Accessories in the Boys Room

I've decided to keep working on the boys room.  It seems like it's easy to get distracted while decorating the house, and lots of things get partially done.  But I've noticed this trend and am going to finish rooms this year.

 Since my last painting post:

I added some race car pictures I put in inexpensive Wally frames,  sewed the bolster pillow out of old blue curtains and white curtains.   (I got the chevron pillows from this great Etsy shop)

 Just cut the fabric into strips, and traced a circle from an embroidery hoop for the ends and sewed it together, then stuffed with batting.  I had leftover red trim from an old project I found in my fabric stash.

Then on the west wall, I found this great framed cork board at TJ's, which fit this poster we already had of our favorite basketball player.

Jimmer!  

I re-arranged the old art in the room, and finally hung up these hooks I've had under the bed since we moved in.  I was up banging it into the wall at 9:30pm. The boys were thinking it was so great mom was in their room after bedtime, the husband- not so much:-) lol.  Sometimes I have to get projects done while I have the motivation to do it! 

Boys' Room Painted Headboards

Though this room is far from finished, I got the painting done and wanted to show y'all!  

 (I'm not from TX but sometimes wish I was:)

My boys are 5 and 2, and so once the 2 year old outgrows the crib (hopefully that won't happen soon), his bed will mirror his brothers'.  

Before:  

When we first moved in.

AFTER:

(updated 1/23/12)

So here's my painted headboards!  First I painted the wall red, that took 5 coats, then  used my level and I cut my own diamond shape out of card stock and traced the pattern on to the wall.  Then I hand painted about 100 white diamonds, using 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of white gloss paint.  I taped around the edges to get a nice white border.  I painted the matching headboard for when my toddler gets big enough for a "big boy bed."

Window Wall View:

I've had the lamp for awhile (from Marshalls), but got some blue ribbon on some christmas presents, and so I used sticky dots to wrap it around the lampshade and tied the ribbon ends together in the back to hold it on.  
I ordered the chevron pillows on Etsy.   I got the duvet cover from IKEA, (I don't think it's available anymore:( )

 I love the pillow combination in this photo, so I'll be adding a bolster and standard sham soon.  (Luckily my 5 year old likes his things "just so" and makes his bed just like I like it so I know he can handle 3 pillows)

Budget Friendly Projects to work on for this room:
*Buy blue standard shams for each bed, saw some at PB kids.
*Sew a blue and white stripe bolster pillow
*Toying with the idea of a roman shade with a white ribbon or greek key detail...(the window treatment now is a flat sheet bunched up with ponytail holders on the back and safety pinned around the curtain rod.)
*Artwork for over the dresser in simple white frames.
*A simple moulding to trim out the headboards.

Wishlist:
*Board and batten for the room.
*Get a new dresser- thinking of a red one from IKEA or one with a dark walnut finish. (to replace this cheapy we've had forever from Target.)

This project even got the hubby's approval:-)

Stencil it up (DIY Laundry Room)

 Countless hours and many nap times and bedtimes later, I finally finished painting my laundry room!

BEFORE: missing pizazz

AFTER:

All stenciled and framed the chalkboard.

  I didn't want to spend $40 on a stencil, so I got some tag board from the dollar store, and used items around the house to create my own stencil.  

To get a nice curve I traced a bowl (then decided on a cup since the bowl was too large).

I folded my tagboard in half first, so that when I cut it the sides would be identical.

 I opened it up and then folded it in half width wise to get the bottom to mirror the top.

With the red stencil, you can see the level horizontal line I drew and overlapped the stencil by 1 1/2" inches to create the pattern.

I tried using the outer part, thinking I would tape it to the wall and paint inside it, but the paint totally got under the stencil, so I ended up tracing the stencil where I wanted it, and using my level and ruler, and traced it out on the whole wall.  (then I had to erase a bit after painting)

Then came the painting.....  each one took about 3 coats of paint, using a small brush.

On all the walls for the background I used Sherwin Williams' Watery.  (I first tried out SW "Rainwashed," but it was too gray under the fluorescent lights).

I was going to use the next color up on the paint chip, Tidewater, and I wanted a little bit more of a contrast, so for the stencil shape I used a custom color (I hate it when bloggers do that:)

  which was just a bit lighter than Tidewater, but not as light as the next shade up.  So the SW clerk entered in a Manual Tidewater color.

I'm so glad the painting is finally done, now I get to decorate the walls and work on the other side of the laundry room.

Linking up to:
Strut Your Stuff Saturday at  Six Sister's Stuff
Modern Country Style Paint Party

Office Graphic Wall

This is a wall in our office/craftroom/library!

To see the whole office go HERE.

I would have done wallpaper or paint but since this is not "my" house I had to come up with a different, less permanent way.... So after searching through stores I found this heavy duty WRAPPING PAPER! $3 a roll! It also had to be wide enough so the frames wouldn't overlap the edges.

How-To: So at the top I folded over the edge of the paper and put thumb tacks through. The fold hides the thumb tacks. It worked great, ABOVE: I've pulled out the paper so you could see.

It still needed a bit more to make the paper lay completely flat so I bought BLUE paint and PAINTED the thumb tacks and stuck them along the top and sides. Crazy I know! You can't even see them! I also put a tack on each side at the bottom.

This is a frame from IKEA, I never liked it black so I painted it white. I was lucky enough to find an un-damaged one there too.


I also found these lamps in the AS-IS at Ikea, I can't even tell that something is wrong with them. They were $2.99! Taking a page out of Laurens book I added some ruffled fabric around the bottom of the lamp shade.

We just love to sit here and read and study.

If I ever want to change out the "wallpaper" for a different color I can always go to the party store ;).