Thursday, October 24, 2013

Dreaming of far off places

I think ever since B, our oldest son, started learning about the world beyond what the eye can see, he has become obsessed with maps.  Starting with our next 15 min. journey in the car, advancing to following the location of grandparents as they travel through Norway and Sweden, some off to Mexico, and a dear friend in Benin, West Africa.  It is only natural that with his interest in maps he would request one for his bedroom.  Except his request wasn't satisfied with just a globe, or a framed map. He envisioned a whole wall to be filled with the world.

 
Ever since the big switch, the boys room has been in limbo.  A smash up of what was left anchored to the walls before the boys took over this space, combined with everything we moved over from their previous bedroom.  It worked, it wasn't terrible, but their bedding needed to be replaced desperately so therefore justified a whole room redo.  Plus a nine year olds dreams needed to be fulfilled.
 

 
My mission was to give B his wall map in a subdued way that satisfied his dreams but still worked with the direction I longed to see the room go in.  Lets just say it was a win win.
 
My map was printed from my computer, then traced onto a transperancy, and projected onto the wall. (I don't have a projector so therefore my transperancy was suspended in the room with a lamp shining behind it to get the image projected onto the wall.  The room had to be pitch black in order to see the image so therefore the only night that worked was after a nice date night with my man while the kids were away (date nights are rare, kids being away is even rarer).  What better way to end a date night than tracing a map onto the wall?

 
Once I had the map outlined on the wall in pencil I went over those lines with paintable silicone.  Yup, you read that right silicone.  Tip: don't cut your opening too large.    Then the lines were primed and the whole room painted.  One color.  Not in your face world map but beautiful subtle texture. 
 
The color is Benjamin Moore's Black Panther.  My house recieves a ton of natural light so every color I tried in this room read very blue.  I was aiming for a nice charcoal grey.  Couldn't find anything so settled on a jet black.  During the day it appears to be a beautiful dark navy (very classy) and at night deep deep grey.  I couldn't be happier and my two little boys dream of adventures across the world at night. 

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Coffee Tables

Just popping in today to show you a few updates I made to our living area a while back.  It's still far from my vision for this space but each new addition gets me a little closer.

Just a reminder of where I was at:

 
Back in the summer I moved the rug to our master bedroom and lived without one for a while. It took me a while to figure out why the kids started playing on the front entry rug (the only rug in our main area).  My beef with this rug in the living room was all the lego pieces getting lost in the long shag and wool fibers until one pierced your foot or you heard them journeying through the long dark chambers of the vacuum hose.  My wish list for a rug for this space was low pile, durable and 8 x 10 or larger.  Enter Homesense with the 8 x 10 cow hide rug.
 
 
Of course the furniture arrangement gets changed just about every time I vacuum.  And the former floral chair backs have just been covered by an inexpensive Ikea throw.
 
When my husband goes away I like to play and that usually means building something.  I had been dreaming of a similar coffee table for a while from restoration hardware so when I stumbled across some more unused timber I had just the project for it.  I had our local welder put together the base for me and then I brought it home and sprayed it.  I had never tried this spraying method before but it worked like a charm.  I took two different spray paint colors (rustoleum's hammered nickel and rustoleum's graphite) and sprayed them simultaneously at a 45 degree angle (sorry no photo - both hands busy).  Once dry, I just spritzed the metal lightly with rustoleum's bronze.  This created a subtle worn look with nice depth.  Then of course sanding the timbers, stain and varathane.
 
 
 


Rustic, tough, durable.  Perfect for our family.

 

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Tribal Girls Bedroom

 
I have been MIA around here lately.  I decided to spend the summer away from the computer with the kids.  Then summer turned into fall, and fall turned into winter and I still never found myself in this space.  Today I have two off at school (that only happens 2 days a week) and my little guy is off at Grandma's for a play date with his cousin. So that leaves me with a little extra time on my hands and I am (temporarily) caught up on laundry, cooking and cleaning.  It feels good to be stopping in today. 
 
Back in September we switched the kids rooms around.  You know how it goes when you move in.  Everyone's helping, beds get put into rooms,  ambitious helpers start putting together beds, bone tired you crawl into those beds and call it a night.  Weeks of unpacking and then finally decorating and you realize the beds are not actually in the rooms you had intended them to be.  Fast forward two years and we finally switched the rooms around so the two boys now have the larger bedroom and Indianna finally gets a 'girl' bedroom. 
 
Indianna's Tribal Girl Bedroom:
 
And just for a quick reference.  Here is what her room looked like in the larger space:
 
Her new room suites her personality much better. 

 
So here's the low down. 

 
www.theanimalprintshop.com
A little Inspiration

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Frog Tape

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Gold Metallic Craft Paint

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Tribal Feature Wall 
 
 
The old curtains + some Rit Dye =  Dip dyed curtains
 
Foot board removed + chunky timber in its place = platform bed that makes the room feel bigger.

 

Leftover MDF painted same color as walls + cute saying  + 4 screws = art
 
Large chunk of leftover timber from exterior stairs + stain + polyurethane + Ikea legs = long desk


 
Drift wood + craft paint + feathers + jute string + beads = Great place to hang artwork
 
And my favorite picture.  Waking up sleepyhead after her first night in her new room. 

 
Just a little sampling of what has been keeping me busy over the last six months.  If I get another day like today I'll share a few more projects around the house.