After we took Max out of the original Nursery, I wanted to make the room a little more "girly" since it was now exclusively Clara's room. We brought the bench up from the entryway which automatically girlified the wall where Max used to sleep. I blew up one of my favorite pictures of the two of them together, spray painted an old frame my mom gave me, and made a felt ball garland. 

The handmade dolls were Christmas presents from Green Stitches, a local shop that has the cutest dolls. I've been wanting to get one for Clara for a while, and was on the fence about getting a boy doll for Max. As I was going through the dolls she had sitting out, I looked down at the tag on this little boy and his name was "MAX"! It was meant to be. Right now Max could care less about the doll, so they are both residing on Clara's bench since she has already fallen in love with them. It's pretty cute. 

You may or may not recognize the polka dot pillow... I used remaining fabric from Clara's dress I made her this summer to make the pillow. 

The felt balls are from the Felt Pod on Etsy. I just strung them together with some string. Easy peasy!

So there ya go. Nothing big, just some quick updates that were pretty much free! Can't complain about that!

The "other" nursery

You may remember the Gender Neutral Twin nursery I made for Max and Clara before they were born. I love, love, love this room - it truly was a labor of love. I worked so hard to make a calming, peaceful room made for two different genders (not an easy task, trust me!). After our babies started getting older, it became obvious that having Max and Clara share a room was not the ideal situation. Max is just not a good sleeper (sigh...) and I didn't feel it was fair to Clara to always get woken up by her brother. It was stressful for everyone! We had Max in a pack n' play in the guest bedroom for a really long time until I finally conceded and just moved his crib permanently. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little mad about this! We lost our guest bedroom and I worked so hard on their nursery... now I had to make a whole new room for that little stinker! Haha. Well, luckily it soon became a fun design endeavor that I actually really enjoyed. 

I present Max's "other" nursery:

My main goal with this room was to try and use what I had around the house and not spend too much money. For instance, the curtain rod was an old black rod that I spray painted gold. That chair is actually a dining chair from World Market we bought on clearance a few years ago. And we've had that bookshelf since we moved into our house (a random lucky find from the online classifieds). I just gave it a new life with some bright paint! This bright green is way out of my decorating comfort zone, but I love the result. It's "Once Upon a Time" by Benjamin Moore, matched at Sherwin Williams. Here's the before:

And the after!

The lamp used to be in our bedroom (from Target a few years ago). The gold "M," whicker baskets, hexagon box and feather print are all from Hobby Lobby. The diamond basket used for diapers is from Home Goods.

I used most of the same art from his collage in the first nursery. The "woodland creatures" print is from the Painted Arrow. The rug, curtains, tan pillow and yellow storage ottoman are all from Target. :)

And how can I not mention the fun triangle wall?!? I love this wall. The lovely people at Walls Need Love hooked me up with these 2" triangle decals after I used their circle decals in the first nursery. I love their products, and their service is amazing! I would recommend Walls Need Love to anyone. Check them out! Getting those triangles perfectly aligned took more time than I expected, but the OCD in me had to have every triangle straight and perfectly spaced. 

The deer head is from Hobby Lobby. I was going to buy it from an online shop, but found a black one at Hobby Lobby for more than half the price. Spray paint is my friend!

 So there you have it! Max's new space. I really have loved this little project and love his cozy little space. I'm pretty sure he loves it too :)

Now can you just sleep better, Max?! Thanks in advance, buddy! 

White and Bright Kitchen!

The final big house update we've recently finished is taking our kitchen cabinets from dark, dark brown to bright white! Oh, how I love it! When we were house shopping I had to accept that a white kitchen simply did not exist in my price range! I didn't necessarily hate the dark, espresso brown cabinets, but white kitchens have, and will forever be, my favorite. 

Well 3 years later it finally came to life! I have my good friend, Kali, to thank. She paints cabinets as a side business and does such a good job at it. She was able to spray our kitchen while we were in San Diego in July and coming home to a white kitchen was the best welcome-home-present ever! I had read and researched painting cabinets for a long time, but was so scared to actually attempt it. I just didn't feel like I could have made them look professional! Kali used a lacquer paint (which gives it the smoothest, professional feel) and a matte finish. I'm so glad we deferred to someone who knew paint a lot more than I did. And quite honestly, our floor project about did us in! We were not in the mood to attempt another huge overhaul project. 

Needless to say, I'm in love! It's so bright and cheery and ties the island we added into the original cabinets so much better than before. It's like a whole new house! I can now honestly tell Russ that we are "DONE" with the kitchen. (Those are words he has been wanting to hear for a long time!)

From the back door

As I mentioned earlier, I think painting the rest of the cabinets white really helps the island look more original to the kitchen!

Oh, and just for effect, here is a before picture. This was after we installed the island, but you can see the white tile that was there before we redid the floors:

Finally, this is the view from coming in from the garage/laundry room

For more info on some of the details in the kitchen:

Floors

Double oven, barstools and Finished Island

Subway tile project

DIY Roman Shade

Yellow Shelf/Kitchen Wall Color

Pendant Light

Orla Kiely Wallpaper

Gallery Wall 3.0

While working on our floors I was getting antsy to change up our gallery wall (seen HERE). I like to change things up or move things around, just to keep it fresh. I took advantage of a huge frame sale from West Elm back in May and stocked up on some gold leaf frames and a few white gallery frames as well. After we had some family pictures taken, it was time to take everything down and re-organize that wall! Creating a gallery walls is like a puzzle. I arrange, rearrange, and do it all over a million times. I ended up with fewer and bigger frames to keep it cleaner.

  Another small change that made a huge difference was getting rid of our coffee table at a recent garage sale. Now that our surface area of carpet was significantly reduced with the wood floor, I didn't want a large table to take up all of that space. I'm loving how open the room has become. And, for the record, that bucket of toys is usually dispersed all over the rug. :)

Now all I need is a new light fixture to get rid of the final boob light left on our main floor! Hooray!

The Floor Project

When we bought our house over 3 years ago, the very first thing I wanted to change about the house was the floors. The people who built the house had tile in the kitchen and really poor quality carpet in the entry way and living room (by the way, who puts carpet in the entry way?!). We very much disliked that carpet as it would roll, we would have it stretched, it would roll again, etc. It was matted down and had stains. Yep, we hated it. We finally got the courage to tackle this huge project around Memorial Day. Some called us crazy for doing this project with twins, and although it would have been easier to have done it before they were born, at least we got it done before they were moving around! 

Honestly, doing floors is totally doable - really, anyone could do it. The worst part, by far, was the demolition of the existing tile. I have never sanded so much in my life. It took about a week from start to finish, and I am just so in love with the final product. We found the laminate wood during some crazy 50% off sale at Lumber Liquidators, and doing the project ourselves saved a ton of money. It has made the house look so much bigger and more open.

Ok, now for some pictures.

Here is a poor quality BEFORE picture from the front door point of view. This was before a few winters had their effect on this carpet. 

A close-up of the floors. We went with a lighter wood after a lot of people told us to avoid super dark floors, especially with little kids. Apparently they are next to impossible to keep clean! Also, since we were used to a "lighter" floor with light tile and carpet, we were hesitant to all the sudden bring in really dark colors. It's definitely a "cooler" tone, but that works with the rest of my house. I'm totally in love.

View of the front door

And because I always love seeing a few "during" pictures, here they are. Like I said, the demo of the tile was the worst part of the project. We used a crazy drill to get the tile up, and then had to sand all of the grout away. Ugh! 

Laying the floors in our front room (sorry for the poor quality phone picture). Once we figured out how the system works, it went pretty fast. We definitely had to do some areas 2-3 times. Live and learn.

Finally, I just have to quickly mention our lovely, plush, oh-so-comfortable rug that I am in love with. We had a thin flat-weave rug there before that I knew would need to be replaced with something more plush for the babies to play on. I had seen a rug from one of my favorite bloggers that she had in her home and loved. Two years later I still couldn't get that rug out of my mind! Thanks to a Memorial Day sale at Rugs USA, that rug is now mine! We love it.

And I couldn't finish a post about our floor project without publicly thanking my dad for his incredible DIY wisdom and free time and Russ's dad for giving up so much of his Memorial Day weekend and helping us out. Oh, and my mom and Mother-in-law for helping watch the babies! Couldn't have done it without them! 

We have a few more house updates that I've been excited to share. So stay tuned!

We're Floored

That title is a bad joke, but whatever. We've been crazy, crazy busy these last few weeks while we redid our floors on the main level of our house. I'm tired. Russ is tired. My knees are still recovering and I'm still finding dust in areas of the house I swear I have dusted 3 times already. I haven't taken any "after pictures," but I just thought I would check in to explain my lame blogging status. 

Tiredness. That is the explanation. 

While documenting Max eating his beloved peas I did capture a bit of the floor. We went lighter after many, many people told us darker wood is harder to keep clean. I also tend to always go lighter than darker with things in my house. So far, I absolutely love it. Do not fret - a more thorough post is on it's way.

And while I'm on here I need to include one of my most favorite pictures to date. This girl has stolen our hearts. I love seeing the cute bond between her and her daddy. This was taken after church on Sunday while Max was asleep. Sometimes I try to keep them on the same nap schedule, but other times I don't mind when they are a bit off. It gives us one-on-one time with each baby, which is definitely a novelty with twins! We'll take it when we can. :)

The Master Bedroom

I have been updating our master bedroom over the last year or so, and I feel like it is finally complete. That word, complete, is one Russ anticipates hearing with every room in our house. I'm sure I'll update it over the years or so, but for now, it is complete. (see what I did there?) :)

It's interesting because it's not like I started thinking "hmmm, I want to decorate the master bedroom." Everything somehow has just come together slowly over the last 4 1/2 year of our marriage. It's slightly miraculous that it works. 

My Christmas present was a new bed. I have talked about the "Colette Bed" from Crate & Barrel for years, so imagine my shock and surprise when Russ actually surprised me with it! We had an Ikea wood frame bed, which we both pretty much hated. I enjoy sitting up and reading in bed, which was super uncomfortable, but now I could hang out here all day. And sometimes the babies and I do! Haha. 

The pillows are from Caitlin Wilson Textiles that I bought second-hand from a friend of a friend. (Unfortunately that color is no longer available). The duvet and sheets are from West Elm. After years of hunting them down, I finally found the sheets at Downeast Home, a local discount home store. 

The starburst mirror is from Target. It replaced a homemade shelf we had made years ago. That link also shows the Ikea bed and our hand-me-down bedside tables before they were painted white. Because people have asked, our walls are painted Cliffside Grey by Benjamin Moore. It's the perfect GREY - not warm, not cool, just grey. I love it. 

Another reason I have always loved our room is the view. We sure love that river and those mountains.

The clear lamps, lamp shades and frame are also from Target. Oh Target, you suck so much of my money.

One update that I actually really love are the DIY curtain rods. I applied some gold rub n' buff to cheap $7 Ikea curtain rods using this method. I wanted them to match the mirror and was pleasantly surprised by how much I love them. The curtains are from - you guessed it - Target, that I picked up on clearance almost 2 years ago.  

And finally, I put the pictures and art that used to be above our bed in a cascading pattern around our sitting chair. It was nice that I didn't have to buy a single piece of art or frame! I did, however, apply some more rub n' buff to that bottom frame to tie it in with the curtain rod. The sitting chair is actually a dining chair we had bought from World Market about a year ago. It ended up being too big for our table and we put in our room to put shoes on, etc. 

So that's our master bedroom. I really have loved all of the updates we've made. It's such a peaceful and calming space to call our own!

A Gender Neutral TWIN Nursery!

 the view from the hallway/door

I'm so excited to show the twins' nursery today! This room has turned into one of my favorites in the whole house. It took a while to come together, but I am in love with the finished product. 

When we found out we were having twins, the room that had been intended for a future nursery was going to be way too small. We had to overtake the guest bedroom, move out Russ's office, and do all sorts of rearranging. I was sad to change the guest bedroom -- I actually really loved it! But it all worked out. The room started like this:

I was way overwhelmed by the idea of decorating for two genders in one room! I wanted to do more than just "gender neutral" -- I wanted to give each twin their own area that was obviously theirs. I think I achieved my goal. It's clean, simple and calming with enough personality throughout.

I started by repainting the room Edgecomb Grey by Benjamin Moore. It's the perfect "greige." I knew I wanted modern cribs, but dang those can be pricey! And when you're buying two of everything... well, you know. Anyway, I found these perfect grey cribs at none other than Walmart (they've actually gone up in price since I bought them).

I knew I wanted the bedding to bring out the different genders. It took a (long) while to pick out all the fabrics and make sure they coordinate with each other yet allow boy vs. girl to shine through. My amazing mother sewed the bumpers and made the quilts. (although I must add that my sister and I helped hand quilt the blankets while we were on our houseboat trip this summer, so there, I did do something :)) I absolutely love them!

The fabric is from www.fabric.com, although I don't think any of those fabrics are on there anymore. I think you can find some of them on etsy or other fabric sites! Here is a list of a few of the fabrics I used:

Blue zig zag: Indie Chic Woven Blue by Riley Blake 

Coral circles: Pearl Bracelets Peach by Lizzy House

Yellow stripe: Glimma stripe in Dandelion Yellow by Lotta Jansdotter

Flowers: Glimma flower pods in gold/grey/white by Lotta Jansdotter

The art above each crib also was a fun way to show different genders. I found the coordinating woodland creatures here. I also bought two coordinating prints from CinnamonInk. I stamped their little footprints and simply glued the piece of paper into an embroidery hoop. The remaining prints were gathered from around the house (i.e.: old Snow & Graham calendars). I made the "I Am a Child of God" piece above Max's crib using the same method I did here.

 Clara's wall

Max's wall

I bought the rug from Rugs USA during some huge Labor Day weekend sale (I think it was like 80% off or something crazy). It is super soft and plush. It's still shedding a little bit, but I can tell each time I vacuum it gets better. I love how it ties the whole room together. 

And the dots! Oh, how I love the dots. I call it the "confetti wall." I bought the 2" vinyl decal dots from Walls Need Love - best idea ever! Covering an entire wall with this method is super affordable and fun. Using the image from the website as inspiration, I just kept the dots a little more condensed in the corner to make it look like the confetti was literally "exploding." I love, love the end result. 

That recliner/glider has been one of the best purchases (we found it at Babinski's Baby, a local store in Utah). I had been looking at some other gliders that were perhaps a bit more "stylish," and then my wise sister encouraged comfort over anything else. I ended up buying the exact chair she has. Best decision ever! I have spent so much time in that chair already, and these guys are only 4 weeks old! 

And how have I gone this whole time without talking about the beloved dresser?!? I had been eyeing this dresser from West Elm for years, and then one day I saw it at DownEast Home (a local discount home decor store). It was my very first nursery purchase, I was just barely pregnant. It was a total splurge, but with it being more than half off of what West Elm had it for, I haven't regretted it one bit. :) And plus, it can be used forever as it doesn't scream "baby!"

(oh, the fun owl lamp is from Target)

The bookshelves are just spice racks from Ikea that I spray painted a sage-y green. They have already been used a ton. I am sure once we continue to accumulate more books we will need to figure out a system with more capacity, but for now the racks are perfect.

So there ya go! That's the nursery! Aaaaaaand... If you are still reading this you deserve a prize. :)