{E-Decorating} C & A’s shared bedroom
I haven’t shared much of what I’ve been up to for a while, which really hasn’t been that exciting. A lot of garage plans and a few house remodel plans, but I have had a few decorating projects lately – and those are a lot cuter than foundation plans so here is a fun little shared bedroom that I did earlier in the year.
This room is for a toddler boy whose baby sister (who wasn’t born yet when I did this) would be sharing his bedroom. The goal was to create a calming, modern and fun sleeping space for the two of them to share. They have a bright and crazy playroom to corral their toys, so this room was supposed to be the opposite; a place to relax and sleep!
Here is the ‘Inspiration Board’ for the room:
The color scheme started with the floral print fabric that the mom wanted to use for the custom crib skirt she was going have sewn, which included some chocolate brown, taupe/gray and teal blue/green. I decided that both kids’ sides would have blue and brown, but the boy’s things would have an accent of apple green, and the girl’s side would use a little bit of pink as an accent. I chose a blue/gray for the walls, to act as a neutral but still read as a color. The room has tan carpet, so I chose a graphic rug (in a fun plaid) to mix up the patterns. We also added some pattern with chevron-trimmed curtains (which matched the custom crib bumper), some fun monster-print sheets for the boy and some typographic-modern prints on the wall to personalize the space.
That photo is basically an ‘inspirational’ page of photos for the concept for the room…along the way, tweaks are made and other choices might be ultimately decided on, but this is a small snapshot that I give the client for each project. I’ll also include any other idea-photos to help with the vision for the room. For instance, I attached these in an e-mail I sent to the mom:
…which were just camera phone shots from a book on nursery design.
In the final e-mail, I send a “Furniture & Accessory Schedule,” which includes photos, links, prices, colors, manufacturers’ SKU #’s and any other pertinent information the client needs to find and purchase my choices for their room. This way you can purchase the items right away or over time – it’s up to you! That’s because you DIY and put it together yourself. You can also follow my instructions to the ‘T’ or you can use my concept as inspiration to put your own touch on the room. And this is why, if you hire a designer or decorator for their “E-Decorating” services, they can be across the country from you or in the same town. Isn’t the internet amazing?!?! 
If you’re interested in hiring me for a ‘Flat Fee Design Package’ aka E-Decorating Services, feel free to e-mail me at lindsay @ lindsaychristensendesign.com (no spaces between the @ – trying to avoid spam, ha!) to get started! Or you can check out my packages and prices here. But remember – if you book a project with me anytime in August, I’m offering 20% off of all of my services!
Read MoreHarper’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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Your child NEEDS one of these…
Playroom product sneak peek!!! The daycare playroom is almost done!! Glenn and I went to the house last weekend and opened boxes, cut off tags, hung art, shelves, wall decals and installed one of THESE!! And it is my favorite part of the room so far…what kid would not want to hang out in this all day???? I know I would have!
It’s the Home Sweet Play Home in Blue at Land of Nod. And it is awesome. We were originally going to go with this (below) for cost reasons, but then we couldn’t get this out of our heads and had to have it!
Yawn. Too see-through to be cool. It’s the Fabler from IKEA, by the way…
Yes, it’s a whole lot cheaper ($19.99 compared to $99) but the Land of Nod one is totally worth the splurge! It also comes in green, lavender and pink. I’ve decided that Harper needs one – someday – when she will appreciate it!
And I thought I’d share a few inspiration photos that I gathered for my client for the playroom – enjoy! And hopefully I’ll have some pictures to share with you soon!
If you’d like your own custom interior design package for your home, feel free to contact me at lindsay[@]lindsaychristensendesign.com to get started!
I offer full-scope interior design services to help you every step of the way, from finish, furniture and accessory selection to architectural drafting of complete building plans, or I offer ‘e-decorating’ packages to give you some inspiration to DIY the design on your own.
Want more info? Visit my design website at lindsaychristensendesign.com. Thanks for reading!
xo, Lindsay
Read MoreRugs in the Bathroom, Black Rooms and Baby Potties
Well, that about sums this post up! We had this striped brown and cream flatweave cotton rug from Target in our bedroom…but our dogs sleep on the floor in there and we have wwaaayyy too much traffic in that room for a flatweave cotton rug that you cannot vacuum. Yes, we could go shake it out, but we’d have to do that every day, twice a day. So we moved it. I had it in my office, but the same deal; little pieces of paper from the hole-punch and random thread pieces would get stuck all over it. Plus it kept bunching up under the desk leg and office chair. So we moved it again. This time to the laundry room to wash it, and that’s where it stayed. Until my genius husband suggested it going in the bathroom. If you’re anything like me you hate a cold bathroom, especially a bathroom floor. It fits PERFECTLY in there from wall to wall. And I love the graphic striped pattern it brings in. *My husband, the decorator.*
It still gets a little bunchy, but that doesn’t bother me as much as it did in the bedroom because it’s easy to put back in its original location…and you might notice that we even took the bathmats out (and now they’re on either side of the bed) because we don’t need them anymore. This is something I probably never would have thought of on my own – another piece of evidence to show that having someone to bounce decorating ideas off of can be very helpful! A fresh set of eyes and opinions might be exactly what you need – and don’t discount your husband’s decorating skills – you never know, he might come up with something good a few times out of ten!
Sorry for the blurry webcam shot – I just don’t always feel like whipping out the nice camera, downloading and editing photos, uploading and formatting, linking and…well, you get the idea – quick and easy, that’s what I need these days – THANK YOU PHOTOBOOTH! At least I am posting, ha! And yes, my daughter is trying to crawl out of her bath because she sees me fiddling with my laptop…
And no, my bathroom is dark brown, not black…but I am dying to paint SOMETHING black, whether it be a room or an exterior! Will someone please let me pick a black paint for you??
Image via Apartment Therapy
Pretty, pretty please? Okay, how about chalkboard paint?
Image via Apartment Therapy
Okay, back to the bathroom; I thought I’d point out that cute little green and white baby potty in my bathroom. I can’t get over how cute my little girl looks while sitting on it. She’d hate it if it wasn’t for that stack of Wild Animal Baby magazines we put right next to the sink – because of those she’ll sit there forever. Nothing happens while she’s sitting on it (she’s only 18 months!), but it’s just for fun and for practice.
She cracks me up…so I’m sorry if I over-talk about her potty, but it’s just precious (to me!). Here she is, assuming the ‘reading a magazine on the toilet’ pose, with her baby blonde hair combed after a bath. So sweet! And I did wrap her in a towel so I could post this online.
Anyway, the cute little potty, I bought it from Diapers.com because 1) their shipping is FAST! and FREE! and 2) I had a 15% off coupon sent straight to my e-mail because I have a customer account. All great things when you live in Likely. Plus the potty is too dang adorable and I thought it would look cute (and not take up much space in my teeny bathroom) sitting in its own little corner! It’s the Hoppop Torro Potty in Lime. It also comes in blue (Aqua) and pink (Fuschia), but my bathroom is already brown, green and white so I thought it would look good. Well, as good as a baby potty could. If it’s going to have to be out, it might as well look good! Right?
Fascinating stuff, right? Anyway, this is another baby product that gets the thumbs-up from me. It’s small, cute and was cheap! But I also like it mainly because she actually LIKES TO SIT ON IT! We’ll see how it goes after she actually learns to use it.
Knock Off Wood
In case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t read Young House Love (or follow them on Twitter or Facebook) then you might have missed their post on the FABULOUS website/blog by the name of Knock Off Wood: How to Build Knock-Out Knock-Off Furniture. Hey…there might be one or two of you that are coming to my little ‘ol website and haven’t browsed theirs recently…right?
So anyway, on to the furniture plans! I love these…the carpentry obsessed blogger behind Knock Off Wood is Ana from Alaska, who posts plans, step-by-step instructions and even videos to copy or be inspired by your favorite catalog store’s more expensive furniture pieces. Plus she’s a mama to a toddler. Impressive, Ana…impressive! Here she is in action, oh, just working on a kitchen island. No big deal…
For instance…have you ever been shocked (like I have) at how expensive a simple bookcase could be? But they look so easy to build! And Ana says that they are – this Cameron 3-Shelf Bookcase is in her ‘Fast’ category…but it is on ‘Special’ for $239 EACH at Pottery Barn Kids if you’d like to just buy your own. No thanks!
{image via Pottery Barn Kids}
And her plans are very nicely illustrated using Sketchup – and did I mention that they’re FREE? Click here for the plans to make your own ‘Inspired by the Cameron’ bookshelf.
{Image via Knock Off Wood}
And for you more advanced woodworkers, how about your own tiered bookcase, like the Apex from West Elm? She has a plan for that. But if you want to buy it, it costs $449 online.
{Image via West Elm}
You can find anything on her site…from coffee tables to beds to picture frames to…
…PLAY KITCHENS! I was sooo excited to see these EASY plans to make fridges, ovens and sinks for little girls. Her 3 year old’s room is seriously decked out! Maybe if I start now I can get something done before Harper’s 2nd birthday (it’s in August, hehe!).
Or you could buy this set from Land of Nod for $448, plus tax and shipping…I do love the chalkboard paint, though!
Or this retro set from Pottery Barn Kids for $699…
And how cute is this ‘Town’ plan? I need to get Glenn to get building…or have him show me how to use his tools a little better than my current skills.
Thanks for the inspiration, Ana! And for making building things so simple for rest of us!
{images linked to sources and via Knock Off Wood}
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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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