MODERN ART FOR THE LIVING ROOM - PART 1

This week I have been working on some DIY art for my living room fireplace wall.  Here is a picture I took this past weekend of our living room wall .  Pretty stark and bare!  We have been in this house for almost 2 years and this wall has looked like this pretty much since we moved in (yikes!).  It was high time that some art got up on those walls.  By the way, Little Pilot looks like he's pointing, but he is actually flying an airplane while wearing his parachuter coveralls. :)

I'm going to show you the art in two posts because the other art required painting and it will probably take me a few more nap times to finish.  Today we're addressing the wall to the left of the fireplace.  Here is how it looks now:

Much better, no?  

That is some very high end modern art made from this:

It's leftover Marimekko wrapping paper from Christmas.  I simply cut some and framed it in an Ikea Ribba frame.

My inspiration for this project came from some of the living rooms I have been pinning lately.  I have been drawn to the simple black and white art I see in these rooms like the giant 'C' in this living room:

image

Little Pilot really liked my thrifted yellow bowl that I got a few weeks back (he said it is "hieno" which is a word like "nice" in Finnish).  He was also my design consultant.  He thought his airplane should go in the bowl.  I was surprised he put in this Air Canada plane since his favourited plane is the Spitfire (Little Pilot calls it the "pit-aavo").

I did take cue from his design brilliance and placed some of his little Muumi books in the bowl.  Muumis are Finnish cartoon characters (you can learn about them here).  Aren't the little books too cute?  I love how including some of the kiddie things in a vignette makes decor a little less serious and a little more personal.

Here's my design star!

I am slowly working on my painting for the other side of the fireplace and will share it with y'all soon!

I am sharing this project at the pinterest challenge (hosted here, here, here and here).

Also sharing here: houseofhepworths, 36thave, SNAPcreativity, inspiration gallery, tatertots&jello, DIYshowoff, Sundayshowcase, homestoriesatoz, mondayfunday, savvysouthernstyle

FOUR MONTHS

I can't believe Co-pilot is already 4 months-old.  I will probably think that every time I write one of these monthly baby photo posts. 

This month was Valentine's month and I just very quickly grabbed our Valentine's garland as part of the background.  Co-pilot is holding himself up quite well now while on his tummy, which gave me a chance to take some new shots.  My favourite is the fourth one - he just looks too sweet. :)  I also included a photo on the sofa to see the difference from last month and another feet pic (they're just too cute and little). :)

My favourite posts on this blog are those of my pilots.  I think I cry tears of joy almost everyday when I think of my boys. I feel truly blessed and am praying that I can raise these little boys as God has planned. Hopefully, one day, when they read this blog they will know how much I love them, but above that how much God loves them.  

This post is part of my monthly baby photo project:

click here for more on this series

My Baskets at Front & Main (West Elm Blog)

I just got back from Co-pilot's 4 mos. checkup and found an email in my inbox from West Elm.  They are featuring my mini mudroom's baskets on their blog, Front & Main.  You can pop on over here to see their post.  I'm off to edit Co-pilot's  4 mos. photos now that I have his height and weight to add to the monthly photo project.  Happy Monday everyone. :)

What's Up at Nalle's House

Hi!  I thought I'd just pop in to share with you what's been going on here this past week.

- We finally have two boys that are Croup free.  Thank God!  Our paediatrician told us that he was 99% sure that Co-pilot wouldn't catch Little Pilot's Croup because he's too young, but he did anyway and we have been fighting this illness for almost a month now.  I am so thankful that they are both finally well.

- My sister and brother-in-law have come to visit from up north.  My brother-in-law actually came here to work on our basement.  I know!  Too nice!  Tech Guy has been busy with business stuff and has helped a little down there, but is wishing he could be doing more.
Here's a picture from my just finished mini mudroom looking down at some of the construction craziness going on.  We have some insulation and framing done.  I am hoping to share our basement plans soon.

Little Pilot has been even more excited to help out with his own tools.  Here he is fixing the Saarinen chair.

- A post on my coat knobs went up yesterday over at Knockoff Decor.

Hopefully, this week we'll all feel a little more rested and ready to tackle some more basement renovating and DIY projects.  I hope you have a great week.

Mini Mudroom Reveal

I hope you haven't tired of seeing this mudroom by now because here is the final reveal!  I am so excited to be finished this space (for now). 

We completed our art by making an "N" for Nalle's House!  Just kidding.  "N" also happens to be our family name initial. I used the same oak veneer as the floating bench.  To tie into our colour scheme I painted the edges in a turquoise colour.  The plates are Marimekko purchased from Crate and Barrel last summer (I am now short a couple place settings). :)  I also put my Aalto vase up there with the handprint hearts I made with the boys (you can read about them here).

Here are a couple of pictures of the light fixture.  It was a lucky Habitat for Humanity Restore find.  I love the colour and graphic look of it.

Here is a look at some of the storage in this space.  The shelf holds the embellished West Elm baskets (you can read about them here).  On one sidewall we hung some wire baskets purchased from HomeSense.  I made my own labels for each one with my boys' names (I erased Little Pilot and Co-Pilot's real names for privacy).

Here is a close-up of the space as well as the coat knob hooks I made (you can read about them here).  The bag hanging from them was a baby shower gift made from Marimekko fabric by my sister's friend (you can view her bags here).

Here is the floating bench we made (see the tutorial here).  I made the pillow cover from leftover outdoor fabric from Little Pilot's highchair slipcover.  I love that it is an outdoor fabric because in the summer I can easily take it out to the deck.  Nalle also got a new set of bowls and a food storage tin (both purchased from Superstore).  I was also able to snag the rug from HomeSense for only $15!

Now for the fun part...The "before" and "after".

I hope you've enjoyed watching us transform this little nook in our house.  I know I have had a lot of fun. :)   You might wonder how I have had time to work on all these projects having two little pilots to care for (4 mos & 28 mos).  Well, God had blessed us with a great mom/mummu who helped a lot with my pilots and even with some of the projects too.  She is truly a selfless lady and I just wanted to let her know that she is appreciated.

To see all the Mini Mudroom posts click here  

sharing this project here:  savvysouthernstyle, snapcreativity, notjustahousewife, house of hepworths, 36thavenue, inspirationgallery, tidymom, shabbynest, funkyjunkinteriors, thriftydecorchick

I've entered this project here:

Mini Mudroom - Baskets

**Update:  This room is now finished!  You can see it here. **

My mini mudroom is almost done (yay!).  I am waiting on some paint and stain to dry for my DIY art and then this project will be a wrap.  I did get my West Elm Woven Felt Baskets for the shelf and wanted to share them with you.  I really loved these simple yet modern baskets, but I wanted to give them a personal touch.  I decided to blanket stitch the tops using turquoise yarn.  I love them even more now that I made them my own. :)

This is a super easy stitch to do. The one thing that I did to help me get even spacing was to use a scrap piece of card stock with lines on it for a guide.  I was initially just eye-balling it and Mummu suggested I make a guide.  I pierced my needle from the front to make it easier.  

Here are some more pictures showing the details and a couple of the accessories from the mudroom.  The pillow cover I made myself.  I used a slightly smaller insert 18" x 18" since the space is so small.  I also styled my baskets with the fun trellis patterned rug I got from HomeSense.  In the third photo you can see that the stitching looks equally as nice from the inside. :)

 

Now here are the baskets in our mini mudroom.  I was so happy that they fit perfectly on the shelf!

So this project is so close to being finished that I just can't wait.  Well, technically, I will still have to do the tiling and paint the door jambs, but since we're in the middle of our basement reno those will have to wait.  This is the door that the guys are schlepping all the construction materials through and the tiles and paint job would be a mess in no time.

I should have my final project done in the next day or so and hopefully will be able to post a final reveal soon.  Stay tuned and happy Family Day (for those of you in Canada)/ President's Day (for those in the States).

To see more on our mini mudroom checkout these posts:

• Mood Board
• DIY Floating Bench
• DIY Coat Knobs

Sharing this project here:  homestoriesatoz, savvysouthernstyle, notjustahousewife, houseofhepworths, 36thavenue, inspirationgallery, tidymom, shabbynest

My Sleeping Boys

Both boys asleep outside!

True to Scandinavian culture, I nap my baby outside (even in the winter).  Co-pilot takes at least one nap outdoors most days.  Usually, I take Little Pilot for a walk while Co-pilot sleeps and typically they're riding together in the Bugaboo Donkey, but, for some reason, this day both boys had their own buggies (Mummu was there to help push one of them).  The real surprise was that Little Pilot fell asleep as well and slept outside for a couple of hours!  I had to take a picture of course! :)

Sharing with:  Simple Things Sunday

Mini Mudroom - Coat Knob Edition

**UPDATE... This room is now finished!  You can view the final reaveal HERE.

Today I'm back with more details on how we made our mini mudroom coat hooks knobs.  I had originally wanted to splurge and go for The Dots coat hooks by Muuto, but we didn't have the height from our bench to the shelf to be able to mount them on the wall and still hang our coats.  Once I realized this I headed to the hardware store (Home Depot in this case) to find another solution.

I stumbled upon these unfinished cabinet knobs that were a nice large size and ultra affordable at 2 for $2.49!  I started to think that these knobs (with a little colour) would give me the look of Muuto Dots.  Maybe these would be my own Muuto Dots knockoff (in a very loose sense)?

I just needed to figure out a way to make these knobs into coat hooks.  That's where I turned to Tech Guy and asked him whether they made double-ended screws.  Of course they did and they had a bunch of different sizes there in the hardware department.  We found the ones that would fit into the predrilled knob hole.

Tech Guy really liked the woodgrain look.  So we decided to stain rather than paint the knobs.  There weren't very many choices at the Depot, but we both liked this colour which is island water by Minwax.  I finished them off with a couple coats of semigloss polyurethane.

Tech Guy then mounted the new coat knobs onto the wood holding up the shelf by pre-drilling holes and twisting them in.  Easy peasy. :)

Overall, I really like them.  They may not be as stylish as the Muuto ones, but I do love how fun they look in the space.

Stay tuned for a post on the baskets I DIYed for this mini mudroom.  You can also read about how we made our floating bench here.

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whipperberry, tatertots&jello, iheartnaptime, DIYshowoff, MondayFunday, SundayShowcase, inspiration gallery, tidymom, shabbynest