Girly Bedrooms

There is nothing more fun (to me) than getting to design and create fun spaces for my kids! 

I am luck enough to have been able to create 3 different spaces for my kids... so far!

Today I thought I would feature Mckenna and Norah's rooms... I really love them! 

Yes, I realize I am biased! Ha!

First up is Norah's Room!

When I was pregnant with her I had envisioned a room that was soft and light. A direct opposite of Mckenna's bright and vibrant room. Here is her room:

Light Purple, Soft Grey and White

I made the mobile hanging in the corner/center of the room.

 I will be posting a little "how to" about that in the coming weeks!

 

Her room is pretty big, so I was able to add the side table with lamp. I didn't have these pieces in Mckenna's nursery. The rest of the furniture was from Mckenna's nursery.
I love featuring their newborn pictures above the change table/dresser. Reminds me daily of how tiny and peaceful they were!
I made the bow holder above the bookshelf, as well. Super easy project... coming soon!

 

To see more pictures of Norah's Room visit HERE and HERE


 Here is Mckenna's bright and vibrant toddler room. She loves this room!
I had a HARD time finding bedding that was appropriate for her age that was Queen sized...
who knew?!
This ruffle set came from Target... I stumbled upon it on Black Friday 2011 in a sleepy fog around 5am!  Its a "teen" set but I thought it was fun!

I had bought the curtains before the bedding... what a silly thing to do! Oh Well!
I wish we could afford custom built ins for her around that window!

I just LOVE here dresser! Its HUGE!!!
This fun frame above her dresser is a wood design from Michaels that I painted. The photo is very creatively mounted in it, as these are pieces that can be created into anything.... its the same piece above in Norah's room as a bow holder!

To see more pictures of Mckenna's room visit HERE or HERE

And just because I randomly have a picture on my computer... this was the original nursery we had for Mckenna in our first house! Sniff sniff! It seems like that was soooo long ago! 

We didn't know her gender, so this was our neutral room! It took FOREVER to pain those stripes!

 

Couple weeks after Mckenna's arrival!

 

Thanks for visiting our girly spaces!! Hope they inspire spaces for your little ones!!!

Linking Up:
I Heart Naptime
Six Sisters
The 36th Avenue
The Real Coake
Fireflies and Jellybeans
The Trendy Treehouse
Polka Dots on Parade
Sugar and Dots
Skip to My Lou
Under the Table and Dreaming
Flamingo Toes
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Delicate Construction
Someday Crafts

Our Kitchen

Welcome!

This week I am again linking up to Kelly's Korner for her tour of homes! 

Last week we toured living rooms... click HERE to see ours!

This week is kitchens!!

Our kitchen is part of our large great room/open floor plan at the back of the house. 

Although I am happy with how our kitchen has evolved since living in our house for nearly 2 years, it didn't always look so pretty! 

The first time I saw the house it didn't even have cabinets!  

Here's a little look back at the early stages of our house/kitchen!

Anyways....

This view is as you enter off of the front entryway. 

The family room is to the right...

While the kitchen and breakfast nook are to the left.

We have TONS of cabinet space, which I love... however they are quickly filling up!

We had to purchase all new appliances for the kitchen when we moved in (there) were no appliances... I've been very happy with what we chose!

I use this little nook to the right of the fridge as a little "command center"... it isn't visible upon first glance in the kitchen (see above picture), so the mail can accumulate a bit without looking too cluttered! Also, the right side of our fridge is the only magnetic part we have access too, so it is perfect for housing a couple of pictures, as well as invitations to parties, reminders, etc.

You can see that the dishwasher has become "fun zone" since its the only large surface that is magnetic... it houses our little farm and magnetic letters!

View from right behind sectional

We just turned our table to face this direction... still deciding if I like it better this way, or not

View from standing near TV

There is a hallway which runs "behind" our kitchen. This hallway has the powder room, a door to the garage, as well as leads to our den/workout room.

View out from in the kitchen. The white door (covered in craft projects) is our pantry. It is a pretty big walk in pantry... LOVE!!

View out from standing by kitchen sink

Thank you for touring our kitchen!!!

Pretty Pretty House

So this is what the front of my house has looked like for the last 6 weeks. Yes, we have been THOSE people. Those people with a ugly looking house on a block of nicely landscaped and finished homes! Fun times being the new owner on a block of people who are original owners/builders of their homes.

Focus. So yes, this is what our house has looked like for the last 6 weeks. We ripped out the bushes and landscape bricks back when we ripped out the basement.

Our favorite feature of our home.... the old fountain in the middle of the front yard!

Here is the real BEFORE: Even worse than the last 6 weeks

BEFORE

But the AFTER pictures make it so much more enjoyable!!!

Yep, look! No fountain!!!

Look closely on the left - no nasty concrete part of the driveway!!
New bushes and flowers in front... they just need to grow a bit!

Big sod square - you are so pretty!!
Oh pretty grass!

I have been waiting 2 weeks for the company to come out and do the project. We finally signed a contract and then the waiting game for getting scheduled and having our lovely weather cooperate!

Time to move on to the back of the house now....

Making Progress

Over the weekend I decided to venture into 2 projects which have taken a recent standstill: the playroom and the master bedroom.

We made lots of progress on the master bedroom in March when we tore down the closet. The walls got mudded... and then progress stopped! I ordered new bedding and then it has been sitting in my closet for 2 months! Enough was enough! Although the walls still have to be sanded and painted, I was sick of looking at this:
(okay, so my room really didn't look like this on a daily basis... but last night in my madness of hanging curtain rods, curtains and ripping down the temporary blinds this is what it looked like!)


So last night I hung curtain rods, curtains and pulled the bedding out to start using.
Here is the progress so far:



Yes, we need paint to make those curtains pop... the walls will be a greyish blue. I have the wall decor planned and need some lamps. Hopefully we can get this done soon! I am so impatient!!


THE PLAYROOM
The playroom is sitting ready to be painted! We are going to do a neutral khaki color since it is exposed from the entire downstairs entryway. I ordered some fabric samples to recover the pillows we already have. I bought like 6 pairs of curtains to see which color I liked better! I bought a couple of rugs, too. Here is what we have so far:






Again, I have most of the wall decor planned, however I can't do anything until the walls are painted. Hopefully it will all be done soon!

Projects Galore

One of the highlights/downfalls of having breaks from work is that I can complete a lot of projects on my never ending to-do list. This week was no exception. My/our current list is for finishing up the little things around the house... well, along with some big things. I took on the little things this week. Jim gets the big things this weekend and week.

New art above the chairs and a new rug in the family room. I moved the other rug under the dining room table, but forgot to take a picture of that!

Mckenna and I made this cute little Easter wreath today for our front door. Disregard the mess which is our front door. Repainting the door is on the short list... it just has to stay warm enough for me to do it!!

A few little Easter decorations....

New curtains for Mckenna's room! She also got a new pink and white sheet for her bed, but you can't really tell in this picture! The lamp is a couple of months old (Target).

Shelf on the wall seperating the kitchen and main level hallway.... just had my Dad do this tonight for me! Thanks Dad!

And my gallery wall of pictures.... I have been wanting to do this for soooo long! I am so happy with how it is turning out! It is just about done....

Geesh! Lots of work!! But we have had lots of fun, too, despite icky weather and a sick little peanut!

The Big Reveal!

Every year over winter break I seem to have one BIG project that I like to accomplish. Organizing closets, painting bathrooms... something in that area. This year was no different.

On our main floor we have a 5th bedroom, or what we have made in to a den. The original owners of the house transformed this area a bit from its original layout. Basically the closet area that I worked on used to be the laundry room. Laundry was moved to the basement and a closet was added to this area. Although I would LOVE main floor laundry, for now I have decided to keep as is.

So... this room had no closet doors and was just a big vast space that was becoming a dumping ground. We had gotten rid of our armoire/desk 2 years ago when we did Mckenna's nursery at the townhouse, so I had been using a folding table as a desk and we had all of our books and DVD's still packed.

Here is what we accomplished in the room!
View from the back of the room. New closet doors!

Office/Craft Closet

The lower level has a bar for hanging these hanging organizer bins! They contain our gift bags, tissue paper, boxes and ribbon. All the good stuff for wrapping gifts. On the left, some some files which still have to be cleaned out!

The desk top has a basket of scissors, tape, pens, etc. Along with these great drawers I found which contain some things to be filed, as well as envelopes, new checks, coupons, etc! My new picture frame that says, "My Little Cupcake" as well as my label maker!! Sure came in handy with this project!!

Top view.. Bulletin board for the quickie stuff... left side wrapping paper storage and files for receipts and coupons on the wall. On the right, our printer (which we rarely use) along with magazine holders for filing/storage of things that come in frequently, ie. bank statements, BBB coupons, paystubs, etc.
Top shelf - Orange bins from IKEA! Holding back up CD's of pictures, home movie DVD's, Wii supplies, etc. Bins for batteries, 3M hooks (my fav!) and extention cords!!

The rest of the room... View from in the hallway by the door to the garage. We created a little "mudroom" when you just walk in the den. Perfect place for shoes, coats and diaper bags!

Just walking into the den, the closet is on the left. We put the new bookshelves together last week and were finally able to unpack books & DVD's

Another view of the entry

View of the back corner, which is my sewing nook... for all the sewing projects I have done! We still need some type of desk or a better table for this area.

View from standing in front of the new bookshelves. Big closet on immediate right. The open closet is my other craft closet! Storage for so many other goodies!! The door closed in the middle is the door from the hallway.

Yep, more bins, labels and craft supplies!

At the moment we are working on adding a workout area in this room. As I speak Jim is setting up the TV, DVD player and bringing down all of our weights and such. It will be in the corner to the right of the sewing area. It will begin getting use at 5am tomorrow morning... well, maybe 6am!