A Little Closet Update

Here I am! Still kicking, though my drive to blog seems to have faded drastically. I think a lot of it has to do with my 2014 motto to simplify life. I've been enjoying the little moments with Halle these days. We finished her first round of swimming lessons together, we visit the library weekly, go for long walks with friends and the other day even enjoyed a nice lunch picnic! I've also focused a lot on sorting and organizing our home, and preparing much healthier meals for us.... and I even bake our own bread now! It's so nice and I've been feeling much happier and far more relaxed.

I am, however, hoping to get back on here and share what we'll be up to in the next little while - including our back garden plans and hopefully the built-ins in our dining room (we've been on the hunt for the right cabinets recently). In the meantime, I want to share a quick change we made in Halle's room recently.

I just felt like Halle's closet wasn't providing great storage for us. It had a lot of hanging space, but that big blank floor invited things to just get thrown down there, and the top shelf just collected items that were idly thrown down and then forgotten about. I knew we needed a better solution...

When I took that first photo I had already cleared out the floor space, so next I emptied that shelf and removed all of Halle's clothes. With everything out, it was as simple as B removing that wire shelf (that I was happy to say good-bye too... they seem to dominate our storage spaces in this house, and this is my first step to rid our home of them!).

Though I had originally hoped to find an IKEA Expedit for cheap to center in the closet, we found something even better. The open Hemnes Bookshelf from our old entertainment unit had found a home in our front hall a while ago, and was just collecting items that didn't have a proper home. The other week I realized it would be the perfect solution to add some extra storage to Halle's room. Along with some brackets (to anchor the bookshelf to the wall) and some closet rods from Home Depot, Halle's closet now has some better storage than before...

Overall, we haven't gained more hanging space, but I wasn't looking to add hanging space (we had more than enough). What this new configuration allows us, is an easier way to organize her hanging clothes, plus find better homes for the items that had previously just been tossed into the closet. We are working on potty training at the moment, so I expect that we should free up another shelf and a half soon and it will be a good spot for some extra toys, shoes, etc.

The top shelves currently home some special books that I don't want her touching without our supervision (like my Beatrix Potter books), and some special teddy bears that are also not every day toys, but my parents had gifted to me when I was younger.

We never did paint the interior of her closet, but down the line we are positive the carpet in here will be ripped out - so we could always paint the closet at the same time. 

This was a nice little project to get us moving again! Our biggest upcoming project will surely be our back garden. Halle helped B to plant all of the seeds in started trays and we have a number of sprouts coming up for our tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers! We're excited to see how this progresses!

What projects have you been working on recently? Or what do you need to get moving on now that spring has sprung? (Well, it's sprung out west at least!)

At Long Last

They say that the third time is a charm, right? Yup, most of you probably caught the two times that this post accidentally went up a while back (you'll catch three comments down there from the first two accidental posts)! Well, here's the REAL, FINAL reveal of the wall I hand painted in Halle's room!

You may remember that when we purchased our house in the spring, Halle's room was bright pink...

We wasted no time in painting it. B actually had it all painted before we officially moved in. The walls we painted cream, and I gave the closet doors a dose of bright coral. Things were feeling fun and I was so excited to give her a fun toddler room!

Unfortunately I got a little stuck and after some shifting around of furniture to move her bed into the basement guest room, we were left with this...

Yup, still no curtains and the whole space was feeling very cold and empty. I had been so focused on the wedding and other endeavours previously, that Halle's room (and most of the house for that matter) got put onto the back burner. 

So, as our visitors were getting ready to leave back in October, I began searching for inspiration on ways to pretty up Halle's room on a budget. I already knew I wanted to switch the position of her dresser and shelves with her crib and canvas, and I planned on buying her some curtains using an IKEA gift card I had received for a wedding shower gift. But how could I add some fun to the space without spending anything? Finally, I found my inspiration on the Anthropologie website!

The Coppered Plume Wallpaper was gorgeous, but way out of our price range at $198 a roll. I decided to try my hand at drawing them, so to warm up I drew a few sketches one night after Halle went to bed (my most productive hours)...

The sketches had me feeling pretty confident that I could figure something out on her wall myself. So, the Wednesday after everyone left, I decided to try it out. I grabbed some metallic gold acrylic paint I had on hand, a couple of paint brushes and an old egg carton and got to work.

For my very first go, I started using pencil. I then realized that whole process would take forever, and you would probably be able to see the pencil lines through the gold paint, so I decided to freehand everything. Still time consuming, but totally worth it.

The first plume, was by no means perfect... but really none of them are. The great part is there are so many scattered across the wall and each plume allows for a little imperfection. I found as I went my technique improved quite a bit, which was good - the one's right over Halle's crib are some of my favourite's!

The whole process was still totally time consuming. In a week and half I was barely halfway done the room! I also had to get B's help to move the dresser off of the wall and move her shelves to their new home on the other side of the room so that I could make my way into the opposite corner. I finally finished everything off in here on 7th of this month, which means it took me almost a month and a half to get it all done. But here is Halle's room now...

I need to style her shelves with some special items, but B needs to add a few more anchors to the top shelf before I can do it. I also have some plans for her room that I want to tackle in the New Year (there is a list coming in January!). For now, I'm feeling happy with the progress, and I'm glad I finished painting before Christmas!

Her room is far from finished, but I love the softness that the curtains and feather's bring to the room. A new light fixture and big girl bed/bedding are definitely in the cards for the new year! For now it's come a long way from that pink place we started with back in May...

Have you ever attempted paint anything by hand on your walls at home? Or maybe at somebody else's home? I'd love to hear about your experience! Leave any links in the comment section to any projects you've tackled!

Bye Bye Bubblegum

I'm digging myself out from under boxes, paint cans and drops cloths to share a little new house progress today! Things have been crazy this past week, but we're finally getting this place to feel like our home. The first room we wanted to tackle was Halle's new bedroom. I'm excited to give her a fun and whimsical girly room, and the first step was to get rid of the bubblegum pink on the walls...

B had started the painting process while Halle and I were back in Toronto. We picked out the paint colour and bought the paint from Home Depot before we even took possession. I wanted to keep the walls neutral (as I usually do), but didn't want to go with a stark white. Our final colour choice was Behr's Polished Pearl, and B was the one who pulled it to show me. It's still neutral, but it's a nice warm colour and it works nicely with the coral and teal we are using as accent colours, as well as the hints of yellow that will live in her room. 

The first couple of coats that B put on were Behr's Ultra Paint and Primer in one. It worked great to cover that bright pink, and saved us time and money. We did a third coat in Behr Premium Plus Eggshell finish, just to get a consistent look on the walls. The room is all painted now and what a difference it makes. It looks so fresh (the walls were very dirty) and warm, and I think it actually looks bigger now. (The photo below was taken from a slightly different angle... and obviously after we started to move stuff in... we still have a long way to go).

The walls weren't the only thing we painted though. When we arrived last Monday and I went to check out the room I noticed that the closet doors were really grimy looking and would need to be painted again. 

I only considered using white for a split second, then I thought to myself that this will be a little girls room and I wanted it to be really fun for her. I suggested to B that we buy a quart of coral and use it for the closet doors. Our colour choice was CIL Oriental Coral, and I love how it looks on her doors.

I'd love to order these knobs, from Anthropologie for the closet doors. They are on sale for $2.95 a piece (AWESOME!)... but they want to charge me $20 to ship them to Canada (NOT so awesome). So our search continues for the perfect knobs.

I feel so happy when I walk into her room now. It's such a sunny, happy space and there's more happy to come. We have a shade that's been following us around for about 3 years now that I would like to swap the ceiling fan out for, and the previous owners left some floating shelves that we plan to paint and hang again. So lot's more to do in this space, but we hope to do most of it with things we already have! 

What room's have you been refreshing with paint recently? Do you agree that there's nothing like a fresh coat of paint to transform a space? 

Ready for Change

Happy Monday friends. I know I've fallen off the map again, and all I can say right now is that we have been BUSY. There is some really exciting stuff going on, aside from wedding planning and it really has me itching for change. One of the things I am most ready to change up is Halle's room. She's growing and changing and I'm so ready to start planning a big girl room for her. 

The thing is, as ready as I am to change her room - there are certain things I'd like to still incorporate - like her dresser that I still love. With that in mind, I need to come up with a colour scheme and design that will work well with the teal and yellow that we used on the dresser. I started looking for inspiration and came across this collage on Pinterest, which got me feeling very excited about my design direction:

{via pearls for paper}

It's exactly what I imagine for Halle's space, with more teal and coral and only hints of yellow.

{from top left to bottom right: 1. via perfectly imperfect blog; 2. via Tonic Living; 3. via US! Check out the project here; 4. via honeybee vintage; 5. via Pinterest; 6. via Design Sponge; 7. via Tonic Living; 8. via Shades of Light; 9. via Words of Williams;}

1 - If it were possible, I would love to still keep Halle's walls neutral, and add interest by putting mouldings on the wall. The above example from Perfectly Imperfect blog is the best example of what I would love to do. I think it would look fantastic in any room, and would be pretty easy and inexpensive to do.

2 & 7 - Tonic Living has to be one of my favourite places to go for fabric, especially considering it's a Canadian company and their pricing is fantastic. I think these two fabrics are the perfect way to inject some bright and feminine coral into Halle's big girl room. Maybe as some new curtains, throw pillows, or even a new slip cover for the headboard on her "big girl bed" that we bought a few months ago.

3 - Of course, Halle's dresser isn't going anywhere! It's still a great piece that we love and it provides us with so much storage!

4 - This idea for wall art is adorable and it would be perfect to use different papers in our teal, yellow and coral scheme!

5 - Just another example of how our colours will work together.

6 - Cute accessories for Halle's room. I love these jars with animals on the lid.

8 - I'd like to find a really sweet and feminine light fixture for Halle's new room. She's really a girly girl and loves shoes and clothes and HATES getting dirty. I want her room to reflect her and be a pretty place for her to be. 

9 - I've always loved this quote and have been thinking of creating some artwork with this quote on it for a while I think pulling her big girl room together is the perfect time to bring it in. 

So, there you have it - the plans for Halle's big girl room are churning in my head. No pulling it together is underway yet... there will be some other changes happening before that.

What projects are you starting to work on or plan? Has spring got you inspired to start working outdoors, or are you freshening up your interior for the warmer months? Spill!