Swapping Dean's Room and the Office

For awhile now, the office has slowly become the dumping ground for toys and items Dean is now too big for.  He basically has outgrown his bedroom too so we decided to move him into the office and move the office to his baby room.

Before any new furniture made its way into the house, everthing was cleared out of the old office and I painted the room.  This was the third time I've painted this room so I decided to go with plain ol' white.  I really like it and I knew I wouldn't have to change it again as our son's tastes grow.

I had intended to paint the new office all white as well, but after all the work in the bedroom I got over that idea.  Navy/white combo it is!  No more painting required.

I really dislike my desk chair.  I need to look around for maybe a gray tufted chair or something like that.

Dean had already upgraded into a twin bed several months back, but with the room swap I really wanted him to have a loft bed.  I had one as a kid and remember LOVING playing underneith it like a club house all the time.  Plus it allows for even more storage and play space.  So the twin bed he was previously using got to stay in the office.  Now we again have somewhere for a guest or two to sleep.

In Dean's new room I also purchased one more storage piece.  I really prefer the Target cubes with boxes but the Ikea storage system allowed for a few huge containers for those awkwardly large toys.

Dean loves his new room and shows it off to everyone that comes over.

I love having a neat office again.

Lastly, while at Ikea I picked up this really cute shoe cabinet and mirror.  Our entryway was never very cute so I was happy to make it a lot more presentable and a nice vibe when you walk in the front door.

Making the Perfect Nursery Glider Chair

During my pregnancy I wanted to find a glider chair to have in my son's room. Maybe it was the hormones, but I could NOT find the "perfect" one!

I knew it was something I wouldn't want in his room forever so Craigslist was definitely the place to shop.  I found one in great condition that looked super comfy, but I hated the look.  I am NOT a fan of brown.

I bought the chair from a nice couple who had used it for under a year when their son was also a baby.

Now to the good stuff, the DIY nesting part of my brain took over and I painted and reupholstered the chair.

First, I took the arms and the cushions off the chair to get it ready for painting.  I sanded the chair by hand to get the glossy finish off.  I wasn't sure if this step was even necessary.  It might have even roughed up the chair unnecessarily, but meh, whatever.  I'm no expert!

I used about two cans of rust-oleum primer spray paint.  Next I think I went through about 3 - 5 cans of white spray paint to completely cover the chair with a solid finish.  I left it outside for about 2 days to dry and air out while I made the seat covers.

Next, I went to Joann Fabric and pick a cute frog baby blanket fabric.  It's sort of a flannel.  In retrospect I should have picked a fabric less stretchy, maybe some ::cough, cough::, upholstery fabric, but hey, I was going for "cute" here.  In the long run it held up fine.  I'd just recommend a firmer fabric for anyone else who attempts this.

So anyway, I took each cushion off and simply laid each piece on top of my fabric pieces and drew out the shapes.  I basically made a pillow case for each part.  I didn't want to remove any original fabric incase my reupholstering job totally sucked.  I'd at least have the original as a back up.

I stuffed the seat into my pillowcase and hand sewed the back edge shut.  I used green ribbon and also sewed that into the back edge so the seat can reattached to the chair.

I had to get a little creative around the front corners of the seat and along the top of the head rest.  If parts looked too loose, I'd just flip the fabric inside out again and sew the pillow case shape a little smaller. I did put two pleats on the edges of the front of the seat to keep it neat.  I honestly just "winged" the whole thing.  My grandma would be proud if she had seen my sewing skillz.  ;)  I know that's horrible advice if you're trying to use this as a tutorial though.  Sorry!

As for the arm rests, they only attached to the chair with snaps.  I made similar pillow cases for these sections and just cut rough holes where the snaps clipped.  They were hidden so the rough holes didn't matter.

The top portion also used snaps.  I made small pillowcase coverings for the snap straps there as well and also just cut rough holes for the snaps.  I hand sewed the edge of the covering onto the main piece so it wouldn't pull forward.

Lastly, I used a staple gun and just stapled fabric over the detached cushion section of the ottoman. That part was the easiest.

Overall, the reupholstering has held up well!  We used it more than a whole year, daily, in his room. Like I said, I'd choose a more rigid fabric if I were to do it over, but if you have any sewing ability I'd say go for it and make that chair a one of a kind!

A kid room is the best place to get away with making some goofy fun DIY furniture.

Making Room for Dean

The last bedroom to get a make-over was that of our son, Dean, when he was on his way.  :)

The room up until this point had always been our "extra crap storage room."  It first had this disgusting ancient blue carpet that we tore out pretty much the minute we purchased the house.  But what was underneath was this ugly yellow tile.  A lot of it was breaking apart so we pulled it all up when we finally got around to getting this room ready.

Here you can see the original carpet and the mess we made onto it (on purpose) scraping ceilings before we first moved in.

After Brian touched up any spots on the ceiling walls with mud, we sprayed texture onto them with a hopper. Brian also installed a new closet door and entry door.  He replaced the lame light fixture with a ceiling fan.

For the paint scheme I painted the majority of the room white and two walls a very dark navy blue.

We called Empire to install some carpet.  I don't know what I was thinking putting carpet in a kids bedroom.  Now that he's a toddler it's pretty trashed.  :(   But I just have always preferred carpet in bedrooms.

Going through the nesting phase of pregnancy I created more projects than there were walls to hang them on for the room.

In my childhood room I had two frames each holding baby pictures of my parents.  I decided to do the same for Dean.  I hung those on either side of the window.

I had a photo of some street art I love blown up and hung that over the crib.

Pinterest even hooked me into doing a melted crayon "painting" which turned out pretty nice.

Brian and I both had bunnies when we were babies that we still had possession of so I framed those in a shadow box.

I copied an idea I found on Stumbleupon.com of painting roads as Dean's name.  I used Brian's childhood micro machines and hot glued them onto the painting.

Lastly, I even went all out and painted and reupholstered a glider chair and ottoman that I bought for $50 off craigslist.  You can see that blog here.