Thursday, October 13, 2011

Olivia's room, Florida, 2011

 I wanted to do Olivia's room in red and cream with hints of aqua this time around. I was inspired by this awesome vintage dress I bought her this summer. Except then I had to face the annoying fact that I can't paint or do anything fun to these annoying textured walls (no contact paper for me this time around. boo).

I wanted to have her entire room done in the 3 weeks between moving in and having my baby (as well as the rest of my apartment and all the furniture I had to repaint... I completed most everything though! thank goodness since I haven't had a chance to do anything like this since Amélie was born).  I went back and forth and became very frustrated trying to come up with something that wasn't already pinned all over pinterest (I love pinning, but I also like having my own ideas!!). I thought clouds! ohhhh so done already. scallops! no did that in her last room... I went around and around.

Finally I decided I wanted to continue surrounding her with abstract art/decoration so that she learns that art doesn't always have to be creating things that already exist (people, animals, etc). Maybe you think I am making this up, but I really do want my children to be creative and open to what art can be.
Anyway, I made the bookpage blobby things you see above. And I really don't love them them. But sometimes I like them. but mostly I don't. You see so indecisive about this room. When she switches to a bed (instead of crib) I will change the wall hangings, but keep the color scheme. Anyway, hopefully someone out there likes them!

long explanation. sorry.
 This is my favorite piece in the whole room! Another piece that I painted using the paint from this series of redone furniture... (I did all those pieces with only 2 little paint samples!!). I taped off the legs and used this trick to make sure the paint didn't bleed through. I love the legs on this thing.
 Those are the pinfamous ikea spice rack bookshelves.  I spray-painted them red.

 corner of the room... (the yellow on the side of the bed is leftover from her old room/color scheme, as is the  dust ruffle...). made the crib sheet of course. and that big ball/pouf (see here).
 I was really trying to get Olivia more interested in numbers without forcing them on her....
These are mini canvases that I spray painted and then glued book page numbers and white paper on. The praying children are from Goodwill. I planned on painting little red triangles around the edges of the "torn" paper edges on them, but haven't gotten around to it.
 I do love the way the book pages look around this window though! I happened to have that rug from anthro (when I worked there years ago) that I was sick of using elsewhere in the house. It went perfectly in here!! yipee!
 alphabet (Martha Stewart--my mom gave it to me), dress-up box, trash can. exciting.
And here is all the crap I cropped out of the photos:) Thought I'd make this real. I like it when people show how things really are in their house so you don't feel like a domestic failure when you see their blog photos.

So there you go! what do you think?

7 comments:

Christy said...

Katie, this is AMAZING!! I love it. You are absolutely original, and that rocks. Your little girls are so lucky to have such an inventive mama.

And I agree with you on the not wanting to do something that's been pinned a 1,000 times... Originality is hard to come by.

ed and brooke said...

I have loved book pages since our days at Anthro. Loooove the changes you made with them and how you made them your own. You are so awesome Katie!

What is the tip for not getting paint to bleed? There isn't a link. Also, a friend of mine said its better to spray paint furniture instead of brush painting it bc it won't leave brush strokes. Thoughts? I'm so undecided about it.

Petals said...

Love what you did with the numbers. I have an empty wall in my son's room that I want to do the alphabet on some how. That may be the perfect way to do it.

blueeyedfreckle said...

brooke! thanks for showing me that! I posted the links in the blog now.

http://blueeyedfreckle.blogspot.com/2011/06/cheap-furniture-make-over-with-some.html

as for spray-painting vs. brush, I prefer spray-painting because its fast, but you are limited in the colors you can do. So I usually brush paint unless I want a specific color that happens to come in a spray can!

Anna said...

What a gorgeous room! Very inspiring!

Alice said...

I love how you're inspired by a dress. Our house is just clutter, clutter and more clutter. Sylvia destroys everything that is in order, and Finn is just one ball of destruction.

Darcey said...

i like the book page idea and that you did something curvy with them. i thought the "blobby" things over her bed were birds at first. I think that would look cool, because the little blobs look like feathers. scott would love this room - he's all about book anything!