Have you seen this adorable photo going around Facebook?
Well, I made one of my own with a photo of the little guy from last Halloween.
I will be getting it printed to put in his Batman room.
home is…being yourself (unless you can be Batman).
Category: being an interior designer
{batman room} piecing the puzzle together
The little guy loves Batman.
Last year he received a huge plastic tub of matchbox cars from our next door neighbors. In it there were two Batmobiles, which quickly became his favorites. He took them everywhere…even slept with them at night.
I told him about Batman and soon his love for anything Batman grew.
He declared his 4th birthday a Batman birthday, has said he wants to be a Batmobile driver when he grows up, and wants to wear a Batman shirt or Batman colors (blue, grey, black and yellow) everyday!
So, I decided to grow his room up a bit from the “Go, dog. Go!” theme to a Batman theme.
I’ve collected Batman decor since last summer and slowly but surely have gotten some of it done.
It is still a work in progress, but close to being finished.
When it is done I will do a full room tour, but for now I wanted to show you the main piece of artwork and how it came to be.
I have loved all the Batman themed items that Pottery Barn has carried for the last year, but didn’t want to just put together a Pottery Barn Batman room.
About a month ago I took a quick trip to the mall by myself and found this at Pottery Barn Kids…
Source: potterybarnkids.com via stephany @ on Pinterest
I had an large empty frame from IKEA and some Mod Podge at home, and immediately knew what I was going to do.
{I apologize for the not so great quality of the photos..taken with my iPhone, at night, indoors}
I opened up the frame, took out the mat, and started piecing the puzzle together on the floor.
Once I was done piecing it together, I slipped the back of the frame under the mat and started painting on the Mod Podge with a foam brush.
I carried it to the dining room table to let it dry over night.
The next morning I did another coat of Mod Podge and let it dry.
Once it was completely dry I placed it in the frame.
It took the little guy some getting used to, so it did not immediately go up on his wall.
It is hanging up there now and I love how it looks.
The puzzle is 24″ x 36″, with about and 1-1/2″ of mat underneath and the black frame. It definitely makes a statement.
I will have a full room reveal soon.
Stay tuned…same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!
home is…not just a Pottery Barn Batman room.
*linking up with…
{gallery wall} take two, three, four, and more
After all the Christmas decor came down the house felt clean, but empty.
So, I started hanging artwork.
I added to the gallery wall at our front entry…
I put up some new artwork in our family room which is mainly a beige neutral room and needed some color…
And, I gallery walled the entire power room (inspired by a good friend who put a gallery wall from floor to ceiling on one wall in her powder bath…I hope you don’t mind, Melissa)…
These photos were just taken with my iPhone on instagram to show my husband while he is traveling for work this week.
As you can see, there are still stickers on some of the frames, and spaces to fill with photos or artwork, but sometimes just getting something done is better than nothing!
I am hoping to do a blog home tour this year…something along the lines of inside the {real} house of an interior designer.
Stay tuned…
home is…filling up walls.
*linking up with…
{holiday home tour} bits and pieces
I am still working on some last minute decorating and then plan to get the house cleaned up and enjoy some time with the kiddos and Ryan once the weekend rolls around.
Here are some photos of our family room.
You will notice the trolls on the mantel and a project that I borrowed from Pinterest.
I am using the same fabric covered bulletin board to display our Christmas cards from family and friends as I did last year. Only this year I added a string of lights with ribbon tied on it as a frame {a Pinterest find}.
I also made a garland for the windows in the family room.
As you can see, I am not sticking with the traditional red and green of Christmas.
Once I get the craft room {or dining room table} cleaned I can show you the decorations I have in there.
I still have a few projects to finish up before I can get to that!
You can also see our playroom, backyard, and mantel on my {holiday home tour}
Stay tuned…
home is…may your days be merry and bright!
*linking up with…The Shabby Creek Cottage, Just Sew Sassy, Today’s Creative Blog, I Gotta Create, and Bleak 2 Unique
sunflowers
I have been searching for the perfect bedding for years.
Last night I found it.
In the pages of my Pottery Barn catalog.
If you know me in real life, you know I LOVE sunflowers.
And, now I know where my “sunflowers” sign from the Farm Chicks show will go!
Now, I just need to call the painters to get the horrible chair rail and “duck blind” faux finish off our bedroom walls.
Oh, this is going to be a fun before and after post!
By the way, I am also working on another bedroom redesign…for the little guy!
And, someday soon, before she is big enough to move out of her crib, I will be finished with baby girls room.
I promise some photos!
Stay tuned…
home is…being patient for the right one.
{gallery wall} take one
Our walls have been bare for almost 4 years in this house.
I put something up for a short time and then find that I am not happy with it.
As you may have read, when I get frustrated I move furniture, but hanging art on walls just makes me frustrated. It’s a vicious cycle.
Hanging artwork seems permanent to me…which means I can’t move furniture around.
Now that our furniture is finally placed where I am happy with it (for now) I have wanted to hang some artwork on the walls. Ideas have floated around in my head from photos I have seen on other blogs and Pinterest. Nothing really forced me to put any holes in the wall, though.
Recently, we have been talking about getting the walls in our house painted. I would like to make holes in the walls pre-paint so that the painter can patch any mistakes and our walls with be nice and clean.
Then it all started with this…
We had this photo taken over a year ago and I finally ordered a wrapped canvas with a coupon I got from Sharing Spree.
I was thrilled when I received it and decided I had better put it up on the wall!
So, one afternoon, I just started hanging my black frames. Some already have photos in them, some need updated photos, and some just need photos!
This is a tall wall in our entryway. Below it is a bench that I have had since I was a little girl. This is where the kids keep their shoes, etc. It faces our playroom, which also has artwork with black frames including a large bulletin board which displays the kids artwork, Christmas cards, or other fun things depending on the time of the year.
Of course, after I got everything up on the wall I found about five more frames to add, and have Ryan’s Father’s Day gift to hang up on the wall.
The good thing is that there are more walls or more room on this wall!
The other good news is that I have started to put holes in the walls. Now I just need to continue with all the original artwork we have stored in our attic and some other prints that I would like to get framed.
Wish me luck!
home is…making progress on wall at a time.
*linking up with Tatertots and Jello…
3 years…happy blogiversary to me
It’s been 3 years since I started blogging.
When I started, it was mainly to write about interior design and green living as I had just decided to stay at home full-time with the little guy and left a job/profession/career that I LOVE.
It was hard to deal with the fact that I would no longer call myself an interior designer.
I was wrong.
I will always be an interior designer.
Just like I will, thanks to the little guy and baby girl, always be a mom.
My blogging has evolved.
I once had 3 blogs.
Now I just have one and I think I will keep it that way.
Happy blogiversary to me!
Here is a flashback to one of my very first posts.
home is…being a blogger.
the farm chicks show
I didn’t write over the weekend because I was busy here…
…having a lot of this…
…with my friend, Melissa.
We left Portland at noon on Friday and drove 6 hours to Spokane.
The sun was shining.
We stopped once to pee, once to get gas, and chatted the entire time.
I think it was the fastest 6 hours of my life.
We stayed at the historic Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane.
{The hotel deserves it’s own post, so I will write one later.}
We got our room, went downstairs for cocktails and dinner and went to bed so we could get up early to get in line for the show.
On Saturday morningwe were up and out of the hotel before 8 am with coffee and scones in hand.
There were already people lined up when we arrived at 8am.
Here is a map of the show and vendor names. {click on it to see it larger}
We bought our tickets and stood in line for 2 hours until general admission was let in. Serena came by and handed us a map and said hello. I should have asked her to take a photo with us, but I am never good at that kind of thing.
Here she is talking to some men who were filming her at the show…
The show was huge, the vendors were great, displays were beautiful, and the other people from all over the country (and Canada) we so friendly.
I usually just bring my camera and take photos on one of these adventures with Melissa, but this time I planned to look for a couple of things…one of which was cowboy boots for the kids.
I found ’em.
I also found an old sign that reads “sunflowers” and an old chalkboard (you can see part of the sign in the photo below before I snatched it up).
I thought about buying this guy for Ryan…it’s a Blue Grouse. I didn’t. When I showed Ryan the photo he said I should have. I shouldn’t have second guessed myself. Next time I will be on the lookout for a Blue Grouse mount!
And, for some family in New York (you know who you are), if this sign hadn’t been $125 I would have bought it for you to put in your front yard(s).
We took one 3 hour cruise through the entire place in the morning, stuck our purchases out in the car, and went through again without our hands and bags full. It took another 2 hours…and our hands and bags were full again!
Our feet were hurting from walking the concrete floors in out boots. {Of course we wore our boots!}
By 4 pm we were ready to head back to the Davenport for a cocktail and some dinner.
The rest of the evening was spent exploring the hotel and reading about it’s history.
After dinner we headed to the room to get some sleep to get back on the road to relieve our husbands from daddy duty.
We did stop at Chaps, which Serena highly recommends. I understand why. Super cute place with amazing food. We just got pastries and coffee to go, but it was worth the short drive out of our way to go!
On the way home the weather was perfect, we made awesome time, and we chatted the entire way. We discussed what we would do differently the next time…that topic deserves it’s own post, too!
In a nutshell, the weekend was well worth it. It was fun, inspiring, rejuvenating, and I will definitely be making future trips to Spokane for the Farm Chicks Show and otherwise!
Did you know that 5 years ago, in 2006, Ryan went to the Farm Chicks Show with me?! I wonder if Ryan would rather stay at home with the kids alone for the weekend or go to the Farm Chicks Show? Hmmmm.
Hey, if you were at the show, leave a comment to let me know what your favorite part was, where you came from, and where you stayed! Also, if you have a blog and wrote a post about it, leave a link to your URL!
home is…a girls weekend at the Farm Chicks show!
reclamation
Yesterday I reclaimed some space in our house for me! I am so excited about it!
We have a closet underneath our staircase. It’s an awkward space with a sloped ceiling. We used it for our “cat room” where we fed the cats and kept their litter boxes. We also kept other supplies for the cats and dogs in the closet, but nothing else.
The space is approximately 6-1/2 feet x 3 feet…about 19 sf of space…for the cats.
We now only have one cat, so I moved his space to the smaller closet in the laundry room and have reclaimed the space under the stairs as mine. While I would love to do something totally creative and fun with it I am most likely going to be practical.
I need a space to store my craft supplies, art and craft supplies for the kids, somewhere to hang up my bag(s) and put my camera, a general “dumping ground” for some of my things that don’t have a home, and a central home organization area (you know, a space for family calendar, school newsletters, and other such things). Right now I use random corners, the impractical desk in the kitchen, and the dining room for these uses.
I’d like to pull some electrical into the space for a lamp or overhead light as there is not a light in there now (maybe a quick project my dad could help with this summer), I’d like to paint it a fun color, and I’d like to add some of the Trofast storage from IKEA.
While I would like it to be a project that I could get done this weekend, that is not practical. Maybe I can get started on the painting…what color?!
Do you have a similar space in your home? What have you done with it?
home is…a little space for my things.
shopping for inspiration
If you take a walk through our home and inventory where the furniture came from you will find this:
1. IKEA
2. Pottery Barn
3. Crate & Barrel
Although I enjoyed ordering custom furniture that I had never sat in (or had even seen more than a photo of) with fabric that I just saw a swatch of for the clients I used to do work for, I like to sit in, touch and feel the furniture that goes into our own home.
I have always loved furniture and homegoods stores. I remember the old FB Design (or was it FB Home, I can’t remember) in the old Southglenn Mall in Denver. I loved going there with my parents (this was when i was under the age of 8 because after that we moved away to Fort Collins and when we moved back FB Design was no more).
This week baby girl and I were busy running errands on Tuesday so we had our adventure day on Wednesday.
We went to IKEA!
When I shop, I mainly shop for inspiration. This is what I was inspired by…
home is…going shopping for inspiration.
stephany taddeo 