I started searching for some ideas a few weeks back. My goal was to make something as simple as possible. No sewing, minimal cuts if any, and I really didn’t want to paint or stain (spoiler alert: I ate every one of these words). My original inspiration was this tent from Cakies…

(from Cakies via Pinterest)

But as we actually planned to make our own, I decided to look around for some other inspiration. I found this one from The Feminist Housewife…

(from The Feminist Housewife via Pinterest)

And this one from Under the Table and Dreaming…

(from Under the Table and Dreaming via Pinterest)

I liked that the first two could be taken apart to be stored, but I liked that the last one used a $3 Walmart sheet. We decided to do a combination of the last two.

First we planned out the size of our tent. We wanted it to be small, since Easton is well, small, and so is the room. After looking at all of the other tents, we settled on some 1x3x8s cut in half (for the 2 “A” frames”. Once we measured out the sides, we realized that 48″ was too long for us, so we made the side bars 36″. Then we decided to make the top piece 6″ longer to have 3″ of overhang on each side. Confused? I doodled it for you.

We also cut the legs that will be sitting on the floor at a 22.5 degree angle, as per the inspiration plans.

Once we made our cuts, I gave everything a good sanding. Oh and we bought pine rather than cheaper wood so that it would be a little smoother and would cut cleanly. I sanded down the harsh edges to make sure everything was safe for Easton. Then Mike clamped the wood to our island. No work table? Just use the kitchen (though we made cuts and sanded in the freezing garage).

He measured down about 7 inches to drill.

Then used these bolts and wing nuts to attach two of the pieces together.

We spread them out and tada! The ends of our tent.

We then took everything apart because we decided to paint the frame.

I went with Olympic One Paint + Primer in one semi-gloss in Orange Poppy and rolled it out to eliminate brush strokes.

Somewhere in the midst of this process, we realized that since we shortened the sides of the tent from the plans that I pinned, we could no longer use a twin bed sheet. I painted the frame orange because I figured I’d have to get a solid color sheet and I wanted some interest, and now the sheet won’t even fit?? I debated whether to still get a sheet and hem tape it up, but I figured if I was doing that, I might as well just pick out some fabric.

So we headed to Joann fabric and picked out fabric. We were both immediately drawn to this fun New York themed print that matched the grays in the striped walls, and somehow also matched the orange frame we had already painted the night before. We bought 3 yards at $5.99/yard. More than that $3 Walmart sheet, but totally worth it.

Long story short, we picked a fabric that ran in one direction and would have driven me crazy if I kept it in one long piece. I figured I needed two panels to change the direction of the fabric to be right side up on both sides of the tent. Then I had to face a reality…

I should probably sew all of this.

Yes, you read that right. I have had a brand new sewing machine sitting in the garage for 3 years because it was intimidating. The last time I sewed was 7th grade and I had no clue how to thread a machine these days. I set aside Sunday night (before the Walking Dead, of course), to set up the machine and thread it. And you know what? It was easy. I got it threaded and running in no time.

I hemmed all of the edges of the two panels and then sewed them together for the peak of the tent. It honestly took more time to pin everything. Why didn’t I open that sewing machine sooner?

We didn’t take pictures of this part, but we screwed the bottom pieces of wood into the frame and also secured it with wood glue. To attach the fabric to the frame, but make it removable to change up and wash, I decided to use 3 velcro strips on each side that were about 6 inches long.

I attached them the same way I did for our no sew crib skirt. I used iron on fabric velcro on the fabric and then sticky back velcro to attach to the tent. I kept the two pieces of velcro together on the fabric, peeled the sticky paper, and then stuck it to the frame.

It made it much easier to make sure everything lined up nice, rather than sticking the velcro to the frame and hoping it lined up with the fabric well!

Once the fabric was all attached to the frame, we were done!

I love how it turned out, granted I could have made the fabric slightly wider so that there was less of a gap between it and the wood, but I guess I measured that wrong. Measure twice, cut once… I definitely did not. But it’s only an inch or so, no biggie.

One thing we definitely will be adding are some additional supports. The way it is is NOT sturdy enough for a 9 month old. The other plans didn’t emphasize this much and one mentioned anchoring it to the wall. We will be adding additional support along the back and possibly anchoring it to the wall as well.

The velcro worked out well and attaches/reattaches really easily without getting the fabric bunchy or anything.

The extra 6 inches we added to the center support measurement worked out perfectly. It just rests along the top.

The fabric ties into the stripes well and brings in the fun element we’ve been missing in this room. It seemed as though everything we’ve wanted to add has come across as mature. The colors in the fabric are so perfect that they seem to match all of Easton’s toys. I literally picked the blocks, books and balls up off the floor and moved them over a foot into the tent, and they just coordinated. It’s a really easy fabric to work with!

So the verdict? The little guy was overtired when we finally showed him his tent, but he still checked it out on his own.

Of course, Macky loved it even more.

But Easton loves Macky so he wanted in on the tent too.

In the end, we all love our tent. I can see Easton laying in here with his books like he currently does under his jumperoo.

It makes the corner of the room feel so cozy and it’s the perfect miniature size.

Yes, we still need to touch up the paint from where we removed the previous shelves last week, but guys, I sewed and I survived. I’m going to take a day or two to enjoy that sweet victory.

ps- Here are the supplies we used in list form as a quick reference…

2- 1x2x8 boards, cut in half

2- 1x2x6 boards, one was cut in half, one was cut to 42 inches

2- bolts with wing nuts

4- long wood screws

Wood glue

3 yards of fabric

Velcro (both iron on for fabric and adhesive for wood)

Paint (if you want to paint the frame)

Two nights of a few hours of work… cutting and painting of the frame one night and the fabric the next

And please, if this is for a very young child, consider adding some additional support and/or anchoring it to the wall, we will update you when we do.

1. We made a trip to Ikea on Monday (thank god for 3 day weekends!). It was only the second time we’ve gone since Easton was born, so it was nice be back in the land of Expedits.

While there we restocked our frame collection for another gallery wall and bought some ledges for book storage in the playroom. We grabbed quite a few of these new (at least to me, it’s been a few months) glossy gray Ribba frames.

(via Ikea)

I’ve made it my own resolution to hang these things ASAP so they don’t sit around driving me nuts. But…

2. It’s Pinterest Challenge time again, so I have an excuse to be unfocused! Probably for the first time since these things started, I know exactly what I want to make… a play tent for Easton. Wish me luck as I buy dowels and sheets this weekend…

(from Twirl via Pinterest)

3. We’ve been behind on posting Easton’s monthly laundry basket pictures, but we have them hanging around on a memory card. I’ll get them all caught up on one post soon.

Yeah he doesn’t even fit laying in that basket anymore and he’s, um, almost 9 months now. Whoops.

4. We recently lowered Easton’s crib to the middle setting. Just as I was going to tweak the no sew crib skirt I made to fall flat with his crib, I woke up to this at 2am yesterday.

The face says it all, he’s not a morning person either. Luckily, I didn’t take a picture of my face at that moment. My hair was sticking up way more than his

We lowered the crib fully yesterday and now I have to decide how to work the crib skirt for the small amount of space left. Seriously, the nursery feels like it will never be “complete”. Every time I plan to take room reveal pictures, something happens, like I ram a vacuum into a piece of molding…

I’m such a jerk.

5. Speaking of my baby growing up, his first birthday isn’t too far away (3 months! only 3 months!! ) so all of that planning is stashed in the back of my head. I don’t want to do a set theme, but I’ve been playing with his Zany Zoo beads and I think I’ve settled on a color scheme…

Aqua, orange, lime green and royal blue/navy (whichever I can find more easily). My only expectation is that it be fun and fit for a one year old. I’m not trying to win any Pinterest party planning awards here. A happy baby and some full bellies works for me!

Considering all of these are on my to-do list, I’m obviously not doing a very good job at my New Year’s resolution to streamline my life. Good thing my current resolution is to get more sleep, though my miniature boss is in charge of that one.

This weekend, we finally got around to taking down the floating shelves.  While we loved them for an office, we didn’t think they were too practical for a playroom.  So down they went; they’ll probably reappear somewhere else in the house.  We also took down the ceiling fan which will end up in the new office upstairs.

The bracket holes were spackled and sanded once and need to be sanded again. We originally painted around the shelves, so we now have a slightly raised edging.  We’ll have to spackle and sand, and then spackle and sand a couple times to get everything flush again.

I apologize in advance for all of these pictures I took at night (like an hour ago).  Our camera settings were all wacky from the last time we used it and I couldn’t get the lighting to look right at night. Oops.

So what did we replace the ceiling fan with?  Well, a long time ago we picked up a light at Ikea. We had always knew we wanted to use it in the playroom, but never got around to installing it…until now!

(via Ikea)

We wanted something fun in the playroom, but nothing that screamed childish.  We found Ikea’s Fillsta, a playful hanging light for $29.99.  It was simple, had some shape and was cheap.  Perfect.

But much like any Ikea product, the install resulted in some head scratching.  And Mike dropping the f-bomb just a handful of times.  For anyone landing on our lil blog scratching their own heads trying to get the Ikea Fillsta installed, here’s the trick: cut the extra slack from the hanging cord to the length you need.

The dome base is actually held in place by tension in the cord.  So the tighter the cord inside the base, the tighter it will fit against the ceiling.  With most other light fixtures, these components typically slide or screw into place.  Nope, not with the Fillsta.  Mike originally rolled up the extra cord and stuffed it into the base.  Then he tried a bunch of zip-ties.  Finally after a couple milkshakes and a solid nap, Mike decided to just cut the cord down to the size we required.  Sure enough, it worked.  Now we just have to touch up the paint around it (though I love the white light against the dark ceiling!)

Here is the Fillsta with the light off.

And here is with the light on. Glowing! I love the little bit of whimsy it adds to the room, which the direction I’m sort of going in here. Clean and modern, yet fun! We’ll have to get a better room shot once we finish some other items in the room. What other items you ask?

These roman shades. We were originally going to dye them when the room was an office. We were even going to dye them when we switched it over to the playroom. But after doing some Googling, we’re not quite sure how to get the color we really want (so, um, anyone have any experience dying blinds? Using fabric spray paint?).  We’re thinking we just might replace them with the white version.  Any suggestions?

Over the weekend I was hanging out in the playroom with Easton (where I now live), and I realized that the Expedit we have in there isn’t great for his books.

He has to reach in too deep…

In order to chuck all of his books on the floor…

So I got to thinking that maybe we should have a dedicated book area. I knew I had seen so many children’s books displayed adorably on Pinterest, so why not investigate a little, huh?

Here are some options I came across:

(via Domestic Simplicity)

Inexpensive Ikea spice racks. Could be painted fun colors, plus they’re only $4 each!

(via Apartment Therapy)

Fabric book slings, so many fun possibilities.

(via Sunshine on the Inside)

Rain gutters for bookshelves? So creative.

(via Brooklyn Limestone)

Ikea Ribba picture ledges.

And perhaps my favorite, the DIYed numbered ones.

(via The Sweet Survival)

I was thinking of maybe building our own and adding a little ombre effect? Maybe 3 shelves in varying shades of yellow… or green… or orange! Maybe numbered? Hmmm…

Just before Christmas, we temporarily moved the Expedit that used to live in the office back into the playroom, but we placed it horizontally rather than vertically.

We placed it on the wall that you don’t see when you look in, just to keep the clutter out of sight for now.

Yes, I took these pictures around Christmas time and never got around to writing this post. Whoops.

While it works temporarily, Christmas brought along loads of Fisher Price and about 4 toys that require different sizes of balls that are currently thrown all over the room. Easton throws just like Mariano Rivera, watch for yourself!

Click here to view the embedded video.

And then applauds himself. Humble, yet proud

When he’s not hurling fast balls, Easton is at such a great age that he is able to entertain himself for a few minutes at a time. He loves his playroom. His latest trick is crawling away from us and proceeding to pull toys out of the baskets and Expedit…resulting in a giant mess already.

He has some toy cars in one of the bottom cubes that he likes to play with, while actually laying in the cube.

Our original plan, over a year ago, was to add some Ikea bookcases turned built-ins to the room ala Centsational Girl.

(via Centsational Girl)

I still love this idea but the problem is, building in storage is relatively permanent. The room also has a floor vent in the corner that would make this project less than easy. The more we’ve thought about it, the more we think it’s a good idea to do something that is easy to remove. Let’s face it, this room won’t be a playroom forever and it will evolve as Easton and his future siblings grow. Maybe we’ll want to add a table? Or a couch? The room is relatively small (about 11′x13′ I believe) so we think that having more of a modular storage system would accomodate any changes we want to make.

Cue the Cameron storage system from Pottery Barn Kids.

(via Pottery Barn Kids)

While I like all of the storage that these units would provide, what I like more is the fact that they have straight lines and would be easy to DIY since the price is frightening. While I would like some closed storage mixed in, right now Easton is a pro at opening doors and getting his fingers stuck. Being able to add closed drawers/doors as he gets older and can manuever them would be great.

As for what direction I’m thinking for the rest of the room, we already own two pieces that have inspired me for this space. The first one is this New York print I picked up on Fab over a month ago. I ordered Mike some things for Christmas and I was close to free shipping, so I added this adorable $15 print I fell in love with.

I love the mix of neutrals and the bright yellow taxi. The grays and browns bring in the next thing we have for the room, this metal imagine sign.

We bought this piece literally years ago at a shop in New Hope, PA and it is handmade. We planned to hang it in the office when this room was the office, but the copperish line on the bottom always threw me off with the gray stripes (the sign was purchased even before we painted the stripes). But, with the addition of the taxi print, everything seems to be falling into place.

Please ignore the awful picture, but you can see how it all sort of works.

I haven’t yet decided how to hang all of the things I want to add to the room (gallery wall? clothes line? shelves? leaning on bookcases?), but that’s something to worry about later. For now, I just want a fun space full of garland (since I loved our xmas version), a play tent, fun art and one ball throwing baby.

And a hard surface for my coffee mug…

Here’s the old, smelly, flat, beige one…

And our new cushy gray one!

There is always a cat photobombing my pictures. I’ve just accepted it at this point.

Anyway, I first have to admit that the true color of the carpet is hard to photograph. It often looks beige like the old one, but I promise you it’s gray. It goes quite well with the stripes and actually falls in between the two colors on the wall. It does have a slight brown undertone (the color is sugared bronze afterall), but it’s perfect because the paint does as well. The room definitely has a slight greige going to it, which we like because it goes with the entryway. It’s Mohawk’s SmartStrand Preston carpet in sugared bronze.

Our favorite part, other than the part that it’s a completely green carpet, is that it is so soft and cushy. I don’t mind that it’s the type of carpet that leaves vacuum marks because it’s so comfy for Easton. And us. We may or may not lay on the carpet all day now.

I didn’t properly white balance the camera before taking these pictures and I couldn’t manage to make the above picture less orange-y. Photoshop is not at all my speciality and the early sunset doesn’t help.

I picked up 2 gray felt storage baskets at Target last week to try to wrangle baby toys and add some style to the room. I love them, they add some texture yet are soft enough for Easton to reach in.

They are where we hide that puppy we both hate. Easton loves him more than anything (except maybe his snowman book), so I guess Puppy (his official name) can stay. First thing I do at night is throw Puppy in a basket. Usually he yells “Bye-Bye!” which just makes me hate him more.

The only other things in the room at the moment are a pack ‘n play and a jumperoo hidden behind the door.

I was cleaning off the shelves as I was taking these pictures, but then Easton started to wake up from his nap. I cut the cleaning short and just snapped some quick pictures.

The shelves and fan are going. We bought a light fixture a while ago, so we’ll move the fan upstairs. The rest of the room doesn’t have any concrete plans for now. We would like some built-in bookcases for storage, but we’re not in any rush.

Right now the open room makes someone very happy.

We spend most of our days in here now.

Easton’s favorite uses for his new playroom? Rolling from wall to wall and back again. Over and over…

Reading books…

And reading books to his puppy…

All in his pajamas. We clearly take most of our pictures in the morning…

Need a refresher? The playroom is actually our former office that is downstairs with the striped walls and french doors.

Thanks to that little cat, who ironically photobombed this picture, we have to completely scrap this carpet. Darwin was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year and had a few very, very rough months that included… peeing on our carpets. We tore up the family room carpet this spring and now it’s time for this one to go.

(For those of you wanting a Darwin update, he is doing amazing. He was the first cat with renal lymphoma that his oncologist has ever treated to live past 6 months. It’s just an awful form of cancer for cats that essentially causes kidney failure even if chemo is suppressing the cancer. Darwin beat the odds and has since made it to a year post-diagnosis. Though he does suffer from some loss of kidney function, cats can actually live normal lives with something ridiculous like 75% of their kidney function lost. He has been off chemo for almost a year now!)

A few weeks ago I discovered Mohawk’s SmartStrand carpet, which is eco-friendly and you can clean it with just soap and water. We looked around some major retailers, but we didn’t see anything that you could clean with just soap and water. So after being frustrated that Easton had no where to roll free (though he has carpet in his room), we realized that we really need to choose something. I am generally a pretty decisive person, so we headed to Lowe’s all set to choose something. And choose we did.

So we trekked up to the salesperson, with this board and baby in hand and were like, “okay, we’ll take it”. That guy made the easiest commission ever. We wanted Lowe’s to install it (what the heck do we know about stapling carpets??), but we didn’t know that regardless of if we had the measurements on hand, they still had to send someone out fo measure. Whaaamp whaamp. So they wrote down what carpet we wanted and took our information. Then we had to wait to hear from the installer.

He called us within a day or so and scheduled a measurement for a few days away. He came, confirmed our measurements and called them into Lowe’s. Lowe’s then called us and told us the price and that we just had to come in to pay, yay! Except they lied. Mike got there and they needed all of the carpet information again, which is how I have the above picture. Since I was carrying Easton and whatnot, I trusted that Lowe’s was recording what I was choosing and didn’t take any pictures the day we selected it. Thankfully my memory is ridiculous and I remembered the style name, so I asked Mike to send a picture of the board because I knew the position of the color we wanted.

So we went with the SmartStrand Preston in Sugared Bronze with the recommended carpet pad. Using the SmartStrand pad protects the warranty and was seriously something like 10 cents more a square foot. Our room is incredibly small so it was something like $15 for the better pad. Sold!

Here is where I would normally give you pictures of the carpet I found while googling… but I can’t find any. My google-age (new word) has led me to believe that the big box stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot carry their own lines of SmartStrand carpet. Quite like mattresses, this makes it impossible to compare across retailers. So I’m guessing that my Preston is someone else’s Harrison and someone else’s Mason. My sugared bronze is someone elses shimmer metallic brown. It has to be in limited availability to have no history on the internet. Bizarre.

Anyway, we really just guessed what color would look best. We knew the paint color of the stripes in the new playroom has a tinge of brown to it. A bluish gray wouldn’t go as well as one with more of a taupe undertone. From there we just picked a mid-tone color that wasn’t too dark or too light.

As for the style of the carpet, we petted the larger samples to see how each one would feel on little knees. Then we compared prices and weighed the pros and cons. For example, our room is between 100-150 square feet, so we knew if the prices differed by a small amount, we would just go with the nicer one. A 20 cent price difference wasn’t making a big dent in the budget if it meant we were getting a more dense carpet. Using that method, we went with a mid-range carpet that was the best in it’s group. So it’s like the upper middle class of carpets.

We were told that the carpet would take only 2-3 weeks to come in, since the room is so small and the manufacturer should have enough on hand. We ordered it about a week and a half ago, so we’re hoping to hear from the installer soon. We were told that the whole room would take them less than an hour to do. I can’t wait

ps- Am I the only one that manages to kill an entire sleeve of crackers each time I open one? One blog post = a sleeve of saltines gone. Whoops.

The beige carpet never matched with our paint choice, so I’m happy to be on the hunt for something different.

One of my requirements was that the carpet be gray. I don’t care what shade of gray (nope, didn’t read that book), really I’d take anything. My number one priority is that the carpet be safe and as free of toxins as possible. Thus began my hunt for the eco friendly carpet. Dun dun dun!

I’ve posted about our search for a solid wood crib, my relevation about Easton’s Ikea dresser, the hunt for a wool area rug, using no-VOC paint and our use of solid wood/low-VOC adhesive on Easton’s paneled wall – all in the nursery. It should come as no surprise that I also want the playroom to be as non-toxic as possible. Or maybe that statement is surprising? I’m sure there are people who think that once your baby comes you become more relaxed about such things, but really, I think I worry about it more now. I mean, when you see your kid react to tummy time by immediately licking his playmat, you realize that what you lay him on should be as safe as possible.

Assuming that most carpets come in some shade of gray, I figured I’d begin my search with the eco friendly requirement. I simply googled for “eco friendly carpeting” to find out what brands made options. I knew that major retailers were starting to come around because we had spotted something in Lowe’s a few months ago, before we were really ready to start looking. My googling led me to Mohawk’s SmartStrand carpet which has received glowing reviews from eco-friendly companies as well as carpet salespeople (and apparently Better Homes & Garden).

(via Mohawk)

This line of carpet has stain resistance somehow built-in rather than sprayed on with a chemical and supposedly can be cleaned WITH JUST WATER. So not only are you dodging the chemicals in a strain treatment, but you are also dodging the chemicals from cleaning it yourself. Let’s face it, kids are messy and the less you have to use the Resolve or the SpotBot, the better. Oh, pets are messy too and that’s the only reason why I can use both Resolve and the SpotBot with my hands behind my back… and my eyes closed.

Re-read the above sentence about Easton licking surfaces and you’ll see why chemical free is number one above looks. Granted, he won’t be licking flooring forever (he’ll stop for about 18 years then resume where he left off in college), but so much of his little body is still growing. The thought of toxins entering that little body cannot be good. So this weekend, the 3 of us trekked to check it out in person.

First, we headed to Home Depot, where we didn’t see any eco-friendly carpeting. We had the guest of honor with us and thankfully he let us put him back in the car and drive to a nearby speciality flooring store. There we hunted down the SmartStrand!

I wish I snapped pictures in the store, but I completely forgot to. The salesperson showed us where the carpet was and explained that you could tell it was SmartStrand just by touching it — it was that soft. There were all different levels of softness and then a million colors to choose from, so it was very overwhelming. She also told us that our room was so small (11′ x 11′) that we could get a remnant. Unfortunately, when we entered the remnant area, there were no SmartStrand carpets in any weight or design, in gray.

We decided to continue to shop around and to check out Lowe’s this weekend. We had seen the carpet there a few months ago and we’re hoping they’re running some sort of promotion. We’re also open for suggestions of other brands/types of carpeting that are safe for Easton. While being “green” is extremely trendy these days, it’s still hard to find products that are affordable and safe. Suggestions welcome… I’d take shag, carpet that leaves vaccuum marks, berber or Beiber.

Just look at him, he loves carpet

Yep, we officially moved ourselves upstairs today. My chair just made it’s way up so that I could write this post.

I snapped these pictures with my iPhone because a) we moved up here literally just tonight and b) by the time I got Easton to bed and threw in some laundry it was too dark to take pictures.

I go back to work in the middle of next week, so we decided that we had to focus on the big picture in this room. The past several weeks, Mike has been working hard on the built-in cabinets/bench and the crown molding but there is still a ton of work left to do. Mike did conquer the crown molding beast around the built-ins and did a pretty good job. This was only the second room we’ve added crown to, which is a pain in itself, so this corner was rough.

It still needs caulk and paint, as does all of the trimwork in the office, but as I said before we’re focusing on the big picture at the moment. The goal was to have the office moved up here by the time I went back to work so that Mike had a safe place to bring Easton during the day. The former office was the victim of our cat’s kidney cancer (though thankfully the only victim!) and we used so many chemicals to attempt to clean the carpet that we don’t want Easton in there. We’re going to put a pack ‘n play in the new office so that Mike can work if Easton is napping. We will be replacing that carpet and turning the former office into a playroom.

The stripes we so painstakingly painted will of course be staying. When we painted them, we knew this room would someday be a playroom and hey, stripes are fun! The black shelves will be coming down and the fan is coming upstairs with us. We bought a new light fixture for the playroom a while back. Then we plan on building some more built-ins for Easton’s toys. I can’t wait to get started in there, though it’s going to take us a while. Baby steps.

That being said, I’m not sure I’ll be blogging next week. I may take a break to adjust to going back to work and to try to avoid any sort of emotional breakdown The less stress the better for now. I would say it’s my first break from blogging without guest posters, but I did take that break you know, when I gave birth. I’m just going to play it day by day and see how it goes. Maybe now that we’re in the new office I’ll want to write about my ideas. It might just relieve some stress and mommy guilt

Yes I know, I am an excellent Photoshopper. I’m working on it Anyway, the bookcase arrived and it took us a while to get to the back of it, so it sat in the baby’s room like this…

I didn’t put anything on it but a fan to keep me cool while working in there because I knew it would all eventually have to be removed anyway.

The problem was that the almost cardboard-like back was absorbing the paint. The first coat of green we put on literally disappeared. Mike ended up having to use 2 coats of the Valspar high performance, low-VOC primer that we used on the unfinished wood boards on the paneled wall. After those 2 coats of primer, we were able use the same Olympic zero VOC paint we used for the closet (Lettuce Alone B68-3)… but we still did about 2-3 coats of that to get to the level of green we wanted.

Needless to say, between on our other projects and whatnot going on, this whole multiple coat process took us a while. Finally on Friday, we were able to attach the back to the bookcase!

It turned out so adorable and I wasted no time filling her up!

The top shelf holds, well, books.

And the bottom shelf holds a basket full of toys.

If only I could keep the toy collection limited to what fits in this basket. It’s already exceeded the basket and takes up a drawer in the closet, as well as an additional storage bin of older aged toys in our spare bedroom. When we realized that we haven’t even bought our child a single toy, nor did we register for any, we realized we need to start working on that playroom ASAP! Mike literally started working on the new office again yesterday so that we can have the old office for baby gear storage. Clutter is my arch nemesis.

The top shelf of the bookcase holds our adult books and that fabulous fan.

I love this fan because it’s 100% metal, even the switch to turn it on and off. It’s the Hunter Classic Table Fan from Target.

Next up is to come up with a gallery wall design to hang over this little bookcase. Off to Michael’s now to search for one part of it so hopefully I can get an idea of an arrangement today!

ps- Yes, still pregnant. 41 weeks tomorrow.

pps- Sorry if you tried to visit on Friday or Saturday and the site was down. Apparently there was a server upgrade we weren’t aware of that took for.ev.er. to fix.