The Mommy Project

Project: Create a Boldly Simple Piece for Over the Bed

The wall over my bed has been blank ever since I moved in. That would be about seven years ago. The wall real estate required something big and bold but I've never found something I felt was right that wasn't a gazillion dollars. Then a couple months ago, I found a big gold frame in the basement of my father-in-law's house. I remembered a post from Design*Sponge I saw a while back about someone who made vintage framed chalkboards on Etsy. I love chalkboards— I used chalkboard paint on the back of my front door so we can keep to-do lists on it and that remains one of the best ideas EVER as far as I am concerned.

My bedroom is shades of gray and purple with bold hits of white so I decided to spray paint the frame a white satin, paint a piece of plywood with chalkboard paint and then nail it inside. All that was required was a trip to Home Depot to buy and cut the wood and about an hour of time (note: Home Depots within Manhattan will not cut wood). Spray painting takes 10 minutes— 5 minutes for each coat with some waiting time inbetween. Then you just use little nails to nail the board into the frame and VOILA! Ornate framed chalkboard. 

The hardest thing was making the decision of what to write and then figuring out how to write it precisely how I wanted. The thing with the chalkboard paint is once you write on it and erase it (even with water), it's never really as good as new.  That's fine for something that you are going to be using as an actual chalkboard, but if you are going to use it as art as I did, then you really want to write on it only once. I decided to write "sweet dreams..." centered and small so it wouldn't get too cartoony. I practiced a couple of times on the back of my front door and then crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

It's not very complicated as far as DIY projects are concerned but I'm much more interested in great ideas with super easy execution. Otherwise I don't have the skill set and I'll never find the time. Below are the before and after shots as well as some more angles of my bedroom.

Project: Create a Bathroom Photo Gallery

I've always wanted to have a photo gallery in my apartment but I have limited space and a lot of artwork so there never seemed to be the right place for it. Then one day it occurred to me to put it in the guest bathroom.  Three years and a baby later, I finally made it happen. 

First, I decided to hang a black and white wallpaper as a backdrop for the pictures. Truth be told, I ordered the paper online and thought it was a much smaller pattern. I'm still not convinced that I shouldn't have sent it back and bought another but the wallpaper guy was already scheduled to come so I just went with it. I had an ornate hot pink frame that I had gotten as a gift that I decided to make the centerpiece of the gallery. Then I used my best trick— I went to CVS and purchased a bunch of cheap wood frames in whatever finishes were available and spray painted the whole lot of them with a semi-gloss black finish.  

Then the frames sat around collecting dust until I finally conceded and packed them in a box to be dealt with at a later date. When I got pregnant, the plan was put on hold indefinitely. About nine months later when the baby was down for a nap (at the beginning they can sleep through anything) and I was on maternity leave, I saw my opportunity to start the process of hanging them.  

Hanging a photo gallery is harder than I thought and I quickly realized I wasn't going to be able to wing it. I ended up tracing each of the frames onto a piece of newspaper and then hanging the newspaper exactly where I wanted each photo to go using an art tape that wouldn't leave any residue. With the newspaper as my guide, I could finally hang the actual frames. Fifteen to twenty naps later, the project was complete.

I'm happy with how it turned out and it's always a nice surprise for guests. But I still wish that wallpaper print was smaller. But I'll get over it. Eventually.

 
 

Project: Design a Nursery That is Girlie Without Being Too Princessy

I had a baby girl in December and designing her room was a great project, namely because I knew my husband would stay out of it. I understand when he wants input on our duvet (he sleeps in the bed) or our pots & pans (he's the cook) but he understandably has no opinion on a baby girl's room.  I wanted the room to be everything I would have wanted as a little girl if I had some taste back then. (Full disclosure: when my mom took me shopping for bedroom carpeting when I was six, I picked out royal blue wall-to-wall shag and then lived with that decision for the next ten years.)

Whenever I have a design project, whether it's a room or a wedding or a commercial, I start with finding some photo inspiration.  Then I make a mood board using actual purchasable items. My nursery is a great example of turning inspiration into a mood board into reality. Below is my inspiration. I saw it on Design*Sponge before I was even pregnant and saved it. I loved the vintage feel of the room but knew that in my modern NYC apartment, I was going to have to adapt it to look a bit more streamlined.

The first step in creating the look was picking out a color for the walls. I'm well aware that the photo above has white walls but I love pink and my baby girl's room, cliche or not, was going to be pink. BUT I did not want it to look sickeningly sweet. I needed to pick something subtle. I found two colors I liked and painted a sample of each on the wall. Since I tend to respond to super saturated colors that end up looking terrible, I went with the one I liked the least. It is called Wild Aster from Benjamin Moore and on the paint chip it looks almost taupe. The overall effect was exactly what I wanted- beyond pale pink that gave the room a pink hue rather than a pink color.

Next I needed to figure out the furnishings.  We had a gold nightstand that never quite worked in our bedroom that I thought would look brilliant in the nursery.  I used it as the gatekeeper for everything else- what pieces would be able to live harmoniously with a gold nightstand? Below is my mood board. It evolved a little over the course of putting the room together but it stayed basically intact.

 

I bought a pottery barn dresser in an antique blue finish to use as our changing table.  It arrived darker than I expected but in the end it was a nice break from all the pink. The drawers are huge and perfect for fitting all of the baby's stuff. I had my heart set on an Eames molded plastic rocker but my husband convinced me that it was a decision I'd live to regret. (Did I say he wouldn't weigh in on anything?) I ended up getting a comfy glider from Pottery Barn slip-covered in a natural twill. (When I settle into that chair every night at 4am trying to rock the baby back to sleep, I always hear my husband's voice whispering- I told you so).  I bought a white modern crib from Oeuf to round out all the traditional pieces. I also bought a cheap storage ottoman at Home Goods and reupholstered it in bubblegum pink velvet from Duralee to use as toy storage. And I got a plain cream colored rug from Home Depot. The best decision and biggest splurge are the curtains from Anthropologie. They are ivory linen with black scripted handwriting depicting bits of love letters in different languages. I LOVE THEM. Last but not least, I needed a bookshelf.  I couldn't find one that was the right size so I had one custom-made at Gothic Cabinet. I opted for super simple construction- no details so it would look modern- and chose to paint it myself.  I painted the outside white and the inner shelves a high gloss peachy pink. 

As for kinck-knacks, I made sure to select items that were both modern and vintage looking. The giraffe and elephant piggy banks were both from Giggle. The square pouf in front of the chair is from Zid Zid Kids. The old school lunch box as well as some of the vintage looking pictures were from a little gift store in the East Village called Pink Olive. The hand knit garden flower doll is part of the always adorable Blabla collection. The mobile was handcrafted by Almost Sunday. The marquee "M" is from IOU Vintage on Etsy and I spray painted it gold. Below is the end result.

Almost all the items in the room were on my registry. If anybody called me to ask what I wanted for the baby, I told them straight up. People want to buy you something you want so dismissing their request and saying something like, "I'm sure whatever you get will be lovely" doesn't help anybody. Instead say, "I really have my heart set on this owl pillow from Dwell but I know I'll never buy it myself."  Or if it's someone like your sister you can say, "Please please please buy me the Anthropologie curtains!"

One more thing I should mention is the painting of the little girl above the nightstand. It's a portrait that my grandfather painted of me when I was in kindergarden and I can't think of a more fitting place for the painting to find its permanent home.

Click here for more nursery pictures after the jump
 

Reader Project: Decorate a bedroom with a very opinionated seven-year-old girl

By Tracy Kleinberg

I recently built an extension onto my house above the garage; two new bedrooms with a Jack and Jill bathroom connecting them. My two daughters are four and seven, and we needed to get them farther away from us, so this seemed like a logical solution. My four-year-old Ava is easy-going and left the decorating to me. However, Maya, my seventeen-year-old, excuse me, seven-year-old was another story. She is an amazing child, but if something isn’t exactly her way, she won’t wear it, eat it, play with it, or live in it as the case may be. So I had no choice but to include her in the decorating process.

We began with two giant Benjamin Moore paint sample books. Immediately Maya was drawn to the names “poolside blue” and "lemon yellow". That’s right, she was drawn to the names, not the actual colors. And once she found them, there was no turning back. I ordered samples of the lighter versions of these colors, the ones higher up on the sample card, but she was onto me. Her new room was going to be these two disturbingly bright colors, or she wasn’t moving in! Once I gave in to the inevitable, I began my quest for matching bedding. Maya has very outrageous style; she often wears a sequin fedora to school, so finding something that suited her was not going to be easy. I scoured every store in the area that sold bedding, and spent many nights on the Internet, googling search terms like “turquoise peace sign blanket” and “bright yellow funky throw pillows for girls.” Everything I found was rejected with statements like “too girly-girl”, too babyish”, and my favorite “you think I’m a dork!” Surprisingly, my search ended at Bed Bath and Beyond, where I found this incredibly cheap, soft, and accessory-packed bed-in-a-bag set by Self Expressions. The multi-colored hearts were the perfect complement to the paint colors, and even better, it came with a mesh canopy and a sleep mask! Maya was sold.

Another struggle I faced was the fact that Maya is a gymnast – she can’t walk two feet without doing a cartwheel, a handstand or a back kick over. Therefore, I was afraid to leave the new hardwood floors exposed (afraid for Maya’s safety, not that the floor would get damaged, I swear!) and thought that even an area rug under the bed would not be enough protection (for her head, not the floor, really!) I decided to go to a carpet store, find wall-to-wall carpeting that was very soft and plush, and have it cut and bound so that it left exactly a half foot of hardwood showing on each edge of the room. I mean, I wanted Maya to be safe, but no way was I nailing anything into my beautiful new hardwood! I was expecting to not like this carpet solution and to just learn to live with it, but I wound up loving the look. If I ever decide another room in my house needs carpeting, I will do it this way for sure.

One of the best things I put in Maya’s new room is a built-in window seat with storage underneath. It is a great place to hide all of her trinkets and toys; you know the ones that she doesn’t necessarily use, but would be sure to ask for the day after I got rid of them. She keeps all of her stuffed animals on top, which helps keep them off the floor. When designing this aspect of her room, I envisioned her lounging in the window reading a book, so I added two sconces for extra lighting. Well, so far she mostly uses the bench as a stage to put on shows for us, and the sconces as her spotlights, but she wouldn't be Maya otherwise and at least they are getting a lot of use.

Designing a room with Maya was challenging and fun at the same time. Her opinionated personality and outrageous style are two of things I love most about her, so I really couldn’t be mad that they came out in full force during this project. The beautiful, pink, shabby chic bedding that I originally bought her when she first got a bed has been lovingly placed in our guest room, so it's still around for me to admire. In the end, we both got what we wanted. She got a bright, funky and fun bedroom where she can cartwheel to her heart’s content, and I got her room moved all the way to the other side of the house. Now if I can only find a way to get her to stay in there all night…

 

  

Project: Create Hidden Toy Storage in a NYC apartment

While I was pregnant, my husband would always make fun of me for all the effort I put into our apartment. I believe the official term is "nesting". He would say, "You know when the baby comes, there are just going to be toys everywhere, right?" And I would say, yes, I understood, but even if 95% of the time there were toys everywhere, I wanted to make sure that if necessary, say if company were coming over or maybe my sanity was at stake, that every toy would have a home. 

I live in an apartment in Manhattan so storage space does not come easy. The closet in our nursery is one stop shopping for baby clothes, diapers, linens, our vacuum, sporting equipment, a large supply of Arizona Iced tea that my husband insists on getting from Costco and for some reason, my husband's tie & belt collection. (I'm not allowed to complain because I've got the walk-in in our bedroom). So if we needed storage for toys, I was going to have to create it from scratch. 

Enter the storage ottoman. A brilliant piece of furniture if there ever was one. We found many options from Crate & Barrel to Room & Board but they were all kinda "eh". I like accent furniture that has pop with color or a great pattern. In a two bedroom apartment- where there is such limited space, every piece counts. I looked into custom made ottomans but the prices were ridiculous. My solution was to buy as cheap an ottoman as I could find and then reupholster it with my own fabric. I found a large storage ottoman on sale at Pottery Barn for under $200 and then bought four yards of a fun pattern from Duralee. I used Mod Restoration based in Brooklyn to reupholster and then stuck it in the living room. It worked out so well, that I found another smaller storage ottoman at Home Goods for $99, reupholstered that with a Duralee bubblegum velvet and put it in the nursery. 

Obviously, we can't fit the jumperoo inside of either (oh, I cannot wait for the day when we can get rid of that monstrosity) but for all the other toys, they are working out just great.