Live. Laugh. Love.: decorating

Remember my empty picture frame in the dining room that I had a mini-project for? Well, it was even easier than I expected! Like... ridiculously easy. And cheap!

I've seen all sorts of home decorating bloggers filling picture frames with chalkboards to display messages around the house: the kitchen, the dining room, on a wall collage of other photo frames, etc. And I thought it was so cute. So I went to Michael's thinking I would need to buy chalkboard paint and ask the frame department's advice on what exactly I should be painting and mounting in my frame. The girl said "Well, we do carry the chalkboard paint in a spray paint can, but if you're just doing a picture frame, we have these new, self-stick, chalkboard sheets up in one of the front aisles." Sounded pretty simple so I let her direct me where to go and I picked up this pack of three sheets for less than $2 and a box of chalk for 50 cents.

Back at home, I pulled my frame out and took it apart.

For my dining room, I like to use black accents because it coordinates well and it's not overwhelming, so I actually like the black on black with this frame. And that chestnut stripe in the center creates a nice division between frame and chalkboard.

So I just laid the glass down on a sheet of chalkboard and traced around it with chalk. I didn't even bother to clean that streaky glass or the sticky corner from the price tag.

Then I cut just inside the chalk line, peeled away the back, and stuck it directly on the glass.

I love it!

For now, I'll leave the chalk in the bowl beside it and our frame will display a birthday message for Sophia.

Other board messages I could see in our future:

-Happy Easter/Spring!

-God Bless This House

-Special menus

etc.

So fun and new!

Here's another recent addition to our dining room decor:

I borrowed a milk glass, cake plate/compote dish from my Aunt Lori, lined it with some spring green tissue paper and filled it with some plastic eggs. I saw this idea in a recent Martha Stewart Home magazine (hers was much cuter) only they used basket grass and real, colored eggs with little designs on them. We may color eggs next week and change it up, but for now this was easy and cutesy.

I'm in LOVE with Sophie's new room! It just makes me smile to walk in there.

The way it looks now is as complete as it's going to be until she's (or we're) ready to make that transition to the big bed. Then I have a few more changes to make from what you'll see in this post. I have A LOT of pictures to share because I'm going to show you the room from all angles and also a lot of the same spaces with minor changes as I was playing around with the decor. Thankfully, the whole makeover wasn't all that expensive - just some paint and a few decor items. The bedding was definitely the splurge (but that's not out yet) and a few of the changes were gifts.

I'll start with some "before" pictures.

This was taken in January.

And these are from last summer. The walls were painted with two yellow, sponge-painted, caddy corner walls and two white, caddy corner walls. It was also painted so that the color changed on the most dominant corners (i.e. no doors or windows to break it up) - just floor to ceiling of divided color.

For the record, I have ALWAYS hated how the dresser and wall hanging look in this picture. The dresser is WAY too cluttered with a mish-mosh of frames and other trinkets. And you've probably heard me complain about that eye-sore of a picture that's been hanging there since we returned from our honeymoon in October '04. Our friends put it there as a joke while we were on vacation (it belonged to Craig's grandparents) and Craig insisted that he loved it and it had to stay. Grr...

I've also never really cared for the letters above her crib. They're boring and block style and just kind of... there. Anyway, this is the other side of her room.

In March, I rearranged the furniture. I moved the rocking horse to the basement. I cleared out the bottom shelf in her closet and had Craig snap that shelf out of the brackets (so that the next owners could replace it if they want). Yes, her shelves were/are sloppy.

Then we moved the night stand in there and attempted to reorganize some of the toys. Once we bring the full bed into her room, there just isn't space for a night stand and Craig is very possessive of his furniture. Not kidding - he hates splitting up sets - so he doesn't want this "stored" anywhere but with the rest of the set. You can imagine how anxious he is to get the bed that goes with this set back from my parents' house where it's being stored in their spare bedroom. (We had no choice on that one.)

So this will remain in the closet as a bookshelf and/or toy storage.

The crib was moved to the south wall where her full bed will go and the tall dresser was moved to the opposite wall where the crib was. The mirrored dresser stayed where it was. Craig also hung the new window panel from PBK.

Then I started playing around with decor on the tall dresser. This is still too cluttered looking. I like the empty frame surrounding the "S", but Craig hadn't hung the "S" yet.

As I mentioned, the glider is awkwardly along the wall right now. I'm just putting off taking that out of the room because, of all the "baby gear" we own, that will be the hardest for me to part with. I probably won't move it out until the bed moves in. We'll have to store it somewhere, because there's no other place in our house for it.

The "S" is mounted. Still need to paint the frame and patch the holes in the wall where the other letters hung.

This was Sophie's 1st birthday card from my parents. My intention is to frame it, but I haven't found the right frame yet (don't really know what I'm looking for either) and I don't know exactly where it's going.

The low dresser is no longer set up as a changing table. Her new lamp, frame and pink dish have taken the place of the changing pad and diapering supplies.

Playing around some more - it's not going to stay like this.

We're temporarily putting the changing pad on the floor while we're potty training. I remember when Will was her age, we were dressing him on his bed and using the floor or Sophie's changing table for diapering. Sophie likes to pretend it's her bed or her doll bed. She'll lay on it and say "night night, Soapy" or she'll put her babies to bed there. :)

After Craig patched the most noticeable holes/flaws in the walls (the walls in this house are so imperfect - very old plaster), I moved all the furniture to the center of the room and got ready to begin painting on a Saturday while the kids were at my parents' house for lunch and nap time.

The trim work is always the longest process, but I got it all done plus one wall painted in just a few hours. Gotta' love that paint + primer in one! Sophie slept upstairs in our bathroom in the pack 'n play that night and the next day for nap and I finished painting over nap time on Sunday.

I actually enjoy painting now that I'm pretty good at trim work. :) I'm not at all artistic, but I could see how artists find it soothing and fulfilling to just listen to music and paint. Here's a look at the two colors. The green is much more "minty" than I had hoped. I was going for more of a light grass green... but I do still like it. Also, I chose to make the color changes in the opposite corners so that where the green and blue came together was only noticeable above the bedroom and closet doors.

But I have to pat myself on the back for how clean my corners look! What a nice straight line, eh?

Here's the opposite corner above the closet door and window.

On another day, I spray painted the frame (which is the same frame as the one in the dining room, only 8x10) a chocolate brown color. It's pretty glossy looking, so I may have to do something to that "S" too. Not sure yet...

I love the lamp! But I am still keeping my eyes open for a cuter, pink shade.

The 5x7 print that I ordered from Etsy arrived the day I started painting. I LOVE IT!! The trees on her bedding and the vinyl tree we put on the wall all have this same look about them: a big, round ball of tree top sitting on a straight, thin, stick of trunk. So this tree in the print fits in perfectly. The little pink dish is also the perfect spot to keep her pink bracelet. :)

A few more room views before we added the big tree:

Sophie loves this little area with her books and chair. She likes to just sit here and "read" or do puzzles.

Love her little stool from my grandma and grandpa.

Penny & Joy are affectionately propped on the back of the crib and Sophie always makes sure they are in place.

And Prudence still gets the honor of being IN the bed.

This corner will eventually be less full once we get rid of the diaper pail. We'll scoot the laundry hamper into the corner and open up a little more space beside the dresser. Every inch counts in this small-ish room!

Camera 1:

Camera 2:

I prefer "camera 2" with the little pink star frame that was a gift from a friend when Sophie was born. I have to find a tiny picture to fill it, but I wanted to add a touch of pink to this dresser. That heart plaque in front of the vase is not staying there. I was just playing around with it to see if I wanted to put it in Sophie's room. It was actually a gift from my mom - for ME - before I went away to college. It's Jan Pugh pottery and mom wrote me a message about sending me off with her "heart". So sweet - I love that heart and I'd love to give it to my daughter. Maybe in the future.

Ooh! Ooh! I love this part! Craig helped me put up the wall decal this past Saturday. He is super anal with details and perfection so I knew he'd do a good job. He even had a tool (a "J roller") that was designed for doing this sort of thing.

We got our decal from an Uppercase Living home party. My mom hosted and let us use her half off discount. Then she ended up buying it for us after the discount - yipee!

I LOOOOVE IT!!!

Final glimpses of the "after":

Sophie got to check it out when she woke up from her nap. (She slept upstairs again while we put this up.)

Then she checked to make sure Penny and Joy were in just the right position. She wants them sitting side by side so she moved the little owl from the opposite side where I'd placed her (above).