Ella's Big Girl Room

I've been wanting to post pictures of Ella's room for awhile now, but I was waiting for it to be 100% done. We are still working on creating a cushion and pillows for her window seat (it's huge!), we need to switch her dresser with a taller, white dresser in Maxwell's room, and my mother in law is making some beautiful lace balls to hang with the poms she did in the bay window. But it's a lazy, rainy day so I'm posting the room as is.

I use a Canon Powershot, a simple point and shoot, but something is funky with the setting because all my pictures are coming out really grainy and kind of blurry?

 Click here for the 'before pictures'

Ella's Big Girl Room...

Paint- Sherwin Williams Front Porch, it's really pretty pale gray
 

This was the big window seat I got Mike to build. He did such a good job, this puppy is huge! See how we can tuck all her junk  treasures underneath? We lost floor space but Ella spends lots of time playing on top. This has become her favorite spot to play dollhouse. It will be super comfy once we finish the cushion.

 

The bed frame is a Craigslist find from Gma Judie, painted white.

Little details...
An old window painted white and embellished with liquid chalk. We can draw and erase. She's really into Tinkerbell right now so we've got a quote from Peter Pan. 

I love this wall. My mother in law had these old frames for me. They were spray painted an antiqued white. The prints were either etsy or free printables via pinterest. 

Ella's bedding is my favorite part. I found it two summer's ago and tucked it away for her big girl room. Target's Rachel Ashwell shabby chic bedding.

My girl popping in to ask me why I'm taking pictures in her room.

Craigslist night stand.

Cuite pie.

Favorite, faithful horse.

Fabric bunting, etsy, here.

Free vintage printable via pinterest, here

Other etsy prints found, here, here, and here

I wasn't ready to tuck this suit away. I used hot glue over fabric in a frame and displayed it over a photo of Ella wearing the same suit at the beach.

That's it! Wish my camera wasn't so blurry.

Ella's Room, In Progress

Mike's bringing my vision of Ella's room to life. I love how the paint color turned out. The pretty, pale gray is such a contrast to the chocolate walls that were there before (the color is Sherwin Williams, Front Porch). The window seat looks so nice! He's just about done, then we work on putting everything back in. I looked at fabric yesterday for a seat cushion. It'll all come together soon :)

Mike's helpers.

Just like Daddy, a headlamp and safety goggles.

The detail up close looks really good...you'll see when it's all done. Mike even put in the hinges that don't slam, it's so nice!

A Big Girl Room For Ella

It's dumb ridiculous how excited I get to decorate my kid's rooms. Maybe because our master bedroom hasn't been done yet, so their rooms feel like an affordable, tangable way to update the house? Ella's room is currently emptied out and I sold her crib on Craigslist this morning (yes, my 3 year olds still sleep in their cribs converted to toddler beds. maxwell's is for sale as well but hasn't been sold yet. which is ok because he does NOT like change and he's having a hard time liking the idea of a big boy bed).

I was in such a hurry to take everything out to start painting, I didn't take before pictures. But here are pictures of the room as the twins nursery, which then evolved to a room full of toddler stuff. The only main change was the crib dropped and side taken off. Plus lots more toys and books. And we obviously took Maxwell's bed out when we remodeled his room, photos here.

This time around I'm loving whites and soft grays. Kind of shabby chic, but not overkill. These are my inspiration photos. Is this boring to read? I'm partly posting this so I can look back and remember my taste. Hopefully it won't change too much. In actuality, this is probably my last time I get control over decorating my daughter's room. Seeing as it is her room, I expect she'll have her own ideas next time. As she should.

Anyway, I think these two rooms are so, so, pretty.

found here

found here

Next, I've always wanted to see a window seat in her beautiful bay windows. I have this vision of my little girl leaning against pillows and daydreaming out her window...flash forward 13 years and I see her teenage body sprawled across the seat, laying on her tummy doing algebra. But mostly, it's what I don't see...I want to HIDE as many of those toys as I can. Ella has a teeny closet, not much room for storage so I'm excited for Mike to make a window bench, kind of like this.

I found her bedding at Target on clearence last summer. I've been saving it for her big girl room.

Over the past six months (literally) I've been pinning sweet prints off etsy. I let Ella look at all of them and she chose four. Here are two of them.

found here

found here

 I have the perfect bathing suit she's outgrown to do this...

found here

 We'll see how it all turns out. Once the paint and window bench are done, we can have fun decorating. It's so fun watching her get excited about her 'big girl room.' At least I think she's excited. I know I am :)

Max's Big Boy Room

Finally...pictures of Maxwell's big boy room. Click here to see more pictures like this of what the room looked like before.

BEFORE

It was pretty much an ugly guest room with his crib in it. My vision for this room came from two things: This special picture of Maxwell's great grandpa 'Papa.'

And these awesome $5.00 school desks that I found on craigslist. Using those as my starting point, I scoured the pages of Restoration Hardware, Ohdeedoh, and got some great tips from my friend J. The room has been done for awhile but I waited to post pictures because it's not completely done. Sometime soon he'll move into a real bed, but until then...here's Maxwell's big boy schoolhouse/airplane room.

My talented husband built this incredible chalkboard for us. He used sheet metal because I insisted that I wanted the space to be magnetic so we could hang cool things  like these flashcards (bummer they sold!), or use the wall to display the kids art work.

I gathered  pictures of each of Max's great grandfathers to put this wall together. I love the idea of using special family pictures to inspire him. He can gaze up and see these amazing men as football players, pilots, fishermen, and entrepreneurs. Who knows what path he'll choose...

My Uncle David helped me find the picture of Papa in front of the jet and these others above Maxwell's bed. I love that he can fall sleep looking at the plane flying above him.

Framed pictures of Maxwell and his brother and sisters.

I LOVE how it turned out. I wanted it to look 'vintage schoolhouse/ old airplanes,' but mostly, to reflect things that Maxwell thinks are cool. He loves showing off his room. Both of the kids have space to play and the desks and chalk board are such a fun way to keep them creative.

Desks clearly cleaned up for a photo opp...it's usually a beautiful mess of paper and crayons.

Closet shelves and doors to go up next. Pretend you don't see all the 'stuff.'

Room details that I can remember:
Paint- Sherwin Williams, French Gray
All frames and lamp- Target (thanks for browsing the clearance shelves Mom!)
Airplane Shelf- Yard sale, saved and painted by Gma J
Chalk board- Sheet metal glued to MDF, painted with chalkboard paint, created and framed by my Mike
Hanging airplane- Ross, found by Aunt T
Clip boards- Staples
Rocking chair- craigslist
Desks- craigslist
Dresser- family handmedown

To be continued with...updated knobs for the dresser, and a closet door and shelves.

I linked here.

The Grass Is Greener...In My Front Yard!

We have a new lawn! I'm so excited for the babies to have somewhere to play outside. OK, it's not like we can throw out the Slip 'N Slide yet, but it's a new place they can roll around on. A little side note about our new lawn, true story...

Early this morning all the neighborhood dogs were barking. I started to get annoyed and kept thinking 'PLEASE don't wake the babies up.' Our dog Sadie started barking louder and I got chills when I heard a man's voice outside our window. My heart began pounding out of my chest as I clearly heard footsteps outside. I turned to wake Mike and as I rolled over I saw a man in a white shirt opening the french doors to our bedroom. I SCREAMED. Mike jumped out of bed, delirious but ready to defend. It was Troy, our next door neighbor and one of our best friends. I let the air out of my lungs and assumed he had been on a long date with Sierra Nevada. However, he actually came to get Mike because another neighbor's cows escaped and they were in our front yard. He didn't want them on our fresh sod. He really should run for mayor.

As the guys went outside I laid in bed and shook my head. I thought to myself:

A. My husband knows how to heard cattle?
B. Seriously? I live in a place where cows cruise my front yard?
C. I thought I was about to be attacked and honestly, all I really cared about was the babies waking up. It would have been a pisser to have to put them back down again.

Anyway, here's the beautiful lawn:

Here's the before:

Changes

Feels like lots of changes...and no changes all at the same time. Tomorrow I would normally be starting back to work. Tonight I would be thinking about certain students, knowing their circumstances, and wondering how things went for them over break. But instead I'm at home lying on the couch or in bed. I'm glad because my body is tired when I'm out- it's just a weird feeling. I hope I can continue with this type of bed rest. I'm still allowed out for a couple hours a day. I know other people who were (Mom) on bed rest literally could not leave their bed. I am appreciative that so far I still have freedom to move in moderation.



We rang in the New Year the best way I could imagine. Out to dinner for burgers and fries, and in bed to watch TV by 9:00. What a difference a year makes. New Years was my birthday. The big 28, and Mike and I had an awesome day. I used my allotted time out of the house and we toured our two local hospitals. We felt good about both of them. It gave me this unbelievable feeling of, 'This is really happening.' We went out to lunch and Mike spent the rest of the day relaxing with me. It was good to have company on the couch :)



Our remodel is progressing. Below are pictures of Little Maegann's room finished. The photos don't show just how cute it is. I'm telling you...CUTE! And the floors are beautiful! Click for a reminder of the before pics.

Below is Meg's old room...the new nursery. Here are before pictures. Can't wait until this room takes shape. We're painting it brown and white. It's going to be so stinking cute.