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Reese and Lauren's Shared Room

I had an entirely different plan for Reese and Lauren's shared room, and then Joe's Nana sent us a crocheted blanket in the mail. She has knitted one for each of our kids. Lauren's was lavender. It is my most favorite color and it is so very her. And so my plans changed.

I started with the baby's crib sheet -- a Serena and Lily pattern called heather florentine. Of course, as soon as I decided that this was the starting point for their room I found out that the pattern had been discontinued two years ago.

After four months of searching, I tracked down two sheets that were part of a larger (also discontinued) crib set at a baby boutique in San Francisco. I convinced (and by convinced, I mean begged and pleaded) them to break apart the sets and sell me the two sheets a la carte.

The sheets should arrive in the mail later today.

Now that the plan is in place I can start putting the pieces together little by little. A few things have already started to get here and I feel so happy seeing their room come together. We have been in the house for a little over a month and it feels like a house and not a home. Having a special place for my babies to sleep is my first part in making this house feel like ours.

I Love Ikea

My best friend texted me on her way home from Canada over the weekend to see if we needed anything from Ikea, as she and her husband were swinging by a store on their way home. The problem is I need A LOT of stuff. Too much to place that burden (financial and physical) on someone else. But she's awesome for offering.

Her text got me thinking about the new house and the little projects and decor pieces that will still be lingering long after we close. Even though our new house is roughly 1000 square feet larger than our current house, we didn't really add a lot of rooms. Most of that square footage is in an expanded kitchen and family room and larger bedrooms. We only "added" a bedroom and a full bath, which we felt was was necessary with our expanding family.

We mainly have projects in creating the girls' bedroom, Ryan's big boy room and the "formal" dining room. Aside from these three spaces all of our current furniture transfers over to the new house perfectly with pieces to spare.

Initially I planned on decorating a room for the twins using their nursery furniture from our current house and a room for Lola and then just redecorating in a few years when the girls shacked up together and Ryan got his own room. But it doesn't make sense to decorate two nurseries only to redecorate again in another 12 to 18 months. So I started thinking about Lola's nursery as the girls' "big girl room".

Frankly, by the time I actually complete the design I'm hoping that Reese will be ready to move in with Lola and Ryan will be ready for me to start on his big boy room too. I've been pinning images like crazy; the inspiration for the girls' room came from Joe's nana who knits the kids "nana blankets". Lola's came in the perfect shade of lavender (also my favorite color) and that got my wheels turning.

A quick google search led me to this nursery done by Caitlin Creer and then the brainstorming was on overload -- fed by a healthy supply of hormonal nesting. I'm just sorry I can't put this plan into action quicker. But as my father-in-law loves to remind me, Rome wasn't built in a day. (I usually tell him, that's because I wasn't the general contractor.)

Among the Ikea pieces I plan on buying for the girls' room are these bookcases which I hope to back in a beautiful wallpaper like the one in the image below, similar to what we did with our billy bookcases in our living room.

I haven't quite pinned down Ryan's room, other than I know I want to do antiqued primary colors (think battleship blue, rust and mustard, instead of blue, red and yellow) and that I want the room to have a vintage airplane theme. And while I don't have an exact plan for his room right now, I'm 90% sure that I want to incorporate an Expedit bookcase and an Ekby Jarpen/ Ekby Bjarnum wall shelf, similar to these rooms.

We also have our sights set on making our formal dining room into a game room/parlor. I already laid out my rough design. The idea is for it to have three separate spaces -- a table with a banquette, a reading area and a secretary desk that can be used for mail drop/storage and bill paying.

The design is based on these images.

We were going to have the carpenter that did all of the built ins for our house come back and build a banquette with storage for board games and kid things, but then I saw an Ikea Ektorp and Lindingo Kitchen Cabinets repurposed as bench seating by designer Samantha Pynn. The cabinets seem like an easy fix and a great way to add accessible storage to this space without breaking the bank on more custom builtins. The best part is if we ever move (something I don't even want to think about right now!) the room can easily be converted back into a formal dining space by the next owners; something that wouldn't be as easily remedied with permanent and pricey built-in seating.

We're also planning on purchasing a third billy bookcase, which we'll add between the current cases we have in the house and modifying the three bookcases to look like a single built in unit similar to these projects by Centsational Girl and Little Green Notebook.

Sadly, the idea of tackling these projects is less intimidating than figuring out how to drive 400+ miles roundtrip with three babies and then figuring out where to put all of the pieces we need to buy (roughly three bookshelves, several kitchen cabinets and one dresser) to get them back home. I'm praying we can convince the outlaws to come for a visit and watch the twins, making the whole trip a lot more feasible.

Ikea, if you're listening, Upstate New York would be a great place to house a new store. Sure, we don't come close to meeting your new store population requirements, but how much does that really matter anyway?

Knock Off City

Once upon a time, what seems a long time ago, I used to have hobbies. Some of them included running and some of them included decorating and renovating. But then I couldn't have kids, and then I got pregnant and then I had twins and, well, you know how these things go.

So here I am nearly 7 months into our babies' first year of life and I'm finally sitting down with a cup of coffee and a catalog. It doesn't hurt that my husband is home to help with the kids either.

You can imagine my surprise when I saw the new Home Decorators catalog. Forgive me if I'm a little late to the party on this one. I've had my head up my own arse for the last seven months. But seriously, when did Home Decorators stop looking so junky and actually start offering some cute - albeit trendy - affordable items?

Here were some of my favorite finds.

the James and Sandra side chairs

(knock-offs of much pricier DWR Bertoia and Emeco side chairs)

these bentwood side chairs

the holbrook coffee table

and my favorite find was their parsons desk

The parsons is a clear knockoff of West Elm's popular desk. I've seen the WE desk and it's not worth the cost for the quality. I've considered ordering the look for less version on Overstock, but Overstock is one of those sites where you literally get what you pay for.

I was also shocked to see Martha paired up with Home Decorators. Although, I guess she's had her fair share of partnering up with discount box stores to peddle her goodies.

I'm interested to know if anyone's ordered from them lately? What did you think?

Gallery Walls Galore

After seeing my post on our stairwell gallery wall, my friend Rebecca linked me to another blog whose author had just completed a gallery in her dining room.

Her completed gallery had me at hello, and seeing that she first mapped out her gallery in InDesign made me quickly realize that this was a girl after my own heart. (By the way, if you don't have the Adobe CS and you are OCD and like to map things out on a computer, you can easily do this in PowerPoint...)

Since so many of you commented that you are planning a gallery for your own home, I thought I'd share her gallery with you. When we finish ours I'll post the layout and frame sizes with the final pics for anyone that's interested, but doesn't want to bother with their own layout.

If you end up creating a gallery of your own, be sure to link me to it! I love them and would love to see what you come up with.

In Dire Need of Fabric Help!

Everything featured on Lonny is linked with a source and a url.

Everything of course, except the fabric on the window below.

It's Always Something.

I spent 2 hours today looking for striped fabric online, but came up empty handed.

If you know what this fabric is or a manufacturer that makes something like it…

HELP!

I will owe you my third born. We're keeping the first two ;)

Fabric Score

I just got 2 yards of this Charlotte Moss fabric and I couldn't be more in love with it - total cost $11. Yup, I know! It's a gorgeous navy and white linen, and it's either going to find its way into the nursery or into our basement which is in the planning stages for finishing right now. I purchased the fabric on One Kings Lane and was able to use a $25 referral credit I had toward the purchase (thanks Kate!)

If you don't already subscribe to OKL emails, here's an invitation to do so. That site has some seriously good deals on gorgeous stuff for your home.

And if you know me and my curtain debacles, yes those are the infamous Arklow Paisley panels hanging in the guest bedroom formerly known as the mancave (RIP). I sold four of the panels and kept two hoping I could make them work somewhere in my house.

Sorry for the bad lighting, I know I have sick photography skills. Jealous? Oh and don't mind the turtle tank and the random furniture in the middle of the room either. We managed to paint this room and hang these panels and that's as far as we've gotten. We have a painter coming in to do the trim starting next week, which is why everything upstairs is hari kari.

I think these panels look SO much better with white walls (BM's floral white) than they did in our living room against the darker walls (BM's spice gold). Plus, I think one window of a large scale patterned fabric is all this girl can handle.

Verdict?

I'm happy and they're finally staying put.

Once the trim is painted I'll move the rest of the furniture over, move Ike (the turtle) to his new permanent home and take better pictures, pinky promise.

Oh, and speaking of the nursery…rumor has it that we'll be able to find out the babies' gender on Tuesday. I'm literally counting down the seconds. I've decided to have the crib bumpers and skirts made since I can't find anything I like online and I'm heading to Osgood's to look for fabrics in two weeks if anyone wants to join me. I'll even treat you to lunch. Let me know!

Guest Suite

I found the perfect headboard for our guest room.

The pièce de résistance.

The final touch, and then done.

I envisioned it painted to a gloss black and dressed with a bed of ivory,

white and sand toned linens of different textures.

Excitedly I called the owner and literally begged him to send me measurements.

It took him over a week to get back to me.

And the headboard is 5" too narrow.

Story of my life.

I will now spend the next part of eternity looking for a replica.

Sigh.

LOVE

Where would one go to find this LOVE poster,

or its brother the pillow version?

Thoughts?

Inspiration Folders

I was going through my inspiration folder titled "kids rooms" and I think I noticed a trend. Maybe this is subliminal messaging? Wishful thinking? Who knows, but so random.