent to us by my parents when we had no living room furniture.  It ended up in the office. I would love a small love seat, but again spending money, when it's perfectly fine. The black leather chair, again, perfectly fine, and we have two of them. 

This will definitely be a work in progress and I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

Thanks!

DIY Corkboards

Since I have now decided to redo my office, I wanted some new white frames and again thanks to Michelle at Three Men and a Lady, I had my inspiration.  (I think I might have to put a tab for Three Men and a Lady's inspiration, seriously...I think this is number 3). So during my trip to Goodwill Sunday, where I found my new $5.00 drum lamp shade (last post), I also found some frames to paint.   

First order of business, spray paint.  I used Rustoleum Lacquer spray in white.  Gave the frames a couple of coats.

Second, I used the cardboard that had come in the frame as the backing and cut out the cork material at an exact measurement.  I used a roll of cork material from Office Depot.  I found this material to be somewhat fragile, tearing easily.  I used double sided tape to adhere it to the cardboard.



For the oval frame, no cardboard came with the frame.  What can you expect for $3.00 at Goodwill. So I used a second piece of cardboard that had been part of the other frame and cut it to size.  I then did the same process with the tape to attach the cork.  I was short a couple of inches at the top of the board, but I just cut a scrap to fit. It will be covered with pictures and things anyways.

 Then just attach to the frame. So here are the finished frames. 

I love them and can't wait to hang them.

***Edit Post-These DIY corkboards have been added to a linky party at: Funky Junk Interiors

Is it Normal?

Is it normal that a $2.00 thrift store chandelier would be the catalyst for an entire room makeover?  Apparently for me it is. 

Our office leaves much to be desired.  We have a huge, bulky desk in the room, 2 office chairs, a couch, and DJ equipment...more on that one later.  This Home Depot special is the only light that we've had in the office for the past 6 years.



So I found this chandelier for $2.00 at a thrift store and knew I would be able to do something with it.  Thanks to Michelle at Three Men and a Lady for her inspiration.  The poor sales guy was very concerned about it being broken and did I really want a broken lamp.  I just smiled and handed over my $2.00

So we removed the glass shade and hung it outside.

I used Rustoleum lacquer spray paint in white.

I found a linen lampshade at TJMaxx for $7.00 and was so excited that the total cost of this project was $9.00.  I put the lampshade back on and my husband hung it for me.  I went to bed, so happy.  You know that happy when something is accomplished.  I sometimes even lose sleep over it.  

And then I woke up to a little note taped to the light switch.  I think your lamp is a fire hazard, it smells like burning plastic.  This is what I found...

The 8, 60 watt bulbs melted the lampshade.  Maybe the 480 plus watts were too much?  What was I thinking.  So my Saturday was spent looking for a new, bigger drum lampshade.  I searched the Internet, all stores that carry lampshades and nothing.  I found a local shop that custom makes lampshades, Artistic Plus.  The sales lady was great, but the prices were just too much.  Remember, this is a $2.00 lamp.  All shades were $55.00 for the ones in the store and $70.00 for custom made.  The fabrics on the ones there were not really what I was looking at.  So the $70 plus fabric was looking like my only choice.  The sales lady actually LENT me one of the drum lampshades to check for size and color in my room.  So I brought it home and was not in love. 

So Sunday morning I took a trip to Goodwill just to check and as luck would have it, sitting on a shelf a drum lampshade.  I passed quickly, picked it up and kept walking. I really didn't even look at it, I think the shock was too much.  So after carrying it around for a couple of minutes, I actually looked down at what I was holding.  An 18 inch drum lampshade, wrapped in original packaging with tags, in a beige silk. This is too much, first the owl and now this.  There had to be a catch, maybe an outlandish price as sometimes happens at Goodwill.  So I searched for the little black marker and found it $5.00. Yes, $5.00. So I brought it home and here it is sitting next to the $55.00 one.  It's the one on the left and actually the color works so much better for what I am looking to do in the office.

So now, it has to be taken down and hung again with the new $5.00 shade.  My poor husband...I think I drive him crazy.

So thanks to my new chandelier, I will be redoing my office. I am so excited.