Posts Tagged "Woodlawn Blue"

Nursery natterings (part four: the grand-ish tour of our sweet little nursery)

Posted by on Aug 4, 2014 in Babies, Nursery | 12 comments

Today is my due date.  TODAY.  It’s wonderful and unbelievable and crazy and scary and exciting all at once.  As of last week’s OB appointment, Baby hadn’t yet made much of an effort to join us out here in the real air-breathing world, so I’m guessing that he or she is still feeling comfy cozy in there.  Which, truthfully, is rather fine by me.  That said, I’m very aware that time is now ticking away quite quickly and that Baby could make an appearance at any moment.

And I’m also very aware that I’m ridiculously ginormous…

Maternity picture photo at 40 weeks

Crazy eh?  I’m still not entirely sure how I manage to stay upright.

Last week, with nesting instincts in overdrive, I put a few last minute touches on the nursery.  Curtains were hung, art was placed up on walls, the more-complex-than-anticipated baby monitor got installed, and I fussed over silly little details (would bashful bunny look better here?  Or here?)  And, with Baby overdue as of tomorrow, I’m happy with the rather peaceful teal, gray, white and mustardy yellow space that this nursery has gradually morphed into.

Gulliver Ikea crib with lamb mobile and teal and mustard and gray

My dad found this metal wall hanging at a street art fair.  I added the ribbon and hung it from the door.  It’s perfect in every way.

First we had each other, then we had you, now we have everything art

Teal white mustard yellow gender neutral nursery

We’re using Ikea’s Hemnes dresser as our change table: it’s a good height for both normal-sized me and super tall Sweetie, it has lots of room for the change pad and diaper related stuff, and (most importantly) it’s rather lovely-looking.

Ikea Hemnes dresser in white as nursery change table - BM Woodlawn Blue nursery

(Unfortunately it was also rather difficult and time consuming to assemble.  But that’s a whole other blog post for a whole other day.)

The Celebrate Everything canvas was a HomeSense purchase (on clearance, no less!) made a couple of years ago, long before Baby and nursery planning had ever started.  Again (and again and again): I heart HomeSense.

Nursery art canvas print with bunting flags Celebrate Everything

Nursery art canvas print with bunting flags in shades of teal mustard and coral - Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue

And this trio of friendly stuffed animals will eventually be relocated to a shelving unit of some sort (I’m still in search of the perfect bookshelf for this room.)  I’m hoping to find something fairly small, but still very functional.  Until then, these three will bravely stand guard over the change table.

Stuffed animals for nursery Indigo lamb and Gund bear

Because the nursery is fairly tiny, we didn’t want a crib that felt large and bulky (as so many of them do.)  Enter: Ikea.  Of course.  We fell in love with Gulliver (and hopefully Baby will too!)

Ikea Gulliver crib in white

My friend Nadia (we’ve been friends since Grade Nine) (which means we’ve been friends for… um… many many years) made Baby this gorgeous yellow and teal baby quilt.

Simple handmade baby quilt for nursery

And the small vintage rocking chair, that long ago belonged to my grandparents, was reupholstered by my mom and dad as a gift to Baby.  It’s the perfect size for this little space.  And I love knowing that I’ll be rocking Baby to sleep in a chair that once belonged to people who, while no longer here, were such an important part of my life growing up.

Vintage small reupholstered rocking chair rocker in nursery

Keeping watch over everything from beside my beloved rocker is the ever adorable bashful bunny (along with his good friends the happy hedgehog and hilarious hare.)

Chapters Indigo Bashful Bunny

But my absolute favourite part of the nursery?  This sheep mobile from amazing Etsier (and fellow Canadian) TheMemis

Etsy baby mobile sheep and stars and moon gender neutral

Gender neutral sheep lambs mobile with stars and moon - handmade

Each little sheep has a different expression on its face.  It’s absolutely perfect, and I can’t say enough good things about Emi at TheMemis. :)

Gender neutral teal and yellow mustard and gray and white nursery, painted BM Woodlawn Blue

So there you have it.  Our sweet and peaceful (and gender neutral) little nursery.  I’ll likely continue to add to it as time goes on – I have lofty gallery wall plans for the wall opposite the crib, I still need to find that bookshelf for stuffies and books and toys and nicnacs and such, and I’d love to add a little more coral (if Baby is a girl) or greens and navy (if this belly-wiggler is a wee boy) once Baby arrives.  And my friend Shawn (who I’ve been friends with pretty much since forever) has commissioned a baby blanket for me as a gift for Baby from another mutual friend (Sheilagh) who is an amazingly and incredibly talented quilter (you can see some of her work over at her site, Lay it on Me Baby) – I’m so excited about planning the blanket with her once Baby is born!

But for now I absolutely adore this serene little space, just as it is.

Let’s hope that Baby does too.

Whenever he or she decides to make a big appearance.

 

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Nursery natterings (part three: a crib is in the howwwse!) (yup – I just went there)

Posted by on Jun 9, 2014 in Nursery | 0 comments

As my due date creeps closer, I’m feeling more and more motivated to hurry the heck up and get ‘er done (nursery-wise, that is.)  Over the past couple of weeks we’ve brought my grandparents’ rocker in to be reupholstered (should be finished any day now!), we’ve created our baby registry (which, if you’re a tad OCD like me, means hours spent researching various products and thinking about how crib sheets and change pad protectors in very specific colours and patterns would look against not-yet-but-soon-to-be freshly painted nursery walls), and we’ve made our baby-centric Ikea run (which, if you ask me, is the best reason for an Ikea trip ever.)

Yep.  If I have this baby tomorrow (which, mind you, I hope I don’t!) (just a sec – knocking on wood…) he or she now, officially, has somewhere to sleep.

And all of this makes me a very very happy momma-in-the-making.  :)

Nothing is set up yet, of course.  My parents are coming down to paint the nursery later this week (thanks mom and dad!), and then, once the walls are all prettied up, the furniture will be assembled.  I’m ridiculously excited to see this little room transform into the nursery that’ll belong to this wiggly little one who is currently doing pirouettes in my ever expanding belly.

But, until that all happens, he’s what we’ve settled on so far…

The nursery will be painted Benjamin Moore’s Woodlawn Blue…

BM Woodlawn blue paint drop dot

Then there’s the Hemnes dresser that’ll double as a change table (currently sitting in a box in my living room, but it’s going to be awesome!)…

Pretty (and practical!) white Hemnes for my nursery

And our Gulliver crib (I’m so excited about our crib!), while really simple and small, shouldn’t overpower the tiny little room that’ll become Baby’s nursery…

Gulliver crib for nursery in white

We still need blinds and curtains for the windows, an area rug for the floor, some sort of dirty diaper collection method (be that a wetbag or an ubbi or a simple diaper pail liner plus ikea garbage pail (like this one here) or whichever system we decide upon), and a bookshelf of some sort (since we plan on doing a lot of reading to Baby.)  A footstool or ottoman (for mamma to put her feet up while nursing) would be pretty super swell too.

But, we have the basics now, at least.

Only eight more short weeks (until my official due date) to go!

 

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My little loo redo (a little loo doesn’t have to be a dreary loo)

Posted by on Mar 19, 2012 in Bathroom | 0 comments

When we bought this house, the previous homeowners had just finished redoing the bathroom.  I think.  At least it looked like they had tried.  Somewhat.  There were sad-looking unfinished drywall patches.  There was a whole lot of glossy white caulking (apparently their solution to hiding the seam between the tile and the wall.)  And there was beigeness. Drab and dreary and muddy beigeness.  It was fine for a little while, but as time wore on I grew grumpy with my little unfinished overcaulked beige loo.

And then (as always happens) I just couldn’t take it anymore.  So I grabbed my trusty paintbrush.  And a quart of BM Woodlawn Blue.  And a bit (A LOT) of caulking remover.  And a new mirror and a few little accessories.  And poof! My dreary drab little loo became a much cheerier loo.

And, because it’s so much prettier now, I kinda want to show it off to you.  :)

(That was me trying to be all poetic.  Fail, eh?)  (Yep.  That’s what I thought.)

Firstly…  a before.  See the beige?  It’s very beige.

Bathroom reno and painting project

And when I pulled off the big globs of glossy white caulking, half the drywall came off too.  Of course.  (Hence all the patching above.)

After.  Painted lovely and cheery Woodlawn Blue.  :)

Bathroom reno painting BM Woodlawn Blue

I also swapped out the standard (ie: cheap) door pulls for heavier, fancier pulls.

Bathroom reno and painting project cabinet pulls

The new pulls make the cabinet look a little less like a Home Depot weekly special, no?  Plus, I just think they’re pretty.  :)

Before…  The “nook” (not sure what else to call it…  calling it the “hole in the wall left by the old window that was no longer required because an addition was added to the back of the house making the window a rather silly and useless feature” just seems a little long-winded.  So let’s just call it the “nook”, k?)

Bathroom reno and painting project

(See the drywall patches?  I believe that THIS would be the exact point where the old owners lost momentum.  Just a hunch.)

After, all prettied up!  (Ie: painted.)

Bathroom reno painting BM Woodlawn Blue basket

(The basket is where my blowdryer hides.  Shhh.  Don’t tell.)

Bathroom reno and painting project, BM Woodlawn Blue

The ceiling before.  Yep, it was beige too.   In the early morning, it was a bit like showering in a tiny, lightless, cardboard box.  Fun.

Bathroom reno and painting project - before

After (with a light, bright, white ceiling) (yup – more poetry for you!) (but a rather crumpled shower curtain…  just ignore that k?)

Bathroom reno and painting project, BM Woodlawn Blue

Bathroom reno and painting project, BM Woodlawn Blue

Much better eh?  I like to think so!  And because I DO think so, here are just a few more pics…

My old fashioney mirror (I love vintage-ish etched mirrors – they remind me of my grandmother.)

Bathroom reno and painting project, BM Woodlawn Blue, etched mirror

My pretty little soap dispenser (it’s hard to make out in the picture, but the front says “pure soap.”  I’m not sure why I like it so much – I just do :)

Bathroom reno and painting project

Peeking out toward the door through polka-dotty Joy, my beloved PVC shower curtain.

Bathroom reno and painting project, BM Woodlawn Blue

And here is everything in one pic (at least as much as I could cram in while standing in the farthest corner of the tub – it’s rather hard to take pictures of a tiny little 5×6 foot loo while in a tiny little 5×6 foot loo!)

Bathroom reno and painting project, BM Woodlawn Blue, etched mirror

And there you have it.  :)  If a 5×6 foot, near-windowless washroom could be cheery, I think mine would be pretty darn smiley.  Or at least rather relieved to no longer be beige.  And heavily caulked.  And unfinished.  (Although I do still want to swap out the super-shiny, seagull-like faucet, but that’s another story.)

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Joy isn’t just a state of mind (it’s also a shower curtain!)

Posted by on Mar 5, 2012 in Bathroom | 0 comments

I know we haven’t yet chatted about my bathroom (oh, little loo – how you frustrate me so), so I apologize for skipping the requisite introduction-post, but suffice it to say (if you hadn’t already figured it out) that, like the rest of our house, it’s small.  Like, really small.  Tiny.  Minute.  Itty-bitty.

Whenever I watch home-buying shows (you know, House Hunters, Property Virgins, Urban-Suburban…) I always laugh (guffaw, if you will) whenever prospective home buyers walk into a bathroom and emphatically declare “oh.  It’s a little small.”  Guaranteed, ours is likely smaller.  But, it’s functional.  It is 5×6 feet (including the tub) of perfectly-planned space intended to suit the 1940s family (and I’m sure it served the original owners of this house just swell.)  And it suits me and Sweetie just fine as well.  There is a tub.  There is a sink.  There is even a toilet squished into the corner (and some cupboard space to boot.)  Can we both be in there getting ready at the same time?  Well, no.  But we’ve adopted a morning-routine staggering approach that works just dandy for us.  :)

With a tiny little loo comes very little space for extra… fluff.  I’ve always longed after those bathrooms with the gorgeous ruffled shower curtains a la the Flamenco curtain from Antropologie, or the lovely and appropriately named Ruffle curtain from the brilliant folk at Pottery Barn.  But when space is at a premium, extra rufflies and layers just take up additional room.  Hence, I’ve always opted for the basic (and less sought after) PVC shower curtain.

I know.  Gasp.  There are lots of people who believe that vinyl shower curtains should only be used as liners.  There are many who feel that they’re tacky and passe and reminiscent of bad 1980s decor.  To these folk, I nod in agreement and hang my head just a little in shame.  However, when you’re faced with a 5×6 foot loo, one must do what one must do, and just make the best out of the situation.  I have done all that.  I have found Joy.

I actually located Joy several years ago when we were still in our first house.  It too had a tiny little loo.  I found her at Zellers one afternoon while wandering the bath aisle, and squealed just a little (being the big geek that I am, I’m always instantly drawn to anything bearing my name.)  I purchased my first ever Joy shower curtain that day.  I’ve purchased several more since then.  And I purchased two yesterday – with my beloved Zellers-store soon to be transformed into a Target, one can never have too many reserve Joy shower curtains.  You know, just in case of the inevitable (and unthinkable): discontinuation.

Joy is everything I’d expect her to be.  She’s semi-transparent (perfect for a tiny, badly-lit little loo.)  And she’s spattered in happy white polka-dots.  She’s simple, but pretty, and a little bit of fun.  If I can’t have a Flamenco-ruffled-pretty-flowy fabric shower curtain, Joy is the next best thing.

BM Woodlawn Blue Bathroom

And, in the early morning, when I’m staggering into the loo semi-blinded by the first light of day, Joy does make me happy.  Joyful, perhaps.  Or at least as content as one can be at 6am on a Monday morning.

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