Archive for December, 2010
Breaking Out John’s Painting Belt
It was like old times. For those who don’t get the painting belt reference in this post’s title, check this out for further explanation. Anyway, as we mentioned yesterday, we painted Clara’s nursery. And instead of cloning the exact space that she enjoyed in our old house, we took the move as an opportunity to switch up the wall color. We figure since we’re working with the same furniture and even the same light fixture and curtains (since I was too sentimental to leave them behind) we thought a new wall color would make things feel a little fresher- like the room is subtly evolving over time as opposed to being totally reinvented (since many of the major pieces are staying the same) or a carbon copy of the last room (just because we’ve been there and done that).
When we were chatting about what colors we could do, we debated a few options: some shade of blue (but we thought it would be too much with the blue bedding, changing pad cover, capiz chandelier, and the blue in the curtain fabric), some shade of green (too similar to the past version), some shade of yellow (not present in the curtains or any other items already in the room so probably too random), some neutral color (too safe for a kids room, we wanted to have some fun), some shade of pink (hmm, but is that super girly? we’re scared). And guess what we went with?!
Since there were soft tones of pink in the curtains as well as in our DIY mobiles (that we have yet to hang) we thought it would fit in nicely – as long as we kept things on the subtle side so it didn’t get too bright and overwhelming. But we didn’t just want a soft ballet pink (or a baby pink like the swatch in the photo above). We wanted something with gray/lavender undertones. It’s hard to explain, so we’ll let the swatch cards do the talking:
See how the one with the arrow towards it seems grayer and more lavender than the others? We thought it had a nice muddy sophistication and hoped that it wouldn’t look too pastel-ish and girly, since we’ve always loved that Clara’s room is full of greens and blues and other non-gender specific colors. Not to say that the room isn’t clearly a girl’s room now, but we just wanted the color to have a bit more dimension than just a soft pink. Plus you might remember this whole-house-color-scheme post, where the second swatch on the top row was a little bit pink, a little bit gray, and a little bit lavender. That was what we were going for.
And in person it really does look dimensional and full of subtle gray and lavender undertones! The color is from Benjamin Moore’s Affinity line and it’s called Proposal (sweet, right?) but you know we’re too cheap to get BM paint for the most part, so we had it color matched to Olympic’s No-VOC paint at Lowe’s (which now not only has no-VOCs in the base paint, it also has no-VOCs in the colorants that they add, so it’s perfect for a nursery). Thankfully, we love how it turned out. It’s a hard color to capture in photos though (the subtleties and varied undertones aren’t always super apparent) but we did our best. Here’s the room before:
Here’s the room during painting (just so you can see our process, we pushed the big pieces into the center of the room and tossed a plastic tarp over them):
And here’s the room now:
Of course it’ll look a lot more finished (and less pink-washed) when we hang the art, shelves, curtains, mobiles, etc. And when we switch out the ceiling fan for the blue capiz chandelier it’ll hopefully feel nice and complete for the beanette. And now for an obligatory look-how-cute-my-kid-is photo of Clara sleeping on her daddy. Is there anything sweeter?
But back to her freshly painted nursery. Her room was always the priority for us because we’d like her to feel settled and we want her room to always be a place where we can escape the chaos of the rest of the house (especially since most of it will be “in-progress” for a loooong time). So stay tuned for pics when we get our act together and hang everything up in there for a more finished look. Until then you can find us staring at about thirty swatches on the wall in the living room…
Fab Freebie: Skil-ly Weather
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – scroll down to see who won!***
I won’t lie. When the folks at Skil wanted to offer up one of their tools this holiday season, we had trouble picking out the perfect prize for you guys. Then they offered to give away a four-tool-tastic combo pack so we didn’t have to make that call. Nice, right?
So this week’s winner will be scoring all four tools pictured above, which are officially dubbed the 18V Lithium Ion Cordless 4-Tool Combo Pack. Which means the drill, circular saw, reciprocating saw, and flashlight all work off of the same rechargeable battery. So here’s how you can snag this last minute Christmas present for yourself (or the handyman / woman in your life):
- PRIZE: The 18V Lithium Ion Cordless 4-Tool Combo Pack from Skil.
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “SKIL ME!” and…
- BONUS QUESTION: … tell us about another foursome you love. Maybe it’s a band (the Beatles?) or maybe it’s a group of fictional characters (the ladies of Sex and the City?) or real people in your life (your four kids?).
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, December 22nd at 8pm EST
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
- PRIZE SHIPS: United States of America
- USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winners will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday as an update to this post. That’s right, come right back here Thursday morning for the announcement of our winner. Good luck…
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And just in time for X-mas, our lucky winner (as chosen by random.org) is… Ashley (who’s favorite foursome is her family of four). Congrats!
Note: We weren’t paid or perk’d for hosting this giveaway, we just take them on to reward our lovely readers! See our Giveaway FAQs page for more info. Pics from Skil.
It’s Up! Again.
We actually got our tree back up a few days ago amidst boxes and general chaos (here it is the first time when we set it up in the old house). We figured we’d never be 100% organized and unpacked before the holidays hit, but taking an hour to get into the spirit in our brand new house for our bean’s first Christmas was just what the doctor ordered. We found the perfect spot for our tree in the corner of the living room (right near the sliders that lead out into the sunroom and the doorway that connects to the kitchen).
We also hung my beloved Pottery Barn wreath (a gift from John’s mom a few years back) on the back of the fireplace in the living room that will someday be double-sided. I just stare at that empty green bookcase and picture a blazing fire…
And the other side of the fireplace (which is located in the eat-in part of the kitchen) looks like this:
I know, I know – that paneling, dark brick, and red tile is ka-raaaazy. But there’s still something sweet about seeing our stockings (John and I share one so Clara and Burger each get their own), my little faux presents, a few feather trees, some ceramic fruit/birds, and our cardboard snowflake wreath up there to keep things festive until we can break out the primer and paint to lighten things up.
Oh and as I was unpacking I spotted those cute silver zebra-ish plates (from Crate & Barrel a few years back) and decided to stick them up on the mantel as well. Why not- it’s a kitchen, right?
They add a nice little shot of holiday sparkle. So I try to rest my eyes on those little gems (instead of all that paneling- oy!). Can’t wait to brighten things up in there. Oh and speaking of painting, we actually tackled Clara’s room this weekend. It felt good to be back in our painting clothes! We went in a totally different direction than we did in her last nursery, so we’ll have to snap some pictures and share them soon…
Holiday Shopping Post Numero Three
Here’s our last installment of our recent gift sleuthing spree (see part one here and part two here) and this time we paid Urban Outfitters a visit. It’s always full of cute, quirky, and downright hilarious gift ideas that are usually pretty affordable. Here’s what we found:
These sparkly pillows were pretty luxe looking (and around $30, as opposed to something similar that we saw at Crate & Barrel for $99).
This $22 book of “Other People’s Love Letters” reminded us of those Post Secret books (we love them, and actually own two volumes of ‘em- they’re great for leaving in a guest room so visitors can entertain themselves).
For the techie in your life, these funny $16 iPhone app refrigerator magnets could be perfect (if not a bit expensive- maybe they’re a good DIY gift idea too?).
This pretty canvas print would definitely work for any newly married couples who just got their first house. So cute. And it might also be DIYable with floral fabric, some fabric paint, and some stencils. I somehow forgot to note the price for this one. Boo.
These sweet $8 mugs had so much charm. And they’re great to give full of any number of things (fancy tea bags or coffee grounds, a bag of cookies or biscotti, even pencils or pens for a work friend’s cubicle).
Of course we had to take a picture of the quirky band aids on the left for Burger. And anything with a mustache joke is cool with us, hence the box on the right. These could make pretty funny stocking stuffers. Sidenote: I just googled mustache to be sure I was spelling it right since the box has that funny spelling that made me second guess my first instinct and look at what came up. Those are some intricate mustache designs…
Here’s a $36 faux chandelier that we thought would be a great gift for a fancy fashionista friend. We can totally picture it hanging above an entryway table, a dining area, or even inside of a cool walk in closet (best of all: no wiring necessary).
And we had to snap a picture of this dude from The Hangover…
… because if John had a goatee and some glasses it might have been a pretty good representation of his “heck-yeah-I’m-wearing-a-baby” fashion choice.
Of course Clara was asleep at this point so she missed the hilarity. Anyway, so ends our three store virtual shopping spree. Off to unpack some more.
Psst- We weren’t paid or perk’d to mention these items or stores, we just like them and thought you might too.
More Virtual Gift Shopping
We’re back with part two of our virtual gift shopping roundup (see part one here) and this time we headed into Pottery Barn to see what we could find. Here’s what we loved.
This charming $12.50 rubber stamp kit is so cute for anyone from a well traveled kid to a crafty adult (who might use them to whip up some custom stationery).
In the can’t-get-much-cheaper-than-this category, these $3 vases would be perfect for this DIY reed diffuser project that we tackled last year.
These $11 “His” and “Hers” knobs would be cute for any married couple who share a bathroom (which is pretty much all of our friends and relatives since we’re not of fancy enough blood to know people to have two separate master baths).
The hubs loves maps, so the globe ornament definitely caught my eye as a sweet gift for anyone with geographic interests.
And for anyone who wants to feel swanky, this $29 marble cheeseboard just screams decadence (I actually expected the tag to read $69 or something, so the chunky marble slab and cheese knife for under 30 seems really reasonable to me). Maybe someone you know just recently redid their kitchen and would appreciate something chic like this to finish things off?
I didn’t realize I had a weakness for large hardcover books like these until we were packing/unpacking (they are NOT a plus when you’re packing/unpacking by the way). But they’re gorgeous enough on a coffee table the rest of the time to make them worth the trouble. And since many of these were 60% off (some were marked from $50 down to $18!) they really would make a nice high-roller gift that doesn’t actually break the bank. And yes, I would totally peel off the markdown sticker so the giftee was left wondering if we really paid $50 for a book (but if they know us at all, they’ll know that we didn’t… haha).
So that ends the PB roundup. We’ll be back in a bit with our Urban Outfitters run to finish off the three part virtual shopping spree (we took too many pics to put them in one post). In the meantime, we’ll just be- you guessed it- unpacking. Fun, fun, fun.
Psst- We weren’t paid or perk’d to mention these items or stores, we just like them and thought you might too.
