I need a little help picking out material for curtains. Sadly this is the story of my life, which is why all the curtains in my house are white. I can not commit to a fabric. Ridiculous. The kids’ room is too white for white curtains. And they go to bed before it’s dark out these days, so they need a little light blockage action if they are ever going to get to sleep. Here are the windows (sorry one is a before picture, the other is a during): window one, window two. The fabrics I’m thinking about are pictured above, they are:

1. nani iro painting muji canvas
2. joel dewberry herringbone
3. nani iro saaaa saaa (it looks like I randomly typed some letters, but that’s really what it’s called)
4. alexander henry pirate grid

I want something dark blue and something hand drawn-ish.  So vote away! Tell me what to do. My kids will never sleep if you don’t tell me which to get. Really. And if you have any other suggestions, I love to hear them.

This is all a part of me redoing my kids room and you helping. The posts about the process so far are Before and During.

So this is where we’re at with the room so far (here are all the before pictures). I told you my brother built a bunk bed, but I didn’t tell you it was a cloud bed! He built the loft bit and then we cut out clouds from some scrap wood. I made patterns out of paper first to make sure it was randomy and to see if the clouds would be high enough to function as a guard rail. When I was about half way through cutting them out, I freaked out and thought it might look too dorky theme-y, but I think it turned out okay. What do you think? Now the big question is whether or not to paint them. I think maybe I’ll paint some white, but not all. And maybe one striped like this awesomeness.

I think we’ve chosen a color for the wall–those are all paint chips taped the wall. It’s called cotton balls, really it’s just white. Not that exciting, I know. But I am excited about that big board up there. It’s a quilting board (or something like that, I don’t know, it’s got a graph on the back) that my neighbor gave me a looong time ago. It folds out one more on each side, so it’s pretty big–maybe too big? Anyway, I’m going to paint a map of our neighborhood on it. I grew up “out the back road” so there wasn’t a lot I needed to know to get around. But we live on an actual block! So I thought the kids might like to see the way we go to the library and the store and their friends’ houses on a big map. I’m thinking I need some sort of projector for this project. And I haven’t decided what to do about the places: pushpins? polaroids? have my kids draw pictures? shrinky dinks? Any ideas you have would be fantastic. The baby’s crib will be under it eventually, so pushpins might be out.

This is the closet, or was the closet. Now it is my daughter’s desk (my son got the bunk bed, she got a desk, even steven). I’ve got a few ideas for this, one of them being paint the entire sucker white.  I’m sure there will be more ideas in the future, because I’m taking a class for this very purpose. It’s called Playful Learning Spaces.  It’s an e-course designed to guide you through creating thoughtful spaces for your children to play in and learn. It sounds like the perfect class and comes just at the perfect time for me.

And now for the surprise: the creator of this wonderful class, Mariah Bruehl, has kindly offered to give away a spot in her class to one of my readers! But you have to be snappy, because class starts tomorrow! You have until 5pm central time to drop your name in the hat (that is, leave a comment–sharing some input on the room if you’d like). Good luck and I’ll see one of you in class!

THE GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED!

Celeste from on-hand modern is the winner! Congratulations Celeste!

There is no after photo. Yet. So we’ll start with the before.

We are in the midst of remaking our kids’ room. This little 10 by 10 room has worked hard for us; first holding one little baby, then two, and soon the littlest baby (who’s not so little any more) will move in there too. Seeing as we have three kids, the whole redoing of the room is taking time–time being in short supply.

I’m lucky to have a carpenter in the family and not just a carpenter, but one that will drive down and build a bed just because I asked nicely (thanks brother!). So there is a new bunk bed and it’s pretty fantastic –I can’t wait to show you. And I’ve slapped some primer up on the wall, because the blue’s got to go, but I don’t have a particularly grand vision for how the whole room will come together.  There are still many bits that need figuring out before the big revel can happen, not to mention getting the bits done.

I was thinking I’d ask you guys for some help along the way. Maybe do some during posts instead of one big Here’s the crummy before picture, and holy crap check out the AFTER! post. I think I’m going to paint the room white, because the room is so damn small, but a good white, a warm white. Got any suggestions.  I think I might paint the dresser gray, maybe change the handles? Are you up for playing along (while I do the work, ha!)?

There is still snow on the ground (and in the forecast) but it is officially spring and trash picking season has begun! woohoo! thrifty may be good, but free is better. I picked up this beauty from the curb in a frozen rain the other night. And I might have spent all my good trash karma on it (trash picking is my thoroughly unglamorous hobby). I mean seriously, who throws good danish chairs away?

I’m thinking about recovering it with oil cloth, because my children always seem to be covered in peanut butter. All the cool kids are coming out with oil cloth lines these days too. Naomi Ito has a beautiful one, of course, but it might be too matchy matchy with my pillows (which I was going to link to, but I guess I never posted about them-oh well). I know Anna Maria Horner had some little folks oil cloth a while back. Any other good laminated fabric you know of? Not too girly, not too theme-y. Something just right.

I’ve been meaning to post this week, but there is a little baby who has decided otherwise. No more naps in the morning for him. Damn. I knew this day was coming, but still, damn. Well now the picture of the box up there looks a little foreboding–like I’m going to ship the baby off somewhere because he won’t nap.  Don’t worry he’s right here. I’ve built a few castles and had multiple picnics on the rugs with the stinker as I try to write these few sentences.

The case is some treasure trash picked by my fantabulous friend who gave it to me (thank you, lil!).  I can’t imagine why she didn’t want it, but I didn’t ask. It is a little gnarly on the inside and not in a good way, but it is so rock and roll I can’t even handle it. It will have a decidedly un-rock and roll new life though–as the dress up box. I’m going to line it with some fabric and put it under my daughter’s bed.  We rearranged the kids room a while back and the big dress up suitcase just didn’t fit any more and we’ve been without ridiculous outfits for too long. Maybe I’ll even put the mirrors back up.