Making time for decorating and design...

I'm happy to report that after owning our new house for nearly 6 months now, I feel pretty "settled" at home.  All of our boxes are unpacked, all the junk has either been tossed in the garbage or taken to D.I., things are in place... We've accomplished a lot by doing and marking "fix it jobs around the house" off of our home improvement list... i.e. I fixed the loose stair railing all on my own; patched over a bunch of holes on doors and the MONSTROUS hole the previous owner punched into the wall; Spencer replaced the front doorknob; we had our weeds in the backyard bulldozed out; the 3RD car garage door is now working AND we now have pads on the outside of the garage so we can open them with a code; the old cruddy kitchen sink has been replaced with a beautiful NEW granite stone sink AND it's actually attached to the counter, unlike the last one, so we don't have to worry about leaks; all the toilets are fixed; most of the walls and baseboards have been retouched with paint and our lawn in the front is looking mighty fine and green thanks to Spencer's efforts.  Now that we're settled and things, for the most part are fixed and in working condition, I decided a couple of weeks ago there were just no more reasons to put off decorating the house.  Our walls have been looking pretty bare, and while I'm the kinda gal who appreciates simple things and hates clutter, I do like to see splashes of color here and there.

This decorating the house business is going to take me some time.  I have a really hard time making decisions when it comes to design and decorating, especially my own space. I love to keep things simple, but then again I really adore eclectic spaces and design, however I don't think I'm creative enough to make a bunch of random stuff look fabulous... it would probably just look like a collection of junk. I like the modern shab sheek look of a home but tend to settle for a nice classic look... leathers, wood, crisp white paint and neutral colors... You see I have such a difficult time decorating my own space because I like a little of everything, especially if I can add a pop of red in the design.  Red is totally my signature color.  I adore ANYTHING red.  Little red rocking chairs, red teapots, red pillows, red shoes, red bed sheets (in kids rooms, not my own) red pants... Red, red, RED! I can't get enough of the color!  I actually used to think that once I owned my own home I would want to paint the walls in my living room red (cranberry red probably) but I'm sort of relieved to say I'm over that idea now... that would just be a red overhaul, don't you think?!  My downstairs, main living space, for now will have to remain sort of bare because I decided to begin livening things up in the boys bedrooms and the toy room.  I actually enjoy decorating the kids rooms; I like that I can get away with using bright bold colors to accent their rooms Please note though: I DO NOT think it's EVER okay to paint a childs room neon green, paisley pink or any other bright absurd color... I prefer to keep things neutral and add the color through art pieces on the wall, furniture and bedding.

I've been working on Noah's bedroom since before we ever moved here... honestly.  I've been collecting pieces for his NOW bedroom ever since he was a babe.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Dr. Seuss!  Not just Seuss' books but also his art. He's a genius when it comes to his illustrations.  Fortunately Noah likes Dr. Seuss' work too, so how about express our gratitude with all things Dr. Seuss in his bedroom?...  I first started our Seuss collection through books; then, when Noah was just over a year old, I came across the cutest ever Horton night lamp... it was kinda pricey when I bought it 4 years ago, but I splurged on it and have been thankful ever since that I didn't pass it up because I haven't seen anything like it ever since.  Of course I had to buy the little plush blue Horton the Elephant when I saw it in a bookstore later that same year; who doesn't love a blue elephant??? Especially when it's Horton?  Almost 2, perhaps it's been 3 years now, The Pottery Barn for Kids introduced a new Dr. Seuss bedroom line.  I drooled over every pillow, bed sheet, comforter and sham in the line.  They were so ADORABLE and tasteful, not your cheesy kind of cheap, rip off, imitation Seuss things I had browsed over on some no name websites... only problem though was that being items in a line through The Pottery Barn, they were EXPENSIVE!  It was nearly a year after they introduced Seuss at Pottery Barn that I discovered they were FINALLY having a sale on some of the items... I couldn't afford everything on sale at that time, so I settled with The Cat in the Hat wall decal... SO SO SO cute!  The boys were big fans of having The Cat in the Hat in their room too until one night Ian suggested to Noah that The Cat in the Hat looked like a scary monster in the dark, and then from then on they refused to go to sleep with the lights off for months because of it.  Needless to say, they've outgrown their fear of The Cat in the Hat.  Just a couple of months ago, in September, I discovered The Pottery Barn was still carrying the same Dr. Seuss line and now had its bedding was on sale.  The once ridiculously overpriced Seuss comforter was now half the price it used to be so I pounced on the deal and justified buying it because it was Noah's birthday and a quilt for Noah's room.  It really added just the right amount of whimsy and color to his room like I had hoped for.  For the past 8 months I had been searching all over in fabric stores and on the web for Dr. Seuss material I could use to sew pillowcases and make a runner for the top of Noah's bookcase... material was IMPOSSIBLE to find, even something as simple as red and white striped cabana fabric! Finally at the end of September designer Robert Kaufman introduced a limited Dr. Seuss line of fabric in select stores and I scored a bunch of it at a local quilting store!!! Since I'm not a seamstress and have zero experience sewing ANYTHING (however I do own a serger should someone ever wish to teach me to sew; I have LOTS of fabulous ideas for things I could sew should I ever learn)  I asked my mother in law to sew a couple of pillowcases using the Seuss fabric AND sew together a red and white striped table runner.  So far, she's had the time to make these...

Aren't they so cute???  One side of the pillow case is just The Cat in the Hat while on the opposite side it's a collection of all the Seuss characters.   I LOVE them and they were totally affordable- unlike Pottery Barns pillowcases.

Noah's Dr. Seuss room is really coming together.  I still need to pick up a red bottom sheet from Ikea for Noah's bed and my m.i.l. still needs to finish making the two big square throw pillows for Noah's bed out of the red and white striped cabana fabric I found, along with the striped table runner for the top of the book shelf and THEN the room will be finished!

The next room, the boys toy room, really didn't need much done to it... it's the one room in the house I pretty much completed decorating shortly after moving in, BUT I did have a new light fixture I wanted to put in the room that I felt was more appropriate for the toy room than the old ordinary one... My sister Trish gave us the airplane light below when they moved from Utah to Texas.... she gave it to us back in July, but because neither I nor Spencer had any clue as to how to install it, it sat for months on the counter in my laundry room.  FINALLY, about 2 weeks ago, I discovered that my brother in law knew how to hang light fixtures so I begged him to hang the plane.  To my hearts content, he did and now the room is pretty much complete! I LOVE the light! Thanks again Tricia!!!

I still haven't done much to Bentley's room; however for his birthday, my mother mailed me two more beautiful animal masks from The San Diego Zoo to hang with the elephant mask I already had.  All 3 masks are handcrafted from paper mache and painted by Haitian artists.  I think they look adorable hanging above his crib and add the right touch to his animal themed room.

I still need to figure out what I should display on the shelving inside his white armoire and paint his crib white...yes, I said paint, I've been meaning to paint the darn thing for the past two months now, but first I need Spencer to help me take it apart so I can carry it downstairs and take it outside to sand, prime and paint... hopefully I'll get that done sooner than later and then the baby room, a.ka. Bentley's room, will be done.

Remember way back when I posted a picture of this room on the blog?

It belongs to Cohen and Ian.  I admit, the animal alphabet cards that are hung around the border of the room did NOTHING to make the room look even interesting.  SO, I tore all the cards down and decided to start decorating the room from scratch.  Since all my boys are so into SUPERHEROES lately, I thought it would be fun to kinda make their bedroom a SUPERHERO bedroom. I could totally make their room cool and there are plenty of resources out there to do it.  Boys SUPERHERO bedding is EVERYWHERE, but the trick in my opinion is making it look nice, not cheesy.  Ironically, Pottery Barn Kids just introduced a new Batman bedroom line and a Spiderman bedroom line; it's all EXPENSIVE though!!!  I found some really fun bright aqua blue bedsheets on sale at Walmart for $5 and I figure I'll wait till there's a sale on the Batman quilts and pillowcases at Pottery Barn Kids before the boys beds will be complete; but I got a good start decorating the walls with some of the SUPERHERO artwork I found.  I actually found a Superman, a Batman and a Spiderman poster online at www.allposters.com that I really liked.  The graphics are printed on tin to give it even a cooler look.  Each poster/picture was originally $13 each, but I found a coupon online that discounted them and gave me free shipping, so I bought all 3 for $21.  Once they arrived in the mail, I went to the local craft store and found some blank white canvas boards on sale at $4 each; bought a couple of cans of spray paint and this is what the picture/posters looked like in the end hung on the boys bedroom wall.

Pretty cool, right?  There was a while back, probably 3 or 4 years ago that I saw something similar to this effect for sale in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog... they had pictures of Spidey, Batman, The Hulk and Superman.  Their asking price though was something like $60 for each poster!!! Insanely expensive!  I made mine for $11 each.

Another piece I decided to add to the boys room was this cute little shelf with hooks on it.  I bought it for 50% off from Roberts Arts and Crafts, sanded it, primed it and painted it country white to match the shutters in their room.  Once I get some pictures I've taken of the boys in their capes developed I'll frame it and set it on top of the shelf along with something else cute, relating to the SUPERHERO theme of the bedroom and the hooks are PERFECT for hanging their SUPERHERO capes. 

That all should do it!  Hopefully they'll like their room, because after I'm finished, it will probably be a while before I feel like redecorating it.

The next "home" project I suspect that will keep me busy is putting together my photo wall of the family downstairs.  I'm still ashamed to say that I don't have ANY pictures up of the boys hung yet around the house and it's darn right embarrassing because they're so darn cute, I LOVE to show them off!