Introducing: The Nar(wall)

I have been a little MIA over the past several weeks.  It may have a little something to do with a growing business and a baby arriving sometime very soon (as I write, I am due in 7 days).  I have been at the phase of my pregnancy for awhile now where my body is so physically exhausted that it's a good day if I get a load of laundry done, breakfast and lunch made and my son off to preschool for the afternoon.  Forget bending over to pick up, clean floors, etc.  You get the picture.

But like any true pregnant woman, I still have the urge to nest and have been doing *some* things little by little (oh, how I wish I was able to get more done before this baby was born).  We have been working on the nursery since April and it's slowly coming together.  With my last two kiddos their rooms were done months before they were born.  With this baby, I know it won't be done completely until after he/she is born and I've come to terms with that.  I have to choose my battles :)  

The first thing we did for the room was paint the walls gray and hang charcoal gray curtains.  Then we painted the crib kelly green.  I had grand ideas for us to create a narwhal  for above the crib out of scraps of wood we already had.  After several tweaks, it turned out pretty cute.  

I drew the narwhal onto some kraft paper to create a template.  Jared, my husband, screwed together strips of plywood we had lying around and then I traced the narwhal shape onto what was now a large surface.  Days later (this is real life, people), he cut out the narwhal using a jig saw.  Several more days after that, we used some stain we already to cover the piece and then distressed it vertically with sandpaper and a hand sander.  I wanted it to look older, like it was found in an old shipping vessel.  

We hung it using a very lightweight and inexpensive picture cleat we found at the Home Depot.  I plan to eventually put Velcro between the cleat pieces because I know how rowdy kids can be in their cribs and don't want this thing coming down to be used as a sword!  

For now, I have a button taped to the head for an eye.  For the longest time I couldn't decide on eye placement and kept moving it around.  Depending on the photograph or image, a narwhal's eyes are pretty low on their heads so I think I will keep it where it's at and glue it down soon (again, this will probably take me months to get to-ha!).  

I searched high and low for some fabric for a crib sheet that mimicked waves but felt somewhat sophisticated.  I had seen Japanese fabrics that looked like handrawn waves but at $17.99 a yard, I knew I could buy a much cheaper sheet than have one made from fabric that expensive.  After almost giving up and then deciding to look at Pottery Barn Kids one more time, I stumbled upon THE PERFECT SHEET on sale for $10 (I had looked at their website a million times and never seen it).  I mean.  I couldn't even buy 2.5yards of fabric for $10 and this was the whole shebang!  That was a happy day.  

The whales even matched the crib color!

I didn't start out to do a nautical nursery.  I really just wanted something that was gender-neutral but still felt like it had personality with some fun quirks.  I planned to combine a little preppiness with some rustic woods and industrial elements to hopefully get something suitable for either a boy or girl.  I think that's happening so far, but after the narwhal went up and the sheet was purchased, it started leaning nautical and I decided to go with it.  I bought some accessories for the room that feel coastal but hopefully aren't too theme-y (more photos to come!).

I will do a whole write-up on the room and show you the rest of the space when it's done... we still have to add a couple of pieces of artwork and hang a different light fixture.  For now, however, this is one of my favorite corners of the room and since it's complete, I thought I would share!  

I wish this were my room now!

xoxo,

Rachel

New in Shop: Fourth of July Banners

I have loved the new customizable pennant garlands in my Etsy shop so much that I decided to do some Fourth of July themed ones.  These make me smile.  

Right now I am offering these 3 pre-made styles, but you can really choose whatever patriotic phrase you want.  For example: "Stars and Stripes", "Old Glory", "USA" etc.

 "Freedom"

 "Happy Fourth" 

 "America"

Stripes, dots and stars.

Stripes, dots and canvas.

Just stripes and dots.

Want more star strips or more canvas?  Just convo me on Etsy and I can basically put it together the way you want it using the materials shown.  

These are so fun and festive!  I want one in every room of my house.

What do you think?  Do you decorate for the Fourth?  Well if not, now you should ;)

Xoxo,
Rachel

Baby Room Progress and Inspiration

These days my life has to be planned out really well and I have to stick to that plan.  I have two preschool-aged kids with a baby on the way, a house in the country that's always covered in dirt, a husband to take care of, a business that takes somewhere from 10-15 hours a week and a wild social life to manage. OK, that last part isn't really true but I do have friends that I want to connect with once in awhile!  Because of all of this though, I am really starting to learn how important it is that I set goals, plan ahead and am focused each day so that I can stay on top of my life and not let it get on top of me.  It's a very interesting balancing act but I do enjoy it.  

Why am I telling you all this?  Mainly because in a long-winded way, it relates to how I make time for special projects around the house.  We have several projects we are trying to tackle slowly but simultaneously so that by the time the baby gets here in the end of September, we are mostly settled and ready for his or her arrival. Starting in September and lasting until January, also happens to be the busiest time of year for my business.  So don't be surprised if you see my listening to Christmas Carols and drawing Christmas designs in mid-July.  I want to be ready for the fall retail boom long before baby comes.

That being said, for this baby, I decided to start getting the nursery ready waaaay early in an effort to not have it be a rush at the end when my business is also taking a lot more of my time than usual.  You may have seen on Instagram that I painted the baby's room in April. 

I was really really pleased with how it turned out and still smile every time I step foot in the room.  I used Bedford Gray by Martha Stewart (in Home Depot's Glidden Duo brand) and I absolutely adored the paint and color.  

Choosing a gray paint for a room can turn into a really tricky task pretty quickly which is why I wrote the post Gray Matters for my friend Lindsay over at Moxie Design Studio. I've linked to it here in case you want to pop over and glean some tips from some of my gray-painting experiences.  

Here's a close-up so you can see how the colors plays with the gray-toned floors, white trim and dark gray curtains.  It's a lot of gray right now but that will be changing soon enough.  

Next on my agenda is to paint our Jenny Lind (think curvy spindles) style bed Kelly Green.  I love a pop of color and I love green so this will be a fun project.  The rest of the room will stay neutral but definitely NOT boring.  My goal is to make it feel sophisticated with a touch of whimsy.  I will use industrial elements (like a sweet bronze and black light fixture), some fun art (I'm loving Narwhals for this room-- do you know they are real creatures?) and some modern & vintage furniture pieces that we already own.  I have a couple other fun ideas up my sleeve as well.  

It should come together nicely and hopefully inexpensively as well.  Looking at the Olioboard I designed, I'm thinking my main expenses for this room will be the paint, lighting and artwork.  Not too shabby.

What's your style when you are painting or decorating a room?  Get it all done in a weekend or slowly over time?  Goodwill and junk finds or Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel?  I'm usually a mix myself.

I'll keep you posted,
Rachel

A fresh coat of paint + a headboard facelift

With a baby on the way at the end of September, we've had to do some switcher-roos around the house.  The guest room will be transforming into the baby's room and my daughter Haven's room now has the "old" guest bed.  

Just a few years ago my husband made that bed for our room.  We lived in a small bungalow at the time and our bedroom was literally not much bigger than the size of a bed.  

We had no room for a dresser so he made this bed for storage.  We used this plan from Ana-White.com and it served us well for a few years.  Originally, we made it with drawers but they were cumbersome and never really worked that well.  So this time around, I decided to pitch the never-completely-finished drawers and have some open storage for baskets and toys for my daughter's room.  I also thought they would be a fun opportunity for a pop of color.  

I decided to paint the cubbies Kelly green and just love how this touch adds some fun in a Kate Spade type of way.  It's happy without being too in-your-face.  Plus, I love green.  All the shades.  All the time.

We made the original headboard and covered it in a gray and yellow damask but wanted to liven it up a little bit for a child.  I like to balance sophisticated with kid-friendly when doing a child's room and was inspired by the Floral Fest fabric from HGTV.  

(Before)

(After redo)

To make the headboard, we simply cut a template out of cardboard and laid it over a sheet of plywood.  My husband used a jigsaw to cut the curves around the template and onto the plywood.  And to be honest, the curves were not even on both sides the first time we did it.  I can't remember if we completely started over or just trimmed them a little.  I think if we would have taken our time a little more, it would have come out perfect the first time.  Oh well.  

But I love how it looks now.

Also, this headboard has a funny story with it from when I was covering it in the gray and yellow damask oringally.  That fabric had a repeat that could only go in one direction.  Meaning the 54" width of the fabric was just slightly too narrow to cover the 60" wide piece of plywood.  I couldn't use the length of the bolt because the birds on the fabric ran in a certain direction and they would be sideways if I did.  So I had to use an old white curtain to cover the edges and create a border so the fabric could go the way I needed it to.  It turned out fine but this time around I made sure to grab a fabric that could look right in any direction!    

After my fabric fiasco back in the day, I got the brilliant idea to use nail head trim around the edges of the headboard. It turned out to be a nightmare because I could not, for the life of me, get the silly nail heads hammered in. It was maddening and they were getting all bent and ruined.  

So I did what normal people do, I sat on the floor and cried.  

And then I thought to myself, "Rachel, you never cry over decorating dilemmas, maybe you are pregnant".  Two minutes later, I popped into the bathroom, took a test, and much to my surprise, I WAS!  

So it's only fitting Haven would get to sleep near this headboard after all the trauma it caused me three years ago.  :)

This time around, covering the headboard literally took me 20 minutes.  I had learned from my mistakes, bought a fabric that was easy to manage and didn't try to do any fancy trim.  I simply used a staple-gun to staple the fabric over the existing fabric and batting.  It's just like recovering the cushion on a chair.  Simple.  

I'm pleased with how it all turned out, but honestly, I'm still not totally settled on the headboard fabric.  It's a little crazier than I wanted for her room, but it had the colors I hoped for (kelly green and coral) and it fit my other fabric requirements.  Plus, with two kids and one on the way, I don't have the time or energy to go all over town or scour the internet for "the perfect thing", which I usually find out doesn't exist anyway.

There's no such thing as perfection, right?    

I want to paint the walls a light coral and add a chair, accessories, and wall art to her room.  We bought a used dresser a few weeks ago that needs new knobs... I'm excited to share that with you too.  

It's probably going to take me awhile to get this room finished.  I'm trying to get creative budget-wise and I also have a baby room to work on at the same time.  But as I work, I will show you what I do.  Fingers crossed it's done by September!  

Until next time,

Rachel

A wreath + a fun tutorial

I love black and white stripes.  Probably a little too much.

As I thought about it, there are a lot of black and white stripes in my house:

{Ikea throw}

{Ikea bowls}

{Target crock, from two years ago}

And I just bought eight knobs for an armoire that are black and white striped.  I love how classic they feel and how they go with anything.  They are charming and a little vintage but bold and modern.  Basically everything I love together in one stripey-adorable-contrasty-way.

I made a wreath for our kitchen.  And of course, it was black and white stripes.  It actually took me awhile to come to this conclusion but once I did, it was like the seas parted and I knew it would be *perfect* in the space I had planned.

So, I wrapped some yarn around a straw wreath form.  For hours & hours.  It took me longer than expected.  But it's easy, inexpensive and striking-- so hey, it's a win!  I didn't include a tutorial for this part because it's basically holding and wrapping and most people have made a yarn wreath by now and know the jist of it.

But I did try something new this time.  I figured out how to make pom poms and stuck a bunch in the middle.

I adore the whimsy of the poms.  They are so fun and cute, and again, easy and inexpensive.

I made a quick video tutorial for you to see:

They take about 3 minutes to make.

If you need more details, this is an awesome and very detailed tutorial on pom poms. The only thing I do differently is use my fingers instead of the cardboard. I like them this way because you don't need any fancy equipment.  Just your hand, scissors and yarn.  The poms I made come out to about 1.5" in diameter.  But wrap the yarn around more or less fingers for a bigger or smaller pom.

Also, if you want a long string to hang them by, just make sure the string you use to tie the middle is long (you can always cut it off later if you change your mind or need it shorter).

I ended up having so much fun with pom poms that I added them to many Christmas gifts this year instead of bows.  I found that they looked good on the men's gifts with the cabin-ey wrap I had.

But there is all sorts of uses for poms (garland, anyone?).  So give it a whirl and see what you come up with. If you are on Instagram, tag me in your pom posts :)

With love and poms,
Rachel