DIY in My Daughter's Room

I should have taken "before" photos.  I should have taken "before" photos.  I should have taken "before" photos.  There.  Now I have drilled it into my brain and I will never forget again.  Let's hope not anyway.  I guess I just get so caught up in actually living life that I forget sometimes that I am going to blog about life later.

So my husband and I just recently re-did our daughter's room.  Vienna is two and a half and we decided that it was about time she moved out of the crib and into a toddler bed.  (I held out as long as I could.  She is my baby.)  My husband took a hand-me-down toddler bed that wasn't all that great to begin with (it was a WalMart special) and completely transformed it with a coat of ivory paint.  We then painted an old oak dresser (a cast off from a 10 year old spare bedroom set) the same ivory color, accenting the drawers in pink and blue and adding new porcelain pulls.  My son had a toy storage rack that I had bought for him from IKEA about 5 years ago that he donated to his sister, so Steve painted that ivory as well and then painted the interior in the same pink and blue accent colors.  The whole ensemble turned out really great and it only cost us about $10 in paint and $15 in new pulls for the drawers.

Here is a photo of the completed dresser:

Just goes to show you that a little "re-imagination" can go a long way.  My next project is to create a great accent wall for her room for under $100.  I will post pics when it is done.

Light Bulb Decorations at Banana Republic

My family and I went up to Salt Lake City this weekend because I was competing at the Utah Masters Swimming State Championships.  I was thrilled to have my family there cheering me on (and I actually ended up qualifying for Nationals in three events...yay!)  After the meet, we went to lunch at Blue Lemon over by Temple Square.  If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend their fresh sandwiches and salads.  We tried several different dishes and all of them were really good.  Fresh ingredients and great flavor.

But onward from food!  After eating we went over to the new City Creek outdoor mall.  The mall is really well designed and would have been quite delightful to stroll through, had it not been for the 4 million other people who had the same idea that Saturday afternoon.  Apparently going on grand opening weekend wasn't the best idea.  Anyhoo...one of the stores that we poked our heads into was Banana Republic.  And, always on the look out for great design ideas, I saw some unique art being used for staging that I thought would be super easy to duplicate at home.  Here's what it looked like:

 Cool light bulbs in interesting shapes on wooden bases.  This would be really easy to duplicate.  Simply cut a square of wood (or have it cut for you at Home Depot), rub on some stain, and then super glue an old burnt out light bulb to your base.  I am definitely going to be trying this project soon.  First I will keep my eyes out for some different types of light bulbs to scavenge. 

Here's a close up:

I will post an update when I finish a few of these.  Until then...happy DIY!