Progress in My Boys' Bedroom

Over the holidays we did a little bit of work on our boys' (Christian-4 and Justin-2) bedroom.  We moved Justin to his "big boy bed" and it's been a bit less than smooth at nighttime.  He started climbing out of his crib a little while back & after whacking his head on the floor a couple of times, we knew it was time to switch him out of the crib to a bed.

{Putting together the new beds}

The boys' room is teensy and we recently reduced the size of the closet so that we could fit two twin beds in the space.  We have no room for extras in here, and instead of dressers, both boys have drawers for clothes under their twin-sized trundle beds from Ikea:


The closet is directly to the left of where I was standing when I took the pic above and it used to take up more than half of the left wall.  You can see in this before pic that the chaise could just fit sideways in the nook: 


The room feels so much bigger now and here's a pic of how Justin's twin bed fits in the new larger nook:

{right now the bedding is just in cream & I'm adding Euro shams and quilts at the end of the beds for some color...  }

The striped rug just happens to be in here right now & we plan on replacing the carpet with seagrass because there is a hole in it from where we removed the old closet.  (Justin's bed hides it nicely in the meantime.)  I'd like to layer a big cowhide in here for a soft play spot.

Below is Christian's bed on the other side of the room.  The art is up over here and I wrapped fabric around a Euro sham (in my Filigree Chevron in Autumn} & tossed fabric (Fern Star in moss) at the end of the bed to get an idea of how it will feel with the pillows and quilts.


I did a lot of thinking on the Ikea beds.  Christian originally had a similar black Ikea bed in his other bedroom and we really liked the clothes storage & trundle bed feature.  (They can get their own clothes out & help put away the clean ones because the drawers are right on the ground= awesome.)  Christian's black bed took up a bit more space (both visual space & physical space) as it had side & back rails and two of them would really cramp the new bedroom.  The two new beds together were also $100 less than the 1 black bed with rails so we ended up saving too by not having to buy another black bed.   (It took all day to put them together btw...  we love Ikea's wordless directions ;) 

I've thought about adding upholstered headboards to the beds in my filigree chevron fabric (and leaving out the Euro shams) but the arrggggg window isn't centered so the headboard would overlap the window.   I'm playing with ideas for shapes that might suit it better but I'm not sure it's worth the hassle...  That left bed does look especially lonely though.

We're installing these fixtures (by visual comfort) above both boys' beds so that will help:


...Except they're in burnished brass:


...And artwork & color on the bed will do a bit more to add interest...  I think I'll wait & see how it all looks installed before I make any headboard decisions.  The globe mobile is a Christmas gift to the boys from my good friend Elise, who also owns the Design Center of Northern Virginia.

{Justin is thrilled to be hanging out on his big brother's bed while he's at preschool... ssshhhhh!}

We keep their toys & books in this oragngey-reddish piece I found years ago (for around $27) at a thrift shop:

{Again, I love how they boys can clean up on their own - okay with me telling them over and over and over- and we have baskets for toy storage underneath.}

...Anyway, there are still a bunch of details to finish up before I'm really in love with it, but the boys are thrilled with their new room for now.  We're hanging the rest of the artwork & lighting this week and I'll be sure to keep you posted!

xoxo, Lauren

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

If you are interested in any of the fabrics mentioned, please visit my online fabric store http://www.purestylehome.co/

The New Year...

Happy New Year!  Hope you had a great time over the holidays...  We relaxed as much as possible and it was amazing.  We took a last-minute trip to Williamsburg & Christmastown at Busch Gardens and the hilight of the trip was hanging out in our suite overlooking the river with a fire & my husband, while both kids took a nap at the same time.   Heaven.



I have to be honest, that I am not ready for the real world to start again. :) 

But cheers to a wonderful 2012 to us all!! 

xoxo, Lauren

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Merry Merry

I can't believe Christmas is almost here!!!



{our Christmas tree...  my mom has given me an ornament every year of my life
& now I have a treefull!  ...thanks ma!}

.....And I swear I'm not 200 years old.. I've also been given many others & bought some myself over the years ;)

 We finished up the work year with a condo installation today and are now totally ready to veg.   Tomorrow is our last-minute shopping day & I'm also hoping for some downtime reading & cuddling by the tree (if at all possible) before the holiday rush of parties.   I'm off for the night, but: a very merry holiday - whichever it is you're celebrating!!- to you & yours!!!
Big hug.

xoxo, Lauren

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

If you're interested in browsing &/ or purchasing my line of textiles, please visit purestylehome.co

Blogger Secret Santa: Who are you???!!

This year I'm in a Secret Santa exchange with some blogger friends -arranged by Stefanie of Brooklyn Limestone- and I have NO IDEA who my {AWESOME} Secret Santa is!!!

Here is the list of possible culprits:


My Santa seems to know me so well!!  (Or maybe I'm really obvious to figure out????  hahaha)  But, really, when my first package arrived I was thrilled.  She's the best.  It was an itunes gift card (yipeeeeeeee-  I love to dance in the kitchen - or anywhere- to new music) and the most adorable little box of GREEN notecards.:


They'll stay in my kitchen where I'm always scrounging around for a piece of paper for grocery lists or notes.   (It's so funny but I can't believe how having this little box of pretty note paper has made life easier for me...  I know it should be common sense to keep paper in the kitchen but I never wanted to because I never had any that was pretty enough to keep out.  All the rest always felt like clutter.  So no more running around through the house looking for scrap paper to make lists for me!!)


Anyway, I was all happy thinking that was it.  But THEN, another package arrived.  ( !!! ) I tore open the package like a six year-old....  (getting gifts in the mail is awesome.) It was a beautiful Stella & Dot box...


{I'm using stella & dot as a clue...  I know some of those Santa culprits above are stella & dot ladies so I'm narrowing down my guessing pool.}

And this is what was inside:

{Seriously Santa???  You are amazing!!!  I LOVE YOU!!}

How did she know??!!  It's perfect and with green being my favorite color, I am going to wear this baby all the time.  (It is more green in person than in the pic if that didn't make sense ;)  It's so beautiful and (maybe it's the pregnancy hormones) but it made me a teensy bit teary.  Santa, thank you for being so generous & thoughtful. 

So...  now that you have seen the list of Secret Santas,  any guesses as to who sent me my package?  Also, I sent a little Santa package myself over to one of those Santas...  You can click these posts below to see the other gifts & make guesses.  If you follow the link to Brooklyn Limestone, you can also enter a contest with your guesses.  Have fun & I would really love some help as to who you think sent me mine so be sure to enter a guess in the comments section!! :)


Thank you again to my Secret Santa.



xoxo, Lauren

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.