Laundry Room Planning

Hey guys! I'm so excited to share our plans for our first big renovation project - the laundry room! Soon after we moved into our house last summer, it was obvious the laundry room was not working for us. We realized that room, above all others, saw the most foot traffic every day and needed to become WAY more functional for our family.

The room is a good size - about 115 sq ft - but the storage situation was all wrong. Along the wall with the washer and dryer, there was a sink, some space to store cleaning supplies (no cabinet), and a hanging rod the length of the room at the top of the ceiling (and out of reach for this shorty!). Not horrible, but I could see a TON more potential.

BEFORE: When we did the walk through at the open house! Beige and Blah...

Gummy Bear Nursery Ideas

Hey guys! I'm back with a little nursery update. All of a sudden I've got the nesting bug, big time! With about 10 weeks to go (say what?!?!!) until the Gummy Bear gets here, I've got it bad. All I want to do is get the nursery ready for him to be here! But, first comes busy season (which ends in a few weeks, thank goodness) and then comes rearranging most of our house to make room for the new kiddo. The guest room will be moving to our converted garage/storage room, Em's big girl room is moving to the former guest room and the Gummy Bear's nursery will be in Em's current nursery. Lots of rearranging...

Since Gummy Bear will be moving into Emerson's old nursery, we are keeping the wall color the same (Martha Stewart Sea Glass, which is now discontinued...). I love that color so much and think it will go well with some navy, gray and wood accents instead of coral and yellow. 

Running with our Gummy Bear nickname, I want to do a Bear/Be Brave/Adventurer type theme for Gummy Bear's nursery. I don't think it will be super theme-y, but I'll start there and see how it goes! 

Here's some of the details of the little mood board I put together.

1. Navy and White Striped Curtains - I'm planning on making some of my own with some IKEA curtains I found last week. Hopefully much cheaper and not too hard to do!

2. Swivel Glider -  For Emerson's nursery we got my Mom's old wooden rocker from when she first had me (and we still have it). But, it wasn't super comfy, so I splurged for an upholstered glider. We actually put it together today and it's pretty comfortable!

3. Paint Color - Martha Stewart Sea Glass (now discontinued, unfortunately!)

4. Be Brave Wood Plank Art - I love this and maybe will attempt to make something myself? Or have Zach make it for me... :) 

5. Bears Art Print - Love this one so much!

6. Bear Cub Little Darling Print - I've always been a fan of the The Animal Print Shop and can't wait to incorporate this one into the nursery!

7. Herringbone Rug - I found this beauty from Target. Since the room so small, we got the 4x5 size and it is so soft and plush.

8. Let's Sleep Under The Stars Print - I think we all know how much I love Katie Daisy, so would love to have another one of her prints in the new nursery.

9. Bear Head - I love this Bear head taxidermy style wall decor. I'm also crushing on this one too.

10. Navy Patterned Pouf - I actually have had a similar navy pouf for a while now and think it will look great in the nursery.

11. Jenny Lind DaVinci Crib - This is Emerson's crib and hopefully if we time it right, we can transition Em to her big girl bed and use her old crib for the Gummy Bear! Fingers crossed!

12. Threshold Ikat Table Lamp - I picked up this beauty at Tar-Jay. 

13. IKEA Hemnes Navy Dresser - We picked up this guy recently. I would have loved to re-do another dresser like I did with Emerson's room, but I'm not up for the task this time around! Definitely taking the easy way out! But I'm glad that I found this one that came in blue. It will still add a little character to the room. 

That's it! Who knows when we will actually have time to get all this done (we'll have about six weeks post-busy season and pre-baby). All I know is I can't wait to put it all together! And mostly, I'm so excited for this little Gummy Bear to come join us!!! :)

Abstract Art

I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend! We hosted over 15 family members at our house for a big Easter Brunch/Zach's Birthday/My Birthday Extravaganza! We had a blast with our family, as always, with tons of food, games and laughs. Emerson did so well with so many people, too. Let's just say she doesn't mind being the center of attention. :)

So I've been in "nesting" mode again... No, Mom, I'm not prego. Since we are staying in Seattle for the next three years and staying in our current rental for at least another year or so, I want to get more settled and put my own stamp on this place. I've been updating the bathroom some and now I'm trying to get more art up on the walls. 

The art in our home is mostly all DIY, family photos or prints from Etsy. We don't have any official "real" artwork on the walls. Our budget just hasn't allowed it, but that's OK. Actually, I take that back. We do have a few smaller pieces that I accumulated from my travels - a watercolor of the Duomo in Firenze, a watercolor of Vernazza, Italy (Cinque Terra), an oil painting of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, spray paint art from our honeymoon in Cabo. I love these so much and they remind me of our travels every time I look at them. 

That being said, we still don't have any other "real" art that isn't of a place where we've traveled. I've been seeing a ton of inspirational abstract art on Etsy and some other blogs I read and I'm in love with it! I think it's time that I diversified a little bit. Added some abstract art to mix things up and add some color. There are some beautiful colorful pieces of art out there and the nice thing is that there is some really affordable art. It may not be the original art, but a print of the original art is just as good in my book (and much easier on my pocketbook). I rounded up some of my favorites after scoping out some other round ups like this, this, and this.

1. Britt Bass 2. Michelle Armas 3. Belinda Marshall 4. Cortney North 5. Parima Studio

I ended up buying the Michelle Armas print and I can't wait until it gets here! I'm excited to add some much needed color and texture to the walls!

What art are you digging lately? Abstract? Landscapes? Typography? If you have any other suggestions for great art, please share!

Office Inspiration

In our new house we have three bedrooms plus a man cave. So much more space than our last little house and so far we love it. Yes, it may be outdated, but just having more space makes it 100x better. I have the nursery done and I'm still working on the master bedroom (the coral isn't totally working for me so I'm taking a break for now... but I did order some fabric for the headboard, so we'll be working on that soon!) so that's two out of three. The third actual bedroom (the man cave is really just half of the garage converted into another room) was supposed to be our spare bedroom, but since I will be working from home when I go back to work in December I really need a space where I can work that will make me happy. Or at least be pretty enough to motivate me to work. :) 

I had been eyeing this rug from IKEA for a while now and then got the idea of doing a black and white room with some jade/emerald accents. Especially since I already have my jade dresser that I redid a year and a half ago which currently holds all my craft supplies. I went to IKEA to get the rug (only $20 too!) and found a bunch of other graphic black and white accents. IKEA is so cheap! I love it, although I vowed to never again buy a dresser from there - too much every day wear and tear for the "put together yourself furniture."

So, here's my office inspiration board (with most things from IKEA). The next step is painting the walls a bright white to brighten it up (it's currently a dusty mauve color... yuck) and then putting it all together. 

Master Bedroom Inspiration

Hey guys! I'm back! It's been a busy couple of weeks for us - moving, getting ready for Little BK, and just general life business. I'm excited to share more of our new place with you guys and eventually I will, but today I wanted to show you my inspiration for our master bedroom. 

Oh, by the way, I'm in MAJOR nesting mode right now. Like, everything must be finished and in its place before she comes, nesting. It's partly new house nesting too, but mostly I just want to have as much done as I can before she gets here because I know once she is here I won't have a lot of time for anything else!

If you remember our old house, our master bedroom was green, but now that we have our West Elm gray and white striped duvet, I wanted to change it up a bit. Luckily, that is an easy thing to do with accessories! 

1. Coral Shell Print Curtains - I loved these curtains for a while and would stalk them every time I went to Target until I finally broke down and got them! I can't wait to put them up.

2. Gray Tufted Headboard - This one from Wayfair is fabulous (and my friend, Kim, actually just bought it for her new place in NC!). But, we do already have our cream colored tufted headboard, and my plan is to recreate the Wayfair one but using this tutorial from Sarah M Dorsey Designs blog (she's a DIY genius!). We even have some leftover fabric from our chair upholstery project!

3. Coral Lamp - I love the shape of this lamp from Lamps Plus. The shade of coral is perfect. We do have some old black IKEA table lamps from years ago though, and I'm thinking I might try and do a little coral spray paint magic to update the bases and save some dough.

4. Fun Coral Patterned Pillows - These geometric pillows would be great for accents on the bed. Thinking I might make pillow covers for some of my existing pillows though. We all know I love making pillows. :) 

5. White Hemnes IKEA Nightstand - You can't go wrong with a simple IKEA nightstand. The good news is that we already own a pair of these. The bad news is that they are in black. I'm thinking it will be a quick fix to paint them white...

6. Map Art - I have quite a few old maps that I might use for the walls.

7. DIY Yarn Letters - These are staying in there. I love them. 

8. Let's Get Lost Art - Love this print. Just love it.

9. Love is Spoken Here Art - Also love this one. The colors are perfect and it's just so pretty.

10. West Elm Gray and White Striped Duvet - I got this set for Christmas and so far I love it. I can't wait to add to the room to make it all come together!

11. Argonne Rug - The pattern on this rug and the color is amazing.

12. Fresh Flowers - You can't go wrong with a little pop of freshness!

13. West Elm Striped Sheet Set - Love these sheets. I like how the small stripes match yet contrast the striped duvet cover.

14. Light Gray Wall Paint - Zach actually painted the bedroom today in Martha Stewart's Heavy Goose!

Paint is on, so next step is putting it all together! Can't wait to share when it's done!

Nursery Ideas for Little Miss BK

I had so much putting this together (especially since I finally figured out a non-photoshop way to make a mood board)! I've been so excited to put the nursery together every since busy season ended so I started a secret board on Pinterest with all my nursery finds. I've finally narrowed them down to what I can envision for Little Miss BK! My main inspiration is this nursery from Jess at Craftiness is Not Optional. I love the colors - aqua, coral and yellow - and I loved the subtle hot air balloon theme. I'm not really into "themed" nurseries, but I do like having the hot air balloons in there a little bit. I'm more of a geometric/stripes/polka dots kind of girl. :) Mostly, I just want it to be a bright, colorful fun space for Little BK (and mainly me, I guess) to enjoy! I also have some big plans for some fun projects too! I'll explain more...