Playroom reveal

I have been busy doing some decorating in our new house.  I haven’t taken any staged photos of the other rooms yet, but I’ll get around to that.  I just finished the playroom (technically the formal dining room, but we aren’t so formal) and I LOVE it!

So here’s my inspiration (thanks Southern Living):

Here’s what I started with (sellers photo since I FORGOT to take a before photo):

Except they had new carpet installed and we changed the light fixture.  Here is after I removed the curtains before I started painting. 

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And the after photos!

 

I painted stripes on the walls in a similar pattern to the inspiration photo.  I used Behr Ultra:  Refreshing Pool (darker blue), Shallow Sea (light blue), Asparagus (green), and Tropical Smoothie (pink), with the trim done in Frost.  We bought 1/4” plywood and used chalkboard paint to make the chalkboard (we have textured walls).  My husband installed the 7-1/4” baseboards.  We plan to install a magazine rack on the left directly onto the chalkboard to help ‘even out’ the seams.

I used Frog Tape and chalk lines to get the stripes done.  You can see where I ‘sealed’ the tape with the base color (light blue) then the stripes are perfectly straight.  I still need to go back and touch up the doorways with the living room color (Behr Porpoise). 

The toy fabric bins are from Target.

I really want to figure out a different solution for the toys in the larger bins, maybe a bench or something.  We also plan to install a floating shelf above the TV.  We will be doing home automation this summer so the wires will go away too.

The curtains are from Bed, Bath & Beyond and I got them on clearance for $10 a panel (I hyperlinked to the ones that are the most similar).  The kids play table and chairs are from IKEA and we painted it the same white as the trim.  The end table is an old wood table my husband had from college days that we also painted the trim color.  I made the green/white  and pink pillows from fabric I purchased at Joanne’s.  The fuzzy blue pillow is from Walmart.

I plan to replace the couch (it’s from a sectional that we purchased after we first moved to CA), but for now it works fine.

Light fixture from Lamps Plus.

I bought these little benches from Target on clearance a while ago.  They came with navy blue bins and navy blue cushions (see Charlotte from her birthday party).  I bought fabric at Joanne’s and new bins at Target to make it fit the room a bit better.  I just put them back to back to make an ottoman.  The kids chairs were made by their grandpa (my husband’s father).

Vinyl trees from Etsy seller studiojk. I’m thinking about getting some birds to sit on the tree or in flight.  Maybe some wooden letters above the trees too.

I just love how the room turned out!

Cinemagraphs

Amazing.  Awesome.  And creepy all at the same time.

http://www.cocacolla.it/arts/jamie-beck-e-kevin-burg-cinemagraphs/

Baby gear makes for endless entertainment

I brought up the swing from the basement when my friend’s baby, Reese, and also my nephew came to visit.  Apparently toddlers find them completely fascinating.  Cooper rocked his ‘baby’ while Charlotte was loving being adored by her brother rather than tormented.

I’ve been trying to work on exposure and getting it right in camera.  I have struggled with taking photos in my new house because the light is so different than what I’m used to.  We get a lot of natural light, but two of the windows just have the sky since they are so high.  This means a lot of my photos turn out really cool.  I think I need to set my white balance to cloudy to compensate.  In the mean time I’m sort of throwing out worrying about everything and refocusing on individual parts of photography.  The first is exposure in hopes of being happier with my photos and thus more motivated to take photos.

This is straight off the camera with nothing but a crop and watermark.

New cousin

Cooper has always loved his baby dolls and now he thinks his new cousin, Alexander, is his new baby.  He wants to hold him and rock him.  He wants to carry him around and any little grunt or peep Alexander makes Cooper asks for his pacifier to put in his mouth.  I absolutely adore watching him with his little cousin! 

Charlotte doesn’t seem to be so interested.  She’ll hold him, giggle and then move away from him.  Of course she’s always been way more interested in her trains than in any doll.  I think she needs time to warm up to him and once he can play trains with her, she’ll love him.

We will definitely be taking more photos with cousin Alexander!  (Don’t mind the white balance on these…just trying to get things posted so I can post more about the current things in our life!)