Commonly asked questions in pregnancy at this stage:

Do you have a name?

YES! We have a name, and no we are not telling.

Have you bought a lot of baby stuff?

Not really. A crib at ikea. I think it’s so cute. Some little things, a hat, burp cloths, books, a onesie, a diaper bag.

Do you feel him kick?

Oh yes! Often!

I first came up with the design for baby boy’s room a few months ago when I wasn’t feeling so great. It was a great way to keep me entertained.

I pulled fabrics from Amy Butler, paint color, furniture, and some existing pieces in, to create this mood board:

1. Paper lanterns and accent puffs, also wall color (but not striped)

2. Baby boys crib, this is the actual crib that we purchased!

3. Cute owls from etsy or somewhere.

4. Curtains, also Ikea, this might change.

5. A white dresser that will double as a changing table.

6. Rug, the actual one we purchased!

And now, the fabrics have shifted, based on what’s really available in my town, and that’s okay too.

My friend Lauren helped me pick out some fabrics in blue and orange at a nearby fabric store, that will be used as a crib skirt, possibly curtains and maybe a crib bumper. She also helped me with the ever-so daunting task of picking out paint colors, I’m just no good in this category, at least not yet.

I’ve tried to also design the lay out of baby boy’s room with it trying to double as a guest bedroom, but I’m having little luck getting things to look the way I want on paper, and let’s be honest, it will all change anyway once we get everything into his room and what’s most practical.

So what do you think? Blue and Orange? Does it work?

First of all, I love peacock blue. I just do. I think it’s fantastic paired with green or orange. That’s why, when I saw this room, my heart leapt a little.

I bet you can’t even guess where this one came from. Okay, absolutely right, Young House Love. This is their guest bedroom that they put together in like a weekend (ridiculous!). I love it though.

What do I love?

• I love the peacock blue, duh.
• The yellow and lime green
• The contrast of the white trim to the blue
• The curtains (did I mention we bought a pack of these?)
• The rug.
• Those pillows with rosettes

The shorter question to answer would have been, what don’t I love?

• well I can’t think of
• a
• single
• thing.

So there you go. I would have photographed our bedroom, but it’s currently under piles of laundry, and wanted to spare you from that.

But here’s what we’re working with.

A blue bedspread:

Navy & White accents. Pillows, etc.

With my gradmother’s furniture in a deep brown.

And not-matching at all greenish end tables from the 70s, that we picked up from good will.

I’m thinking, while the above room would have been fabulous, some of our furniture (the pieces we’re not changing or painting may just be way too formal).

However, maybe one accent peacock blue wall, and surrounding lighter blue or grey walls (coordinating with the peacock) might just do the trick.

I’m thinking this room, also.. you guessed it, Young House Love, that I posted earlier in the week could take it in a more appropriate direction for the current furniture peices, and I can accent with peacock and green. What are your thoughts? Let me know you stopped by! I love hearing from you!

Oh and while I’m praising them. I love that they have a inspiration napkin. I need an inspiration napkin. This is theirs.

I think mine would be similar, but would have to have orange and yellow, too. I’m getting there.

So, you might remember from a month ago, this post about my living room, and I made mention that we would be making some changes. I guess I just didn’t expect the changes to be so dramatic (this is what almost-floor-to-ceiling curtains can do for you!)

So, the photos, if you will recall…

house tour: living room, view from the stairs

house tour: living room, another angle

house tour: living room, view from the dining room

I mean, if I was as jazzy as Young House Love, I would definitely have BEFORE emblazoned on these pictures, but instead, I don’t, so you’ll have to settle, for just the “progress” pictures. Which I just LOVE. I love that Young House Love, did I mention I love this blog, does not but before & after, rather, before & progress. That’s so much more like it, so much more realistic.

A brief run down on what we added/changed from the before pictures:

Curtains (probably the most obvious), we already had one pack of the curtains, and picked up the second pack for a mere $15 at ikea.

A cushy chair (our first ever!) finally! Also purchased at ikea. $99 for the chair, and $30 for the slip cover. So worth it.

A so cute dish-towel, cloth thing from antropologie in that frame made by my talented brother-in-law, and the cloth was gifted to us by our sweet friend Lauren, initially for baby’s room because of it’s orange!

A floor lamp: also from, you guessed it, ikea, stand and shade, were only $35 together, you simply can’t beat it!

Raising the blinds: free! Ever since we’ve lived here I’ve wanted more sunlight to stream through our windows, and since we have a lovely, lovely wrap around porch, it’s mostly shaded, so I wanted to maximize the sunlight!

An end table: Also free. I’m a big fan of having places to put your drink down in comfort and reach. The table was in our back bedroom that will soon be converted to Jer’s office. We’ve had it for a long long while, originally purchased at a thrift store.

Oh and just for a more realistic, unvacummed, uncluttered glimpse, this is more like what it looks like on the daily:

I mean, am I into blue & green & yellow right now or what – my laptop cover & even my scissors match. Ye-owza!

What about you, what are you up to in & around your home?

It’s been awhile since I last posted. Forgive me. I went on a wonderful vacation with Jer to Asheville and Charlotte. We arrived back from Charlotte with a car-load of ikea goodness on Friday night! We’ve been easing back into life in Wilmington, slowly but surely.

On Sunday, we assembled our ikea patio furniture – we LOVE it! It’s perfect. And our tree that refused to grow one leaf while the others around it were blossoming, now gives full shade to our entire patio. It will be perfect for those hot summer days, what am I saying, it’s perfect now!

We also put up curtains in our living room & bedroom, oh wowee! How amazing the difference it made! I was giddy when I noticed the difference between our before and after pictures!

We also put in new curtain rods in our bedroom (and are currently borrowing baby boy’s curtains) till we get some of our own for our bedroom. I’m now obsessing with wall color for our bedroom. I was once thinking grey, but now I’m thinking peacock blue! I’m also wondering about these curtains for our room, we have one set, and might add another, it would be wild, but it would be worth it!

I’m in total love with this room from Young House Love, and their style in almost every click. It’s inspired me to start planning ahead.

In fact, this week, I have planned out for you. Something to look forward to!

Monday: this overview of inspiration

Tuesday: our living room, a tale of 2 packs of curtains

Wednesday: our bedroom, and the possibility of peacock blue

Thursday: baby boys room and how it will double as a guest room!

Friday: our patio transformation

I’m thankful to be inspired! That’s what vacation does for ya, whisps ya away, allows you to breathe, and brings in lots of fresh ideas! In case you missed my obnoxious (well, to some) posterous updates – here they are in chronological order:

1. Asheville Round-Up

2. A 5 hour ikea trip

Looking forward to this week!

A few weeks before Jeremy and I moved out of the OC, this beauty appeared by the dumpster. Well, it wasn’t exactly the prettiest thing in the world, but it did appear to be a good storage unit for items like…. hm, laundry detergent? We took it in, knowing that if we didn’t end up using it, it could just go back out to the dumpster. (in the image shown below the doors had been removed as it was being prepped for painting)

So, again, we grabbed the white paint, and some hardware from anthropologie, and started the renovation.

In our new place, we are blessed to have a beautiful laundry room, and especially with our new front loaders, it’s a wonder that I don’t just move right into that room.

Behind those doors are extra laundry detergent, stain remover (aka dish detergent), extra dryer sheets, and some other miscellaneous items. Hid quite well. The anthro hardware finishes the piece nicely, as well as a single roll of wrapping paper from AC Moore for the backing.

This project is complete in less than $20!

A few weeks ago, my mom asked me if I wanted this chair:

I knew it well, I think I even covered the seat years ago when we first got it. But, it no longer fit within my parent’s decorating scheme, so she wanted it to find a new home! I rarely turn down free furniture!

I gathered up a few supplies, white paint, some fabric, & a staple gun,  & got to work, here is the outcome:

I think it looks good in white, with the ikea fabric. it’s a fun little addition to our living room. Now, if only a few more chairs or perhaps a chaise lounge would be donated our way.

I have been fascinated with chalkboard paint, I had to go get some, and paint something. I’ve had my eye on this door for quite some time, but just now, took the time to get the paint, the brushes, and I got to work!

The idea was to create a menu board for meal planning, I’ve tried using a picture frame that you wipe off, but in reality this hasn’t happened, it became too cumbersome to googone off the sharpie from the previous week’s meals, so I stopped meal planning.

Here are the project before and afters…

before

after!

This also gives you a sneak peak at our new home! More pictures to come!

Check out this screen window that I am using to hold my earrings and necklaces. I truly love the way it turned out. It’s like, my jewelry became my art work for this wall, I love dual purpose decor!

Before:

In process:

And after:

I’ve been so inspired lately by the before & afters I’ve found all over the blogosphere, that I decided I must create my own. Maybe it’s spring that brought this out in me.

The first one involves this desk, which was found on the side of the road here in beautiful Wilmington, NC. It went through a transformation, and I even got to repurpose the drawers.

Here are some before’s:

and in process:

Then, the somewhat finished (somewhat because I still really need to add storage to where the drawers used to be) product in a robin’s egg blue:

Then, the next project was these drawers:

Before:

And After: