Before & After : Claire's Summer Bedroom

After posting pictures of our summer house progress on Instagram, I've had several people ask for blog posts with the details.  I'll do my best to get some of the rooms on here!  Since Claire's room was the first one complete, let's begin there.
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Here's a peek at Claire's room "before"

 There wasn't anything necessarily wrong with it, it was just kind of dark and dingy.

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Claire's one and only request for her room was that it was PINK. So, I did my best to give her a sweet, girly pink room that she can hopefully enjoy for many years.

Claire got to put the first strokes of paint on the wall!

Pink can be a tricky color to pick out.  So many can turn peachy or lavender, or just be too bright in general.  Confession : we had one coat up of the first color I picked for the room, and it was waaay brighter than what I was looking for.  I really wanted a soft, powdery pink, and I feel like on our second try, we accomplished that.  We settled on Behr Light Rosebeige (190E-1).

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 and the after....

 so much lighter, brighter and more clean feeling.  In addition to painting the walls, we painted the ceiling a fresh coat of white, and had new carpet installed.  We also installed a white ceiling fan, and while ceiling fans may not be the most attractive fixtures, this is a second-story bedroom in a summer home, so function was key here.
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And now to the fun part...

first things first, I hung a cluster of lanterns in a corner near the ceiling.  I hung them using a single mug hook in the ceiling plus fishing line attached to each individual lantern.  Super easy.

 

The lanterns are a collection of pinks, corals, peach, aquas, greens and whites.

I ordered the lanterns from Luna Bazaar.

next up, laying out all of the items to go up on her walls!

Claire's bed is a full size Jenny Lind bed that I found on Craigslist.  It's painted in Sherwin Williams Swimming.  The sheets are from Target, and the white quilt is from TJ Maxx.  The accent pillows are from the Carol Roeda Studio.  And the shams are made by me, using this tutorial.

 

This little set up next to her bed is my favorite.   The "Trust in the Lord" print was set as a gift from the lovely Lindsay of Pen and Paint.  The frame is from Hobby Lobby.  The "You Are My Sunshine" print is from Pretty Smitten.  The polka dot lamp and picture frame are from Target.  The clock is from IKEA.  Her nightstand was a flea market find that I painted in Sherwin Williams Begonia.

This wall is special as both the desk and the dollhouse were mine from my bedroom growing up.  I refinished the desk with Sherwin Williams Begonia and added small glass knobs from Hobby Lobby.  I found small metal buckets at Hobby Lobby for all of her craft supplies.  I also refinished my old dollhouse with a fresh coat of paint and used scrapbook paper as wallpaper.

 "There's so much to Celebrate" free printable found here.
"I Am A Child Of God" free printable found here.
I mounted each of the printables to a thin piece of cardboard (think the back of a pad of paper) and placed a small metal scrapbooking clasp on each one.  It was a cheaper alternative to buying more frames, and in the end, I really like how simple they are.

Hoop art is such a great way to fill a wall without spending a lot.  Most of the fabric is from the "Flea Market Friends" line at Joann's.  The bike is a tea towel from Art Goodies.  And I made the silhouette of Claire by tracing a picture of her off of my computer screen and transferring it onto fabric.

 Claire's dresser is from IKEA.  The coral pouf is from Target, and her afgan is from the Trisha Brinks Instagram shop.

 The bike print is from Hillarie Tasche on Etsy (looks like her shop may no longer be open).  The print of bikes is a piece of gift wrap that I found in a small shop and cut down to the size of the frame.  The small frames on the dresser are from Target & Hobby Lobby.

and there it is!
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So far Claire has really enjoyed her room.
Her favorite thing to do in there is sit at her desk and work on projects.
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I have a few more plans for the room including curtains (the windows currently only have white roller shades that we installed) and a large "C" above her bed.  BUT, this is a summer home, so you know you just can't rush these things!

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See my Pinterest board for her room here.

 

Square Wall Panels

It was just over a year ago that our living room was transformed into a scene from ET while our square wall panels were installed and painted. I absolutely loved how they turned out and pretty much wanted to plaster every wall in our house with squares. At the risk of going overboard though, I restrained myself and found just one more wall, this time in our basement, that I would have squares added to.

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behold, I give you some marginal cell phone pictures...

before (TV belongs on that cabinet, but Eric had already moved it out of the way)
during : squares installedthe return of the ET house for paintingpeeking behind the plastic at the first coat of paintand finally, the finished product!
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Our house is a ranch which means our downstairs family room is a bit of a bowling alley. This new wall works so well for breaking up and brightening up the space.
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And now, I promise, no more squares....(maybe)

Zachary's Nursery

Okay, so this post is only about 10 weeks late.

I figured the rate at which I get things done would go down with two kids,
but this is a bit ridiculous!

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When we found out we were expecting a baby boy, I was worried thinking of how I would decorate a boy's nursery. I knew I didn't want a typical baby blue nursery, and I also just didn't believe there would be great "boy" options out there. In the end though, I so enjoyed pulling this room together and am so happy with how it turned out.
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Here's a peek!we built our house when I was pregnant with Claire, and since we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, we went very gender-neutral with the room. This time around, knowing that we were having a boy, I knew I wanted to make the room all-boy.
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I tried several grays on the walls, and just couldn't be completely comfortable with any one. I normally pride myself in my paint-selecting skills, but grays are hard!
so we had the walls painted a very neutral color instead that's found in several other rooms in our house.and because I'm a little obsessed with chevron stripes, I found and used this fabric on Etsy to make a skirt for the crib.I love this fabric so much, there's a good chance once we're done using it as a crib skirt, I'll be taking it apart and seeing what else I can make with it!I then took our existing nursery dresser and side table, and had the very talented Dann of Rebel.Reclaimed paint them a dark gray. (Don't ask me the name of the paint color, he doesn't share!) The metal bucket was a $5 pick up at the Allegan Antiques Market last summer. The rocking chair is an antique that we had reupholstered in a red canvas-like fabric. Just look at the distressing he does...the furniture turned out so great!oak changing table : made by my dad
baskets : Pottery Barn
oversized diaper pin : Pottery Barn Kids
I struggled through several different combinations of different pieces of art for the nursery. One day, this combination of two unframed prints that I had plus two pieces of scrapbook paper just came together and clicked!upper left : scrapbook paper, frame from JoAnns
upper right : scrapbook paper, frame from Hobby Lobby
lower left : print from Lucius Art, frame from Hobby Lobby
lower right : print from Creative Thursday, custom metal frameon Zachary's rocking chair is a sweet little bird pillow by K Studio and a whale pillow by Rebel.Reclaimedon his dresser is a framed picture of Zachary in the hospital (frame from Hobby Lobby) and a glass jar from Target filled with blocks by Sincerely Abi.
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So there are all the details, now here's a few full-room shots...the room turned out even better than I could have imagined. I love that it's simple, clean and most of all that it's a sweet little boy room.


linking up with:

Ta da!

So while I've already been busy using my new craft room, it occurred to me that I left all of you hanging on some final post-move in pictures, oops!

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Here it is!ahh, my little crafty haven!I took a big hit on square footage compared to what I had, but in this room everything has a specific place where it belongs which makes it work just fineone of my favorite pieces of furniture
read about how it came to be hereahh, organizational Heaven!
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there's a few elements still missing including a cork back splash above the counter top, plus some art I have planned for the walls, but it'll get there with time.

it's come a long way, wouldn't you say??

Living Room Upgrade

When we built our house three years ago, I was very happy with how it turned out. There's really not much at all that I would change about it.The one glaring exception for me though was this large blank wall in our living room, it has always looked like it needed something to give it a little life.it normally houses our library table

(and nothing else)
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so as projects usually go, one thing leads to another. I think the conversation went something like, "hey builder, while you're building me a craft room downstairs, could you also add some paneling to my wall upstairs?"
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That's logical, right??
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So while we were out of town last weekend, here's what he did!and he's so good, he even sent me a text with a picture so I wouldn't have to wait all weekend to see it!on the same day that the painters worked on my craft room, they also made our living room like like a scene from ETClaire thought it was awesome and sprinted the corridor about a million times that dayI took a peek inside the plastic in-between coats to see this

and finally, three coats later, the finished product!

love!