Avoiding the Nursery Nightmare

As promised, here are the details of Zoie's nursery. The inspiration room is almost identical to her room size and layout. The only exception is the over nine foot ceilings we have compared to the 8 foot in the picture.

The total cost of the makeover: $120, the cost of the curtains. My mom gifted the crib and rug; the paint supplies I already had (OOPS paint and Glidden give away); the tall chest, rolling side table and chair were repurposed; and the changing chest was a gift from a friend. Of course I could have made the curtains and saved some money, but I've been there done that! So here's what you've been waiting for- a picture!








Here are the details...

First I had to clear it out and clean it up! I drew the room to scale and did a furniture layout.

Next I painted the room brown, with the exception of the wall with the colored blocks on it but including the ceiling. Don't forget the ceiling, it's the fifth wall in my world.

On the wall with the grid, I measured it and divided it out to get the number of squares I needed. I measured and marked the locations for the vertical and horizontal lines. Then I put 2 coats of white paint only where the grid was going to be. I let it dry for 24 hours. I then took 2" wide painters tape and taped off the grid. I painted white paint over the tape; this will give you that clean sharp edge and no seeping under the paint! While it dried I labeled the blocks with the each designated color. Then I painted the blocks and pulled away the tape. Sounds like a lot of work, but it's not too bad. I would definitely rather do that then make curtains!!

My mom ordered the crib and once it arrived, we put it together. I went to a kid's consignment sale and found the rug and mattress, gifted by my mom! Everything else was either a shower gift or repurposed from another area of the house. I do have a few things left to hang, but I'm waiting until I get a couple of pictures developed- FREE from a photo print club of course!

And that's it! "Instant" nursery!

So, what do you think?? I hope it's a room that will grow with her without being too girly or childish. I hope so, after painting that grid, it would be heart breaking to paint over it!

Do you have a room that you need a little help with?? If so let me know! Send an email to dimelydesign @ gmail . com (just remove the spaces)

Nursery Makeover for NEXT to Nothing!

So, as I mentioned, I recently had a little girl. We turned my old studio space into her room. I came across an inspiration room and decided to go full steam ahead to create my little girl's room based on this one:



Inspiration rooms are great because if you're not sure where to start, they can give you an idea or two to expand on. And that's just what this did! Now, of course I had to change a few things, mainly the color scheme. This room could be for a little girl, but I used some of the same colors in my boys' room. The best part was I had everything I needed to get started.

Coming up, pictures of my little girl's place she calls home and how I did it all for only the cost of the curtains!

*Picture Source is from www.Parents.com

Button Adorned Pillow

I know I have gotten a little behind in my button series. I'm sorry about that; I have had some health issues in the family. But I'm back on track! Here is the next idea for those extra buttons you've collected!

All you need is a plain pillow cover. You could use a pillow, but sewing the buttons on may be a little more challenging! But then again, you could use a glue gun or fabric glue to attach them!

And if you're feeling REALLY crafty, simply sew a cover!

Arrange the buttons in a pattern: grid as shown, square, circle or just an abstract arrangement! Sew or attach in another fashion. Stuff the case if it was a cover, and you're done! That's it! Not much to it, now was there? Now find the perfect spot for your new accent pillow and sit back and relax!

Stay tuned for a more "organized" blog. I am going to have specific days for certain features. Hopefully this will help my posts be more regular and my readers will have something to look forward to!

Have a great day!

Light Up Your Life

Many of you guessed a lamp shade for this project. Great guess, but that's later in the week (thanks for the idea!)- I chose this as the first project because it is so easy, and you probably already have these things around your house. This is also a great way to repurpose some items in your home and give them new light...um, I mean life!

Materials Needed:

Candle, any color

Ribbon (some you saved from Christmas last year?)

A button (or two, or three, or...)

Glue Gun

I actually picked up the candle at Target when they had all their Christmas stuff 90% off. So it cost me 30 cents. It had a silver ribbon around it with a snowflake charm. I removed the ribbon and charm, which I used on a necklace; 2 items for the price of one! I cut a piece of ribbon long enough to wrap around the candle. I hot glued one end, then wrapped the ribbon around, folded the end under to create a clean edge, and hot glued it in place. I then took a button and hot glued it in the middle of the ribbon seam. And that's it! I had a plain white pedestal I received as a gift and placed the candle on top of that.

The great thing is, the ribbon can be easily removed and replaced with another color. So, if you change your color scheme, the season changes or it's a holiday celebration, you can swap out the ribbon to match your decor.

More ideas on the way, so if you like this one, come back and check the others out!!