Confession: I love chevron. Many people think is a trend or played out, but I have yet to put it anywhere in our house and I’ve been itching to. What better choice than the nursery?

I started this weekend, with one of these green and white chevron storage bins from Target…

(via I Heart Organizing, because it’s not available on the Target website and it’s dark out and we have no light in the baby’s room :))

We have some small stuff we’ve received for the baby and I wanted a place to keep it all. I picked up one of the green bins pictured above for now, plus 2 blue ones for our laundry room (which I have yet to load with stuff). I also have 2 of the clear plastic containers from this line holding some non-maternity tank tops and what not I’ve grown out of in our closet. I like the clear ones in the closet because I will eventually need them again and I can easily see what each one is holding. Anyway, back to the chevron talk!

I’m not sure if the green bin will go with what we’ll end up doing in the nursery, but I figure it’s versatile enough to throw in the playroom or another room if it doesn’t work out. For now, it’s perfect to help me feel organized, but I do know I plan on using some sort of chevron in the room… most likely in the form of curtains.

I have long had a love of chevron curtains. I feel like they’re perfect for a baby’s room, as they’re classy and stylish with a hint of fun.

(from Flickr via Pinterest)

(from Castle Creek Designs on Etsy via Pinterest)

(from Remodelholic via Pinterest)

I’m planning on buying some fabric and making my own, either by breaking out the sewing machine or using no sew tape and curtain rings. I want a smaller scale chevron, so painting would be tedious. Plus there are so many great chevron fabrics out there that I can’t really go wrong! Premier prints are some of my favorite patterns…

(via Fabric.com)

(via Fabric.com)

(via Fashion Fabrics Club)

(via Fabric.com)

We decided to forgo making our own cribskirt and instead went with a bedding set, so I feel like I need to add in a good mix of other fabrics to make the room look less matchy matchy. Plus the baby isn’t going to be using the bumper or the comforter, so in reality, if the cribskirt isn’t working for us, it will be easy enough to change out. Therefore, I don’t want to marry the rest of the room to the bedding, since it will be grown out of so quickly and can be so easily changed. As Mike told me, we shouldn’t make the room too “baby” since we want a room the baby will grow into… and they’re only babies for so long ::sniffle::. I figure some bold, yet simple chevron is a good way to make the room last longer!

ps- Mike spent last weekend and half of this week in San Francisco, so we didn’t have any nursery progress to share this week 🙁 But we’re anxious to get back to work this weekend! Aaand I may have already ordered some fabric samples…

Up until this point, I think we’ve had a pretty good vision for what we want for the nursery. One element I haven’t put much thought into is what the heck to put over the crib. Though mirrors and pictures always look nice and classy, I still like the idea of having a fun mobile for the baby to look at. I’ve been assembling some happy medium choices on Pinterest since, well apparently, before I was pregnant.

First there are the tissue pom installations, which I always find appealing…

(from Melanie Bauer via Pinterest)

(from Sweet Tea Paper on Etsy via Pinterest)

I’ve always liked big poofy things on the ceiling and they remind me of the paper lanterns we had at our wedding. I’ve even seen paper lanterns used in nurseries, which is a great option because those lanterns are cheap 🙂

(from Cheap Chic Nursery via Pinterest)

Though I like the idea of something large that catches the eye, I think I’m leaning towards something smaller and more subtle. I love the idea of sticking with a pom, but on a smaller scale like these…

(from Petite Lemon via Pinterest)

(from First Time Fancy via Pinterest)

Then I found some mobiles made out of various shapes and they got the wheels in my head spinning. I definitely want to DIY something and here are some of the non-pom ones I’m currently loving…

I love the idea of pretty circles…simple, not complicated, but with major impact.

(from Lil’ Sprout Creations on Etsy via Pinterest)

(from The Whimsy Boutique on Etsy via Pinterest)

(from Jenna Bee on Etsy via Pinterest)

I also like the idea of more unique shapes, like this butterfly mobile…

(from Little Nest Box on Etsy via Pinterest)

Or this one made out of letters…

(from Project Nursery via Pinterest)

Here’s one made with stars…

(from Little Dreamers Inc on Etsy via Pinterest)

I also love these little crocheted hearts…

(from Fave Crafts via Pinterest)

I do know how to knit and I started to learn how to crochet right before I started this blog. But then, my ‘hobby’ time went here. I wonder if I could knit a shape instead, considering that is more natural to me than crocheting? Hmmm…

Regardless of whether I use fabric, paper or yarn, I definitely want to make something that is appealing to a baby, but keeps some style to it. I’ll have to think of something creative to go with the rest of our nursery… whenever we start it 🙂

I know it’s Wednesday, which is normally What I Ate Wednesday, but Mike and I are being super lazy this week. I’m on spring break from school (yay!) so we’re trying to enjoy my stress free days with lots of catching up on shows and ice cream on the couch. We made shepard’s pie again this week since we loved it so much last week. We’ve been eating the leftovers of that, plus some pizza and bagels we got from a visit to my parents’ this weekend. So we’ve been rather uneventful food-wise… as well as house-wise. We’ll be back to our normal antics this weekend 🙂

One thing I’m hoping to decide on this week is the fabric choices for the office. Here is where we are as of tonight…

These are all from the Ty Pennington collection at fabric.com. Who knew Ty made fabrics? Weird. I was drawn to them because of the mix of greens, grays and white that would perfectly compliment our gray stripes and green carpet. Plus I could have sworn they were around $8/yard compared to the Dwell Studio or Waverly fabrics which were around $16/yard. But of course, after I order samples the prices go up! Or maybe I’m imagining things…

My number one choice from these options is the one I thought I would love and the reason why I chose these fabrics- the white “kaleidoscope” one as Mike calls it…

It’s the blossom pattern in chartreuse.  I love this for a few reasons… 1) it has both shades of gray from our stripes 2) it has a white background to lighten up the room 3) it has a circular pattern to compliment the linear-ness of the stripes. Online Mike thought it was too girly, but after seeing the sample he agrees with me. This pattern will make our curtain panels, plus it will cover half of our Ikea storage boxes.

I want another pattern to add to the mix so it’s a little more interesting in this space. The second fabric will just cover some of the storage boxes so it’s more of an accent, I suppose. I thought this one was a shoe-in, but after seeing it, I don’t think it’s graphic enough or bold enough in the color department to compete with the stripes and blossom…

Then I thought maybe this bright green one would be good since it has such a visually appealing pattern, but I think it’s too much green…

So I was left with this guy, the birdy one…

Online I wasn’t crazy about this, but once I put it next to the blossom pattern? Something happened. And I liked it.

I like that it has a dark gray background, as well as some light gray birds to blend everything together nicely. Besides owls, I’m not a big bird person. The fabric isn’t appealing to me on it’s own, but within this context? I like it.

However, Mike does not. He’s not feeling the birds… or the butterflies. I’ve tried, it ain’t happening. Whaaamp whaamp.

I pick and choose my battles and this just wasn’t worth any sort of battle for 2 little boxes. We try very hard around here to make rooms we both love and enjoy, so if Mike really despises the birds, I’m not going to use them. I’m thinking of ordering one more sample in this pattern…

I know there is no green in this one, but I think that it’s the dark gray of the birdy one that makes me like it. We’re planning a couple of other green things around the room so I’m not sure I necessarily need any more green.

Halfway back to the drawing board I go! Goal: to get the perfectly gender neutral office!

I mentioned last week that Mike and I were headed to Ikea over the weekend for some extra storage. I also had another mission in mind- an area rug. You were all very helpful in my past office area rug plea, but after painting the stripes, I decided I no longer wanted a patterned rug. This was one of the reasons why I started this blog, to chronicle the adventures of me changing my mind and rooms evolving 🙂 I just thought it would be a little much to have a large graphic rug with such dramatic walls. I remembered that when I went to Ikea looking for a patterned rug, there was a perfect color green solid rug. So my main reason for going to Ikea Friday night? To pick up that rug.

When we finally made it down to the rug section (who am I kidding, Mike and I go to Ikea so often that we fly through the upstairs in about 15 minutes!), I spotted the rug and ran over. It was marked as “last chance” and the only size left was the larger one, which was nearly 7’x10′. Right before we left, I measured out a 5’x7′ area and figured that would be a good size. I was fairly certain this large one would be too big, but it was a low-pile and the perfect color. Oh and it was $199. Seriously Ikea, every other rug you have is like $19.99, yet I manage to find a $200 rug?! The price scared me and the size scared me, but what scared me even more? The fact that it was “last chance”. Our dining room furniture was last chance and I wanted it for months. When we finally went to pick it up, we ended up on a wild goose chase to Brooklyn to find our table. “Last chance” brings back awful memories for us, so we decided to pick it up and if it was too big or we had buyer’s remorse, we could always return it.

So now we’re carting around a nearly 10ft rug when we once again walk by the Mongstad mirror I’ve wanted for years.

I have just been waiting for this thing to magically disappear, since every time we go and decide not to buy it, I feel like I’m playing with fire. We have an SUV now and we figured our desktops are 80 inches long and they fit, so maybe this would too? We measured the Mongstad and it was only 75 inches long with packaging!!! Score! Let’s bring that home too! Here we are with our carts of oversized purchases, that’s Mike in front of me…

We also got some doors for our Expedit bookcase, 2 white planters for the porch in the spring and some more storage boxes. We waited on line for.ev.er. Really we walked through the store and picked up all of this loot faster than this line moved.  We paid for our stuff and headed out to the car…

We put down the seats and start to slide the mirror in… it doesn’t fit. Wait wait! We can move our seats up a little! So we do. And it’s still sticking out of the back of the car. It’s about 25 degrees and windy, so I really don’t want to drive with my rear door open. Plus we couldn’t figure out where the heck to tie it down. We realized at this point that we are morons. The desks are much more narrow than this mirror and we were able to put them diagonally and push them up on our center console a bit. No such luck with this giant mirror. So we figure we’ll move our seats aaaall the way up just to get the mirror in and once we get the rear door closed, we can push them back a bit.

So Mike pushes the driver’s side seat up and I push the mirror in and close the rear door. I get to the front of the car and I see Mike, completely smooshed against the steering wheel, as if he is driving a clown car. I couldn’t hold it in, I doubled over with laughter. I asked him if he wanted me to drive and he said no, he just wanted to get out of the parking lot before someone saw him. I also tried to take his picture to insert here and he told me that he was suffering enough and did not need the moment documented on my blog for all eternity. I respected his wishes and will attempt to show you the ridiculousness of this situation with a picture of my own knees…

My knees are normally no where near the front of the car. I actually had to reach back to reach the cup holder. We laughed the entire way home and hoped that no one would stop next to us at red lights because we looked that ridiculous. I believe my seat was actually angled forward because by the time we got home, my back was killing me.

But I got my giant mirror finally!!!! 😀

On Saturday Mike cut holes in the office wall to hide the TV wires, but the power cord we had was too short so he had to order a longer one. I’ll take pictures of the much cleaner looking TV when the last wire is hidden! But we did install these guys…

We planned to go with white doors but when I saw these glossy dark gray ones, I couldn’t resist! Mike also drilled some holes in the backs of these to hide the Mac Mini and the battery chargers to our Shark Stick Vacs (every pet owner needs one!)….

So far I’ve only stuck a few things on this bookcase since I knew Mike would have to move it again this week once the new wire arrived.

Saturday night we rolled out our giant rug. Upon first roll, it was ginormous and I was nervous. We had to wiggle it under Mike’s desk since his computer was already hooked up, so we didn’t get that immediate feeling of the size. But once we rolled it out? It’s perfect! Macky obviously agrees!

He seriously did this about 2 seconds after we let him back in the room after rolling out the rug. He should be an Ikea spokesman…and yes he’s playing with a roll of frog tape, sign him up to sell that too! 🙂

Here’s a room shot from Sunday morning.

At least now the price doesn’t seem so outrageous for such a large rug! Really, I think any smaller would have looked funny and once we get chairs in there they will roll right to the back edge of the rug on either end. Speaking of chairs, we did stick to one plan…

We picked up 2 of these chairs I first spotted in Staples back in November. They were actually even cheaper than the “sale” price back then and we got them for $99!! The boxes were stacked on the floor in a display, so we were able to judge the size and thought they’d fit in the car. We almost had a repeat of Friday night, but thankfully we got them in…

We still have to put them together, but we’re almost there!

For those of you wondering what these fabric samples I posted yesterday were for?

Curtain panels and possibly covering some of the storage bins we have. I want something with some white, gray and green in it to bring everything together so I’m working on a solution 🙂

One last time for that Macky video!!

Isn’t he adorable?? 🙂

Mike and I were busy bees this weekend, working away at finishing our office.  I have lots of good stories to tell of trips to Ikea and long overdue purchases, but it’s been a very long day!

My rough day was made much better when I came home to see that some fabric samples I ordered from Fabric.com had arrived. How did I not venture into online fabric shopping before?? I am in love with all of the possibilities! Here’s a little sneak peak at the first round I am considering…

I think I have a front runner and seeing this picture has given me even more ideas. I love seeing different patterns together like this, especially when designers make it easy for you by matching the same colors in a bunch of different styles! I am just learning to venture out with patterns and textures, so the online option takes some of the intimidation out of the way. It’s like a whole new wooooorld! Cue the Aladdin! Wait.. more about that tomorrow…

Did I just pull a teaser? Maybe 🙂