Framing Baby and Vintage Clothing

Not to get all TMI on you all, but we're in the thick of some big family planning decisions around here. I would love to have more babies I think, but we're trying to be thoughtful about the timing and about what makes the most sense for us and for our future.

Me Oh My

Before we moved this summer, I donated, gifted and tossed basically all of our baby clothes. Truthfully, it was a little heart-breaking. I'm the kind of person that can remember what I was wearing at every single important (and semi-important) event in my life. Isn't that weird? There's a similar memory attachment to my kids clothes too.

Both images above from Eddie Ross

But, after three girls in a row, most of the clothes had been passed down once or twice (poor Evie!) and they were just done. It made sense to not waste precious storage space any more. I did keep a couple of really special pieces - blessing dresses and some of the really teeny tiny clothes from the newborn days. And I love to have one or two of those items framed - maybe in the hallway to the girls bathroom?

SCW Interiors

I also love all the vintage bathing suit ideas that have been floating around for the past couple years. Shoes, purses, wallets, jewelry, glasses - all of these would look great for those heirlooms you'd like to be able to enjoy, but that need protecting (like my grandmother's buttons).

KD Hamptons

Jeffrey Bilhuber design

Camila from Effortless Style recently framed her son's going home outfit in a standard acrylic frame from the craft store. It was a really cute and easy DIY that I might just have to copy! Check it out here.

Room Tour: Lauren Leonard Interiors

Lauren emailed to share photos of her daughter Ellie's room. I hope it's not too ridiculous for me to be jealous of a six year-old's bedroom, because I totally am. I would swipe that gold + KWID chair from her so fast! :)

Lauren said the John Robshaw fabric on the bed was her starting point but was also her budget-buster (SO worth it I say!), so she had to get creative with the other elements in the room, like framing prints from a $6 calendar and painting the pattern on a simple IKEA rug (here's a similar project).

For all the details on this lovely bedroom, check out Lauren's post.

Thanks for sharing, Lauren! If you'd like to share a space or project with LGN readers, feel free to submit here.

Chalkboard Kids Table

We've had a framed chalkboard in the girls' room for years (I showed the project here). They loved it a lot, but there wasn't really a good place for the frame in the new room at the brownstone, so we figured out a new way to have a chalkboard in the room.

Here's what the board and table (which I picked up at Homegoods a long time ago) used to look like in the loft. The table looked okay from the side but top was pretty trashed from years of arts and crafts. It was time for a makeover for sure. Plus, I thought the wood table on wood floor look would not be so cute.

I cleaned and hand-sanded the table down to smooth out the worst of the surface bumps.

Then I rolled out about three or four coats of chalkboard paint. The nice thing about this paint is it dries very fast - which makes it super easy to work with.

I paired the table with chairs found here and here. We keep the chalk sticks in a neon pink acrylic box I picked up at the flea market. I bought the rug at the Madeline Weinrib sample sale in the ABC clearance basement (I think they just had another sale, actually and I'm sad I missed it! Might be worth a call to see if they have any left-overs...)

We've been using the chalkboard table for a few weeks and it's actually working better than I expected even. I think part of that reason is my older girls are able to wipe it down themselves if they want a chalk-free surface. I was also a little concerned that chalk dust would get everywhere, but I haven't noticed any. Success!

PS There's another chalkboard project in my future. So, so excited!

Art for the Girls' Room

Thanks to Art.com for sponsoring this post series. In the next few days, there will be a $500 give away on the Art.com Pinterest page. Follow them here, where all the details will be announced!

When I was shopping for art for the room my girls share here at the brownstone, I knew I wanted something feminine, but modern. And I wanted it BIG! Something to work with this vintage french poster from their last room.

Art.com has a ton of Warhol prints, several from his Flower series. I thought this color way would be perfect on the pale lilac walls. And the black background helps keep things from going too sweet.

Then I used their "View In Room" program to see the actual scale of this huge print.

I uploaded a couple photos of different walls in the room, which ended up being really helpful, because it looked horrible in the first place I had in mind. I loved how it looked next to the windows where I planned to put the play table.

The other cool part of the View In Room program is you can do multiple prints on one wall (in your saved gallery, use their room photos, or upload your own like I did). It's a SUPER easy way to map out a gallery wall! The hardest part is figuring out your favorite prints - there are so many good ones to choose from. You can see my saved galleries here, here and here. (And I just noticed they are having a 20% off sale this weekend! Awesome - I've been saving a special print in my cart.)

Here's the Warhol print hanging in the girls' room. It feels so bright and happy in there! They love it.

PS The frame truly looks like something I would have paid $500 for here in Manhattan. Want to know what it cost to frame this 40x40" piece? Just $150 - a complete steal for something this large. You can tell the work was done by craftsmen (I sort of choke up in their videos! This one is awesome too. Man, art is so cool.)

Room Tour: Fletcher's Nursery

I'm was so thrilled when Chassity from Look Linger Love emailed me to offer up first dibs on these photos of her new son's nursery. She has done such a lovely job here! Here's Chassity with a little tour, and as always, the sources are listed at the very bottom.

After learning that we were pregnant with a boy I definitely had a moment of panic over decorating the nursery. I had been in "girly mode" with Fletcher's older sister Lilly, so to switch gears was a little intimidating. All needless worry of course as boys' rooms are definitely just as much fun. 

I started by inviting some of my favorite interior designer friends to contribute to a Nursery Design Series to get some ideas rolling. The nursery boards these women (like Caitlin Wilson, Angie Hranowsky, and Amber Lewis) came up with were incredible to say the least, and were a great starting point for me to get my ideas running. (You can see all the moodboards and their sources here)

My main goal for the room was to give Fletcher an eclectic, comfortable, and safe space to call his own. I wanted to look beyond the "matchy" set of furniture and bedding that can be typical of nurseries. While it wasn't my intention, I like the voyager feel that the space has. I also chose items that would grow with Fletcher. For example, instead of a changing table I chose the voyager steamer dresser to work double duty. Likewise, I envision Fletcher and Lilly reading books together on the JA mini sofa for years to come.

The nursery renovation took probably 3 months from beginning to end. This includes all the time I spent gathering inspiration, shopping around, placing orders, and eventually completing the room. Fletcher was born 5 weeks early so we had to be quick to complete all the final touches once he arrived. 

What do I think makes the space? The Madeline Weinrib rug definitely adds visual interest to the room. But beyond that it's the sentimental items that are in the room. Cuddling up in the middle of the night is much more cozy with the navy & white throw blanket that my Granny knitted. And while Fletcher isn't sitting in the chair just yet, I'm glad that I was able to find the cowhide element that my Dad was adamant about seeing in his grandson's room. And I smile every time that I look at the painting that my friend Sally King Benedict painted for us as a baby gift.

(Thanks again, Chassity!! If you have a room tour you'd like to submit, please email us)

Room Sources:

Wall Color - Valspar's Gray Plank

Mini Sofa - Jonathan Adler 

Elephant Pouf - Serena and Lily 

Rocker - Joya 

Lamp - Restoration Hardware 

Rug - Madeline Weinrib 

Cowhide Chair - Celadon 

Crib - Oeuf Sparrow Crib 

Crib Bedding - Little Auggie 

Dresser/Changing Table - Restoration Hardware 

Vintage Peddle Plane - Restoration Hardware 

Velvet Drapes - Pottery Barn 

Colorblock painting - Sally King Benedict 

Watercolor Map Print - Jessica Durrant 

Boy On Bike Art - Kiki and Polly 

Do Good Art - Twamies  

Driftwood Shelf - Moss Woodshop 

You Are Simply Wonderful Print - Sarah and Bendrix 

Skirted Bassinet

When I was pregnant with Evie, I meant to add a skirt to our simple white bassinet. I never quite got around to it before she was born, but if I had, it would look a lot like the one here. This lady NAILED it.

Check out her whole nursery tour here and also a few more photos on her blog.

PS Some people in the comments section of the Apt Therapy tour were all upset that this nursery is so grown-up looking. I think it's lovely to have a more sophisticated space for children as long as everything is safe. And I think I feel that way especially about a nursery, since the parents will be the ones with the most vivid memories of time spent in that room! What do you think?

DIY Inlay Dresser

I love mother of pearl inlay furniture. The layer of texture it gives to a room is so COOL, but is it really worth the price tag? Larger pieces are several thousand dollars (sometimes more than $10,000 for repros!)

 

I bought this dresser at the flea market last fall for my girls bedroom. It fit perfectly between their twin beds and made a great joint nightstand. I thought the size and shape made this piece a great candidate for an inlay DIY. I was super excited when Sherwin-Williams invited me to join a group of talented bloggers to spread the word about National Painting Week. Each of us was assigned a color and I was thrilled to get purple.

 

Inspired by the lilac wall color in this amazing Katie Ridder room, I chose Rhapsody Lilac for the main color of the dresser and Minuet for the highlights/faux inlay.

 

I used Sherwin-Williams waterborne interior alkyd enamel in both shades. It wears as well as full on oil-based paint, but cleans up like latex paint. It's low VOC and there is hardly any smell, (though you'll still want to keep your windows open or do the painting outside). It really is a great paint. It's made for trim and doors, but the hard-wearing formula is awesome for furniture as well.

 

I lightly sanded the dresser and gave it two coats of Rhapsody Lilac in semi-gloss with a foam mini-roller. Once the base coats were fully dried, I took a glance at some inspiration inlay pieces online and just started doodling with an artists brush. I tried a couple different brushes and quickly discovered you only need one for this project - a 1/4" wide angled artist's brush. 

You can see on most of the real inlay pieces that the patterns are simple - a couple of circular stylized flowers with vines and simple leaves, all inside a border.

It feels like an intimidating project, but I found that the more relaxed you are, the better and more authentic the result is. I was over-thinking the design on the top of the dresser and that's my least favorite section now.  Also, don't go over the leaves twice. The real bone or mother of pearl inlay pieces have a lot of color variation, so you don't want solid white design here either. The real inlay patterns are often not exact and are even a little crooked. Don't worry about perfection here. No painters tape needed!

Here's a little 10 second video to give you the sense of the speed of the project. It takes a couple hours probably to cover every surface with the doodling, but it feels like quick, light work.

Can you hear my kids chattering in the background? This was happening on the other side of dresser :)

Once all the big surface designs were done, I went back and added small leaf patterns to all the edges and sides. This was the fun part for me and the look really started coming together with the addition of the smaller patterns.

It doesn't really matter what design you paint or where or how, the idea is just lots of movement and pattern, in varying shades of white. The result is folksy and pretty charming. Perfect for a child's room!

Oh - and a quick note about the knobs. After I started the project I realized I would need new knobs to replace the super traditional brass pulls. I was planning to just pick up some of those round unfinished wood knobs, but then I remembered I had a bunch of these green glass knobs from the clearance section at TJ Maxx. They already had a flower design on the fronts, so I just painted those white.

I love the dimension the knobs give!

One of my girlfriends stopped by our place last week, coincidentally after some shopping at ABC where she saw lots of inlay furniture in pastel shades. She noticed the dresser as she walked past the girls room, gasped, said "Oh no you didn't" as she ran up to get a closer look at the inlay. Trickery = Success! Insert evil laugh and tapping together of finger tips! 

Later my friend confessed she was pretty confused at the thought of me spending five grand at ABC. She said that's not really my style, which I *think* I'll take as a compliment. :)   I'm happy with the dresser, even though it's clearly not perfect, and super glad I didn't have to spend thousands to get the inlay look.  Especially for something in my kids' room! 

 

Have you checked out the other National Painting Week participant projects? Tomorrow is Aicia and Bruno from Curbly, so be sure to pop over there in the morning.

Also, I just wanted to thank you guys for all the sweet comments and emails about our super sick Gracie girl. I'm happy to report she is on the upswing today. Thanks for the suggestions and for giving me a little time off to take care of her. Have a GREAT weekend! xoxo