.jack's room.

jack's room is currently my most favourite space in our house. it's been completed for ages, minus a picture hanging or two, but most days i sit in my old beat-up vintage rocking chair [handed down to me from my grandma, which was handed down from her momma!] and smile while i watch jack play and explore.

with jack being our first baby, we had this little room completed well before he was born. you know how it is. it was one of those projects that just needed to be done so that my pregnancy with jack would feel real. and it really did help. once we started putting paint on the walls, nestled his crib into the corner and filled a bookcase with childhood treasures, i remember thinking 'whoa. we are really having a baby!'.

i also remember it being a daunting task to start. what colours? what theme? do we even have a theme? boy or girl? budget? baby enough? too adult-ish? how do i incorporate [fill in the blank]? it was never-ending and i probably changed my mind 100x before settling down with a simple colour pattern.

benjamin moore

since we didn't know the sex of our baby, i had to go gender neutral. and to be perfectly honest, that was fine with me. i don't really feel that you need to go pink or blue nowadays anyways. that being said, i definitely knew i wanted something that i would truly enjoy since i figured i'd be spending quite a bit of time in that space. i also knew that i wanted it to feel a little more 'adult', without the cartoons wall decals, etc. i figured as jack grew older we could always pull baby or toddler items into the room if he wanted them, with toys and stuffed animals. 

another small issue i had to work into the equation, besides it being teeny-tiny, was a dark cherry-wood hand-me-down crib that peter was determined to use, no matter what sort of begging i came up with for a modern square white one. in the end, i suppose it was where i went from thinking of a monochromatic colour scheme to soft whites and creams to the palette above. and to where a sort of 'woodsy feel' was born. remember this diy bookcase peter helped me fix up?

the room might have a bit more of a masculine feel but in the end, with jack being born a boy, it worked out to be the most perfect room. and i simply love it, which is all that really matters.

now with jack almost ready for a 'big boy room' [kidding! he's staying my baby forever!] and the twins due date only 4.5 months away, i'd better get cracking on their room! we haven't even begun to start in there! such is the life of the 2nd child [and third, i suppose! ha!].

.jack's nursery: wood bookcase diy.

i know, i know. it's about time i show you all jack's nursery, but till i can manage to figure out how to take pictures in a way i can really show it off, you'll just have to be stuck with little sneak peeks like this one.

to give you the back story, basically peter put his foot down on a new crib when we received a working one from his sweet aunt & uncle. the problem was, it was dark wood and i wanted white. after humming and hawing over whether or not i could safely paint a crib, i decided to just leave it as it was and try to tie in a few dark wood elements to the white/grey space i was creating for baby's nursery. and that's how the wood-bookcase-hunt was born! i wanted something that looked natural, but functioned as a great place to store books, toys and a few decorative peices. i was also on a pretty tight budget. 

well, have you ever tried to find a natural looking wood bookcase on a tight budget? next to impossible [or perhaps my standards are a little too impossible! ha!]. and that's where homesense came in and this ugly yellowy-peach-stained wood bookcase was found. i mean, this colour?!? why? 

so i showed peter it in store. he laughed. i asked him if he could sand and stain it. he laughed again. said it would be too much work. i smiled sweetly and rubbed my big preggo belly. said it was for baby bugg. and then we bought. 

[note to self...using baby to get things works!]

this bookcase was actually priced at $770 [even at homesense!!! wth, right?! i wonder what the price was before homesense came into the picture? ouch], but after markdown after markdown we managed to score it at a whopping $140. now that's a budgeted price i can work with. and here's what my handy husband did to it....

not to darn shabby, hey?! i am super happy with the results and think pete did a fantastic job. it now serves the exact purpose that i wanted it too and i think that jack loves being able to pull out his toys and book at his own leisure. it's the perfect height for him and the perfect piece that i needed to tie everything in with his nursery. more too come on the rest of the space shortly.....

**and not to worry! i was major preggo at the time, but wasn't present during this diy [only for 2 seconds to snap a few pictures], we slept in the basement and the house was well ventilated the entire process :)

.welcome to our home, the front entrance to be exact.

it's no surprise that our front entrance [and house really] is in some serious need of an update. we've lived here for 5 years now and have hardly touched a thing since moving in. it's lacking the newer, cleaner, more modern 'me' and i am utterly dying for an entire house make-over. however since the funds lack an entire home redesign, i've decided to start tackling it room-by-room....starting with the front entrance.

let me start out by stating that our front entrance is small. and dark. and doesn't really have much to it. it's basically the bottom of the stair landing, however it is the first thing you see when we open the door.  so it needed something. something easy, small, and that didn't involve painting the entire house a new shade [although, that is something that i am seriously considering!].

and that's where paula scherr photography came in! i basically picked up a gold metal stand, some white frames, a couple succulents, printed some favourite pictures from paula and my new front entrance was born!

and i quite like it!

**i would also be remiss not to mention that the 'love you dad' artwork was made by jack[can you spot his teeny tiny hands?] and given to daddy on father's day, but it was totally inspired by andrea's artwork here! as usual, thanks for the inspiration lady!!

so what do you think? works for now, no?

sources: white frames, homesense || welcome to our home print, 5thirteendesigns || daddy artwork, handmade by jack || gold butlers tray, homesense [similar] || white & wood square tray, chapters [similar] || square pot, chapters [similar] || glass bottles, chapters [kinda similar and really cool]

.currently loving: home goods.

1] dwell studios gold horse [this brass horse is the perfect shade of gold and would make a lovely addition to a coffee table, perhaps as a paperweight on some decorative books?]
2] cowhide rug [my next purchase! i have had my eye on cowhide rugs for about a year now and have run out of excuses why i shouldn't buy one. need this. now]
3] bodie and fou black metal stool [i am simply adoring the industrial look of this stool, especially mixed in with some natural wood elements. modern done right!]
4] wire basket [this basket would be perfect for corralling all of jack's ever-growing toy collection!]
5] golden urchin sculptors [again, a perfect addition stacked on top of some decorative coffee table books]
6] bodie and fou rug [my kitchen needs this rug. i'm envisioning it directly by my sink for that added softness while scrubbing those dishes. who knows, it might even help to trick myself into enjoying washing and scrubbing!?]
7] homemade cookie jar [simply because we all need a fabulous cookie jar sitting on our counters!]
8] wood cutting board [i've had my eye on a wood cutting board for quite some time and just haven't found the right one....that is until now. this board is perfect and would be a damn beautiful background for food photos, don'tcha think?]
9] pyramid object, set of three [would look so lovely on a mantle, with a beautiful picture nestled directly behind these pyramids. simple + clean = the best way to decorate!]

also see my 'currently loving: clothing' & 'beauty and accessories' by clicking on the links :)

*contains some affiliate links, however thank you for helping make fancy napkin possible by supporting my picks.

.diy: rustic felt ball mobile.

after searching [and searching and searching] for an affordable 'modern-rustic' themed mobile for jack's nursery [yes, modern-rustic! i wanted a wood rustic feel, with a modern twist to it], i decided that it couldn't be that hard to make one. so, while I absolutely love the look of the feather/arrow mobiles floating around pinterest [favorites seen here and here], i wasn't crazy about the price tag's going along with them. i was also searching for something with a little wood on it to pull some darkness to the area above the change pad and match a few darker pieces i had in jack's room. and this is what i came up with.

a fun, super easy project that adds just the right amount of modern-rustic to the little man's nursery. 

and bonus: he adores it!

here's how i did it:

.jack's nursery: a sneak peek.

it occurred to me the other day that i have yet to show any photos of jack's nursery! i guess it's because i am still looking for a chair for the space and have yet to hang all the pictures, etc but it's slowly coming along and may even be done by the time the little man spends his first night in it.

as for the decor or theme of his room, i knew that i really wanted to stray away from the obvious baby nursery and stick to a more mature space [i mean its probably more for me than him at this point!], so after working with a few hand me downs [more to come on that later] i decided to try out a sort of rustic modern woodland theme [if that even makes sense! ha!].

here are a few highlights.