Pepper Design Blog

Nursery Craft: DIY Art Containers

Liv is collecting little art supplies and toys by the bucket full. The big bins that we initially added to her bookcase are great for storing bigger toys, but little cars, wooden blocks, doll clothing and so on is quickly swallowed up – and finding complete toy sets (like Liv’s wooden train) is impossible these days! So we’re working on adding small container storage to the room little by little.

One of the first organizing projects I tackled included Liv’s art supplies in her little reading nook.

Rather than collect colored pencils, markers and paint into one central storage location (as we had previously done for a while), separating out supplies makes it easier to focus on one specific art activity, put that craft away, and then move on to the next. I first attempted this with open buckets but soon everything was mixed together and crazy again. What is it about organized spaces with a home for each little item that is so darn appealing? It makes my world feel right.

When I spotted these clear containers at Michaels I thought that they might work well just for Liv’s art supplies. I love that they’re plastic paint cans .

After bringing them home I discovered that cheap was too good to be true – the tops are impossible to pop off! Just like a real paint can, to open and retrieve anything inside requires some prying from a really strong object (like a screwdriver) which is not ideal for kids. Poor design.

I thought it would be fun to come up with a DIY handle that would help Liv open up the cans whenever she wants to play, and I kind of like that I can press the lids in extra tightly for art supplies that I don’t want her to have easy access to (like real tubes of paint) so that even with a makeshift handle the lid sticks really well.

I thought about gluing little plastic animals or some other little toy to the top of the paint cans and then remembered that we have a very cute wooden Melissa & Doug flower puzzle that has received quite a bit of wear and tear since Liv began assembling and disassembling two years ago.

I love the shapes and use them all of the time as decoration for her floating tree bookshelves so the entire puzzle really doesn’t stay assembled nor is it really used anymore.

I picked out three of the shapes and hot glued them to the top of each of the paint cans.

But after a night of drying quickly found out that even with strong hot glue the wooden shapes popped right off of the lids if the lids were really well planted onto the container. Boo.

Thankfully the puzzle pieces were wooden and not plastic, so plan b was to drive a little tack nail or two into each shape through the bottom of the lid (with my favorite floral desk hammer – perfect size to keep inside). Now the wooden pieces are stuck stuck.

I used three paint spray colors that I thought worked well in Liv’s nursery today, and would also match her new nursery for two.

The colors turned out a bit chalky rather than pretty and polished, I’m actually really disappointed in the consistency of these particular primer + paint in one Valspar paint cans. I picked up a glossy varnish to cover all with at some point in the future that I’m hoping will fix that.

For the paint can itself I wanted just the edge painted out so I carefully taped off all exposed clear areas inside and out. Learned that lesson the hard way with a slightly careless first round of taping. Thanks goodness for Goo Gone.

If spray paint still makes it through onto the clear plastic, Goo Gone to the rescue.

Finished! You can see the chalky consistency if you look closely…

But for now they’re a cute new addition to the nursery.

Love that the colors work well with the artwork hanging above the little table and chairs and with the painted tree and owl on the wall.

Now onto all of the other little toys (like bubble wands and figurines and musical instruments…) that are filling up Liv’s room! Time for a spring cleaning.

PS all Project Nursery posts are sorted right here.

Living Room Finds: A Few New Favorite Additions

Happy midweek! This is the time of the week that I just love because I’m starting to plan out my weekend projects and anticipate my time away from work with the fam, but am still not so rushed to finish my desk deadlines that I’m biting my fingernails. Midweek is a great time of the week.

A quick update to share regarding the trending colors that are making a friendly splash in this casa. That is to say that gold might be the new pink in this house. Or maybe they’re tied at this point (as evidenced here, here, here, here and here), but I’m noticing that I’ve been drawn to gold-hued home decor for a while now and that it has begun to pop up with sparkly and brushed gusto over the past couple of months.

Lots of pops of pink. Something so soothing and warm and inviting, no? Perhaps teal or navy should make an entrance…

I feel like I jumped on the gold-lovin’ band wagon early and began to embrace its shiny patina back when Kev and I first married almost six years ago. I’m pretty sure gold was still very not cool back then (remember the grimace you made when visiting Grandma’s perfectly brass-covered bathroom?) and I recall bringing a dainty gold chain necklace in for repair to my local jeweler and having him inspect it oddly, telling me ‘no one wears gold, no one’. I still wear that simple gold chain with a little pendant from Kevin every day.

Okay, side stories aside, here’s a new gold addition that I’m especially enamored with:

And it’s brass, too! Without a coffee table we have been in need of a convenient table solution for drinks and whatnot, especially with friends over. I have a little wooden tray that I usually keep on the couch that houses all things reading material, remote controls, etc but with a bouncing toddler and snuggly dog it never felt quite sturdy enough to hold mugs of tea or glasses of water.

So it’s been a side/coffee table search.

I tried out a couple of variations here and there over the past year (loooong search) but quickly found that this end-of-the-couch location called for something low profile and sturdy (anything with legs was easily tipped during the Liv and Bodie trial – one has inquisitive fingers, the other a very strong tail).

This antique brass West Elm drum table passed the test with flying colors.

It is still tail height and it is still visited by inquisitive hands, but now the table is far from tipping when anyone runs by it at a fast speed. It’s also fairly  light weight so we move it to the center of the sofa when it’s needed for wine and water glasses.

I’ve had too much fun at West Elm over the past few months. It’s rare that I’m toddler free outside of work and one of my favorite little stops when running errands is to swing by our local West Elm store and browse the sale section (which happens mayyybbeee once every three months). Other recent West Elm additions? There are a few now that I can spot.

This pink/coral vase that sits atop the bookshelves is a clearance find. (Kevin didn’t love my gold ‘home’ art project that used to also sit here and he ended up winning – I decided the letters might be best elsewhere after a couple of weeks).

As well as a couple of new pillows. How great is that pink and taupe tribal print? Or the striped coral and brown guy that pulls the entire couch ensemble together?

This one also now sits on our old leather corner chair.

On the more pink front, I believe I’ve finally settled the score on deciding on new wallpaper for the new nursery! And my gold Land of Nod desk lamp and pillow for the office have recently arrived. Talk about sparkly .

Happy soon-to-be weekend.

 All living room posts are sorted by tag right here for easy searching.

New Nursery: The Wallpaper Has Arrived

Well sort of. The wallpaper samples for the nursery remodel have arrived. I’ve been staring at them for a couple of days now and am trying to imagine how each might look covering an entire 10×15′ ish wall – and I have to be honest – I love them all. I’m pretty sure that any one of these designs would be so perfect in here. Which oh which to choose?

Here they all are up close if it’s hard to see the above at an angle.

Most of these I shared here when I was debating on what direction to take my solo statement wall. Clearly I’m still debating, even when I was sure that ordering my favorites and hanging them up would help settle that nursery quandary!

All of these wallpaper samples are from Spoonflower, an awesome site that lets you design and print your own fabric and wallpaper (oh search thousands of predesigned options by different artists, sort of like Etsy). I’ve used them a ton and they are reasonably priced compared to purchasing something manufactured (though boy does it take a long time to process and ship your order… I have too little patience these days).

I designed the two starry prints (top left, bottom right) which were inspired by this Osborne & Little wallpaper. I spotted the pretty night sky in House Beautiful a while ago and the image sits in the back of my mind. Not happy with any of the colors offered through Osborne & Little, I recreated from scratch and used both a peach (top left) and light pink (bottom right) as the background, while also softening up the stars and playing with the frequency in pattern. The rest of the prints are handmade on Spoonflower by various artists. Clockwise you can find the links here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8.

The pinks are not exact, the fabric examples are still undecided (and will depend largely on the wallpaper) and this is in general a pretty crude photoshop markup, but here’s how I think the bookshelves will work with the space once they’re installed:

Amazing for storage, right? Oh man I can’t wait.

Update: Fabric Warehouse Direct is offering that beautiful Kravet window covering fabric that I photoshopped into the above pic at a steal of a rate right now. 

Ignore the random throw pillows and the other pieces of photo I didn’t get a chance to photoshop out. I’m imagining a dark pink painted backing in those top shelves, hence the awkward block of color at the moment. If you squint you can begin to see it all come together…

Ahhh, it’s all becoming so real!