Cora's Nursery Inspiration

We are this close to being finished with Cora's nursery, but I thought I would share some of the ideas that inspired me along the way! 

The feel of the room: I wanted a bright, airy nursery with lots of white and pops of bright colors. 

I found all of these nurseries to be so pretty and cheerful.

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6

Pops of color in storage & decor: I had my heart set on those sheets, and I knew I wanted baskets in the room for storage. I was also thinking about having a dreamcatcher instead of a mobile.

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9

Art for the gallery wall: This tends to be the hardest thing for me... I am so picky! I loved the look of the type on these prints, and I also liked the idea of bringing in some fruit prints to the gallery wall.

1 // 2 // 3 // 4

So there you have it - the overall look and feel I was going for, along with some of the specific pieces I had my eye on! Once Cora's room is all the way finished, I will be sharing photos here!

Apartment Therapy Complete + Happy Home

I mentioned last week that there are several house projects we'd like to tackle this year. As we work on rearranging furniture and decorating new rooms, I often look to Pinterest, magazines, and home decorating books for inspiration. I recently picked up Apartment Therapy's Complete + Happy Home book to see what it had to offer. 

The first section of this book was full of tips and home decorating "rules" which I found really helpful (the 80/20 rule: neutrals in 80% of the room and highly saturated shades in the other 20%), and it also had a short section focused on setting up each area/room of your home. There was also a small section in the back of the book on tips to maintain your home. A really helpful calendar was included, detailing what you should clean, prep, and decorate in the house each month.

The majority of the book showcased photos and descriptions of others' living spaces, which were all beautiful but most were not really my style. Though a fun book to browse through, I didn't really find any inspiration for the way that I want to decorate my own home. 

I'd say this is definitely worth looking through. There are some great tips included and so many beautiful homes!

I'm looking forward to reading The Nesting Place next, which I won during a fun giveaway that my sister held! I've heard really good things about this book and am hopeful I will get some good ideas.

Disclosure: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. The review and opinions are 100% my own. 

House projects for this year

There always seems to be another house project waiting to be finished, amiright? We've lived in our house almost 4 years, and we have done a ton of painting, decorating, replacing, etc., but it seems like the list is never-ending! I thought that if I documented several of the projects we want to tackle this year, it would help us to stay focused in accomplishing them.

Finish the bonus room // The bonus room has been quite the project. When we moved into this house we kind of dumped everything we didn't have a specific place for in the bonus room. A couple years ago we did a major purge, donating a bunch of stuff and transferring a lot of things to the attic. A little over a year ago, Caleb undertook a huge project to replace the supporting beam in the garage ceiling/bonus room floor. Now that structurally we're comfortable with the bonus room, we're ready to turn it into a playroom for Madeleine. This means replacing all of the insulation, tearing out the wood paneling, putting up drywall, replacing all of the trim, painting every single surface in the room, getting new carpet, and then decorating. Caleb has done a lot of this work, and we're hoping that the room will be finished in the next couple of months. It will be so nice to have another usable space in our home!

Refresh the master bedroom // We've been needing a new duvet cover for a while, but I just haven't seen anything that I've liked. I also have been getting tired of the colors in our room, so I would like to replace all of the bedding and curtains and do a total refresh in the room. The goal is to get a lighter, fresher feeling room without having to repaint. This is the project I'm probably the most excited about!

Find wall art for the living room // We need one more piece for this room - a large piece to go above the couch. Investing in a large piece is hard for me - it has to be just right if it's going to take up that much real estate on our walls. I have one idea, I just need to follow through with it. If that doesn't work we need to come up with something else. 

Figure out what's in the attic // Like I mentioned above, we've transferred most of our stored belongings to our attic. I also periodically ask Caleb to take random bins or boxes up there once I've sorted through some section of our house. Because of this, I don't really know what all is up there, and I have a feeling some of it could be consolidated or at least organized better. Part of the problem is I don't ever go up in the attic to look at everything myself, because I have a fear or going up pull-down attic steps. Specifically our attic steps, because they seem rather rickety to me. So I guess the second part of this goal is to fix our attic steps. 

Rearrange our family room // We're not happy with the way our main family room is set up, and we've been trying to come up with a solution that will maximize seating and also be practical for our lifestyle. This is going to take some time, so I'm hoping that as we think about it and try different things over the next months, we will come up with something that will work. Then we will need to purchase the additional furniture, etc. that we will need.

Tackle closets // Am I the only one that seems to do this every year? Right before Madeleine was born, I organized and purged through almost all of the closets in our house. Somehow these same closets look like they need to be tackled once again. I hate accumulating stuff, and the closets seem to be the first place said stuff lands. I guess what I need to do is a better job of maintaining the closets throughout the year instead of letting them get overrun and disorganized.

Do you have any projects or jobs you are wanting to work on in your house this year?

(image sources: 1 // 2 // 3)

Decorating the Nursery

This post is included in Wayfair's campaign #NurseryTale: sharing the story behind my favorite nursery pieces. Find more great nursery pieces at Wayfair.com

Several months ago I shared Madeleine's nursery reveal, but today I'm sharing a little bit more about the story behind some of the pieces in Madeleine's room and my tips on decorating a nursery.  The entire nursery was a labor of love, and it was such a joy to bring together my vision for the room as we anticipated the arrival of our precious daughter.

Choose a theme or a color scheme. There are a ton of nursery theme ideas on Pinterest you can browse through, or you can simply choose a color scheme you'd like to go with. I wanted Madeleine's nursery to be a space that was calming and feminine, and one that she could continue to enjoy and grow into, so I decided to choose a color scheme rather than a specific theme. I chose a soft pink for the walls, white furniture, and accents of gold and black. If you've chosen a rug, curtains, bedding, or something else that has the specific colors you'd like to incorporate, choose your paint color after you've picked out those items. It is much easier to find a paint color to match the room than later trying to find curtains that match already-painted walls!

Pick out the big pieces. It's easier to decorate and fill in the spaces around the furniture, so we worked on selecting the furniture for Madeleine's nursery first. We wanted a crib that was a little bit more modern, and we love the convertible crib that we selected. After much searching, we finally found the perfect glider at Wayfair. Caleb designed and built both the bookshelf and the dresser/changing table, and we hope that Madeleine will be able to use these pieces for years to come. Think beyond the initial baby stage and choose furniture that can be used for several years, whether it's a convertible crib, a dresser that can also function as a changing table, or tables and shelves that can be used throughout childhood.

Incorporate handmade items. We really wanted Madeleine's room to be filled with very intentional pieces, which resulted in a lot of handmade items decorating her room. In addition to the furniture that Caleb built, the basket of blankets on Madeleine's shelf is full of handmade blankets, made by one of Madeleine's aunts and one of her great-aunts, as well as several that I made. The hairbands that sit on top of Madeleine's bookshelf were all made by family and friends at one of my baby showers. The tassel garland was made by one of my friends and was used as a decoration at one of my other baby showers. I love looking at these pieces and remembering how our family and friends were so excited for us and showered us with so much love as we were expecting our first baby, and as Madeleine gets older it will be special to share with her how much love went into her room and the pieces in her room. Handmade items are what can set your nursery apart from others' nurseries, and it's also fun to think about the time, effort, and love that went into creating each item.

Make it personal. The wooden signs that hang in Madeleine's room are also very special to me. The signs above both the crib and the changing table are custom pieces made by a dear friend who runs Olive + Grey. Above the changing table are three signs that say baby in English, Chinese, and French. This has great significance to me as I lived in China for several years as a child and have spent many years studying and speaking Chinese. I also studied French for several years, and Caleb took me on a dream-come-true trip to Paris several years ago. My degree is in international politics and I love for traveling, so it's only natural for me to hope that Madeleine will love foreign languages and appreciate foreign cultures like I do.

Make it practical. Even though as an infant Madeleine can't really get into anything, I still wanted to set up her room in a way that would function well when she is mobile and getting into things. The shelves are open and low so that she will be able to reach for her toys and books, but the top shelf is reserved for items that she shouldn't be getting into (headbands, the lamp, etc.). We left a good amount of floor space in the room as well, so that as she gets bigger and enjoys playing, there will be plenty of room for her to spread out and play on the floor.

Let the room grow with the baby. I had planned on making Madeleine a mobile before she was born, but she was (thankfully!) born a little bit early, and I never got to make it. Now that Madeleine is in a stage where she loves playing and enjoys watching anything that moves, I finally got around to making a simple ribbon mobile for her to look at while she nurses. Now we just need to hang it up! It will be fun to continue to incorporate new items that Madeleine will enjoy as she hits new developmental milestones and continues to learn and enjoy new things in her environment.

What tips do you have for decorating a nursery? Decorating Madeleine's nursery was definitely one of my favorite projects I've ever done! Thanks for taking a peek into her room. All sourcing information is below!

sources: paint: Behr in "Hush Pink" | curtains: Land of Nod | crib: Target | crib bedding: Target | blanket: crocheted by me | wooden signs over crib: Olive + Grey | glider: Wayfair | pillow: Target | Love Never Fails print: Lindsay Letters | bookshelf: designed by me + built by Caleb, inspiration from Oeuf + CB2 | tassel garland: made by a friend as a baby shower decoration | lamp base: Target | lamp shade: Target | | gold flower bowl: Home Goods | hairband organizer: Home Goods | floral heart print: Rifle Paper Co | piggy bank: Target | black rugby stripe bins: Amazon | wooden rainbow stacker: Melissa & Doug | wooden birdie stacker: gifted | wooden alligator: Buy Buy Baby | wooden zebra: Pottery Barn Kids | dresser: designed + built by Caleb, inspiration from Pottery Barn Kids | white + black basket: gifted | changing pad cover: aden + anais | wooden signs over dresser: Olive + Grey 

Throw Pillows

We still have quite a bit of decorating to do in our house, and the main reason it's taking us so long is because I am incredibly picky and indecisive when it comes to decorating. I get overwhelmed when making decisions about what style of furniture, what color of paint, what type of curtains, etc. I always find myself drawn to the little, easier things: the objets d'art, the accent pieces, and the throw pillows. Below is a round-up of some of my most recent throw pillow finds.

1 // teal arrows pillow 

2 // gold fleur pillow

3 // grey weave pillow 

4 // candy stripes pillow

5 // black + white pillow

6 // blue + green colorblock pillow

7 // heart pillow 

8 // pink trellis pillow