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.

Oh and there’s a Mamaroo temporarily in the other corner. We just put it together and wanted to make sure it worked. The point is, there’s a giant empty wall next to the glider.

I was waiting to have the glider to decide what type of furniture to put next to it. I wasn’t sure if we’d want a small table, toy storage, bookcase, etc., but I knew we’d want something to use as a surface to put down bottles and other things. Then we realized how small this room was getting with everything in it…

I had the glider positioned on the right side of the window…

So I just slid it out to the other side of the window.

The good thing about this is now we can get a small bookcase that will be closer to centered on the wall, but still next to the chair. Then we can fill the wall space above the bookcase with a nice gallery wall or something similar.

We measured about how large of a bookcase we’d want after moving the chair. The ottoman does stick out into the room a little bit more now, but there’s still plenty of space to navigate to the crib. As the baby grows, maybe the configuration will change.

I searched the Ikea website and saw that the only short bookcase they had was the Expedit, which I wasn’t crazy about in this room (though we have a black/brown one in the office). I turned to Target and quickly found the Carson 2-shelf bookcase.

(via Target)

The image on the Target website isn’t great, but you get the idea. The dimensions worked, plus I was able to get free shipping and 5% off for using my Target debit card. Since the image wasn’t great, I wasn’t yet sold and turned to Google, where I discovered that this was just the shorter version of this bookcase that Jessie from Cape 27 has that I blogged about last year!

(via Cape 27)

Which of course got my wheels turning further…. not only should I buy the bookcase, but I should paint the back of it green like the nursery closet!

It would look a little something like this…

So I ordered it. It will be here early next week and will make a nice home for some books, a humidifier and a gallery wall

I wanted a clean, modern light fixture in here. I’ve expressed my love for drum pendants before, but somehow I have not put a single one in our house yet! I figured I’d start with the nursery, especially since our first nursery purchase were some Jonathan Adler giraffe sconces which come with white shades.

(via Macys)

I have a gift card to the Land of Nod and I remembered that they had some affordable pendants, the Hangin’ Around Lamp.

(via Land of Nod)

The pendant comes in a variety of colors, including white, gray, brown, hot pink, lime green, navy and orange. So many of those would work in our room. After thinking about it a little, I decided white would be best. Then I decided that $99 (even with a gift card) was too much to spend for a plain white light. Back to the drawing board it was! And by drawing board, I mean google…

I googled a bit and then discovered this…

It’s a 15″ white drum pendant lamp on sale at Target for $23.99… and it comes with a lightbulb. Perfect size, nice, cheap and I got free shipping and 10% for using my Target card. Needless to say, it took me about 20 seconds to click the buy button. Unfortunately, this was over a week ago and it’s no longer available for me to link for you guys

Tonight we finally got around to hanging it. I would post a how to install lighting, but I was holding the light most of the time and Mike said it’s simple enough… screw in your metal bracket, cut the wire of the fixture to your desired length with pliers, strip the wires, match the colored wires of your fixture to the colored wires coming out of your ceiling, twist ‘em together, tape them with electrical tape, screw cap on and I think that was it? I couldn’t see beyond the giant shade I was holding. Plus my calves kept getting cramps from keeping my balance. Standing is hard when you’re super pregnant…

Here are some night time pictures of our new friend.

It looks so nice and classy against the paneled wall.

And the sky blue ceiling.

One downside to the inexpensive option is that it does not come with a diffuser. The lightbulb is extremely bright and an eyesore (in multiple ways). I started googling around for solutions and I think we’ll try a silver tipped light bulb first. The bulb hangs low and I’m a little nervous to put any sort of material on the bottom of the shade. Though I found this Apartment Therapy post which says that a CFL lightbulb emits much less heat than a standard bulb, so creating a diffuser shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll probably try picking up a different bulb first.

I am dedicating this weekend to finishing up the paint job in the nursery. I just saw that we installed the paneled wall back in the beginning of February and March has been super busy for us. I am looking forward to having a full weekend to put into the room, especially since I need to take multiple breaks (and naps!) while working on projects these days. I have to accept that what I used to be able to do in 2 hours now takes me 4 and plan ahead for that additional time. Wish me luck

Okay, Mike here totally post-bombing (it’s like photo-bombing, but yeah, you get it) Rebecca.  We spent most of our time Saturday following this guy…

We were out semi-hiking along a stream and every ten feet or so, we’d here ruffling noises in the leaves.  Sure enough, we kept seeing deer!  Or squirrels.  Either way, we kept getting excited. 

After we collected acorns on Saturday, Mike and I swung by a nearby Target to see of the Nolan ottoman that has been sold out of every Target was in stock. Turns out it was! Lucky for us, it was on sale for $139.99, plus I had a $5 off furniture coupon I got at the register during my last visit and I used my Target debit card for an additional 5% off. $169.99 online price? Pssh take that, Target

I wanted this particular ottoman because it was a) a storage ottoman, b) round, c) flipped to a wood top, d) inexpensive. My cats love wrecking ottomans and I knew the faux leather would be less appealing to them. The storage is key for us since we are those people that cannot lay on the couch without being wrapped in a blanket. I hate just laying blankets/throws on the couch because the cats will sleep on them and I will never get my blankey back. Sort of like how I let Darwin sleep on the cuddler portion of the couch once and I have never sat there again. It’s his spot and we dare not sit there….

Anyway, the pictures!

No, I didn’t stage the ottoman, that is my actual drink and laptop. I figured I’d keep the pictures realistic

I love how the round shape compliments all of the straight lines in the room….

…But yet provides some symmetry to the round, dark mirror over the fireplace.

The hard top was a selling point for us, since we always have drinks and need somewhere to put them. It’s hard to tell in pictures, but the wood top is a nice rich brown color.

I also like that the dark color of the ottoman balances all of the beige fabric in the room. I read a lot of designer’s blogs and magazines and I know that top pet peeve of designers is too much beige. And I still did it anyway. We are not easy on our furniture/carpets and we have 3 cats. Medium tones are necessary unless I want to vacuum and lint roll fabric all day long. So instead of having an impractical couch or flooring, we decided to balance everything with dark toned woods, textured pillows and colorful curtains (which we have to rewire some things to hang).

Now we just need some end tables since the couch is so huge that I can’t possibly reach my drink from the chaise or the cuddler. The hunt has been on, but I haven’t seen anything I like. Oh and incase you’re wondering, our previous storage ottoman is now living at the bottom of our bed. Here’s a picture from August, isn’t the family room looking way less cluttered already?

Though I can’t lie, I miss that old couch A couch that comfy comes only once in a lifetime. Just ask Macky, it’s now his personal couch in the formal living room, he sleeps on it every single day

Over the weekend, Mike’s brother and his wife had a yard sale so we dropped the tables off there to get rid of them. But… no one bought them. Whaaamp whaaamp. So we’ll be getting those tables back but they will not enter the house, they’re going straight to Goodwill

The room is less cluttered, though we still have to pick up a round ottoman and move the rectangular one upstairs. However, I have nowhere to put a drink! Our laptops also stay on the floor when we’re not using them, so we need side tables asap!

My only requirements are dark and round. I would like something with a glass table top since we’re not great with chasing after people with coasters, but it’s not mandatory. We’re not even sure if we want one or two of them, since we like the idea of putting a console on side of the couch (though that would force us to relocate Macky’s area for the second time).

I rounded up (literally?) some of my favorite dark wood end tables hanging around the internet. Yay lists!

1. Silhouette Nightstand- West Elm, $149

I spotted this when I stopped in the store a few weeks ago. I love the design of it, though I’m not sure if the smaller shelf is large enough to be practical (like, for my laptop when I’m too lazy to walk it to the office).

2. Chloe Round Wood End Table- Target, $74.99

I like the price and the design, though I’m not sure how practical those legs are for sliding near the couch. Target normally has some good, affordable furniture options so it’s a visit we’ll have to make in person.

3. Halo Ebony Side Table- Crate & Barrel, $299

Mike and I have liked the whole Halo line since we created our wedding registry at Crate & Barrel over two years ago. It meets all of my critera, though it doesn’t have a bottom shelf. However, that price is a deal breaker. Ouch.

4. Driftwood End Table- Crate & Barrel, $399

If I had endless amounts of money and cats that wouldn’t chew or try to commit suicide with this thing, I would totally want it. How cool is it?? I have a thing for driftwood lately, with my turtle and urchin in the family room. But, I’m going to keep it a little more practical around here

5. Lewis End Table- Overstock, $104.99

This table is a less expensive version of the first one I listed, so it pretty much has the same pros and cons as that one.

I would like the check out HomeGoods over the weekend and see if anything unique jumps out at me. While I like these tables, I can’t say I’m in love with any of them. But I’m thristy and need somewhere to keep my drink and my phone. Function trumps form… or at least my picky-ness

At first, our adventures started off as usual. There were the chubby baby couches…

See those rolls? Not so cute on a couch.

And then there were the couches that were characteristic of some different rolls, the Rolls Royce sectionals…

Complete with heated massage seats…

Then while at Mealey’s, one of our last stops, we spotted this…

And angels sang.

Cuddler piece? Check. Clean, modern lines? Check. Build-your-own configuration? Check. Choice of fabric? Check.

The rainbow of colors on the top are just the microsuede options. Underneath that are stacks are larger swatches of non-microsuede fabrics.

The best part of this sectional? It was even cheaper than the one with the piping I wasn’t crazy about at Raymour and Flanigan. Weeeeee!!!

A few of you recommended looking into Rowe sofas, which I actually did before my last post. I had seen them mentioned around and read they were of great quality, but on their website I didn’t see any cuddler pieces for their sectionals. But, I did see that they sold pieces to a lot of major retailers, which is why we decided to head to more large stores. I didn’t even look to see who manufactered this sectional, but the sales person told us it was manufactured by Jonathan Louis… which she said is a division of Rowe and is made with the same quality. I couldn’t find any info on this online, but it was an added bonus to a sectional I already wanted

So, we decided to buy this baby (not the chubby baby). We went with the same fabric as the floor model, which is a slightly velvety, medium toned, twill type of stuff. We didn’t want to go too light or too dark, so we decided to go with a color similar to what we currently have. It’s funny, I’m picky until I see something I want and then I don’t think too much about it. I know what I want and when I find it, I choose a configuration, pick a fabric and sign the order sheet in about 10 minutes. We went with the cuddler on the right (when looking at the couch), an armless sofa, then a chaise on the left. So it will be the same as the picture above, but with this added on the left…

The lighting in the store was awful and when combined iPhone photos, I know the color looks different in the two pictures. They were two different displays in different areas so while the fabric was the same, they even looked different in the store.

I sat on this cuddler and it was a dream, I am so excited to get ours. I’ve already claimed this spot as mine

Mealeys had some great bright turquoise accessories (our current accent color of choice for the family room).

I loved lamp.

And vase.

But my goodness are accessories in furniture stores insanely overpriced. Like the lamps were $125 I think, which was minimal compared to a lamp I looked at while browsing around The Dump that was $250!! I guess they make a pretty decent profit off of them. I say go to HomeGoods on your way home

We also spotted some consoles we liked and we thought one might work well next to the cuddler and up against the half wall. The first one we spotted was insanely overpriced at $1000 but I snapped a picture thinking we could make one.

But then we spotted this one at American Signature that I like more, plus it’s only $199 compared to the hefty price tag of the other one.

I love the side storage on this one and that we could still stick our shoe basket on the side. But we’re going to hold off until the sectional arrives to see what kind of space we’re dealing with. Same goes for this round storage ottoman from Target that I’ve been eyeing as a coffee table…

I think that if they all work out, our family room will be much more functional and way more sleek looking. The sectional should take around 3 weeks to come in and I am so excited to be able to check this purchase off of our list!!

I hate fluid drips. And we’re now doing them twice a day. Grr.

Anyway, I decided to jump into the dining room next since I have a project lined up for that room this weekend.

Here’s what the place looked like when we moved in…

We painted the dining room days after we moved in and bought a Stornas table and buffet from Ikea shortly after. The chairs were a months long saga of searching, ordering, then reordering, but we’re very happy with our Target Avington Stripe Parson’s chairs

We’re not fans of those columns and hopefully they’re out of there someday! The builder gave us the chair rail in the dining room and we added the boxes underneath (or rather we had someone do it since we hadn’t yet mastered the nail gun). The wine racks are from Ikea and we had them in our condo.

Mike added speakers in this room and the living room so we have some music when we have large groups of people eating over. The mirror is also from Ikea and the light fixtures are from Home Depot. We fell in love with the lights before we bought the house, but they’re on their way out. They probably inspired this room the most in the beginning, but as it’s grown and evolved (and we have too) I think we need less square and more round elements in the room. So I’m planning on adding large, white, round lamps (with maybe a blue base?) and 1 (or 2!) large white drum pendants over the table.

We’ll either stick the old fixtures on Ebay or Craigslist, or save them for the basement. Either way, we’re not in a rush to get rid of them right now.

We really love how they make the space seem like a swanky restaurant more than a dining room, but as you can see in that last picture, the proportion of the lamps to mirror is off. They’re too short, mirror is too big, mirror is too square, lamps are also square, molding is white, lamps are off-white. You get the idea.

Here’s the table decked out for Thanksgiving…

And for Christmas…

The only year round decoration (and the only picture hanging in the entire house!) resides in this room. I got it at Kohl’s for dirt cheap when we moved in and I figured I could always change out the print and reuse the square and double matted (!) frame for the $15 or so it was.

Since we have a serious lack of art and the scale of the mirror is irking me, I decided to pick up four 12″x12″ canvases in Michael’s a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t painted anything in years and I thought this room could use some abstract landscape art. I think that two on either side of the mirror will make the buffet wall look much more subtantial.

To make sure I wasn’t crazy, I chopped up some pieces of paper to get the size of the canvases and taped them to the wall.

Once we have taller, more substantial lamps, I think it will layer nicely.

I think one of my favorite aspects of this room is that not a single thing in here was expensive. The table and buffet were being discontinued in the stain we bought, so they were $199 each. They are solid wood and the table has two leaves that extend the table to fit 12+ people. The target chairs were about $65 each and they had free shipping. The curtains are from Target, wine racks from Ikea and that’s about it! Classy doesn’t have to be pricey

ps- What happens when you mix an almost 20lb cat and a curtain rod?

No my camera is not crooked, the rod is. Macky has pulled it partially out of the wall. Someone please tell him that he’s 5 and this type behavior is no longer age appropriate?

Darwin wasn’t quite acting like himself on Monday night, so we were a little concerned. He’s been inhaling his special food like a champ and drinking tons of water. Thankfully, yesterday it was all back to fun and games and I took the opportunity to relax with him.

We watched some HGTV together…

Then I took out some new toys for him from the secret stash…

Which reminds me, part of my about me section mentions making this place comfy for us and the cats. You know, like form and function or something designerly. Well, the cats have a “toy box” where all of their little belongings are kept. It’s actually the smaller of our 2 Target baskets that live in our entertainment center.

(we will hide that tv cord one of these days…and this happens to be an old picture, I have taken the tag off of that Ikea vase)

They love this little supply and can easily access it. It is really adorable to see them dig in there and always grab their personal favorite. It’s equally adorable when we wake up in the morning and toys are suddenly scattered all over the floor. If only I could train them to put them back as well….

The big basket actually has cat toys in it too. I usually keep new toys in there and only give them a few at a time because chances are, they’ll end up under the couch in a few hours. Plus it helps to make Santa’s toy supply last all year. Last night I took some toys out of a brown themed Christmas stocking, which is why Darwin’s supply is so very well coordinated Someday we’ll probably reserve this side for human kids’ toys, since I know trying to conceal that clutter will take years of scheming. And perhaps some engineers, inventors and scientists…

Also falling into the “family room storage basket from Target” category is another little adaptation we’ve made recently regarding the basket we used to store our wood in the winter.

It is now a flip flop basket for the summer, that was moved to the entrance of the room. Mike and I realized we were dumping our shoes by the laundry room door, so to minimize that clutter I moved this currently unused basket over closer to chuck shoes in. It’s weird that I never take my shoes off in the house, but I always have to kick them off before walking on the carpet.

Apparently, Macky thinks this should be a toy box too.

We love having loads of storage in our family room since it’s our most frequently used space. Most of the time all 5 of us are in there. Once we get a new sectional and some end tables that are actually end tables, we may be able to fit even more storage. Can you ever have enough in a room?

That’s our kitten design trick for the day. We’re going to have to come up with a lot more of those since we have to add a litter box to our second floor for Darwin. I’ve been dreading having to do that, but his health comes first. Our first step to keep my sanity is possibly switching litter brands. We currently use Feline Pine and it tracks a lot, which is fine for the laundry room but not for upstairs. Does anyone use any other all natural cat litter? We’re considering Yesterday’s News, does anyone have any experience with it?

We planned from the start to get a square market umbrella in the fresca color. We just decided to wait and get it for free rather than find a cheaper version elsewhere. I love the square shape as an unexpected alternative to the standard round. But, I did begin to think that with square furniture and a square fire pit, our backyard was turning a little too square. I always try to balance my shapes in rooms to make them a little more interesting, but then I remembered that our entire patio itself is curved. Sold on the square!

This next umbrella isn’t the right color, but I love the lanterns hanging from it. It’s a nice alternative to hanging lanterns in trees when they are too tall

Even after shipping, we had some money left in rewards and we decided to purchase the umbrella cover. I know that we could have gotten a cheaper one elsewhere, but we’ve made that choice once already. We bought a cover for our table and chairs from Target and it’s not working out so well for us. It only attaches to the table in 2 places, which are diagonal from each other, and air gets under it and it becomes uncovered. It has a bungee pull thingy to tighten the bottom, but it doesn’t pull. I cannot get that thing tight for the life of me. So in windy weather, the cover just blows to the side but stays attached to the legs. Sort of as if our table had been pantsed.

We were considering getting an additional piece of furniture with our rewards when Pottery Barn had an umbrella sale over Memorial Day weekend. They were 20% off and we figured we’d take advantage of the sale, despite the fact that we didn’t have our reward certificate yet. But we forgot about the sale and didn’t order it. It’s probably for the best, considering we’d have to pay something about of pocket for anything else we would have chosen. We love most of the Chesapeake collection, including this much needed storage.

Instead of spitting out 500 bucks for this thing, we headed to Target last weekend. Yes I know, I love Target. If I could camp out in a store ala that episode of “Saved by the Bell”, I’d sleep in a Target.

Okay I couldn’t resist, here’s a really awful clip from that episode…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anyway, we picked up this plastic deck box from Target for $60.

See it down there? It fits under the stairs quite nicely. Sorry I don’t have more pictures because my camera died It’s plastic and waterproof, so it keeps our wide striped pillows nice and dry when we’re not using them. We have some citronella candles in there too. We also wanted storage to have a place to put our furniture covers when we take them off for the day. So when the pillows and candles come out of the box, the covers go in! It works out nicely. It matches the color of our newly stained steps pretty well and it snapped together in a few minutes, like a giant lego.

Long story short, we got an umbrella and cover from Pottery Barn for free, opted for the cheaper storage option and I love “Saved by the Bell” and will now go watch more videos. I recommend you do the same

So we decided to focus on our entryway project again. Remember that one? The one we were obsessed with until school forced me to stop working on it? Well we last left off with some priming and we actually purchased a mirror for over the desk weeks ago. I’ve been itching to hang it and tonight we finally did!

I wanted something round to offset the straight lines of the picture frame molding we will be adding underneath the chair rail we installed. I found the perfect round, chunky, espresso mirror in Lowe’s but it was too large. I wanted something just like it, but smaller than the 32 inches round it was. Thankfully, the universe aligned for me for once and made my search easy by dropping a 26 inch round mirror in a Target store one Sunday afternoon. It was exactly what we needed.

The rain makes for awful picture taking conditions, so I apologize for the poor quality of these.

We still have to put some white semi-gloss on the bottom half of the wall, add additional molding and replace the lamp shade with a white one. Then I’ll be able to get a better idea of this area and what else I can add to it. I also couldn’t resist the larger Lowe’s mirror, so we picked that up to hang elsewhere

Oh and I think I’m going to start a photo hunt game to find Macky in my pictures. He is such a champion photo bomber. Yep the black blob on the landing you can hardly see in the picture above…

…is our project supervisor, barking (meowing?) orders from the stairs.

At least he’s happy we’ve moved our projects indoors!

ps- I changed the feed to this site to use Feedburner, so please re-subscribe if necessary and I hope this helps those of you who have had problems with our feed! Thanks for letting me know