Fun Fireplace Flare!

Talk about a random project---this is exactly what happens to us in the winter! We are cooped up inside the house while it is freezing outside, not to mention it gets dark SO early now, so what do we do...head over to Home Depot or Lowes (of course) and see what we can get our hands on!

This time in particular Home Depot was having a GREAT sale on the mosaic tiles that come in 12" x 12" sheets--they were half off! Now, before we get carried away and start buying the whole lot of these to do our kitchen (something we have REALLY wanted to do), we decided to test our tiling skills on our fireplace first....

Success! Basically, $20.00 later and starting/completing a project from 8pm-10pm on a work night--voila! Seriously, this was such a simple project and so worth it! It adds a splash of color and definition to the all black fireplace, tying in the colors of the room nicely! Definitely recommend! We will for sure be doing this to our kitchen at some point!

Fireplace Before (2008)

Fireplace After (2010)

Personalized Wall Art

I told you the next few posts would be consumed by baby projects! This just opens a door to a ton of new creations to make!

I love the look of having the child's name displayed in the room somewhere so decided to make my own. Taking a TV cubbie door that we saved from when purchasing our house (see here), I personalized this and painted it with her name: Kaydence (we call her KD for short). This is a SUPER heavy piece, so it will only be going behind the changing table, not crib.

Personalized Sign

Every girl needs a sign on their door right? Well, baby KD does! :)

This was a quick project--I just took a huge wooden letter 'K' and mod podged some pretty scrapbook paper on it. I then added to the look by adding spray painted wooden letters of her name (hot glued them) and decorated it more with paper flowers. Finally, I attached a ribbon for hanging!

Simple. Fun. Cute!

Diaper Creations

Now, I know I have posted a few times here on how to make diaper cakes. This is just a quick post to show you all out there the TERRIFIC other diaper creations available, as well as other ways to make diaper cakes!

I just recently had some showers and attended some showers and was astonished by the creativity with diapers! Completely takes diaper cakes to a whole new level of creativity! Below are just a few examples of branching outside and using diapers in other very creative ways---compared to these, my diaper creations were so plain! I know how to spice them up now!

Rolled Up Diaper Cake with trinkets

Diaper Wreath with trinkets

Layered Diaper Cake with trinkets

Diaper Tricycle

Diaper Sand Castle

Baby Murals

Now that the room is painted and the beadboard is up, now it's time to start accessorizing--my favorite! Since I'm playing up the stripes/polka dot shapes, we added 3 white Japanese lanterns in one corner (mimicking dots). We then added a corner shelf we already had and placed a few items accented in pink.

Lanterns and Shelf

To personalize the room more, I pulled out the craft paints and got to work on creating some adorable wall art! To go behind the crib I painted 3 little murals--again tying in the pink accents and polka dots.

Painted Canvases

Canvas and Crib

The blank canvases came in a 2 pack and were 50% off, AND are very light, all pluses, and I was sure to use a non-toxic, acrylic paint with a ton of ventilation and a fan in the room while paining.

Beadboard and Stripes!

If you haven't realized yet...I LOVE decorating and even more so when I'm able to personalize things and make them my own creation! As I mentioned in previous posts, JD and I are expecting our first child February 2, 2011! It has been confirmed--a little girl is on our way and we couldn't be happier!

So, with a baby on the way it means my mind is constantly consumed by baby ideas and projects. First project to tackle--the nursery!

Even though we are having a little girl, my favorite color combo (as if you can't tell from my blog) is light blue and brown. I was bound and determined to have a nontraditional girl's nursery and not saturate the nursery in pinks, but still have enough pink to compliment the girliness of it--this would be through the use of pink accents in the room. I also knew I wanted a more modern nursery, playing up stripes and polka dots, but a space that is still welcoming and calming.

This being the case, we kept our bluish gray walls and on one accent wall added some stripes. To tone down the cool color, we warmed it up by placing white beadboard up (another first for us!). Love the look of the white beadboard, it really says 'nursery' to me!

Applying Beadboard

Applying Chair Rail

Painting Stripes

Completed Beadboard and Stripes

Now it's time to accessorize and personalize...More to come!

::ribbit:: FROG is DONE!

Since the day we stepped foot into the FROG while touring our house, we decided if this was to be our house we would use this huge, 2 car garage sized finished room to be our Family room...And just to put a plan in action, after we purchased the house and moved in, we drew up plans and taped off our ideas for what we envisioned to be our custom built cabinet and bookshelf space.

FROG 2008

Well, I'm SO SO proud to say, that TWO years later, we have put this plan into motion! Since we had everything drawn up and priced out years ago, it was just a matter of finding the time to pull it together! All I have to say is WOW! For a little over $500, we were able to put this plan into action!

We started by hard wiring the internet wires and cable we knew we would need to have there. We then created a base for the cabinets to be placed on. This was probably the most time consuming part of the project because here we learned about the importance of accurate measuring and keeping things level. Since we were going wall to wall, we also learned that the corners in our house are NOT perfect 90 degree angles, so you have to accommodate for that.

Base work

The next part was fun...placing the cabinets on our base we created! That really helped illustrate our vision! When then worked on the counter top, ceiling board (our ceiling has the annoying popcorn, so we covered it for this built-in), shelves, and finishings (molding).

Placing Cabinets
Prepping Shelves

Prepping Shelves

Eventually, after a ton of caulk, liquid nails, screws, nails, kiltz, white paint, wood and saw dust in the room, and hammered thumbs, our FROG came to life and is even better than we imagined!

Completed Built-ins!Some shelf decorations

Now we have all this storage space, and just in time, too (because everything has to be moved out of our computer room to this room for the nursery)! We will eventually put a TV up here and this will be our new family and gathering room!