Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a good one as well as a productive one.

Our bedroom is still a work in progress and of course I am always trying to decorate and redecorate. But, finally I have finished a project I have been trying to finish for a while. Not only is the project finished but it is also solved a problem. Yay!

Here is the deal. We (my husband and I) have a platform bed and it has drawers underneath for storage. Since we live in a loft it is a great bed to have. We can always use storage. The problem is that we can’t have traditional bedside tables. I knew that it had to be something that screwed into the wall but be sturdy enough to hold a few things like a book, glass of water, eye glasses, etc.

I wanted to also do something with some character so I went to my usual place where I find cool antiques and picked up two wooden boxes/crates with a metal trim.

I was gonna leaveve them as is but it wouldn’t match the rest of the decor in our bedroom so I painted them white but being careful to leave the metal.

I am really happy how them turned out and was super excited to mount them on the wall.

Above are the pictures of the crates mounted on either side of the bed. I am super psyched how they turned out and now have a place to put a glass of water. This is just the begininning of the bedroom renovation but it is a good start. Let me know what you think. What would you do it you had a platform bed with drawers? Do you think what I did was a good solution?

Thanks for stopping by!

Annick needed (well really I needed) some organization and a way to have access to her art supplies so she was able to draw and be creative without my help. Of course she can’t quite read yet but I figured labeling now would be a good way to start “training” her to put her things back where they belonged. I saw on Pinterest (so addicted!) a similar idea as the one above so I decided to give it a try. The final product is above. I had some nice plywood laying around that was already sealed and then I just got the metal tins at IKEA and screwed them in and then of course my husband mounted the whole thing on the wall.

As you can see she loves it and uses it pretty often. You’ll also see her sitting at an old school desk from my mom’s elementary school and the wonderful yellow chair was also my mother’s that was given to me at my baby shower for Annick. I love the color and the whole set up. The only other thing I would like to add is a system to hold scrap paper, new paper and artwork. I will let you know when I finish that project.

I know I mentioned this in the first post about Annick’s room but wanted to bring it up again because I love this part of her room. The wood beam shown above happen to go right through the chalkboard wall and I was happy to find that it did. I took IKEA tins and screwed them in and wrote on the tin with some paint pens and voila!…..a place for chalk and erasers that all kids can get to on their own.

Here is the view of the whole “art space” I set up for Annick. The metal shelves you see were left there by the previous tenants (thank you keith and tracy!) so I left them there so I had a place to keep her art supplies and other art book/goodies so Annick couldn’t go through it and end up with a huge mess. I got the fabric bin at Target and they can be found all throughout Annick’s room because they are sturdy and I think pretty fashionable. Great bins for storage…..you can find them here online or in the store. They are made by itso. You can also see in this picture her easel that I got off of craigslist by someone but I know came from……surprise, IKEA. It is easy to move around and is nice a simple…dry erase on one side and paper on the other. There is a chalkboard under the paper but obviously we did not need that part.

If you read a bunch of post back you would have seen more of the room (click here to see more) and probably noticed that there is a lot of wood beams, brick and metal pieces in the room that we did not install. This large metal door is one of those wonderful things. I decided to leave space in front of the door so the kids could use fun letters or Annick’s prized dinosaur magnets to play with. The door is sealed with a clear spray so it would stop rusting and it ended up bringing out wonderful coloring in the door. I also can hang fun prints and artwork. So far it was a good decision to leave it there.

Besides arts and crafts, Annick loves to read. Ever since she could use her little hands to open a book, she would sit in her chair and read for a very long time (very nice for me). So I needed a place for her books that she cold easily get to on her own. Her little pink chair is right next to her bookcase and available whenever. The bookcase was actually mine when I was little and it was not the best color. It was this dark grayish-blue so I decided to paint it yellow to match her dresser. I found the knobs at Anthropologie on sale of course! If you ever need to accent or dress up an old piece of furniture go to Anthropologie and look in their sale section, I guarantee you will find something beautiful and unique. The knobs ended up being $2.95 a piece so I was pretty happy with it and there was enough that I got some for the dresser too.

I hope you enjoyed the little tour of her art area and I hope it gave you all some inspiration too. I am really happy how things turned out and always love hearing feedback and seeing others do creative and inspiring things to their space, so comment away. If you want to see more pictures of Annick’s room and the quilt that I finished for her bed click here and here.

Be creative.

Yes I am back.  I am sorry for my absense.  A lot has happened since my last post.  I have been creating art and getting knocked up as well.  I am due in February and it has changed my artist life a bit. 

I also moved to a great new space but it does not have studio space so right now most of my stuff is in storage until I find a new studio.  This has been more difficult than I thought so if you know of any cheap spaces let me know.  Since I don’t have a space in my apartment I have been thinking of new ways to be creative and get my fix.  I will be posting pictures later in the week or later today but to give you an idea I have been putting my energy into smaller pieces and “craftier” projects.  Not a fan of that word but it is necessary in this situation.  Finding safe materials to work with have also been a bit of a challenge.  Being pregnant has forced me to rethink what materials I can and cannot use. 

For instance I wanted to paint a mural on my bedroom wall so I had to use acrylic paint or paint that had no VOC.  I went with the acrylic which isn’t ideal for the wall but we shouldn’t be in that space too long.  I made stencils of aspens trees and used light grey, middle grey and black.  I layerd the trees on a white wall to make it look like a forrest. I really like the final product and it is very graphic and relaxing.  Pictures will soon follow. 

Another project I just finished was making thank you cards from Bearclaw (the name I use to refer to my unborn child).  He/she needed to be represented so I designed a stamp especially for the Bearclaw and designed some cards.  I think they turned out great.  Again, pictures to follow.

Lastly I just started making wrapping paper because printing is fun and another way I can get creative.  I needed some wrapping paper for my niece’s present and I didn’t like the wrapping paper in the stores so I decided to do my own. I carved out a stamp of a birthday cake and printed different colors all over white paper.  Turned out pretty nice and while I was at it I made some birthday cards just to have around the house.

I know, this is a long and random post but I thought I would explain what I have been doing so I can post some pictures later.  If anyone knows of any studio space for an artist let me know and stay tuned for pictures of projects I have been working on.

Till next time….

marie