6235 Lubao. The bedrooms.

Finally, here are the bedrooms for the house on Lubao!

 I love the simplicity of the door molding.  Dying to take ours off and make it simple!

Great built ins and I love that you can open the closet entirely.  No sliding back and forth! You can have full access to your entire wardrobe with the folding doors. 

I'm not sure if this is a style of the era or one of his designs but what a great way to make the space feel bigger. The door looks taller while making a space for the AC vent.

So many homes in this area have had the windows shortened and it kills the space. These floor to ceiling windows make the bedrooms feel bigger and open. 

Another detail I found interesting was the height of the light switches. They're lower than the standard height today.  I like them lower. If you notice they are at the same height as the door handles making the overall look cleaner. 

This is the master bedroom. Again, great built ins.  The spot lights into the closet are brilliant. The wattage was dim which I imagine is perfect for when you need to turn on the lights in the dark while your spouse is sleeping.  Otherwise the natural light in the room is perfect for picking clothes out. And the hanging pendants are also perfect and brilliant. 

Great pendants! I want something similar in our room.....Not the style per say but the elegance of zero visible wiring with hanging pendants. 

Master bedroom sliding door to the garden and door to the master bath.

Built ins!  Simple. Elegant. Storage without cluttering with furniture. 

This is a horrible picture but it was the best I could do and I wanted to show you all this great tub with a view. Although in my house I'd have two little girls on the other side smooching their noses up to the glass if they knew I was realizing in the tub.  

This detail above the tub window is so smart. It lets air in and out which I feel in a bathroom is key. 

Sometimes...

...just fixing a blind so it rolls again feels like a giant accomplished. I was on the phone with a friend when I started looking at how I could take it apart.  I got mad multi-tasking skills! Opening the blinds and windows first thing in the morning makes me feel alive and ready to start the day! This was big on my to-do list!  

A Pillow with a View

I love this time of the year!  The weather is cooling off. The trees are beginning to change color.  The birds flock to our feeders. They line up on the fence waiting their turn for free seed.  (Not that you can see that in this picture.) The pressure of Christmas has not yet hit us and the smell of pumpkin is almost always in the air!

However, for me the very best part of this time of year is the view from my pillow.  Here it is! This makes me happy!

Pillows

Within the first month of Dave and I dating we decided to go to India together.  Actually, it wasn't just the two of us. The trip was in the works when we met. My mom and I had already decided we wanted to go and when I went on my first date with Dave he sort of invited himself along.  A week later we were at the airport buying tickets for the three of us. How nuts is that?  You start a relationship and right off the bat you go to a foreign country, not just with the person, but with their mother!!! I think we're nuts now but I thought it was pretty normal at the time. 

Anyway, on our trip we bought a lot of textiles.  They have such fabulous colors and fabrics in India.  I stored most of these things and had forgotten all about them.  Last week while searching for old curtains from my old apartment, I came across my box of Indian fabrics.  I found these pillow cases that I loved at the time and love even more now!  

The girls build forts and bunkers. Part of the process includes gathering every single pillow in the house.  It's all fantastic except for when they use the pillow I sleep on.  I don't really love my sleepy pillow getting sat on...and sometimes farted on.  So, my latest goal has been to get the kids more play pillows. Finding the pillow cases from India was serendipitous!

 Look at these amazing prints!  I vividly remember buying these cases or shams. We weren't in a shop. In fact, at this point on our trip we were still flying solo without a guide. We ended up in a sort of abandoned factory or something and a man on a rooftop had mountains of fabric remnants.  Almost all the pillow cases had an imperfection.  But even the good ones had a vintage allure to them. I think I bought the three for a dollar a piece!  

I also vividly remember thinking that the shams would be perfect in my future daughter's room.  So, when Gemma got onto P's bed and started reading to her doll I almost cried. There was my vision come true.  It's all a bit surreal.  

Closets. Part 2

All it took was one week of me putting clothes away in the girls' closet vs our closet and I was begging/demanding Dave to redo ours.  Wow!  I was going to lose it!  Not only was our clothes a mess but they were stored in multiple rooms because we didn't have enough room in our bedroom closet. Nothing was in order and our shelving system wasn't very useful. We were short on space and both of us had fought over clothes storage multiple times. It was beyond frustrating.

Now with our new Elfa closet both of us have all our clothes in our room.  Dave actually has so much room left over he has empty drawers. All my clothes are now neatly stored.  It's much easier to pull things out and put things away.  We swapped sides in the closet because Dave often has to leave for work very early. By switching sides his clothes are easier to get to so there's less chance he may wake us up while getting dressed.  

This is Dave's side before. There was only hanging clothes and most of it was mine.  

Now this is Dave's side.  He now has all his shirts, pants, workout wear, tee shirts, shoes, belts and sweaters in here.  Previously he had his half of the closet plus a dresser.  Now he has the closet and two drawers in the dresser. The rest are now for me!

This was my side of the closet before. You can see what a mess it was.  The shelves were so far apart that all my piles toppled over.  Look at the wasted space between my shoes and my clothes!  It was awful! It was always a mess. I was embarrassed for anyone to see how I kept my clothes.  And this wasn't everything. I had to go into our guest bedroom for my bras, underwear and socks!  

This now my side!  What a difference!  Everything is in order!  Everything is neat!  I can see it all and getting dressed isn't so hard. Before I use to think I know I have a black long sleeve, v-neck shirt but I haven't seen it forever!  That's because it was balled up under other shirts. Our new arrangement also freed up space in the dresser that use to be all Dave's.  Now I have 5 drawers so I can keep all my socks and "unmentionables" in the same room with the rest of my clothes. 

The beauty of being this organized is that I don't want to shop for clothes!  Go figure!  Because everything has a place and I have limited space for each category I know when I need something and when I don't.  If I do buy a new long sleeve shirt, I know I need to get rid of one because there just isn't enough room for more.  This may not seem like much clothes but my goal for the last 10 years has been to become like a sophisticated European woman.  They dress impeccably with very little clothes.  They have better quality items and  less overall. That's my goal. 

The Container Store did the installation again.  They are fast, good and well priced.  The only thing we had to do was pull out all the clothes and previous shelving. They actually came in and filled in the holes and did touch up paint.  It was perfect!  Here's Dave pulling out the last of the shelving and doing a pre-clean up.  

I'm so glad to have these closets!  This one was $1300 including installation and delivery.  If you wanted to save you could do your own installation and pick up the pieces. It looked pretty easy to do. But these days with Dave working so much and me juggling the kids we figured the easier route was better for us.   

  

How low can we go?

I've been meaning to build our bed for years now. Literally, for YEARS!  My brother was here in September and I was going to do it with his help!  I had every intention of finishing it.  Then I remembered my first year with P.  I realized having a wood border around the mattress and lifting the mattress off the floor, even minimally, was going to make things harder on me. 

P fell off our old, high bed twice and fortunately was ok. But it was scary and awful and I felt like a horrible mom for not being more attentive.  I couldn't leave her alone for two seconds though!  Watching her so intently was hard with one. Forget it with two!  Juggling two is a whole new story requiring a new skill set!  So I made the decision to forgo a stylish bedroom for the time being.

Today as I watched Gemma get out of bed on her own I was grateful I left the mattress on the floor.  It's given me months of peace and now it's giving our 10 month old a sense of independence and confidence in herself. The look of pride on her face when she got down was priceless.  In fact, the very first time she did this she looked at me with the biggest smile and said "Woooow" with amazement, pride and awe in herself. And come to think of it, I think it's one of her first words. Mama, Papa and wow! Not bad!

I know....we look like a bunch of poor college kids or hippie parents with our mattress on the floor but it is what it is when you have babies.  It's the safest arrangement. On nights when Dave has to get up and go to work extra early I have both girls in bed with me.  I never worry if one of them should roll out.  We're not even a foot up!

And so...at this point in time: February 2013 with two kids and five years in the house this is what our bedroom looks like.  Still a long way to go from where I want it to be, stylistically,  but we're in a happy place, emotionally. And I think that's a good place for a home.      

Etsy Art

I've been looking on Etsy for art lately.  I wanted to find an illustration or graphic design that was about sisters. Because Dave is a photographer we mostly have photographs up on our walls. I want to balance it out with illustrations.

 I didn't find what I was looking for but found a few other shops I really loved.  P seemed to like them to. It's interesting what she's drawn to as far as art goes.  She liked the shops I marked but preferred other pieces. Here's a few of my favorite finds:

Yumalum

I'd love this for our bedroom. It would be more of a Dave and me art piece.

Dazeychic: "Once Upon a Time"

I love it's sweetness.  There's another one of two sisters that's pretty sweet to.

Judy Kaufmann : "Frieda"

This wasn't my favorite piece but it was P's.  I loved alot of what she did. The "I love My City" and "Circus" prints were my faves.

Corid "Home is With You"

I liked several of her pieces, but the look on the little girl's face and what this one said really melted my heart.

Parada Creations "Zodiac Signs"

My favorite at this shop was the Zodiac Signs but she also has great inspirational quotes and great graphics of each state. 

Bed Inspirations

 via Remodelista

 

David Kohn designs

via Remodelista

 

via Remodelista

These three beds are what I want.  Basically it's a box underneath the bed.  It works for us because for one it doesn't add inches to the width or length of the bed.  Two, and this is a big two, it looks easy enough to do.  Besides the bench project I've never built a piece of furniture from scratch.  I've refurbished furniture but never built it. Therefore, I want to work with a design I think I can handle. And in the event it fails and falls apart at least we won't have far to fall in the middle of the night. But I think I can make it so it's solid. 

See, this is what I mean about involving your kids in doing projects.  What on earth would possess me to build a bed?  Let alone when this pregnant?   Well, it was my dad. I remember asking him one time "how did you know how to do blah blah" ( I can't remember the specific project. It was something to do with plumbing or electrical.) And he said "I don't know how to do this but I know I can figure it out." I thought it was so brave of him to take on a challenge he knew nothing about.  Don't you?  

Anyway, so this is a quick picture of our bed and I want a box underneath it so it looks more refined.  I actually like how the bed looks right now but you should see the looks on some people when they see our mattress on the floor. I can just hear the thoughts in their heads "it's so college era". To me it's very European and simple.  I could use the 12-14" height though. I must say it's been a bitch to get in and out of bed while pregnant. 

E and K Vintage Wood

I'm finally getting to building a king size bed for us.  It's either now or in 2.5 years. That's what pregnancy will do to you. It lights a fire under your ass to get stuff done.  I have 8 weeks to go till my due date.  So it is on!

I spent the last two Friday's at E and K Vintage Wood. It's the same place I picked up the reclaimed wood when I did the bench project, except they've moved and grown. Man! Have they grown! The first Friday I went by myself to their showroom on the Westside near Venice.  They have some amazing European Chestnut that was gorgeous....but out of my price range.  All of their wood is amazing actually and their showroom is inspiring.  I stuck with the same Douglas Fir I bought when I did the bench. I was interested in the thickness and width. I was looking for 2" thick and a width of 12"-18".  They had it at their warehouse so I did a pickup a week later.

This last Friday I kept P out of school and the two of us hauled across town to pick up the planks.  I love doing projects like these with P.  I think it's important to involve kids because they pick up so much just from being there.  If anything they gain a familiarity with DIY projects that I believe gives them a confidence to try new things as they get older. Maybe not! Who knows really, but I know it's what I got from tagging along with my dad on his home projects.  And here I am trying to pass on the same to my kid.  

I would have loved to look around their warehouse more.  I'm so in love with all of the wood. Even their scraps look like amazing material for unique projects. But, when you're 7 months pregnant the last thing people want is for you to walk around a warehouse that has nails, etc all over.  And much less with a 4 year old in tow. I remember walking around the original warehouse back in Sun Valley when P was 2. It was a fun juggle but I totally get it seems crazy to others.    

 

We now have our four planks! The guys loaded them up in the car! I drive Ford Flex, which I love, and love even more after this adventure.  Four 7.5 foot planks fit comfortably on one side while P rode on the other behind me.  The front seat folded down nicely so the wood laid flat from front to back. Loving this Ford Flex more than I ever thought! 

  

I have a bed design in mind and I've talked it over with Dave. The only thing that might change is the headboard.  I didn't plan on having one. He would like one. Easy enough.  

My only issue so far is that since I'm pregnant I can't sand the planks.  All that wood dust would not be good for me right now.  It's a lot of wood to sand.  Fortunately Dave has some friends who have industrial sanders and he's going to try get them the planks this week. In the meantime I'll be doing some drawings so he knows what I want.  He's going to be doing most of the heavy lifting. I'm looking forward to doing this project with him. I figured we made it through a bunk bed we can make it through this....I hope!

Bunk Beds: the true test of a marriage.

When you get married they never tell you that it's things like putting a bunk bed together that will really test your marriage.  The bed arrived in a box like this.  Then we had to put it together.  And we all have a method to our madness. And we all have things we feel we must finish before going to bed. And usually neither one of these aligns in a couple.

After all was said and done Dave and I laughed about it all. The bed did get made. We're still happily married. And P is super happy with her new bed and room. So, I'm warning all  single or unmarried people right now that it's not just a bunk bed but a test!

Peanut's New Bed and Bedroom

We were looking for a bunk bed for P's room back in June.  I strategized this purchase every which way possible. How long would our 4 year old use this bed?  How much should we spend? Should I be able to convert it into two twin beds?  Etc, etc!  

I was tempted to fork out $1700 for a bed from Room and Board.  But add the mattresses and bedding we're talking like $2500!  Then I chatted with fellow moms who brought some sense into me.  They all said the bed purchased at this age will inevitably get markers, shoe marks, crayon, stickers and Lord knows what else all over it. They all recommended going towards a lower budget.  

I felt my only option in a semi-designer type, budget-conscience category was Ikea.  I looked everywhere and found the options very limiting especially since i was looking for something more modern.  Then one day I was reading through back posts of Cup of Jo. She bought their crib at Walmart!!! I love Joanna's taste...but Walmart?  I checked out the site and to my surprise found some great options.  Thank God because Dave refused to buy an Ikea bed.  He found them to be way too wobbly and unsafe. 

So, first a couple of pictures of P's room in October. And then pictures of her room now.  I still have some adjustments and fixes to do but this is how it turned out.  

Before

You will notice in this picture that there is a blue film covering the top windows. Dave quickly placed it up there in an attempt to create an underwater world for P. It was meant to be temporary but we like how it slightly darkened the room. Now, I have to get back up and put it on properly.  It's still up with blue painters tape!

After

One corner of the room with the bunk bed. 

 

A capture of the room right down the middle. Bookcase to one side and bed to the other.

 

I felt this wall area needed something.  I ordered these wall decals off Etsy.

I splurged on bedding. This is the winter flannel set from Garnet Hill called Painted Ponies. The quality of the sheets is amazing and I'm glad I went with a higher end version.

This wall is the "pretend wall" where all her dress up gear and backpacks are hung.  Even though I really wanted the animal wall hooks from Anthropology I decided with a more functional choice from them instead.  Also, the flower ones I selected were half the price. 

The hooks at the entrance of her room are now free to hold the daily shuffle of coats, hats and swords. 

Easy toy access makes for easy toy clean up.

The top bunk is currently a little reading haven. I need to relocate the flower wall art to better places and I'd like to add a single book shelf so she can place a couple books up there.  It's become one of her favorite places to read.

This is a run down of the things I purchased and where I got them:

Bunk Bed: Wallmart

Mattresses: Ikea

Hanging lamp: Ikea Maskros

Wall Hooks: Anthropology Petal Hook

Wall decal of tree with owls: Modern Decals from Etsy

Wall flowers : Walter

Duvet covers: Garnet Hill Fiesta Percale Bedding in Beach Rose

Flannel sheets: Garnet Hill called Painted Ponies

Bookcase: Ikea Expedit

Balloon Print: LoveMaki