Home Tour // Nursery

Hello friends! We are so excited to introduce a new series we are doing this summer on the blog. We will feature a full room tour of each of our finished rooms and create a more cohesive outline for you guys. We get emails asking specific questions about rooms, and figured it might be about time to organize the chaos and share room by room what our house is looking like these days. Below each room tour, find a buying guide! You can also check out the full home tour here, if you want to see all the rooms at one. Enjoy!

boy nursery, diy nursery, nursery on a budget

boy nursery, diy nursery, nursery on a budget

boy nursery, diy nursery, nursery on a budget

 

boy nursery, diy nursery, nursery on a budget

boy nursery, diy nursery, nursery on a budget

boy nursery, diy nursery, nursery on a budget

boy nursery, diy nursery, nursery on a budget

boy nursery, diy nursery, nursery on a budget

boy nursery, diy nursery, nursery on a budget

DIY Projects:
The painted tree on the wall commissioned by Duane price varies
We refinished the matching dressers $200 on craigslist + $12 for paint
Target:
Gold side table
Blue lamp on dresser
White floor lamp
Brass elephant on shelf
Ikea: 
Curtains and Rods $24 per 2 panels
Blue Polka Dot Pillow
Rugs:
Gel Mattress:
Intellibed $399 (We have a 10% off code for our readers good on ANY  Intellibed! Use MakingaHouseaHome at check out.)
Vintage finds:
Table fan
Sailboat painting
Owl pillow
Striped Hudson Bay blanket
Etsy.com
It’s OK flag

Prepare for Landing

More like, “hey, we ignored you for three years, let’s address you!“. We are headed into some uncharted territory in the ‘ol house decor and renovate. We have a total of 6,200 square feet under one roof, and you my friend have only seen about 2,000 square feet of that. The landing was kind of a holding room for a long time, and now it’s a hodge podge of other rooms cast offs, but boy does it feel good to have it cleaned up.

upstairs landing, home design, eclectic landing

We took the black and white striped valance we were going to use in the nursery (but decided not to) and used that in the little nook in the landing. It just happened to fit perfectly! The rug was stolen from the crazy guest room, as was the lamp. The table is really a plant stand which was outside. The tortoise shell I am not too sure if that’s his final resting place, but he is safe there for now.

plants on heater

I grabbed these plants from our bedroom because they are on their deathbed and need a bit more light! The little brass elephant is $10 at target right now! I got two.

brass elephant, #targetstyleI hate the bench in there with a passion and need to find something great to go there, in the meantime it’s covered with a scarf from Pendleton.

west elm fox speaker, lamps plus pink lamp, nate berkus gold

That little fox is a speaker from West Elm, and the landing is such a great place for him. We named him Foxy Brown and he fills the whole second floor with music like a champ! Lamp is Lamps Plus in LA, but I think they have it online too. FLowers are from our yard (hey Spring!), gold burst is Nate Berkus for Target, table is Ikea. Obvious work needs to be done. Here is what we are thinking so far:

  1. New ceiling lights
  2. A new bench, or replacement for a bench
  3. Some sort of paint
  4. More texture
  5. Style the shelves with fun stuff. 
  6. Art on the walls
upstairs landing, landing rug

It’s not done, but it feels good to have everything organized and a foundation set up. I am thinking of using this space to do morning yoga or as a reading nook. What do you use your landing for?

One-a-Week/ 10

DIY wood blocks, toy blocks, food grade dye for toys

I love this project because it’s so easy, and you can avoid those pricy wood blocks at the boutiques! All you do is take 2X2 NON-pressure treated wood (make sure it’s all natural and not treated with anything), food dye (the kind you use on Easter eggs works just fine), a few drops of vinegar, and paint brushes.

Make sure to dull the edges of your cubes with sandpaper before you color them. We put a few drops of vinegar in a cup, along with one ounce of water, and as many drops of dye as you like, the more drops, the darker the blocks! The vinegar is what “sets” the dye to the blocks so the color doesn’t rub off. Dont skip this step unless you want dye everywhere.

DIY wood blocks, DIY toy blocks, natural toy blocks

Take your paintbrush, and paint the blocks with your color concoction. Let dry over night!

Spring Spirit

We have finally had a day that feels like spring, and it’s awesome! Hope you are having some sunshine in your neck of the woods too! The advertising and commercials have been killing me with all things flowery and fun – it’s such a tease. Have you seen this one from Target?

Super cute! It looks more like a mini-movie trailer (of something I would want to see in theaters) than a commercial. The cool part is you can shop the video. The bad part is, when I went to check out the Threshold collection – the shelves are constantly cleared! I have been itching for this brass elephant, rhino and lion. I finally had to order it online today.

Hello shiny new friend. I will add you to my brass animal collection of vintage finds, and no one will know your real age.

However, I was lucky enough to snag these super cute pillows that are the perfect addition to a comfy chair, and awesome for a road trip. Just sayin’.

threshold

I have seen a bunch of amazing picks on instagram (#targetstyle). They have thousands of pieces, so it’s nice to see what fellow bloggers are curating and picking out. These pillows were a steal at less than $15 each – and so perfect for spring. The square one I can even use on the master bed all year.

Have you snagged anything from the Threshold line you are in love with?

 

Compensation was provided by Target via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Target.

Mix and Match Patterns Like a Champ

 

I use to think that if you did something and it wasn’t successful on the first try, you should just quit. I am not talking about the “big stuff”, more like trying out a new dish to cook, or pillows on a couch. Before I started decorating other peoples homes I also thought designers just knew what to do for the most part. Let me tell you a secret. We don’t! We try, try, and try again. We will order 10 of something and rearrange stuff a million ways until it feels right. Symmetry has a lot to do with that feeling. Sure we know some tricks and rules – but it’s all about visually experiencing whats in our head before making that final decision. Using pattern to create symmetry and interest is probably the most fun part of designing a room. For example, what lamp shade is going to work next to my vibrant curtains in the nursery?

how to pick lampshade

The plain one makes me yawn. The chevron one isn’t the right shape, but the large graphic blue one I got for $22 at Target (Threshold Collection) strikes a chord with me. I would have thought it would look too matchy-matchy with a blue lamp base and blue curtains and blue on the lampshade, but I think because they all don’t perfectly match in color – it works. Which would you have picked?

target threshold, target lamp, mixing patterns

When we started the room, this was the plan:

nursery ideas, diy nursery, campaign dresser, campaign dresser nursery

I think we have stayed true to our plan and then happily we began tweaking, and editing and fell in love with a few things unexpected and noticed the devil in the details. The wall mural tree mimics the curtain trees with it’s fine line detail – and that mimics the clouds in the wallpaper we picked for the ceiling. I think the new lampshades bold and graphic punch offsets it all in a good way. We planned to have that lamp yellow, but it just didn’t look right. Plus the Target (Threshold) one was $40 less and twice the size of the original yellow one. #Iloveagooddeal

targetstyle

I contemplated that ombre drum shade pretty hard when I saw it online. Still kind of am. Maybe I will horde it for when he’s older. That yellow one I wanted so bad for the floor lamp. Too bad it’s for a table lamp. I’ll live.

When it came to the other side of the room we already had a bunch of pattern happening in the pillow and matching curtains, but we needed some additional light for the reading nook in the nursery. Sometimes the trick to mixing patterns is knowing when to stop.

target floor lamp, threshold floor lamp

This floor lamp if from the Target’s Threshold collection and was perfect for light next to he big comfy chair! We tried changing out the lampshade a few times only to go back to the original white one it came with. The lamp and base were $70, and that’s a major score for something so sturdy and classic. So, we accomplished the crispy clean look we set out for with the floor lamp, but it kept feeling like it got lost, even with the bold pattern curtain behind it. So we did a little customization.

DIY Pom pom lampshade, threshold lampshade

We wanted to add some of that yellow we lost when we picked the blue table lamp, and I think this was a nice fun way to do it. We used some glue that once dry you can stick on surfaces and peel off when done so we could easily remove the pom pom’s when Atlas outgrew them. I think the hit of yellow really evens things out!

nursery, boys nursery, mixing patterns, targetstyle, #targetstyle

Compensation was provided by Target via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Target.

It’s a Spring Thing

It’s snowing outside right now. Not so spring-y, eh? Join me in summoning the sunshine and flowers with “It’s a Spring Thing” blog hop and link up!

Spring Thing Link Party, Spring Thing Blog Hop

Emily and Roeshel have already posted their projects and link party, and Kim is next week. Don’t forget to join in on each of our blogs!

This week is Joey and I had our turn to make a Spring Thing happen , and we built Atlas a magnetic house. Yep, you read that right!

DIY Indoor playhouse, playhouse plans

So what’s a magnetic house? It’s a play house with a few layers of magnetic paint, then covered up with a vibrant color. It’s an idea I had when thinking about things we could make four our little boy. How cute would it be to create new wooden “toys” for Atlas to play with on the house? Right now we are hanging pom pom’s from the top (magnetic!) because he’s so little, and his entertainment is all visual. We are excited to make bugs, planets and space ships and rockets, forest friends, etc.

diy reading nook kids

Joey had to do some trial and error to make the house work how we wanted it to, and be flexible for future alterations. For example, we knew we wanted the magnetism to be strong enough to hold pom pom’s right now, but later on, we wanted to cut out thin pieces of wood we jigsawed into said shapes above.

pom pom mobile

We also knew that after using the house as a place to have tummy time or look up at hanging shapes and textures, Atlas would want something more fort-like and we would give him more “privacy”.

In the meantime we are super excited and happy about what some wood, paint and time gave us. Here’s what to do if you want to give it a go.

Intro Joey’s handy how-to build an indoor playhouse and make it magnetic!

Alrighty. There are many pitfalls that accompany making a cube-ish shape with a triangle on top. I’ll try and save you some trouble.

First, I cut 2 different lengths of wood out of 2x1x6 boards. 8 approx. 30” and 4 approx 36”. The longer are for the width of the house and the shorter are for the height and depth. Obviously, you can make these any size you like. But do be sure to measure the door you need to get out of the room you use to build in. (More on that later)

wood for playhouse, how to build indoor playhouse

 

Then, we begin to make our base. I decided on a whim to cut 45 degree angles on the edges of the base so it would seem like I knew what I was doing. This makes it a bit more difficult to line up and keep together while wielding the nail gun, so determine your threshold for danger beforehand and if you prefer you can just use the wood as is with no edits.

how to make perfect corners, how to make wood corners, how to make an indoor playhouse

The next part seemed so easy in my mind. Just pop 4 pieces of wood on the corners to give the house it’s height, right? You can see what I ended up with below, but let me tell you what didn’t work so well and maybe save you the stress blister I almost gave myself working it out. First, I tried drilling a 45 degree angle hole through the upright beam and into the base in order to get a screw in there. But when I put the screw in there the head was still a good 1/8 of an inch out of the wood and if I kept going I would split the wood. So no go on that. Then I decided that the all powerful/time saving nail gun would be my savior. No. The same thing. The nail wouldn’t go deep enough and about 1/4 inch of nearly impossible to remove nail was taunting me from it’s new home. If I had made the base with the 1” side for the height instead of the 2” side, maybe I could have gone through the bottom, and that is what I suggest you do. But in my case I had to craft some Tetris pieces.

how to make a wood brace, how to make a corner post from wood

 

Incidentally, when I put the next level on the cube part of the house my brain regained it’s ability to see a simpler solution and I just nailed through the length of the board into the corner posts and moved on with my life. But I digress.

Now the fun part! Where problem solving went my way. Remember, I will not consult the interwebs during a project unless it is life or death. This technique, I’m sure is either outdated or readily available on any DIY website, and now it’s available here! But what fun would that have been. I felt like I had discovered how they built the pyramids. Anyway, the issue was: How am I going to get the triangle for the roof to line up with the tip in the center. Answer: Cut the 45 degree angle at the base of what will be the triangle ends and then lay that flat on top of the cube. Line up that angle flush with the piece of wood that makes the roof of the cube. Where the two pieces cross will be the center. Fun, huh… no? Just me?

how to line up wood for perfect center, how to find center point of wood

how to find centerpoint

So now you have a triangle on your cube. And you’ve got a point at the top. That’s gonna look ridiculous if you just slap a square piece of wood there to brace the center. So you’re going to want to fire up the table saw. Set the blade to our now favorite angle of 45 degrees and chop off the top on both sides to get you’re pointed brace. Note: It doesn’t matter if your first cut doesn’t exactly cut to the middle of the wood. Your second cut will even all that out for you. The extra piece of wood in the picture is there because the guide for my table saw wouldn’t go close enough to make the cut I needed. So you put an extra piece in to make up the difference.

how to cut an angle, tablesaw angle

how to make a roof of playhouse

Nail gun, nail gun, nail gun, and we’re done.

Except I built the house too big to get out the shop door. So I ripped the roof off and nailed it back together when it was in it’s final resting place.

I am no fan of painting. And this is no exception. And when Lana said, “Let’s make the house magnetic!” I knew it would not be as simple as the label insinuated. We chose, well, the only option at our local hardware store. Rustoleum Magnetic Primer. Now, the label clearly indicates that it will take 2 or 3 coats of primer to create any significant magnetic pull, but even at 4 coats it would barely hold a refrigerator magnet with any reliability. Mind you that the label also says it’s 3X more powerful than the previous formula! And all this is before we put the top coats of color paint on which will inevitably weaken said magnetism. Oh yeah, and the primer is BLACK! So any color you want to lay over it will be a 3 or 4 coat job as well. All in all, I say let nature make things into magnets and stick to a normal primer. Isn’t painting FUN!!!!!

DIY playhouse

DIY Indoor Playhouse

 

spring thing blog hop, spring thing link party

Link up your Spring Thing below and make sure to do the same at Emily and Roeshel‘s blogs, and Kim‘s is next week. 

Roeshel did a Spring Terrarium and Emily made super cute Candlestick holders!

 



Spring Style

 

Spring! She’s coming, and I am so excited! This winter kept us cooped up inside with bebe, and we are so excited to celebrate the arrival Spring in any way we can, no mater how distant she may seem with all the snow storms! It’s amazing that Easter is almost here, didn’t we just pack Christmas decor?

This Easter we thought we would have a super cute and fun tablescape that would be fun for Atlas to look at during Easter brunch. I am especially fond of these light ikat plates we found at Target in Spring colors that look like candy and dessert! Isn’t that the fun part of Easter anyway?

targetstyle, #targetstyle, target spring, threshold target, easter tablescape, spring tablescape

The colors we found are so exciting. They remind me of water colors and flowers, and that puts me in a festive mood. The little birdie is a gift bag, and I think it works perfect for the kids. We are thinking of filling with some crayons and rolled up sheets of coloring activities  along with some fun stuff like tops and yoyo’s to keep them amused. Sorry adults, you’ll just get tulips and brunch!

tablescape, targetstyle, #targetstyle, threshold target

We even found matching eggs to fill with treats! I think for me a treat would be breakfast in bed. Hint, hint.

spring table top, spring colors, threshold, #targetstyle

spring table

 

  • A really inexpensive way to add some pop to your Spring table is to just purchase dessert plates and layer over existing white plates. We love mismatching patterns, and it’s OK as long as the colors match or there is another common theme. 
  • A single cut flower is a fresh way to add charm to any setting.
  • A fun way to make your drinks unique is to put a handful of cotton candy in a cute cup and pour Perrier over it to create colorful sugar bubbles, which would look perfect with this table setting.

threshold, #targetstyle, spring tabletop, spring tablescape

What are you thinking of doing for your Spring/Easter tablescape? Leave a comment and share!

spring thing blog hop, spring thing link party

Have you linked up your spring project with Emily of Merrypad.com and Roeshel of DIYshowoff.com? It’s Time for Springtime!

“Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Target via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Target.”

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