Framed Initials

This morning when I got up I made a list of some projects that have been hanging over my head for a LONG time.  During my sleepless nights these days {pregnancy induced insomnia} one of the things that keeps me awake is thinking about unfinished projects.  So, in hopes of eliminating some lack of shut-eye, I've been tackling my list today!  Most things really only took about 5 minutes to accomplish, so it was easy to do in between coloring and tea parties with the girls.

The first project was to finally hang something up in the girls' room.  This project is so easy and I love how it turned out!

My original inspiration came from a Ballard Designs catalog, where they had framed a large letter.  I like the size and texture of the letters you can purchase from Ballard Designs, but was not keen on spending the amount of money that they cost.

A friend had given me some frames leftover from her mom's yard sale; I purchased some samples of paint at Home Depot that were on sale for $.50; using a coupon at Joann's during their coupon madness a few weeks ago, I purchased the first letter of each of the girls'  names.

Here's how you can make your own framed initial:

1. Find a wooden frame that is large enough to hold a letter plaque.  Remove the glass and backing.

2. Stick some thumbtacks into the backside of the frame, to keep it elevated while painting.

Found this trick via Pinterest!

3.  Paint as many coats as needed on your frame to create the look you're going for.  {I didn't sand mine, but it probably would've been a good idea for more even coverage; I'm impatient}.

I loved this paint!  Martha Stewart samples are a bit larger and there is a brush attached to the top of the lid.

4. Allow the frame to dry completely.  Center it on your wall and hang the frame.

5. Attach a hook to the back of the letter {if there isn't one already} using hot glue or gorilla glue.  Hang it centered inside of the frame.

My girls now have a personalized little piece of art above their beds, and they were so excited about them!  They both know their letters and sounds, and the letters of their first names are of course their favorites, so this project makes Mommy and daughters happy :)

 Disclaimer:  I did not complete this entire project this morning.  The frames have been painted and sitting in the garage for almost a month now, so it was just a matter of hanging them up and getting the letters ready.

Tie-Up Window Shade

Today I have another little piece of the girls' bedroom to show you.  You can read about the paint color and pillows, if you missed those.  And, for anyone who might be a first time reader, this room is a work in progress, so I've yet to have an entire room reveal!  Hopefully, more will be done in the next few weeks, but we'll see...

My girls' bedroom is great, but the layout has always sort of bewildered me.  There is one window, with space on each side for a twin bed, and we had it set up this way for about a year.  That arrangement always proved to be a temptation to my daughters.  The nightstand was between the beds, in front of the window, and they were constantly climbing onto the table to look out, simultaneously breaking the lamp on the nightstand.  So, I rearranged the room a bit and it's much more conducive to looking out the window.  However, I still had a dilemma of what kind of window treatment to put in their room.  Drapery panels are my absolute favorite, but I didn't want to spend a ton of money on fabric, and the window area was somewhat small for drapes.  After looking through all of my patterns, I re-discovered a book my sister-in-law had given me all about window treatments!  In it, I found the perfect solution to the girls' window!

I basically used the same method as the window treatment in my master bathroom {you can find out about that here}.  However, instead of simply tacking up two sides to create a pleat, I sewed a button on the back of the shade, made a tab to pull up the fabric, and placed a bow on the front.

You can easily undo the tabs to roll down the shade for more window coverage, which is especially great in a kids' room!  I like the simplicity of this shade and the fact that it didn't take me too much time to complete.

I intentionally did not include much in these photos, because there is still a lot of work to do, and I don't want you to see how messy their room was when I was taking these pictures.  But, I do like to keep things honest, so here is a picture of a bare wall that will be receiving some 'love' in the coming days....

Euro Shams with Flange {Peek of the Girls' Room}

If you've followed along for awhile, you know that my goal for the month of February was to finish decorating the girls' bedroom.  February has obviously come and gone, and here we are one week away from April, and I'm still not finished!  I figured that I didn't need to wait until everything was complete, though, to give you some glimpses of what I've been working on.  One project was euro sized pillows for each of the girls' beds.

Over a year ago, before we even moved into our home, I ordered some fabric samples online.  The one I liked best for the girls' room was $14.98/yard, and I just couldn't bear to spend that much at the time.  So, I've been keeping my eye out for a year looking for something that might be comparable.  In February, I took a trip to Hobby Lobby, planning to purchase a fabric a friend had shown me, and what did I find?  Lo, and behold, the same fabric I had wanted last year, only it was $8.99/yard, plus I had a 40% off coupon!!  I was able to purchase the fabric I had wanted all along for just a fraction of the cost!

The second helpful point in this process was a blog post that I found giving a tutorial on how to make a euro sham with flange, exactly what I wanted to do for their room!  You can find the tutorial I used, here,  on Brittany's blog, Coleman Chronicles.  Her tutorial is great and it was nice to just follow directions instead of having to figure everything out on my own!

I still have some work to do on their room, especially with hanging things on the walls, but I'm loving the fabric and paint, and the girls like it, too, which is wonderful!

Stay tuned for more updates on their room's progress!

Color Schemes with Green

Sorry I've been absent for a few days!  Our weekends are Sunday-Tuesday around here, so some weeks I get so caught up with how we're spending our days off that I forget to blog!  I didn't even really get on the computer at all over the past few days {which honestly was great} so I have some catching up to do, plus some posts I'd like to share with you.

My desire was to have the girls' bedroom finished by the end of February.  It didn't happen.  So, instead of showing you a reveal today, I decided to share with you something that encouraged me while I was in the midst of decorating their space.

I received my Better Homes & Gardens magazine last week, and when I looked at the pictures of some of the color schemes for 2012, I started smiling.  Have you ever opened a magazine to discover that your color choices/decorating choices are actually trends??  This doesn't happen to me often, but it did this time, and really affirmed my choices.  I'm not always confident when it comes to decorating, as I've had no training in interior design, I'm not artsy in the least, and so I just don't always feel like my choices are the best.  I was really encouraged to discover that the colors I had picked for the girls' room are in right now!  Yay!  Until I can show you pictures of their actual room, here are some photos that will give you a glimpse of the color scheme I'm going with.

BHG

BHG

BHG

BHG

BHG

I'm off to Bible study this morning {we're doing a phenomenal study in the book of James}, and then I'm hoping that the girls' nap time this afternoon will mean getting a few more things done for me!  I haven't been sleeping well lately, so nap times have been spent snoozing for me, too.  With only 7 weeks left until this baby comes, though, I need to get moving on my to-do list!

  What do you have planned for today?

Painting Tip: Paint Samples on the Wall

We moved into a new house last year, and slowly, but surely, we're getting rid of the builder grade paint that was in every room.  Some of the challenge for me has been the fact that our ceilings upstairs are quite high, so in order to paint the bedrooms {and the foyer/stairwell} we will need to rent a taller ladder.  So, I've put off painting upstairs because of that, and we don't have money in the budget to just go out and buy paint for every room of the house at once.

For Christmas this year I asked for gift cards to Lowe's {exciting, I know} so that I could purchase some paint to finish up the girls' bedroom.  With a new baby on the way, and plans to decorate the nursery, I really owe it to my daughters to decorate their room first.  I've had the color scheme in mind since we moved in, and the major portion of their bedding was purchased at TJMaxx last year, but the walls remain bare, and there are absolutely no accessories anywhere!  First step, though, is the paint, which is the purpose for this post.

My number one tip in choosing paint colors is:  PAINT SAMPLES ON THE WALL BEFORE MAKING A COLOR DECISION!!  Colors look completely different on the wall than they do on the paint swatch that you pick out at the store.

When we purchased our first home, in 2007, I desperately wanted a Tuscan yellow kitchen.  So, I bought all of my paint, covered the walls of the kitchen, only to discover that what I was hoping would look like Tuscany looked like a bright yellow school bus!  Ugh!  If only I had known then what I know now!

We went to Lowe's on Monday to buy some samples of paint, and I really liked all 3 colors.  I painted a little swatch of each on the wall, then sat down on Isabella's bed to take a look, and HATED. EACH. ONE.  What did I do?  Naturally, I did what any woman would do:  I sobbed.  Yes, I know, that's very shallow.  And the more I was crying about my dislike of the paint colors, I started to cry about the fact that I was crying over paint.  Has anyone else cried over decor decisions, or am I just really lame??


Bradley agreed that the colors weren't right, and so back to Lowe's I went during the girls' nap time, to pick out two more paint samples and put those on the wall.  Ah, one seemed to work!  But, here comes in tip #2 with the samples.

Not only should you paint the samples on the wall, but it's also good to leave the colors up for a while, so that you can see what they look in different kinds of light.  I left mine up for about 24 hours before heading back to the store to purchase the one I had decided on.

I didn't get their room painted this week, as I had planned, but at least I have the paint, I bought some fabric for pillows and a window treatment, and hopefully their room will be finished by the end of this month {that's the goal at least}.

What painting tips do you have?