Baby Room: Before & After

Guess I missed WIWW again... oops! Maybe next week? :)

Super excited to get new bedroom carpet installed today, even if it means our house is now littered with bedroom furniture and crap. Over the last few months, we've finally gotten around to fixing up our room, so I'll show it off after the carpet's in... and every thing's back in order... maybe a week or two? :)

In the mean time, the baby room is really starting to come together. Which is a good thing considering we only have 4 weeks to go, if that!

So incase you missed the "true" before, you can see it here. But here are a few of the clean befores:

And the afters:

You can read more about hanging the moulding here and the not-so-great paint experience here. It was hard to find curtains in the right length without having to special order, but we finally found these brown ones on sale at Pier 1. Will be perfect for blocking out the afternoon sun!

LOVE this curtain rod from Lowe's. J thought it was a little girlie at first, but he likes it now that it's up.

J also hung the new ceiling fan (Lowe's again... I think we're paying their electric bill...) in place of the crappy gold flushmount.

And also hung a new light fixture over the sink. Guess where we got it?

Still need to paint the bathroom (probably just a brighter shade of white), but it's starting to look cute. And most of the accessories for the bathroom? Baby shower gifts from Target!

So the Potterybarn towels I ordered don't exactly match, but I still like them. Maybe I'll just stick them back for when baby's older...

Still loving the crib my parents bought us and the Target bedding (geez, maybe we're paying their electric bill, too!).

Added the little sheep rug...

And the vinyl tree from Babies r' Us.

We flanked each side of the crib with storage cubes from IKEA and storage boxes from various places for books and toys.

Still need to get the dresser upstairs, which we'll also use as the changing table, and I need to finish his letters and pillows. Also have some other adorable baby shower goodies to put out, too. Overall, I think it's pretty darn cute, and it's fun to finally see it come together!

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

Creative Bloggers Party & Hop @ Homemaker on a Dime

Before & After Party @ Thrifty Decor Chick

Remodelabolic's Anonymous @ Remodelaholic

Friday Favs Party @ Nap Time Crafters

DIY Project Parade @ DIY Show Off

TGIF

I'm sad I missed linking up to WIWW this week, but I'll just add the photos to next time. Baby caused a little excitement over the last few days ~ some really nice contractions and mucho uncomfortableness. While I guess he's decided to stay put, it did give us a chance to practice our breathing techniques, and I got some awesome back rubs :)

With just five weeks to go, this cartoon definitely sums up my thoughts right about now...

We've got some of the details up in the baby room, so I'll share over the weekend. Happy Friday!

Gallery Wall

I can finally mark one of the projects off my "Forgotten Projects" list. Back in October, I started the gallery wall that I was super excited about... then completely forgot about it until a month or so ago. Okay, okay, so I didn't really forget ~ more like I shut one eye every time I walked past the half-complete project. And then, when the frames started falling off the wall, I decided it was time to just finish the darn thing.

So, we have a huge blank wall between the bedrooms upstairs. I always thought it would make a cool frame wall. My first attempt? Not so great.

Yeah, a little pathetic. And it made me realize the vast size of the wall. It was going to take a little inspiration to fill that sucker. I found this spread in the Potterybarn catalog and fell in love.

I just love the mixture of frames and random objects. So, I went around collecting random frames. Some from a Garden Ridge sale...

...some from the Target clearance section...

...and a few that I saved from the trash at work.

I also wanted to incorporate some random stuff, so I just starting laying it all out on the floor and included a couple of small cabinet doors I found at the Habitat Restore awhile back. I did measure the wall between the light switch and the AC control so I'd know how much space I had to work with.

After several rounds of arranging and rearranging, I came up with something I liked:

I even found a use for the black shelf I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby a year ago. The hard part: getting everything from the floor to the wall. J was out for the day, so I was a little scared to start hammering. He's usually the one to perfectly measure everything, and make sure it's all even and aligned. But I figured I could manage. The first nail is always the hardest, right?

I measured and leveled each one as I went along, but of course I got off at certain points. I even thought I'd be smart and use the sticky tape that says it'll hold a frame on the wall so I wouldn't have to contend with the little double-eye hooks on the back of several frames. And I got to a stopping point before I thought I was going to go cross-eyed.

Not bad, huh? Even J was impressed when he got home. And then it sat. For weeks. And months. And then the frames that were up with the sticky strips began to slowly fall off the wall. Seriously, I'd almost pee my pants in the middle of the night 'cause I'd hear a horrifying crashing sound. Luckily only one frame broke, and I never really wet the bed.

I digress.

Fast forward to several weeks ago. I was sooo tired of looking at it and stepping over the mess in the hall, that I just picked up a hammer, some nails and went at it. Because I was pretty frustrated with it at this point, I didn't take any pics. But I ended up using wire to hang the frames with the double-hooks. No measuring tape this time, no level ~ just me, a stepstool and a hammer. The result?

Not exactly the pattern I had planned, but I like it. I even included a clock we got as a wedding gift years ago that I could never quite find the right spot for in this house. I'll eventually paint the small cabinet doors, and I still need to re-mat some of the frames. Oh, and select pictures!

But I do think it fills up the wall nicely, and it gives you something to look at as you're walking up the stairs.

Once again, the before:

And the after:

At least it's {almost} done!

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table & Dreaming

DIY Project Parade @ The DIY Show Off

Creative Bloggers Party & Hop @ Homemaker on a Dime

Accessorizing Baby's Room

Now that the baby room is moulded and painted, it's finally time to start adding all of the cute, fun stuff {that baby probably won't even notice or care about for years}, like:

...this cute cow rocker from Restoration Hardware. J grew up on a dairy farm, so we have to include cows somewhere!

...the hippo and frog towels I ordered from Potterybarn Kids {on sale, had a 10% off coupon, and I got free shipping!}. And is it sad I'm scared to take them out of the plastic? Maybe white towels weren't such a good idea for a baby!

...some chocolate brown curtains to help block the intense sun that pours in during the afternoon.

...and a cute curtain rod.

...can't forget new light fixtures.

...and fun storage baskets.

...wall art, too. I got a vinyl tree on sale at Babies R Us {I had a giftcard ~ thanks sis!} so hopefully it's as cute up as it is on the box.

...and a mobile for the crib. Why is it so hard to choose a mobile? I either like the top or the bottom, rarely both. But I think these two are sweet:

...and then there's the bathroom. Luckily, thanks to my wonderful work peeps, I have most of the cute bathroom stuff already. Just need to get it cleaned and painted.

I also have a neat idea for these Hobby Lobby letters I found on clearance awhile back.

Seems like a lot to do in the next seven weeks ... but the fun stuff always goes fast, right? :)

WIWW: Preggo Edition

Another edition of WIWW. If you're a new reader (welcome!), then you can catch up on all the fun here. Basically, working from home most days kept me in a pajama-clad funk. Then, I found Lindsey's blog and was totally inspired by her and the large group of ladies who join in each week. So check out her blog and start linking up! ;)

As for me, I'm kind of bummed that many of the wonderful comments from last week's WIWW post disappeared in the Blogger meltdown. Mainly because I don't really have anything cute to share this week, and you guys were so sweet last week. Although, I did find a couple of cute dresses at Target over the weekend that hopefully I'll put to good use soon!

Working from home / running errands

maternity sweater ~ gift from mom

maternity jeans ~ Motherhood Maternity

silver flops ~ Old Navy

More errands

green tank ~ Target

brown cardi ~ Kohls

same maternity jeans

brown flop wedges ~ Walmart ($3!)

Weekend of cleaning / more darn errands

blue maternity tee ~ borrowed

white tank ~ Target

wow, are those the same maternity jeans?!

Office meetings

white sweater ~ Ann Taylor Outlet

brown tank ~ Target

brown maternity pants ~ Kohls

coral sandals ~ Old Navy

gold & coral earrings ~ Target (new)

When Paint Goes Wrong

...terribly wrong. I'm talking attack you like a glowing Smurf wrong. It was supposed to be lucky #17. Yep, that's right, I tested 17 different colors on the wall. And #17? Had me swooning. I had already decided I wanted a brownish tan on the bottom, and loved Glidden's Olivewood. And I thought #17 was the perfect, airy blue to go with it. I mean it was called, after all, Mount Airy.

Boy, was I wrong.

J took Wednesday off to paint the baby room while I was at work. He called a little after lunch to say the brown looked awesome, but he wasn't sure about the blue. I told him to stop and wait until I got home and looked at it. Then he sent me a picture and said it was drying fine -- and from the picture, it did look fine. So he kept going.

And when I got home at 5? I was greeted with a nervous husband. I asked him what's wrong. "It's glowing," he said. I didn't have to go far upstairs before I could see what he meant. It was literally glowing, like a house for Smurfs. Or Thomas the Train. And I burst out laughing. Laughing. Not exactly the reaction J was hoping for. I felt bad, considering he'd spent his whole day off painting, but it was better than crying, right?

We went back and forth on what to do. I hated the idea of him repainting, but not sure I could live with it. J wasn't in the mood to repaint, but frustrated he didn't just stop. What was amazing was that the color was perfect with the light on. Gorgeous.

But with the light off? There aren't words. And pictures hardly capture the "glow"...

How could one paint look so different?! I guess it wouldn't have been that bad if we hadn't done the ceiling, too. And, the darker it got outside, the darker the room became, even with the light on. I told J I'd do whatever he wanted, and I think he knew I really wanted to do it over. So, we grabbed some dinner and headed to Lowe's to pick out new paint.

We each grabbed sample chips we liked -- me grabbing blues, J grabbing greens (at this point he decided that maybe I didn't like blue... I started to think so myself...), and narrowed it down to two greens and two blues. We got the samples home and on the wall, and I quickly decided on Valspar's Cool Sheets, a light blue with a hint of mint. J was hesitant, but wanted to get it done that night. So, we went back to Lowe's and got the Valspar with Primer in eggshell, and it thankfully covered that blue mess.

Poor J stayed up until 2 a.m. repainting that room. I didn't get a good look at it until the next day, and I looooved it. J was even glad he repainted. And that it was all done before his fishing tournament Thursday night. {Priorities, right?}

I'm super happy with how it all turned out, despite the double money spent in paint. {Note to self: when J says use a certain brand, use a certain brand. The cheap stuff? Glows.}

Excited to finally starting pulling together all the final -- and fun! -- touches over the next few weeks. Maybe we'll actually get done before baby! ;)

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

DIY Project Parade @ The DIY Show Off

Remodelaholic's Anonymous @ Remodelaholic

Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Sunday Showcase Party @ Under the Table & Dreaming