dresser dress-up

It took less than $15 and 15 minutes to take August's dresser from this:

To this:

And the verdict?

One happy baby...

and one slobbery drawer pull.

All of these knobs came from Hobby Lobby and were $2 - $3 thanks to a 50% off sale.

xo 

nessa dee

Framed

I've been trying to get some small house projects marked off my list, and sprucing up my studio is one of them. I deliberately made the room a big white box in hopes of infusing it with color through the art and furniture. The big white peg board was hung on the wall to make for an ever evolving art wall where I could store my paintings, or hang them to dry, but it looked unfinished [as seen here behind the bat man.]

 I finally got around to adding color and a frame [the pieces of which I've had for 5 months now], and now it looks fantabulous! Let's take a gander, shall we?

Isn't it fun? All this color makes me happy. So does that 'Employees Only' sign on my door. Every time family comes to visit, the kids transform our house into a hotel complete with room numbers and card keys. The sign on my studio door keeps visitors from mistaking that room for their temporary lodging facilities.

The room isn't finished yet, but for now, I'm quite happy!

xo

nessa dee

[The color of the peg board is hard to see, but it's a very light blue called Valley Mist from Behr. It's the same color as Finn's room. The frame is painted in Tomato Red by Glidden. Both paints were leftovers from other projects.]

Kitchen Redo

The verdict is in. Now that we have more testosterone in our house, it was decided that the kitchen was too feminine for the boys, so it's going to get a major overhaul.

Oh...not my kitchen.

This kitchen...

It's been in dire need of a revamp for sometime now. It was Audrie's, and it's nine years old, missing a door, has loose knobs, and leftover sticker adhesive from a renovation done by it's former owner. Now that she's 11, and too old for these baby toys, this kitchen is getting the makeover it needs to satisfy its masculine owners because they really aren't too happy with the pink pastel color palette...

So, we're gonna take a little bit of this...

and a lot of creativity, and hopefully end up with something like this...

Yep, we're going to need a lot of creativity.

xo

nessa dee

Baby Boy's Room: The Finishing Touches

Today's Crafty Friday is going to be postponed until tomorrow or Sunday because of my schedule, but don't fret. [you probably weren't] Instead, I have some exciting news. I finally finished the baby's room! All of those last little details are in place, and they are no longer in the back of my mind, nagging me to get them done. Okay, enough talk...let's look at pictures!

I ended up going with the larger polka dots for the robot picture mats thanks to your suggestions, and the fact that they were a much brighter orange. We flanked my robot painting with them, and I love how it all turned out.

I moved the pictures that were hanging next to the robot over by the closet, and there's still plenty of extra wall space around the room to hang pictures of this little boy once he gets here.

My mother-in-law bought the mobile for the baby from Pottery Barn Kids, and the colors are perfect. We hung it over what I call the reading nook.

I also added the little magazine rack from Marshalls which houses some of our favorite books.

And did you see them? Here, take a closer look...

Don't look too closely, or you'll see my bad sewing job, but they're finished! It took my mother-in-law coming into town and offering to sew the trim for me to finally get the gumption to finish them. You see, I'm pretty stubborn, and I don't want someone else to do something for me that I'm capable of doing myself. If I'm ever dragging my feet on a project, please threaten to do it for me.

Now that those last few projects are done, the room is almost perfect. I just need a sweet baby to finish it off.

xo

nessa dee

Just in case you're wondering, here's a resource list:

* Paint color: Behr's 'Castle Path' from Home Depot

* Crib: Bassett Baby via Craigslist

* Crib skirt: Dwell Studio from Target [out of stock]

* Crib sheets: Skip Hop's Alphabet Zoo

* Chest of drawers: Ikea

* Curtains: Ikea

* Ribbon trim and pillow material: Hobby Lobby

* Chair: Craigslist

* Mobile: Pottery Barn Kids

* Rug and book rack: Marshalls

* Dino pull toy: garage sale

* Big Boy the dog: Audrie's from when she was a baby

* Alphabet Wall Art: from various places including Hobby Lobby, thrift stores, and handmade. Each was     

   painted or covered with scrapbook paper, buttons, book pages, or map pages.

Big Dot, Little Dot

I'm trying to decide which scrapbook paper to choose for the mats surrounding my kids' robot pictures they made for the baby's room. I had my assistant [daughter] help me spray paint the frames a lovely aqua color, and I chose two different orange polka dot papers for the mats.

This is the mini dot paper...

And this is the larger polka dot paper...

[Hello, Baby!]

I'm leaning towards the bigger dots because the paper's a bit brighter, but I'm not sure. 

Maybe I'll just use both and forgo any decision making, but I guess that would be a decision in itself.

xo

nessa dee

Our house is on Apartment Therapy!!

I've been hinting that something big was going down at the Roeder house, and here it is:

We have a house tour on Apartment Therapy!!

[photo taken by Chris Perez]

I was contacted last month by Chris Perez, a contributor for Apartment Therapy, to see if I was interested in doing a house tour feature for their site. To say I was shocked would be an understatement, but I answered with a big, resounding YES! As soon as that word left my mouth, though, the nerves set in because at that point, we had three sample colors painted on our kitchen cabinets, two bathrooms with peeling wallpaper, a baby's room that hadn't even been thought out, an art studio that looked more like a storage room, the list goes on and on. So for the last month we've been working like crazy people to finish a lot of those projects. We still have a plenty of projects to tackle, but for now I am taking a long hiatus from house work and focusing on preparing for a baby. I've heard that it's a good idea to have things like a car seat, baby blankets, and enough clothes for the child before you take him home from the hospital.

You can check out our house tour right here. And be nice...remember, I'm pregnant and emotional, so lie through your teeth if you need to.

xo

nessa dee

Hello, Monday!

Today...

:: I'm enjoying my Mother's Day flowers from my dad. Tulips are my favorite!

I'm also enjoying my new camera from Jonathan, although, there's something wrong with auto focus, but I'm sure it's just me. I'm using the manual mode until I can take the class on how to use this fancy thing. Me + technology = disaster.

:: We are raising our second caterpillar. This is Grover. He was found the day Elmo came out of his cocoon. [I'll post about that tomorrow]

:: I've got newly painted cabinets and shiny hardware to match!

:: I started this last night. My neck and shoulders aren't happy with me this morning.

Jonathan says it looks like the Space Invaders video game, and I have to agree, which means that we love it!

:: I finished the alphabet. Now to figure out a way to hang everything without turning the wall into Swiss cheese.

:: I also finished the robot. I managed to hang this one all by myself.

Happy Monday!

xo

nessa dee

Hello, Monday!

This morning...

::We are anxiously watching Mr. Elmo Yellow Tiger make his cocoon. We found him on Friday, fed him tons of leaves all day Saturday, he made his way to the top of the bug box on Sunday, and now we are patiently waiting to see his metamorphosis.  I don't know who's more excited, the kids or me.

:: I'm almost done with the robot painting for the baby's room, but I'm not sure I like it. I might have to tweak it quite a bit, or sell it and make a new one.

 ::We finished painting the baby's room this weekend. It's grey with stripes. It looks a little sophisticated right now, but I'm planning on adding a lot of fun colors with the art I have planned for the space, the fabrics and the furniture. How do you like his new dresser/changing table?

:: I'm not quite finished with this project, but here's a sneak peek of what's new in the hallway between the kids' rooms.

:: I'm going to be setting up his crib today [finally]! I bought the crib off Craigslist over a month ago, and it's been sitting in the piano room ever since.

:: And finally, we've been making so many changes to the house, and I wish I had a working camera to show you everything. It took having a baby to give us the kick in the pants we needed to get things done, but then something else came up. I am super duper excited about what's going to be happening in a few weeks, but you'll have to wait and find out. Until then, we'll be working like mad to get our projects done before mid May.

Happy Monday!

xo

nessa dee 

The Chairs!

As promised, here are the pictures of the finished chairs. But before you see them, let me refresh your memory on their previous state.

And here's the after:

Aren't they pretty?

Here's a close-up of the fabric that 3 out of 4 of us chose.

In hindsight, I'm glad I was outvoted. Trying to make sure that stripes were aligned on every chair pad would have driven me crazy. I probably would have given up after one chair.

My husband said that if we ever lose our way home, we can always follow the glow of our chairs. It's always a bonus when my zany creative outbursts turn out to be practical, too.

xo

nessa dee

Itchin'

I've been itchin' to get in to the studio, get it all perfect, and most of all get back to work, but I've had a few setbacks.
First of all, my perfect table ended up being a little wider than I expected. Though I'd planned the room over and over, and measured twice, and got all of the logistics worked out, I didn't bank on the sawhorse style legs to stick out as much as they did, and it didn't fit next to my dresser like I had planned. So I'm back to square one on reworking the whole space. Right now the table is under the window, which is not where I want it. This room gets wonderful light especially in the morning, but looking directly into that light is brutal. I don't know if I'll ever work in the morning since that's our school time, but just in case, it needs to be moved.

Secondly, see those two in the above picture? They've hijacked the new space to make their own creations. I found myself working on the floor yesterday while they enjoyed the lovely new workspace.

Lastly, since the beginning of time [it seems] MY studio has housed my HUSBAND'S power tower. It's not small, it never gets used, I can't get it out of the space without taking it apart, and I've tried to take it apart, but it requires the strenght of Hercules to do so. I don't have Herculean strength. So this thing is constantly being shifted around the room so I can either sit at the table, or open the closet, or get stuff out of the drawers.

On the plus side, it has made for a nice indoor jungle gym for the kids.

The plan is to get it out this weekend, and I can't wait!!

I also can't wait to show you the new paintings I'm working on.

xo
nessa dee

Hello, Monday!

Today I'm...

:: Super excited about my new furniture for the studio. It's from Ikea, and although I try to avoid Ikea like the plague, this new stuff is going to be much more functional than what I have. The best part? It came with a child to help me put it together. He can read the pictogram instructions much better than I can.

:: I pulled this painting out of my closet and hung it in the breakfast room to tie in the new color of the dining chairs. I also surrounded it with math problems to make it look smart.

:: I have an important supper date...

:: I picked up the fabric for my freshly painted chairs. I was out voted 3 to 1 in favor of the paisley, but I'm going to add the stripe fabric in pillows. Ha!

:: I picked this little guy up for $5. He's supposed to go in Audrie's room, but I'm enjoying him down stairs for a little while.

:: My springifying of the house is mostly done.

:: I had a little help with the mantel from the Ikea boy. I think the Nerf bullets keep the fireplace from looking too feminine.

Happy Monday!

xo

nessa dee