Working on Gracie's Room

We have a big group of guests coming to stay with us over the holidays and I've been hustling to get our girls bedrooms more finished/comfortable in time. I actually sort of love having an excuse to get house projects done! Gracie's bedroom needed the most help and I feel like we've made some good headway this month.

I had my upholsterer recover this old headboard in a pretty light blue velvet that I bought at a local fabric discount store called Boca Bargoons (awesome name, right?). The frame is queen-sized though and Grace has been sleeping on a super old full-sized mattress that didn't have any support.

We ended up getting another Leesa mattress for her bed because we've loved the one in our master bedroom so much. And let's be honest, the convenience factor was a big one! The mattress ships (free!) to your doorstep (in a much smaller box than you're expecting) and then you unpack it on your bed frame and watch it grow to full size in about five minutes. It's crazy easy!

Their mattresses are 10" tall and made of three layers of unique foam, including memory foam and another type of foam that's perforated to keep your mattress nice and cool. (IMPORTANT when you live in the desert like we do!). Isn't the mattress itself so pretty? Seems like a shame to cover it up with bedding. :)

We've had our Leesa mattress in our master for about four or five months now and I have to say that I really, really love it (just like these 1500 reviewers). It's the perfect combo of soft and supportive. I don't have the best back - mine goes out all the time - and I feel like this mattress has made a world of difference for me! I've been feeling great lately.

My Grace has the sweetest heart - she loves it as much as I do that Leesa donates a mattress to a shelter for every ten sold. When I told her that she said "Well now I'll really sleep better at night!" Ha!! Kids are the best.

Between the amazing new mattress and bed frame, we're both feeling pretty great about her room situation! Isn't that blue velvet so pretty? We also put up some new art from Kristi Kohut in her room that pairs so well with it! On the other side of the room we hung an old French poster above a vintage dresser I bought off Craigslist and painted. We're getting close in here!

Kids rooms are my absolute favorite to decorate! It's so fun to get crazy with color and pattern - and I love a space with no rules. :)

This post is sponsored by Leesa. The first 50 readers to redeem the promo code LGN75 at checkout get $75 off their order! Stressed about ordering a mattress sight-unseen? Don't be! Leesa has a 100-day risk-free trial period!

DIY Lucite Frame

When it came to figuring out art for Evie's room (remember she requested butterflies?), I knew I wanted to try this great tutorial from Honey and Fitz. I've used oversized acrylic sheets for framing wallpaper before and I loved it, but I really like the look of double-paned acrylic rather than just the one sheet against the wall.

I had no idea that you can buy smaller sheets of acrylic at Lowes! Such a helpful tip! I picked up four of these 30x36" sheets for about $20 each and then I got started on the artwork with my girls.

I found this butterfly book at an antique book store (it can be found here too).

It has about 50 color plates of butterfly sketches that I referenced to draw random butterflies on two sheets of lilac colored art paper that I cut to be just a few inches shorter than the acrylic sheets.

I outlined the sketches in black sharpie and let the girls color them in however they wanted. My two older girls used acrylic paint and Evie went with markers.

After they finished coloring in the butterflies, I mounted the paper to the back acrylic sheet with double-sided tape and then marked where I wanted my screws to go. Then I heated an extra large nail with a long match until it was hot enough to melt the acrylic. This is a much easier way to make holes in the acrylic than screwing with a drill. Acrylic is pretty brittle and can break in the drilling process, but the hot nail is easy and pretty painless!

Then all you do is thread the holes with a 1/2" long machine screw and a nut to sandwich the two boards together.

You can use picture hanging wire wrapped around the screw underneath the nut to hang your new frame.

The wire will show a little on the side middle screws, but it's not really noticeable. 

I love how this project turned out and the girls really loved working on it with me! :)

Evie's Bedroom

One of the design questions I get asked the most is how to get kids involved with decorating their bedrooms without letting it turn into a Dora or Minecraft-themed room. Generally, I feel like it's more than okay to have character accents in a kid's bedroom  - it is their room after all! But I also think it's a smart idea to buy classic furniture and bedding that will grow with your child.

The girls are on summer vacation right now and we decided to get some projects done in their bedrooms while they're home for most of the day. We looked through my fabric stash to get color ideas, and, as I expected, each of them sort of decided to do their own thing and go in completely different directions. Evie's class did a big butterfly study this year and she's been begging for a "butterfly bedroom" ever since. I don't usually love the idea of a strictly set theme in a bedroom, but as far as that goes, a butterfly room sounded pretty great to me. 

She was a little bummed that I didn't have any fabric with butterflies on it, but decided that a floral fabric would also work after I told her we could figure out some butterfly art. She asked if she could have the Orangerie pillows that were on the daybed in the playroom. We have recently moved that room around too to make space for Margot's crib, so the pillows were up for grabs. I still really love that pattern and thought it would be fun to make it work with her butterfly idea.

It turns out that the Orangerie fabric also works perfectly with the bedding we had ordered from Crane and Canopy. I've been hearing about this company on blogs for years and I was excited to finally get to see some of their product in person. It is gorgeous! Beautifully made and super, super soft.

I went with the coral Linden duvet and shams, which I think will grow with Evie and look gorgeous on her bed for years to come!

The scalloped sheets and pillow shams take the cake for me though! Can you even handle that cute little edge detail? So sweet, but not baby-looking. I would love this sheet set on my own bed. They have so many cute colors in the scalloped line too, including this adorable mint and a super-chic black set!

We're still working on finishing Evie's room, but I think we have a good start with this new bedding! Here are a few other favorites from Crane and Canopy:

sky blue striped duvet  //  charcoal gray sheet set  //  ikat throw pillow  //  coral patterned duvet  //  coral scalloped sheets  //  ivory cable knit throw blanket  //  

orange arrow throw blanket  //  navy border duvet

beige hotel bedding  //  quartz gray striped duvet  //  lavender starburst pillow  //  

black border duvet  //  black and gray striped pillow  //  

navy striped throw  //  gray patterned duvet  //  gold ikat pillow

This post was a partnership with Crane and Canopy. Thank you for supporting our sponsors!  :)

Overdyed Quilts

How gorgeous is this overdyed quilt from Spartan?  As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to copy the idea.

I've been holding on to a small child's quilt for a while now that has some staining on it, but the overall pattern and the individual fabric patterns are so sweet!

I thought about cutting it up to make pillows or to frame, but how sweet would it be to overdye this quilt for Margot's nursery? I love the idea of getting to save the quilt and I think hot pink would be SO cute! 

Nursery Plans and Favorite Baby Products

Margot just hit the two-month mark and has started sleeping mostly through the night (bless that sweet angel!), which means it's really time to get going on a nursery! Cribs have come SO far since my last baby. Really, there was only the Ouef wren crib that was cool and modern back then, and it was stratospherically out of my grad school budget! I went with a $20 Jenny Lind crib from Craigslist instead and give it a fresh coat of mint green paint. I still love the classic Jenny Lind style, but it's fun that there are so many different crib designs available now! Some are still very pricey, but there are a lot of mid-range options that are total show-stoppers.

Amber Interiors

We've been having Margot sleep in our room next to our bed - sometimes in that cute bassinet I posted about, but honestly, it's usually in this little Rock N Play seat thing. It's not the cutest baby product in the world, but it has about a million five-star reviews on Amazon, so I had to try it for myself. And, WOW, it is like the holy grail of baby swings/bouncers/bassinets. It plugs into the wall and rocks itself for up to six hours. And it has a built-in white noise player! The seat hugs her little body and keeps Margot feeling tucked in and secure. And the angle of the back is perfect for babies that spit up - a new and not so fun experience for us!

It folds up easily for travel and just for moving it around the house. I bring it upstairs to the studio often so Margot can sleep nearby while I'm working. It's awesome for naps, but I think she'll be happier to have a crib soon and a quiet, dark space to sleep in at nights.

The playroom is going to be Margot's room since its next to our bedroom. There's a closet in there that is big enough for a crib and a small dresser. 

We're thinking of turning it into her (tiny!) nursery and that way we don't have to do much rearranging in the playroom.

We started taking down the (old and cheap) shelving, which has opened up the space so much already.

I'd love to do some sort of fun wall treatment in here, but I need to find something that would work with the bird wallpaper I have in the playroom on the ceiling.

Maybe some cool ikat upholstered walls like my friend did here?

And if I can find a lighter, neutral ikat, I'd love to paint my Draper dresser a fun color and throw a cute stripey changing pad on top.

Laure Joliet

I'm thinking the white Dwell Studio Mid-century crib would be fabulous in this small space. I love that it feels like a beautiful piece of furniture instead of a giant prison crate. :)

But it's also nice that there are a ton of other crib options that aren't as much of an investment. I really like all of these.

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I'm sort of leaning toward this one though, crate similarities and all. It's a new line from Fisher-Price (who actually also makes that Rock N Play that I'm so in love with??) and it's less than $250! I love the simple, clean lines. And I really like the warm gray color. So many of the gray cribs seem really blue.

I'd love recommendations on other cribs too, if you have a good one! We had to completely start from scratch with baby gear and I've been out of the baby mindset for so long now that I've had to rely on friends' suggestions for practically all of our purchases.

 

Uppababy Carseat and Stroller  // Shopping bag stroller hooks  

We splurged on some things (like a pretty car seat and stroller) and have tried to save other places - like in the clothes department. I've finally learned my lesson there and stopped buying a million outfits. Baby clothes are crazy expensive and really, babies are happiest in soft sleepers for the first few months anyway, right? I've found a few reliable lines that I know I'll keep coming back to as Margot is growing. They look cute, we only need a few of them to have in rotation, and I know she is comfortable.

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Also, this line of super-soft head wraps is adorable and makes me feel just a tiny bit less lazy for dressing my baby in mostly pajamas. :)

And just for kicks, here are a couple more of my favorite baby products, some newer to me and some tried-and-true. What am I missing here that you love?

 Organic unbleached ivory muslin swaddle blankets that are more beautiful with every wash  //  Make your baby smell like a French baby  //  The only socks that actually fit a newborn's feet  //  Wipes warmer (SO WORTH IT)  //  Adorable fox burp cloths that will get a million compliments every time you are out  //  Great and affordable baby monitor that doubles as a walkie-talkie (!)  //  The cutest kitty lovey around  //  If it's possible for a pacifier to be pretty, this natural rubber one is it! Also totally recommend this tutorial for a DIY paci holder.