A Few Tweaks

Last week, we moved Levi into his big boy room and I showed you what it looked like.  Well, it didn't look like that for long!  Once the stuff got in there, my decorating bones were itching to get the place finished for him.  We're still not there yet, but I have made a couple small changes on our bath to completeness!
For one, I took the blue/white chevron fabirc off of Levi's lamps.  I loved that fabric, but our his new big boy room is ditching the blue, so I had to come up with something black and white!  I debated a few different things, but in the end, I (after consulting with my sister) just decided to give the lamps the same treatment I had given his fan shade.  As much as I would have loved to try out something unique, I think this makes the room more cohesive!

The other change involved the throw pillow on Levi's bed.  When I was searching for his bedding on Land of Nod, I saw their cute initial pillows.
                                                 
Well, they're $19 each which isn't terrible.  BUT the blue certainly didn't go with our scheme.  And we had a perfectly good pillow...that did go with our scheme...on hand here.  In fact, our pillow had a fun yellow/white geometric pattern that I thought may be more fun than just a plain white background.  So I cut out a black felt L and attached it to the pillow...and now we have our own (free!) initial pillow.

The other couple changes I have in mind for Levi's new space will probably have to wait until after the holidays when funds are more readily available!!! But I'm pleased with how far the room has come so far, so I'm content to call it complete...for now!!!

Moving on Up...

Josh said he wasn't ready.  My mom said he wasn't ready.  But my sister recently moved, and when she did, she offered to hand her guest room furniture down to us (she owned a 2-bedroom condo,and is now renting one bedroom with some friends, so she didn't need the spare room stuff anymore).  And I thought Levi, most certainly, was ready to make the move to his big boy room.
For one thing, he is older (by a couple months) than Colton was when he made the same switch.  Secondly, he loves his big brother's bed.  We read books in there before nap time each day, and each day he tucks himself in and I have to pry him out to go sleep in his crib!  Plus, I really just didn't want to have to move the furniture twice.  And mostly, I figured, Levi would "get" his bed because he's watched Colton sleep in it for so long.  Levi wants to do whatever Colton does in every way, and I figured this would be no exception.
So after weeks of debate and realizing there was really no compromise on this one, Josh relented and I won (with the caveat that I would have to wake up with him overnight if he had problems).
To make a long story short, I was right!  Told you so Mom and Josh.  Levi was absolutely in love with his big boy bed from the moment we set it up.

As for the room itself, it's still a work in progress.  I had spotted his doggy bedding from Land of Nod months ago, and knew my doggy-loving boy had to have it!  Because we had so many yellow accents already on hand from his nursery, I figured it made sense to keep with the yellow so we could use them.  

So I bought some yellow sheets and pretty much had everything else already on hand.

My sister did also hand us down some black curtains.  When I spotted some paw print ribbon the other day, I couldn't resist buying it to add a bit of trim to the curtains.  I'm not usually big on theme in a room, but I think it's pretty subtle!

We also set up a make-shift reading corner with some floor pillows I have had for a couple years (I think I originally bought them for the playroom, but never used them).  Levi seems to love it, but I have plans to make some changes over there.

Speaking of changes, here's the to-do list of what we need to accomplish in the space:

• new rug
• switch out lamp shades
• reading bench
• rain gutter shelves and/or gallery wall
• something for the space next to his bed?

So even though the space is far from "done," Levi certainly doesn't seem to mind.  And I must admit, as happy as I am that he is moving on up in the world, it is a little bittersweet.  This is the first time since we have lived in this house (almost four years) that we don't have a nursery.  No more cribs = no more babies.  As excited as I am to watch these boys grow up and experience new chapters with them, it is still hard to come to terms with the fact that my babies are no longer babies.  

DIY Stuffed Animal Zoo

This is a post about five months in the making.  The good news is in the end, Colton (and I) got a stuffed animal zoo for his room.

But thanks to some lollygagging, it was a process.  Back in June, I was busy redoing parts of our bedrooms, mainly Colton's.  At that point, I decided we needed a better storage solution to his crazy collection of stuffed animals.  I turned to Pinterest (obviously) and immediately fell in love with the "zoo" options.  The only problem was they were about $150 to purchase...a bit more than I (and especially Josh) wanted to spend.  Looking at them, though, they seemed like they would be pretty straightforward to build...if you know how to build, use power tools, etc.  Well, I don't really.  Josh doesn't necessarily like to (much to my chagrin), but he does know how, and I think to appease me and get me off my $150 zoo track, he volunteered to build the zoo for Colton.  Awesome, right?!?
Well, about a month passed and he finally got around to building the thing.  He had no plan really, but basically just made a square at the bottom out of 2x8 boards cut to size.  And then he attached 1x8's to each side, again cut to size.  But then he stalled out...in a major way.  Our zoo sat like that for almost four months.  I love my husband, but he's not exactly the go-getter in our relationship.  In fact, we couldn't be more opposite in that regard.  So, I had to use a bit of manipulation (shhh don't tell).  One night I casually mentioned that I was going to buy the stuffed animal zoo online that night.  Of course (as anticipated), he freaked and mentioned the one he was building and that we were absolutely not paying $150.  So, I gave him a deadline and he actually completed the thing...miracle of miracle.
To finish it off, he just used 3x8's (again cut to size).  We flipped it over, making the 3x8 side the bottom and then attached eyelets all along the top and bottom.  Josh then strung bungee cord through all the eyelets.

And then I (and the boys) got to paint it!  I sanded it down first, and then we applied a few coats of Valspar's Royal Navy.

To give it a little flair, I added "Colton's zoo" (just hot glued the letters on...we've already established I'm not very good with a hammer!).

And then we put it into Colton's room.  The plus side of the project taking so long to complete is that Colton was actually really excited to finally have the stuffed animal zoo he had been hearing so much about!  He eagerly moved his animal buddies into their new home...and has pretty much left them there ever since.  He has explained to me that now they are "home," so I guess they're not allowed to leave home.  Whatever...it's better than picking up dozens of stuffed animals every few hours!

$2 Lamp Shade Redo

As soon as I attached the new lamp shade to the fan in Levi's room, I have been plotting its makeover.  I know white lamp shades work well for some people, but I'm just not one of them.  My lamp shades need something more exciting, but I couldn't quite settle on what to do to little Levi's.  I considered ping pong balls (yes, yes I did....and I still really want to do them somewhere, but for this particular shade I would have needed about $45 worth of ping pong balls and that just seemed ridiculous!), yarn, and the usual suspects: paint and/or fabric.  I knew I wanted something black, white, and pretty simple, so eventually I landed on ribbon.  Because I was going for simple, I was able to just use the cheapy 50 cent spools.  After four spools, I had this:

At this point I would normally share my process with you, but there really was no process.  I pretty much just wrapped the ribbon where it seemed to look good and hot glued it at the beginning and end of each spool.  Here's an in progress shot:

The only problem with it was that once I was done, I realized the ribbon would be way too visible on the inside...see what I mean?

Solving it was actually really easy.  I went through and put a dot of glue on each piece of ribbon...top and bottom.  And once they were nice and secure, I cut the insides out.  Now obviously that wasted some ribbon, but at only 50 cents a spool I really wasn't sweating it too much.  Plus, I went ahead and stored them with the rest of my ribbon just in case they can come in handy somewhere else later! If I had to do the whole thing over again, I think I would do it the same way again because I think it would be way, way more time-consuming to try to cut each piece before gluing it!  As it was, I spent about 30 minutes on the shade total!

Admittedly, the shade may not be finished yet.  I may end up adding more black once the whole room comes together, but I figured it was better to try to add some later than try to take it away!  Hoping it will be done, I went ahead and cut out a fabric circle and glued it down as a diffuser to the bottom.   

Good news is so far Levi seems to really be liking his lamp. Or at least every time we go into his room, he points to it and says "new," so I'll take that as he likes it!

Easy Fan Upgrade

When Colton was just a few months old, my sister and I were in his room changing him on his table (I guess it took two of us at that point...).  There was also a balloon in there, left over from Josh's birthday celebration earlier.  And the fan was on.  Well, somehow, someway, the balloon got swept up in the fan's blades. After a few seconds of banging, the glass lamp portion of the fan came crashing down, shattering everywhere, but somehow missing me, my sister, and Colton.  If I haven't told it well enough, let me assure you it was crazy scary!  But we got over the initial shock, cleaned up the glass, and left the fan without a lamp.
For the record, Colton is now 3 1/2, and yes, the fan has sat like this, even once the room became Levi's...

Well, this weekend, I finally got the chutzpah to do something about it. First, I rounded up my supplies: a lamp shade with a spider top (don't know if that's technically the name, but that's what I call it), an all-thread lamp pipe, and some couplings (both found in the lighting section at Home Depot).
Once home, I got to work.  I screwed the lamp pipe into the existing coupling.

And then attached another coupling at the end of the pipe about an inch up.  I hung the lamp shade, technically upside down, and used another coupling on the other side to secure it in place.

The whole process took about 2 minutes...which is uber exciting for me as I have a few other places in mind that I may have to try this update out on!
Now that the shade is in place, I have some plans to give it an update (starting with removing the plastic wrap...) and make it the first step in transforming Levi's nursery into Levi's big boy room!

Another Big Boy...Another Big Boy Room

Levi will be 21 months old this week!  While the number may seem relatively insignificant, it sticks out around here as a benchmark.  Colton had just turned 21 months old when Levi was born, which is why...I assume anyways..I remember so much about Colton was at 21 months old...what he would wear, how he acted, what he said/didn't say, etc.  And sticking out very glaringly right now considering the fact that Levi is still tucked snugly in his crib is the fact that Colton was sleeping in his big boy bed and room.
Now obviously a huge part of our drive to move Colton to his big boy bed was that we needed his crib for his little brother and the pediatricians told us it was best to do it well in advance of his arrival.  With no other siblings on the way, Levi can theoretically stay in his crib forever!  But transitioning Colton to his big boy bed was such an easy, painless process that I would rather do it sooner than later.
So we're hatching a big boy room plan.  Implementation slow and steady.  But hopefully Levi will be in by the end of the year (which also happens to be just a few days shy of his second birthday).
To refresh your memory, here is Levi's current nursery:

Levi's nursery is probably one of my favorite rooms I've ever done.  So moving forward into big boy status, I'm hoping to keep as much of it in tact as possible.  Mainly, I really don't want to paint over my beloved stripe wall.  Luckily, though, I have found the most perfect bedding for Levi:

My boy loves doggies, so this couldn't be a better pick for him.  And for my sake, I now don't have to change out the gray.  Win, win.

So with that critical element decided, I'm thinking we'll only need to make a few more simple changes.  I'd like to get rid of the white rug in favor of something more boyish.  I'm thinking a black and white pattern rug would work to give the room a bit more edge.  Maybe this?

I also plan to switch out the white curtains for a black option.  I'm not really a plain curtain kind of girl, so I'm still brainstorming ways I could embellish them.  We'll see what I come up with!

As for accessories, I plan on keeping the pops of yellow in the room.  So the mirror, "Levi," blanket, and lamp bases can stay.  We need some lamp shades (I may just paint the white ones underneath), and a little bit of art in the room.  I've always wanted to do a kid-friendly gallery wall in one of the boy's rooms, and I'm kind of digging something like this simple option:

                                             

And the final element I hope to put in is some sort of reading/privacy nook for Levi.  Colton has his tee pee and while he loves it, I'd rather do something different for Levi.  Something more like this?

                                             

So there it be.  A very basic outline of the plan of attack.  Now let's just see how long it takes to put it into action!

DIY Painted Curtains

Over the last few weeks, Colton's room has received quite a bit of updating.  We upcycled an ottoman to give him some shoe storage and made him a sturdier, better looking, bigger tee pee.  And in doing both projects, we also created the need for new curtains because I used some of the fabric from his old curtains in each of the previous projects!  In fairness, we needed new curtains in there anyway, but ripping the old ones down and tearing them up pretty much sealed the deal!!!
I don't know about you all, but I always have the hardest time finding curtains that I like.  Let's modify that actually.  I can usually find curtains that I like, but not at a price point that I like.  I looked in every store I could think of...both real and online...and came up empty-handed.  So, then I turned to Plan B: buy some basic navy curtains from Target and jazz them up somehow.

Can I tell you how easy these were?!?  I've stenciled curtains before, and while I liked the result, it was a long, painful process and I knew I didn't want to go there again...at least not now.  Luckily, I found an inspiration image on Pinterest and decided to just try my hand at it.  I painted a bunch of random circles on each curtain panel.  Some were big; some were small.  I just went with it, and in the end, this is what it looked like (pardon crappy, blurry iPhone pic):

I was a little worried it was too busy, but figured/hoped that once they were hung and bunched it would work itself out.  You be the judge, but I think it did.  In fact, I'm pretty darn pleased with the result.  High impact.  Affordable (like $20 for the pair). And easy (like an hour's work total!!!  sure beats the heck out of stenciling...trust me!).  If you need more views to make your call, I leave you with these...

Tee Pee Redeux

When Colton was first moving into his "big boy room," I figured a teepee was a must.  Obvi.  So, I scoured the Internet for no-sew options and created this:
                                              
As much fun as it looks in that picture, the poor guy was pretty flawed.  For one, it fell down constantly.  And over time, the cuts that I had made in the fabric became more and more frayed.  And the ribbon tie thing that I had created was coming apart at the seams.  Oh, and those dots were getting on my nerves, as they just seemed to add to the amateurish nature of that thing...at least in my eyes.
So, I did bit more Internet searching, kind of just trusted my instincts and came up with another, much steadier, much easier, much better tee pee for Colton's room.

Instead of starting with garden stakes like the last time, I used 1x8 boards that I purchased at Home Depot for 99 cents each!  I had the nice man at Home Depot cut off 2 feet from each board, so they were only 6 feet tall each and then took them home.  I drilled a hole near the top of each piece (if I had to do it again, I would probably drill the holes a little further down next time).  With the holes drilled, I set up my stakes as I wanted them to lay. And then I got out some twine and threaded it through each of the holes.  Once they were all set, I wrapped the twine around a few times and tied it as tightly in place as I could. By the way: you're going to need someone to help with this process because it's pretty much impossible to hold them all up on your own and do the weaving/tying.

With the frame set, I relocated it to Colton's room for the final assembly.  I had bought another canvas drop cloth just like my first go round.  But this time instead of cutting it a bunch of different places, I just folded it into a triangle shape and cut one arc out of the top to create an opening.  And then I was able to drape it over the top of the tee pee and let it hang.  By the way, I did have to collapse the frame a bit, so the canvas could get on, and then set it up again.

And then I just started winging it!  I pulled and tucked and rotated the canvas until it was in tee pee form.  I used my trusty glue gun to secure the canvas to the wooden stakes once I got it just right.  And when I stepped back, I had what was starting to look like a real tee pee.  I used my glue gun again to glue the front corners down to the sides, creating an opening of sorts.

Full disclosure: there is small space in the back where the canvas doesn't reach totally to the ground. I debated using some spare fabric I had on hand to create a band around the entire bottom that would erase the gap, but I got lazy!  So far, the boys don't seem to care, but if they do...or if you do...feel free to take the extra step!

Anyways, once the teepee was structurally sound and all, I decided it needed a bit of snazzing up. Colton's curtains are also on the replacement list, so I cut them up and used a strip to create a navy band at the top.  And then I used some ribbon I recycled from his first tee pee to add a bit more fun.  And here's the final product:

Bonus points: it's actually much bigger than than the original tee pee.  Both boys can fit in there, and have loved playing in it!!!