Harper’s {New} Room
Sooo…we have been doing a lot of switching things up here at Casa Christensen. Which meant I got to choose new paint and re-decorate things! And believe me, I’ve done a lot of re-painting, re-arranging and more re-painting and re-arranging. But I think I finally have things how I want them (for now), so I took the chance to clean up the room and take some photos! And the clean room didn’t last very long…you can put the photos in chronological order based on how many plastic balls are in the photos. How can you expect a toddler to resist a clean room with a basket full of plastic balls?
So to refresh your memory, this is Harper’s old/first room. I’m assuming she’ll have many different rooms throughout her first 18 years with an interior designer for a momma.
I’m sure many people thought it was just fine as it was (if you recall, it did win a contest over at Serena and Lily on Facebook! Their very first Show and Tell contest for September 2009!), but we decided to make this our room as it has a little bathroom. So Harper’s room was moved to the bigger (longer and skinnier) room and we got the slightly smaller (more square with a smaller closet) and I couldn’t be happier with it all! We love having our own bathroom, and we’ve solved the clothing storage problem so things are great!
And then her new room…
This is how the room used to look when we first moved in and it was ours. I liked the orange as a color, but not in my room. It just never worked. But I finally feel like things are coming along! Notice that some of Harper’s painted furniture is in here (side table – now green and the dresser – now with white drawer fronts and new hardware).
So on to the photos of Harper’s new room! If you look close you’ll see some things are the same, and some things are different. For instance, the window shades stayed in their original rooms (i.e. we kept the striped ones and Harper got our old brown ones) and I’m so glad it worked out color-wise. We repainted both rooms, and all of the furniture that I previously painted white for her old room, I re-painted GREEN! As for her new room color – this is how I chose it. We already have gray, brown, green and white throughout our house so I started thinking about a new color for her room. Hmm…what color have I not used? Orange? Nope, done it already and want it gone! Pink? Nah…pink just wouldn’t go in our house. Purple? Not feeling purple either. Blue? YES – blue! So I grabbed all of my blue paint swatches and went through the stack to find one I liked. If you know me, you know I am obsessed with gray right now so it’s only fitting that the blue I chose is somewhat related to gray. I love the color – Comfort Gray 6205 by Sherwin Williams. It’s also in a flat finish, and I love how it looks. Plus it will work if she has a little brother sometime in the future…I promise I’ll take the pom poms down by then!
(10 points to you if you know where this color is from blogland. Yes, I order paint samples that I see from everywhere!)
I still have some touch-up painting to do (there is a lot of orange peeking out where the walls meet the ceiling) but I couldn’t wait and had to get some photos up.
I also want to re-stain the cedar chests to a darker reddish brown, to look more like the unpainted areas of the dresser.
If you’ll notice, I’m trying to add more black to the room (you know I like a little edginess – there was no black in Harper’s old room except for those lamps which is crazy for our house. We love black accents.) and black and white accents.
I’m not really an advocate for TVs in a toddler’s room, but our new room has no cable outlet and we just haven’t switched it yet. So it’s staying for now.
I stole art and shelves and lamps and fabric from all over the house to bring into her room. Lucky girl.
My aunt painted that picture from a photo of Harper. I love that she turned her into a little pixie. And I’m glad I finally got to hang it (it was in the powder bath before but now it goes with her new room!). Thanks, Aunt Vicky!
I love the new gold accents, in the frame (of a pencil drawing I did in high school – it used to be hanging in the living room) and in the lamp on the black bookcase.
I love the green I picked for the painted furniture. It’s actually the color in my office – Old Salem Gray, Benjamin Moore HC-94 – so I just used leftover paint. I knew Harper’s room needed another color and I just happened to have a sample of that green handy, so I put it up against the blue/gray and instantly knew it would look great on the furniture! Love it.
What do you think of Harper’s new room? Hopefully I can show ours soon…but I’m still working on art on the walls and it should be done!
So for the breakdown:
- Crib is from IKEA – it has the rail taken off so she sleeps in it as her toddler bed!
- Recliner is La-Z-Boy
- Window blinds are from Home Depot
- White curtains are a diamond matelasse, hand-me-down from a friend of mine
- Cedar chests were made in high school shop class (Glenn made one, the other was a gift for me)
- Black bookcase is from Tarjay (Target)
- Changing table is hand-me-down from a friend
- Black hanging shelf is hand-me-down from sister-in-law
- White and wood dresser is from thrift store
- Poms poms are Martha Stewart from Harper’s 1st Birthday Party
- Black lamps are from Fred Meyer
- Gold lamp is hand-me-down from ?? Glenn’s family I’m sure!
- H-A-R-P-E-R letters are from Land of Nod.
- Striped rug is from Tarjay.
- Harper’s bedding is Olivia by Dwell for Target
- Zig zag striped fabric is Summer Soiree by Paula Prass (Chevron in black)
- Black frames with black and white pictures are Ribba from IKEA
Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!
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Another Switcheroo.
Phew – I have been busy! But I’m home with a sick little one today, so I have a chance to update you all a little and hopefully I won’t be so MIA for a while. Well, I take that back – when I’m not here, I’m working like crazy so that’s a good thing!
I’ve come to realize that we’re rather spontaneous when it comes to our house sometimes. We talk about our house a lot (more than most, I think!) and what we need or want, but a lot of it is just dreaming. But when something can become a reality, we kind of just jump on it and make it happen!
For instance, we’ve been talking about getting a new bed for a while now, but weren’t sure when it would actually happen. So I decided to post a picture of our old bed on Facebook saying it was for sale to see if anyone was interested – and 20 minutes later it was practically sold! Then we did some final research (we’d already done a lot) and bought a new mattress and bed online – woo hoo!
So next we decided to switch rooms with Harper. Why? Well hers has a half bathroom and Glenn wanted it. But it has a smaller closet and it’s a little smaller so I was a little torn. At first. Her room is more of a square and ours is longer and skinnier (a rectangle). Which after I thought about it, makes more sense for our King size bed. Anyway, we’ve switched rooms, put the bed together, painted and the new armoire for Glenn is on the way (solving the closet problem!).
Luckily both the mattress and bed had free shipping and arrived very, very quickly (thank you, Amazon Prime!!) so we had a new set-up by the weekend! So here’s a sneak peek of our new room – more to come soon!
I love that what took us almost 2 hours to put together, is time lapsed into less than 2 minutes. I also love that Glenn tested the bed out and you see a flash of me about to jump on it, ha! Enjoy!
Putting the bed together from Facebook User on Vimeo.
Read MoreFor the moms…
Stumped on what to get your mom or the mother of your child(ren) for Mother’s Day? Gift certificates for interior design services are available!
Contact me at lindsay @ lindsaychristensendesign . com to get started! Have a great weekend!
Read MoreA freebie from {my pal :) } Kim!
Aren’t these just absolutely adorable?!? I love the color, the font, the patterns…and the margarita looks pretty tasty, too. And you can make your own Cinco de Mayo Party Circles from a FREE download from Kim at The TomKat Studio! Enjoy!
She also has some cute links and Cinco de Mayo party inspiration at the blog post – check it out!
Cinco de Mayo Party Circles – Tomkat Studio
{image via The TomKat Studio}
Read MoreGoodbye, April!
Wow…April has been a busy, busy month around here. I’ve found I’m a much better Facebook-blogger than blogger-blogger…so if you’d like to know what I’ve been up to, head over there and “Like” Likely Design!
So let’s recap April, shall we? April 1st was my first day of complete self-employment. Very, very exciting! If you didn’t know, I had a part-time job working with kids in the local elementary school in the After School Program. The rest of the time I worked from home and hung out with Harper. April has been going very, very well and I do not regret my decision one bit – I just wish it wouldn’t have taken me so long to make the jump!
I celebrated that move with a 30-minute (plus or minus, ha!) creative coaching call with my internet friend Michelle at When I Grow Up. She rocks and I would love (LOVE) to meet her in person one day. Too bad she’s way out in NYC and I’m way over here in Northern California. Go schedule your first (first one is free!) call now!
Also on the agenda during April – manual labor. When I wasn’t drawing houses I was outside building fence, or inside watching the girl, watching Glenn and my nephew build a fence. A big thank-you to the tax man for a refund that allowed us to go buy some lumber! And cement. We tore down our old fence (along with the back porch), and put up a new one over the very next couple days. I sent a few phone pictures to the Facebook page, but I can’t wait to show it off in all of its before-and-after glory. Plus it’s lighted a fire to also build a dog-kennel, fix the grass (where the dogs have destroyed it!) and PAINT! And hopefully build a deck and new porch sooner than later.
Another Facebook page teaser is how much work and time was taken up to get ready for the Modoc County Home and Outdoor Show…which I had a booth at last Saturday. People seemed to be excited and interested in what I do, so I think it was definitely worth it. And it was fun to participate. Thank you to the Alturas Chamber of Commerce for holding it (which I am now a member of, woo-hoo!).
And last Sunday (yesterday) I was running around after Harper trying to get her to smile for a few pictures. Action shots are definitely easier to take of toddlers, as mine is more interested in what’s going on around us than letting us hold her and smiling. But we got a few good ones that way! Thank you to Elaine at Elaine West Photography. I am so glad I finally got some professional ones taken. Go check out the entire album here!
So that concludes the busiest April ever for me! And I always love to see April go, as I am a May 1st baby. Hello 29! Wow…29…
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About Me
I'm an interior designer and a draftsperson, but I live in the country. I like it that way. I'm also a firefighter's wife, mom to 2 cute kids, and a homeowner and I like that even better. But right after that is a pretty and affordable space...and I mean a REALLY affordable space. Because I believe good design can be for EVERYONE!
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