DIY // before and after: ikea hack malm bed

March 14, 2011

so, we finally settled on an ikea malm twin bed for my little ezra for his new big boy bed.
of course, i had to complicate things and want to paint it to match the rest of the furniture in his room that we recently painted gray.

but, i am so glad we did.  it gives it a custom look, but without the huge price tag.
so, as you can see, it was white before, shown above.

and, here is the after:

i still haven’t had a chance to decorate his room at all, but i am feeling good that the main pieces are in there.
i’ll share soon on the progress.  i have some prints ordered, and a quilt ready to make and the rest of the trimmings.  so, stay tuned.

and, hopefully throughout the next little bit, i’ll share a few house projects we’ve been working on around here.
let’s just say my husband is sick of painting stuff.
oh the joys of nesting.

**update:  the gray paint color i used is called- mark twain house ombra gray by valspar from lowes.
also, for more full instructions on my painting process click here.

seeing stripes …

March 11, 2011

while browsing ikea last week, i noticed they were putting out their summer outdoor items.
it made me excited for warmer days, and hanging out in the great outdoors.

they had some cute new things like:

a striped hammock
these great steel chairs that remind me of the ones in france where you can chill by the fountains at luxembourg or the louvre
and, of course the striped umbrellas.
are you excited for summer yet?
i know i am.

DIY: embellished shirt …

can i just tell you how much my little norah makes me laugh.

she is equally cute as she is a little stinker at times.  she really is in one of those stages… where she likes to be naughty and really doesn’t care if you say no.   should be very interesting when baby brother arrives in 2 1/2 weeks.

i made this little character a fun embellished shirt for valentine’s day last month, and she was sure proud to show it off.

i just used a plan white shirt, and made the flowers from different colors of jersey material.  i cheated, and ran the fabric through my die cut machine from lifestyle crafts, using the new little blossoms cookie cutter die.  it didn’t cut completely through the fabric, but it gave me a nice pattern to cut out the rest and fold them in half and layer them until i got the right size flower.  then, i just simply sewed all the little flowers in place after some layering, and sewed them to the shirt.

the flowers did shrink up a little in the wash, but you could iron them out again.  i thought this was a fun way to liven up a $2 white shirt from wal-mart.

{photos by me}