Olivia's Nursery Plans

I've been struggling with how to arrange the furniture in Olivia's nursery, so the other day I sat down with some graph paper and colored pencils and really had too much fun putting some ideas down on paper.

The rug is from Urban Outfitters and exactly what I've been looking for!

Don't pay any attention to my ugly art work in this pic!  I'll make something beautiful for the space, but for this drawing I just needed a filler.

 Elevations and floor plans are a great way to visualize how a space is going to look.  If you're interested in having me draw some up for your space, shoot me an email at kimmisue22 @ gmail . com (remove spaces).  I'll do a floor plan and elevation combo for $20, I just need a few measurements from you first!

I really could just sit and do these all day. . .

Room & Board

I just got my new Room & Board catalog in the mail yesterday and here are a few of my favorites:

I am just loving blues and aquas right now.  And mid-century modern?  I've loved it since before it was cool (I watched a lot of I Love Lucy as a kid)

Cylinder lights, yes PLEASE!  And their fabrics are all super yummy, if only I could afford one in each color. . .

The Seville chair was inspired by Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona collection.  I have ALWAYS wanted a Barcelona Chair.  It used to be the background on my computer at work, before I was married and had a cute baby.  My students would make fun of me.  Someday. . .

The Sabrina Chair.  In lime. 

This throw.  I need more color in my bedroom and I've been thinking about chartreuse.  And I think I need this throw.

All images VIA

On the Hunt for a Good Rug

I've been mostly focused on Olivia's Nursery.  I guess its because I know soon she'll be too old for a nursery, so I better get on it!  I wanted a rug for the space, since you need a big open area for babies to play, but I didn't want it to look bare.  So here are the things I was looking for in a rug for her room:

Large, at least 5x8
Under $100 (hey a girl can dream, right?)
Chevron pattern (what can I say, I'm obsessed!)
Aqua/brown color scheme
Durable/low pile

SOOOO. . . when I read this post on Anna's Dear Friend blog, I looked at it more closely at this rug (it had been pinned to my Chevrons, So Hot Right Now board for a few months at least!) and realized it pretty much fit the bill!!

Large: Its 5x7 (for all I know rugs don't come in 5x8, most that I saw were 5x7 or 6x8)
Price: $74 (and with a tax return on the way, I can justify a small indulgence, right?)
CHEVRON PATTERN: Its like it was meant to be!!
Color: Aqua and cream.  They list it as blue, but Olivia's bedding is a very blue aqua and it looks great in the picture.  I'll have to make a judgement call when I see it in person I guess.
Durable/low pile: Its like a thick canvas, so its perfect for little knees crawling on it.  

Hello pretty rug, fancy meeting you here. . .

Source: urbanoutfitters.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

Chevron Pillow and Olivia Nursery Update

You know I've been loving on Chevron for a while now.  And you know I've been working on planning Olivia's nursery for a while now.  And so, I thought I should just kill two birds with one stone, and make something Chevron for the Nursery!  One of my favorite design bloggers, Tiffany @ Living Savvy, did a review of her 2011 projects and of course the chevron pillow jumped out at me!  Tiffany actually has a LOT of awesome pillow ideas, if you need one or twenty! 

So I headed off one night after O was in bed, JoAnn 40 % off coupon in hand and picked out this fun stripe:

Source: joann.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

I love how it compliments the Aqua bedding I have, but its not too matchy matchy.  Oh and in case you looked back on my nursery post, I have decided to go with an aqua and brown color scheme, instead of the pink and yellow.  Once I started getting stuff in her room, it just sort of went that way.  It happens sometimes.


Anyway, back to my pillow.  My fabric has nine stripes before it starts over and so I had to draw nine stripes on a piece of paper.  My brain just could not figure out how this was going to work with out something in my hand to move around.  I 'cut' it on the bias and it didn't take me long to see that those two pieces were never going to make a chevron pattern, so I 'cut' one of those pieces on the bias going the other way. . .

. . . and figured out how to match those up.

So I cut half of the fabric into 6 inch strips going one way, and the other half of the fabric into 6 inch strips going the other way. 

Then I matched them up to create the chevron pattern.  I do not know a better way to do this than what I did.  I don't know a better way because I'm not a freaking mathematician, which is what it would probably take to figure out a formula for making a chevron pattern out of a nine stripe fabric.  So by the time I matched the stripes, there was a little bit  of waste, and I could just barely make my fabric square 19" long.  It was 21" wide, so I cut off 1" from each side to make it an even square. 

My first try at sewing the stripes together did not go well.  I had to unpick them.  Because the bias of a fabric is really stretchy, I found the best solution to be carefully matching and pinning each stripe.  I also did a stay stitch (with bias use a large basting stitch) to keep the bias from stretching, which didn't seem to make that big of a difference to me. . .

I like to make my pillows with a flapped closure on the back so I can change them with out ruining the pillow (and with out adding a zipper.  I struggle with zippers.)  I decided to check my fabric stash and sure enough there was a drop cloth I had used for a tree skirt back in November that was perfect for the back of my pillow.  I used a scrap of the stripe cut on the bias to sew a binding on the edge of the flap opening for a little added interest.  (sorry, no picture right now)

And since this pillow was made for Olivia's Nursery, I threw Baby Bear into the mix.  I think it turned out great!!

 And Olivia doesn't like it when a camera and Baby Bear get together with out her, so she had to jump in and get in on the action.  Check out the best pictures here.

Thanks Tiffany for the inspiration!!

IKEA + Anthropologie

So this is my IKEA hack.  I got this little dresser soon after I started teaching.  It was inexpensive and modern looking.  Recently I moved it into Olivia's room to help house her growing piles of clothes.

Today I went and got some knobs that I have had my eye on for a couple of months.  Anthro had such a great selection of aqua knobs, I couldn't choose just one, so I decided to use six different knobs! 

At 8 dollars a pop, I think the knobs are worth more than the dresser!!!

I love the finished product, though I don't think this picture does it justice.

 Next weekend project: Some art work for this space!!!

District House Competition

This past Tuesday my advanced interior design class competed in the Canyon's District House Competition.I had three teams, and another high school had three teams.  Here are the boards for two of my teams.  The missing boards were 2nd place (I'm guessing, I haven't officially heard) so they were taken by the builder.  I'm sad none of my teams took first place, but their designs were just too creative for a spec home.  I try and try, but you just can't stifle the creativity in my girls!!  You'll see. . .

Cinnamon Toffee paint, floorplan, and tile

Cinnamon Toffee fixtures

Madison Avenue color board

Madison Avenue fixtures

Madison Avenue title (top two are for bathrooms, third is for kitchen back splash, last is for fireplace surrounds)

Not pictured is my third group, Autumn Wind.  I'll post those as soon as I can get them back in my possession!! 

So proud of my girls and all their hard work!  They put eight weeks into these projects, visiting lots of flooring, tile and lighting stores!