My favorite parts of my favorite room

Well…the time has come. Sniff. I decided about a year ago it was time to start transforming the Bub’s room into his “big boy” room. This one has been a hard for me. I told you here how I worked on this room for weeks while I was pregnant, doing most of the work with my Dad.

It is an understatement to say I love this room. Almost every day of our son’s three years, I’ve sat in here at one point or another, looking around, relaxing in the serene that is this space:

I’ve made a few changes over the past month or so in preparation of the changes, but it’s still the same lovely, bright, calming room you see here.

I’ve struggled with what I want to do in his room, so it stayed in it’s nursery state well after I decided to start changing it to a big boy version a year ago. I knew there were certain things I wanted to incorporate, but nothing was really hitting me and making me want to paint over all the calm…

Until now. :) Over the weekend, the pieces kind of came together perfectly in my head, and now I’m READY. Excited. I want to start and finish the room in one day, excited. I made a few purchases yesterday and it has me even more ready to get moving.

I have to say, I’m going in a direction I never thought I would, but in my head, it’s going to scream boy and be totally classic, which is important to my husband me. ;)  Do you know how hard it is to create a boy space? Hard.

So today I decided I would show you a few of my favorite parts of my favorite room, because some of what I show you will be changed…not all, but most. :)

I know a blabber on and on and on about the beauty of painted ceilings, and if this room doesn’t convince you of it, I don’t know what will:

The blue ceiling will most likely stay…so I should probably go ahead and paint that vent. ;)

I put a couple phrases on his walls using my stencil technique I showed you here:

For a little texture, I took some wood star shapes, painted them and then stacked them on the walls in a few spots and just nailed them in:

The whole room was inspired by the Pottery Barn Twinkle Twinkle bedding – it’s a beautiful mix of greens and blues, cutie patootie lambs and bunnies,  stars and moons. Weird mix. But cute. :)

Someone on eBay was selling gorgeous prints with names and birthdates on them, but they were not cheap. So I decided to make my own:

I just painted stripes on a canvas, then stenciled his name in the middle. LURVE. And it was about $7! A little better than the $100 on eBay.

I fell in love with this acrylic lamp at Target, (which I think they still have!) and covered the shade with a super soft star-speckled fabric:

I couldn’t find a dresser I really loved, so I ended up getting an unfinished piece that I painted bright white:

 

The knobs were from Menards and I used them on the built ins as well:

 

For some reason I was obsessed with pulling the cutie animals from the bedding and putting them elsewhere in the room. So I sprinkled a few of them here and there:

    

To get them just right, I scanned the fabric into our computer (have you ever tried it? It works fabulously!), then used the stencil method I mentioned above to put them on the walls. I added the whiskers and eyes with a toothpick. :) These little guys  and their fluffy butts make me smile every day.

I kept looking for cute, functional storage but the only thing I found that I loved were boxes from PB that were, again, NOT cheap. So I bought a few different sizes of the cardboard boxes you can find at any craft store, and painted them in the colors I wanted:

 

Then I put the labels on with the cutest little star brads youeverdidsee! Obviously, the bibs are long gone. But the boxes are still going strong, so I’ll probably change them up to work in the new room.

Later I layered frames (from Michaels) throughout the built ins:

   

The “mats” aren’t mats at all – just poster board. I printed off the photos at home (on regular paper, mind you!) and just used double stick tape to center them on the poster board.

Just the look I wanted for el cheapo. That is what I’m talkin’ about. 

I saved the best for last…my very favorite part of my very favorite room…the stripes:

    

Sigh. Sniff. Then sigh again. I lurve the apple green stripes! Big. fat. puffy. heart. LURVE.

It took some time…but I really am ready to transform this room. I think. I’m pretty sure. OK, I am. But someone may have to hold my hand for that first brush stroke. Or hold the tissue box while I paint.

It’s going to be a true transformation. :) I’ll keep you updated along the way.

 

Thank you to my sponsor:

Squares and stripes

First of all...bear with me. This is my sister dancing with Donnie. (About 30 seconds in.)

Warning: Turn down the volume unless you are a fan. Lots and lots and LOTS of screaming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Qth0Rp0Jo

Sniff. I'm so proud!! Oddly enough, she was only up there for 20 seconds or so. It felt like four minutes while we were there. This is a good thing, because it means I was only standing there frozen like a total dweeb for less than a minute. Good stuff.

OK, so let's move on. The long awaited squares and stripes post, which works well for this time of year (stars and stripes...get it??). It's really not rocket science, and yet again, there will collective "DUH." when you're done reading, but I like to share so I'm sharing. OK? OK.
First, the squares. The two items you must have for squares and stripes is a level (either the one below or a laser level that sends a beam of light straight down the wall) and blue painters tape. For this wall, I used two inch painters tape for the whole wall. I used the white wall as the background, but if you want a color, you'll need to paint it that color first.
Then, the measurements all depend on the size of squares that you want, or how many rows/columns you want. Say your wall is 127 inches -- and you want six columns of squares. You'll subtract two inches for each end of the wall, and each two inch space between each column -- basically each spot the painters tape will go.

Like this:

127 inch wall

six columns equals seven two inch sections (on each end of the wall and between each column)

7 sections x 2 inches (for painters tape)=14 inches

127 inches - 14 inches= 115 inches

Now divide 115 by six (for six columns)= each column would be 19.16 inches wide.

Do the same for the rows up and down as well. I know I made this seem complicated and it's really not that bad. It may take you a few tries to get the right measurements -- it did me. The rest is easy, it just takes time.

I hope that made sense! After you've figured out your measurements, you'll just need to measure off your wall. I use a yard stick, with the measurement marked, and I keep moving it down the wall, marking, say, 19.16 inches up and down the wall. Then take the level and use it to make straight lines on the wall vertically and horizontally.

Take your blue painters tape and run it along the lines. You can use the laser level and put the paint along the laser line, (this is how I do it) or you can put a light pencil line down the wall and then tape that off. To make sure no paint bleeds under the tape, I've heard many tricks, but all I do is take my thumbnail and run it down each side of the tape. You can also use a credit card or pan scraper. It works every time for me.

For stripes, my little trick is to use the yard stick again. In our son's room, I wanted the stripes in different widths -- two, seven, three and five inches. I did all the painting before the chair rail was put up, so the top of the stripes doesn't have to be perfect. Before I started, I marked the measurements and colors on my yard stick, and then used the painter's tape to hang the yard stick on the wall:

Using the marks on the yard stick, I used the level and painters tape to put the stripes down the wall. With stripes, you can't do all of them at once. My wall was cream, so that stripe was done. I had to paint three other colors, so I did the dark and medium green first, let it dry (I did NOT wait as long as they recommend and you don't need to) and did a quick second coat. Then I pulled off the tape and the next day did the third, lightest green by reapplying painters tape on each side of that stripe and painting:

Of course, the more colors, the longer it takes. It seems complicated and again, it's not. The great thing about varying stripes is you don't have to measure the wall like with squares. Just figure out what look you want and go. Once you get going, it will go surprisingly fast. Surprisingly. Swear. Pinky swear.

I taped off most of the stripes in my son's room within a couple hours, and the total paint time was probably a few hours.

I did stripes on one wall in our bedroom as well:

This was done by just painting the wall the base color, then taping off one foot columns and painting a shimmer glaze over the base. It's a really subtle look and I absolutely love it.

My biggest tip when using painters tape -- take the tape off when the paint is still damp if at all possible!! I've heard from professionals to keep it on till the paint is dry, but when I've done that, it makes a mess. The lines turn out awful, because the tape pulls up little pieces of the paint. When it's damp the tape comes right off, leaving a clean line.

If you have any other tips for a clean line or painting stripes/squares, please leave them in the comments! I know many of you have textured walls and I know it can be done, I've just never tried it. ;) I appreciate any other thoughts!!

It takes some patience, but the result is so custom and beautiful, you won't regret it!

P.S. I went to the best antiques shop in Indiana today and whoooeee, I have some eye candy for you later this week!! If you follow me on Twitter, you have already seen some of them. Fabulous!!!

My most favorite room.

Our son's room is hands down my favorite room in our house. It was the only room in the house where I truly started from scratch -- every single thing was new. It turned out better than I could have ever dreamed -- and was truly a labor of love. We love it -- it is a bright, serene, classic space.

A few of you have asked about it here and there, and it is a gorgeous day today, the sun was shining in...so I took some pics of my most favorite room. It is so special to me to share this with you. Sniff. :) Be prepared -- picture overload people!!

I got the honkin' cardboard letters from Joann's to fill the wall space as you enter the room. Our son's nickname with our friends and family is "Eds" because of this:

This is the chair I showed you here. The stripes I did myself -- they are the cream of the walls, plus three shades of Apple green from Lowe's. I did various sizes -- two, three, four and five inches. The book thingy by the chair I showed you here and I still have not painted it (slacker) but it works perfectly. The chair was from Babies R Us:

I. LOVE. THIS. CRIB. It is Gorg! I ordered it from JCPenney's -- it converts to fit a full bed. Part of the reason I decided to share his room with you today is that we are going to convert it into the toddler bed in the very near future. He is ready. Double sniff.

His bedding is from Pottery Barn Kids -- a total spurge! It is called Twinkle Twinkle and I just sigh every time I see it:

I wanted to add a little whimsy to the room, so here and there throughout, I painted the lambs and bunnies from his bedding. Before ya'll go thinking I'm a painter...(NOT!)...I actually scanned his sheet into the computer, printed them out, then used them as stencils. Drew the little faces with a toothpick and they turned out great!:

I wanted a custom sign for above the crib, but everything I found was craaazy expensive. I took a canvas, painted some stripes in varying sizes, then used some little trim from the craft store and my own stencil to print out his name:

This project was very special to me -- I had always dreamed of having built ins in the room, and my Dad helped make it a reality. The two of us made the built ins, hung the crown molding and painted everything together. I love that he was so involved in making our son's room so special:

That space between the windows is the perfect spot for a window seat, but we may have to hire out for that. For now, the toy box works.

I painted the backs of the shelves and LOVE IT! Highly, highly recommend doing this. I got white frames on sale at Micheal's, and found poster board that matched his room exactly. I printed the pics off the computer and just taped them on top of the poster board -- no mats! Cheap!!:

The built ins are simply stock cabinets as the base, trim added around the bottom to raise them up, then pine boards as the shelving. Both units were less than $250 to make.
One of my favorite parts of the whole room is the blue ceiling. I love how it makes the crown pop!:

The dresser and pedestal table were unfinished and were NOT cheap -- it was an investment. (I had preggo brain and was not computing dollar signs at the time.) I painted them bright white and added the crystal knobs to the dresser:

Oh yeah, and no Diaper Genie here -- I got cheap towards the end. We use a stainless steel trash can for diapers and it works great. The laundry bag is also from PBK and is perfect -- I just lug it downstairs, dump the clothes in the washer, then put the folded clothes back in to take upstairs.

My best friend got me this Lang calendar for his first year. I love it so much, I keep it up and like to look back at it:

The shutters I found at my favorite antique store. They were $20 for all four! They are beat up -- some slats missing, dents everywhere...but I love them:

Here's another view of the stripes. It really, really was not hard to do. It takes time, but the effort is minimal. Someday I'll show you how I did it!

This guy I got free from Uppercase Living when I hosted a party. I bought canvas fabric and stuck him on there, so I can take it someday if we move. I still haven't added his measurements but plan to soon with a chocolate brown pen. I like the idea of adding small pics of him at each size as well...

The ideas for his big boy room are coming slowly but surely, but I keep hesitating because I will miss this room SO MUCH. I want to make the next room just as sweet, but in a big boy way...not sure that is possible? :)

For more of this room, go here for organization ideas, here for small projects I did to update the space and here for the window treatments (EASY!).

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I think I said "here" about 56 times.
P.P.S. I think I said "love" about 82 times.