Caylee's Room Reveal!

Since she came 2 weeks early, we still had a little bit to finish up after she got home.  We finally put the finishing touches on the room and I'm excited to show it off!

Connor has a little door hanger on his door, so I felt like she should have one too.

The name banner was a big ordeal, but I'm happy with how it turned out.  I spent a long time looking for the perfect way to display her name on the wall and I wanted something unique.  For a few months, I was planning on doing a tree branch with birds and the letters hanging down, but it just didn't end up working with the design of the room.  When I found these personalized felt banners, I knew it would be perfect!

The paisley bedding was another challenge because Daddy and I didn't agree on what to get.  I usually pick out all the little home details, but he had more of an opinion on this.  He finally gave in and let me get my favorite paisley bedding and I love the use of aqua for little girls.  The polka dot accents worked really well as an accent pattern that I used throughout the rest of the room too.  The sad part is that when we went to put the bumper on (just for show, not for her to use now), it didn't fit!  The mattress height along with the height of the bumper doesn't work with the crib.  Once we lower the mattress, it will fit, but I'm sad that it doesn't work right now unless I try to revemp it myself.

The wall art was really hard for me to find because I wanted something that matched and worked with the proportions of the walls.  When I saw these girly animal canvas pieces, I knew they would be perfect.  The borders actually have the polka dot borders and that sealed the same for me.  There are bird and elephant accessories in her room, so the animals fit in well too.

Moving on, I added the yellow rocker and floor lamp from Connor's room.  I also got the same wall shelves that he has to display some special photos and trinkets.

I'm waiting to get newborn photos back to put them in the frames, but I also added her first doll from Grammy and Grandpa and the embroidered name sign I made (see below).

I'm so happy with how this turned out! I had a vision in my head and it came out exactly how I planned!  The bunting is made from little scraps of fabric and the name and bunting ribbon are embroidered by hand.

The pillow on the chair was another DIY project that I worked on while pregnant.  I picked up the polka dot accent pattern and sewed a felt flower on top.

The bookshelf is the same one Connor has, but with a girly flair.  I picked up light pink and hot pink storage totes and filled them with some toys and bedding.  Most of the little trinkets are gifts that she got from family & friends, so it's nice to be able to have a place to display them.

The bookends were a bargain at $2!  They were broken and didn't match, so I fixed them with some wood glue and repainted them to match the bedding.

In the other corner, we added the long dresser with the diaper changing pad.

The bird photo frame wall hanging was another great bargain I found.  I bought it for $4 and added new white ribbon to match.

A labor of love and many months of work came together to make the perfect room for our little girl!

Paisley bedding: My Sam Pixie from Kohls, Target, Babies R Us
Pink polka dot changing pad cover: Target
Elephant bookends: Homegoods and DIY
Name banner bunting: Deco Mod Walls on Etsy

Cupcake door hanger: Garden Ridge
Canvas wall art: Gordman's

Bird wall frame: Ross

Bird cage pillow: Homegoods

Flower pillow: DIY

Finished Basement Theater Room Reveal

This room has been a work in progress for about 1.5 years.  When we bought our house, the basement was unfinished and we just threw all our crap down there.

In July of 2011, when I was 8 months pregnant, we had a bad storm and our basement flooded.  We had about a foot of water and we lost a lot of old memories and things we saved.  After the flood, we learned our lesson about storing things in cardboard boxes and we invested in some heavy duty shelves and totes.

The shelves were the beginning of our new finished basement design and we slowly started working on it.  I am very proud to say that my husband completed this whole job by himself over about 18 months.  It was a LOT of hard work and I tried to help as much as I could (or help by babysitting Connor) while he was working. 

Here are the stairs before we started.

The basic plan was to have the heavy duty shelves on the side and then create an L-shaped storage area that circled around to the back of the room.  The storage area would hold the random crap, the storage totes, furnace, electrical box, and other various things that could be hidden.  The rest of the room was converted into a theater room/man cave/play area for us to enjoy.  The technology and the electronic aspects were designed by the husband and then I chose most of the decorations, colors, furniture, etc.

So after 18 months of hard work, I present to you the new finished basement!

I asked for some small cubbies in the stairway for extra storage and I love how they turned out.

Walk down the stairs and this is what you see...

I'm not usually a fan of leather furniture, but I felt it was the best choice with a toddler and a husband who likes to snack.  The patterned pillows I made make it a little softer and more warm.

The husband requested that we hang some manly theater-type art, so I searched for awhile until I found these theater art pieces from Hobby Lobby.

The screen was my husband's special project.  We have a projector hanging from the ceiling that projects onto the 95 inch screen.  The screen is painted on the wall using a special paint called Silver Screen which is supposed to be the perfect hue for a screen on the wall.  The cabinet was another difficult purchase as we had to find something that fit perfectly in the space and would hold all the equipment.  By making a few alterations to the cabinet once we got it home, we were able to make it work in the room.

The door to the left of the screen is for a little room that holds the sump pump and back-up emergency sump pump.  Hopefully, we will never have to deal with a flood again!

This area isn't as pretty, but it's the computer/gaming area for the husband.  I added my touch with a few baby photos to remind him who's upstairs while he plays!

Here's a better view of the projector on the ceiling and the surround speakers on the walls.

It's pretty amazing to see how this room was transformed in a short time and was all done by us!  From this mess...


...to this amazing room!

New Doors & Gallery Wall Reveal

This has been a 2 year project that has taken many, many hours more hours than we ever planned.  All we originally wanted to do was decorate the nursery when I found out I was pregnant and then it turned into an entire house makeover!

The original thought was just to update the 70s features of the house like the nasty, orange-y doors white 6-panel doors.

As usual, our plan quickly turned into a lot more work as we realized that we should probably put up new white trim too.  If we're going to replace doors, we should probably do all 26, plus some of them are custom sizes so they need to be ordered.  If we do 6-panel doors, we probably should get new closet doors too, right?  So that's 4 more closets to add to the list!

So if we're going to do all that work, we might as well just paint the main hallways upstairs to something pretty to make all those new white doors and trim stand out instead of that stark white that was there when we bought the house.

So because we do everything ourselves and never pay anyone to help, these projects take months...and months...and months!  Plus, we had a newborn...and then toddler to take care of at the same time.  We ended up chosing this pretty sage green for the hallway because we liked the way it made the white trim stand out, and it's wasn't too bold or boring.

My favorite part is at the end when I get to decorate!  Bare walls were just not cutting it and I looked for wall art that appealed to me for months.  So instead, I decided to do a family gallery wall with photos showing off my little guy.  He also LOVES to walk by and look at the photos, so it's a great way to help him learn to say the names of everyone in our family.

It took me a few months to gather enough frames from random thrift stores and clearance sections, and then I spraypainted and/or hand-painted them in several different colors.  (The whole color scheme took me way to long to decide on!)

The final result is so much brighter and more fun!

Instead of hanging the frames right on the wall, I chose to hang wall shelves so I could switch out the frames and move things around any time I wanted.

This is the 12 month baby collage form the photos I took every month of Connor's first year.  You can see more details here.

I'm still working on perfecting the area, but it's a great start compared to where we were a couple years ago!