A New Look ~ Revealed

What a pleasure it has been to re-do Maddie's room!  Let's take a tour and then we'll talk details.

(For whatever reason, using a caption on the pics is messing up the post so just remember...BEFORE is on the left and AFTER is on the right.)

This is the view when you walk through the door.

Since Madeline's desk was rarely used, I chose to remove it and store her things on the dresser instead.

I shifted the bed from its old location to create space for a book wall.

The window got new curtains and I downsized the dresser.

The hooks got raised for a growing girl!

Okay.  Let's stop here and back up a bit.  The inspirations for the room came from looking through magazines and blogs.  I had Darla look through pictures and just tell me anything she liked.  We also asked Maddie if she had any requests.  I noted them all and then we started to shop.  

Several items I found on Kijiji and gave Mike and Darla (Maddie's parents) instruction on how to refinish them.  I also helped with a couple of the details like the wallpaper on the headboard and the antiquing of the chair.

Headboard (TEN BUCKS!!!)

Chair

Dresser

Choosing the paint colour and accent began with the bedding.

I suggested a few possibilities and when we narrowed it down we were able to find a great shade from a child's room featured on another blog.

I also had Darla and Maddie purge and sort so that we would only be working with what was truly needed/wanted in the room.

Maddie is an avid reader so I wanted her to have a great spot for books.  These shelves are a fun and pretty way to display her collection of novels (including some beautiful vintage Nancy Drews which were a special gift to her from her neighbour.)

One of Madeline's requests was a wall word.  After some thought she chose "smile" - always wonderful advice!  

Mad also has a great collection of jewellery.  After some searching for a used jewellery armoire to refinish, we chose instead to shop the house and painted this little cabinet for her to store her stuff in.  The bulletin board keeps her necklaces from tangling.

A couple more requests were the photo collage (left) and Darla hoped for a chandelier (right).

The bench was my own request...so cute and handy to use in a multitude of ways!

The closet clothing got sorted and we stored some rarely used items on the shelves.  Scarves are hanging through the shelving at the bottom and belts got hung on the wall.

While it feels amazing in the end, a big new look can start off feeling overwhelming.  So let's just go over some tips to take it step by step.

~Save pictures with spaces and ideas you love and that are practical for you to live in...it's okay to copy!

~Make sure you are choosing new items that fit with the items you want to keep...bedding for instance.

~Be willing to purge and sort through your stuff. 

~Look for colours in photos so you can see how they look on a wall...rather than in a tiny colour card.

~Be willing to buy used and refinish.

~Make sure you list out all your must haves and address them...nobody wants a beautiful room that doesn't meet your needs!

Thank-you sweet Maddie for the wonderful opportunity to re-work your space!

I am including a source guide in case you see something you'd like to find.  Please let me know if I've missed anything.

Sources:

Paint - Wythe Blue, Candy Cane Red, Oxford White - Benjamin Moore

Headboard, Chair, Bench, Dresser, Large Mirror, Red Baskets - Kijiji

Shelving - Jysk

Chandelier, Curtains, Rods - Rona

Garbage Can - Walmart

Dresser Knobs - Lee Valley

Smile Letters and File Folders - Michael's

Bulletin Board - Home Sense

Small Mirrors - Envy

Frames - Urban Barn

"m" and "M" Mug - Anthropologie

"M" - Target

Up Up And Away!

House has been a wee bit stubborn about lifting off.  Dino has been working HARD.  He has given a lot of hours and endured some severe pain on his not-quite-healed achilles injury.  But after several battles, house finally gave in today.

Before

After

Yup.  That IS a 100 year old, 3 story, 2700 square foot house 2 feet up in the air.  You can see right through to the other side.

Hey.  Wait.  Is that a crib in my kitchen??

And I seem to remember a fireplace in the den...

Oh!  Found it!!

Now this is how you hang a door!

The kids are checking out the future rec room.

Thank-you Dino for your willingness to take this on and create our dream home.  

We love you!!

xox 

S, J, S, E and C

A New Look

My beautiful god-daughter Maddie is getting her room redone.  Darla (her mom) and I have looked through pictures and found ideas.  Furniture has been purchased.  Room purged.  Paint chosen and walls done.  

We have managed to send five of our kids off to camp this week leaving us with my youngest and Maddie (oldest of our combined clan).

So.  We will shop for the last details.  We will arrange.  We will finish up projects.

And hopefully soon, we will show you the new look.

In the meantime, here are the before pics.

Looking forward to the big reveal!

Residual Effects of the Snowball

After the 3rd floor was done, I still had this little pang in my soul.  I wasn't done.  I wanted more projects.  I still needed to create.

So I trekked around the house and it wasn't long before I found a spot to work on. 

Our second floor bathroom is the where all four kids get ready in the morning.  There is one sink and it's not huge but it is where the mirror hangs.  I'd been thinking about tucking a dresser-type unit into the spot pictured above to create a more practical space because then I could hang a second mirror and the girls could do hair there, freeing up the sink.

Now, back in January, I decided that I was sick of this guy...keeper of the microwave in the kitchen.

I found this great unit at Home Sense which fits perfectly in the space, matches the style of the kitchen, and gives me lots more storage and counter top.

I wasn't sure what to do with the basket drawer unit, so I just popped him on a free wall in the dining room to await his fate.

Hoping against hope I measured, and big sigh of relief...he was a perfect fit!!  I painted the wood part white, found a fun mirror at Goodwill which I sprayed to match and then dug out a little shelf I'd been wanting to find a home for.

I hung the mirror low so that the girls can see in it easily.  All the hair supplies and other items from those green boxes in the first picture are now tucked away in the drawers.  I am still considering spraying the baskets white too...what do you think?

News, Tears and Moving On

I have news...

  

Thanks to my fab friend Ellen, my blog now has a GADGET.  It's over there on the left and if you want to receive my new blog posts via email, all you have to do is put your address in and presto!  Cool huh?  And don't forget if you are out there reading this but have not logged in as a follower, I'd love to have you join and see your teeny picture down there at the bottom!  

And now the tears.

This is what our house looks like today:

Our deck, sunroom and front porch have been removed.  Endless hours of work have gone into preparing it for the big day.  In several days it will be sitting 2 feet up in the air. 

As you can imagine, things are not terribly pretty in there.

  

But for now I will take a deep breath and look forward to a time when I can show you some exciting after shots.

I did shed a few tears as I left my sweet house a little note though...

Moving on, I thought we'd cheer up by talking about an crazy easy way to give a room or piece of furniture a big new look.  KNOBS!! 

Soon I will be visiting one of my favourite stores, Anthropologie.  A year ago I bought 30 knobs there and redid my entire kitchen.  I am still in love with them.  They gave the room a really different look.

Before

After

I got a dresser for baby girl's room a bit ago and after paint, added these:

A knob can look cute as hook too.

Apron hanger in kitchen.

Baby Girl's room.

Lee Valley has a huge selection of knobs.  You might find some in the Michael's cheapie bins too.  Or any home store.  Have a look around.  It's an easy, quick redo that gives you a fun update!  (And you can always sell your old knobs on Kijiji!!)

Hanging

The other day I did a few hanging jobs for my friend Meire-Anne.

We started in her bedroom where I built and then hung her new headboard.

Before

After

Then we hung a beautiful fabric wall hanging that she brought home from one of her trips.  We used those Ikea wire curtain hangers.

Before

After

I also hung some gorgeous colour photos a friend gave her.

Before

After

And a couple more sweet trip momentos.

So let's talk tricks.  

If you want to hang pictures at the same height, it works great to measure down from the ceiling to the height you want.  Much easier than fighting with the tape measure from the floor up.  Now, if you should happen to be working in an old house where the ceiling is not quite level...you can run into issues.  But the same goes for the floor so a crooked house is just trickier all around.

If you want to hang a collage, a really great trick is to trace all your pictures on kraft paper.  Cut them out and label them so you can keep track of which is which.  Lay them on the back of their corresponding picture and mark where the nail should go.  Then you can tape them on the wall and work them around until you are happy.  This might take awhile!  I have left collages over night to see if I still like it in the morning.  Once you are satisfied you can literally put the nail right through the paper on your nail mark and then just pull all the papers down and presto - ready to hang!

Meire-Anne's bedroom wall.

I'll leave you with another adorable set of souvenirs I hung for Meire-Anne a few months ago.  Love those cutie turtles!

Happy Hangin'!