Pepper Design Blog - Page 150 of 438 - A Little of This & That... Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family

July Finds… An Inspiration Board

July 11, 2013 by Morgan

Sometimes I find something so sweet or inspiring that I love to share it here. It’s been a few months since I’ve posted a round-up of favorite finds (here’s March, February and January, for example), but this July there has been plenty of glittery gold, tribal blue and moose-brown leather that has made me smile (and second guess budgeting). Here’s a list of favorites at the moment:

Caitlin Wilson has a line of gold pillows (the sparkly, shiny sort of gold) that make me want to redecorate the couch (again). How pretty! I left my beloved fedora hat in the rental car when we were in Spain in September, now that summer is here I’m itching for a new one. Liv loves to carry around my camera (she’s not supposed to but she manages to find it…) and I’ve been thinking that a cute wooden Etsy one that is hers might be the solution here.

How pretty is this Anthro dress? And I might be hanging this brass geometric planter in the new nursery (the shape is so structural and awesome). I’m on the hunt for an attractive cross-body leather bag that has form and structure (to easily find a spare diaper or sunglasses) and this one is pretty reasonably priced (but I might need something slightly bigger now that I think about the contents of my diaper bag…). Oh man I’d love this slipper chair for the living room! Just found out West Elm sold out of the ‘moss’ velvet color but that ‘lagoon’ is awfully pretty, too. Maybe a Craigslist DIY if I can find a similar form?

Happy Thursday! Once I work through my pile of to-do’s, the girls and I are off to the zoo to enjoy this cooler July afternoon.

PS You can find all of the inspiration boards posted on the blog here.

PPS TOMS are on Zulily today, just ordered Liv two pair in her next two sizes up and am thinking about these for me.

Girls’ Room: Progress on the Built-In Bookshelves

July 10, 2013 by Morgan

Sometimes it’s all in the little details… adding the last few touches to these built-in bookcases has taken a little bit of time but they look SO clean and beautiful right now! As if they had come built into the original architecture of the house rather than an addition that we’ve added.

It’s hard to tell in these before and after photos (especially when looking at them on a monitor), but the sanding, painting and caulking touch ups make all of the difference up close.

Here’s a snapshot at what we need to finish before these bookcases are ‘finished’.

Starting from the top: shelf inserts need to be installed, caulking of all cracks and crevices, drawer hardware and molding where the bookshelves meet the wall and windows.

First up after installation was a heavy amount of finish sanding. My mom and I knocked this out in an afternoon, but it’s a messy process! The finished result (after two sanding blocks worth of buffing), were smooth, perfect cabinets.

Then the cabinets were repainted.

The seams in the drawer and cabinetry faces are hard to see… but if you really want that polished look a dose of caulking around all edging is the cherry on top.

Looking good!!

And now for the hardware. I don’t have any shots of my Dad installing the hardware, but he helped us line up all of the pulls and drilled through the cabinet drawers to install each. I ordered knobs and campaign-style pulls from the same source as our kitchen hardware, I LOVE how it looks.

We are getting there! Still need to add shelving inserts and the molding where the cabinetry meets the walls and windows. And the trim at the ceiling. Then these guys are finished.

Can’t wait to fill up those shelves and to finally have settled on window seat and window covering fabrics. Be back soon…

PS More nursery makeover posts can be found right here if you want to start from the beginning! And here’s what the first nursery looked like.

Momma Musings… Part 1

July 8, 2013 by Morgan

While we adjust to a new way of life over here (and all of the craziness that these first couple of weeks entail), I’ve invited several fellow momma bloggers to share their thoughts on two favorite ‘new mom’ questions of mine:

What is your favorite (and perhaps most unexpected) part of mommyhood?
What is/was one baby/nursery item you can’t/couldn’t have lived without?

I’ll be posting a few each week in July, I hope you enjoy!

Stefanie blogs over at Brooklyn Limestone Limestone and is mom to adorable six-month-old Agatha. Stafanie is my travel guru and a DIYer to one beautiful Brooklyn Brownstone.

1. What is your favorite (and perhaps most unexpected) part of mommyhood? How easy it’s been to adjust! That first month is insane and it felt totally overwhelming but after that, it has been smooth sailing. Of course it is a lot of work and a huge adjustment from my old life – but its also a lot of fun! So much more fun than I ever imagined it would be.

2. What is/was one baby/nursery item you can’t/couldn’t have lived without? Despite my best efforts to try to avoid the baby clutter, my house looks like a Babies R Us bomb went off. In other words, I have a lot of stuff that I find very useful but if I had to pick just one item it would be our stroller – the Bugaboo Bee. Its the only stroller Ive owned so I can’t say its better than others – I can simply say its been great for us. Great shock absorption for those bumpy walks over Brooklyn sidewalks, folds up nicely when we need to travel with it, has enough storage space that I can do a little shopping with it but no so big it can’t maneuver well in small boutiques. The only thing I wouldn’t mind having is a drink holder but I’ve never gotten around to finding one for it.

Mom to adorable Clara, Sherry from Young House Love has to be one of my favorite DIY mommas. I wholeheartedly agree with her answer to #2! We have regular dance parties as instructed by Liv as well.

1. What is your favorite (and perhaps most unexpected) part of mommyhood? This might sound weird but I actually really liked nursing. Just the closeness and the guaranteed break that it gave us to go into our own little world together. Clara nursed until she was 14 months old, and although it was awesomely freeing to finally be done (she never took a bottle, so I was pretty much attached to her since birth) it was also really bittersweet when it was no longer a part of our routine.

2. What is/was one baby/nursery item you can’t/couldn’t have lived without? We got an iPod dock that we used as a sound machine (we bought a white noise CD off of amazon.com for 99 cents and played it on repeat all night long, which really seemed to keep her sleeping for nice long chunks of time). By going with an iPod dock over a sound machine itself, it gives us the freedom to play other fun music in her room with it too – which we do when she’s awake. Everyone needs a dance party…

Emily is the incredibly creative lady behind Jones Design Company and is momma to four adorable littles as well.

1. What is your favorite (and perhaps most unexpected) part of mommyhood? I most adore those first few weeks of just falling in love with your newborn. You study his face, learn his mannerisms, are enamoured with each and every move he makes. But it doesn’t end there … you continue to fall in love as each new stage comes – first the simple things like smiling and sitting up, then onto more advanced skills like walking and first words. They reach toddler-hood and their personalities continue to emerge. By elementary-age {where my oldest two now reside} you get to fall in love even deeper as you watch them think and learn and discover. It’s a constant tug between sadness and joy, this motherhood thing. Sadness that they grow so quickly from that precious little swaddled babe and the greatest joy you could ever know in watching them become themselves.

2. What is/was one baby/nursery item you can’t/couldn’t have lived without? My kids were crazy spitter-uppers, so cute burp cloths were a must! {I made a bunch of my own with this tutorial}

Thanks everyone! And be sure to check out the above blogs, they’re favorite reads for a reason :).

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Feb
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31