The Play Area

 And here is the grand reveal of the play area! (Sorry for the dark pictures, it is in the lower level and there are no windows.) This has always been a bit of a catch-all area. It helped when we got the EXPEDIT shelf from IKEA, but I still just needed to organize and purge to make it work. (You can see some of my inspiration here.)

 Now, it is a happy area, that the girls enjoy playing in and I enjoy looking at. This is saying a lot. Check out this awful before picture! (Now you know that I am perfectly honest with you in my blogging. I am airing our dirty laundry house with you all. Consider yourself loved!)

Ahh, that's better! I think it is partly due to organization, but also due to the fact that I finally cleaned it and you better believe I am keeping on the girls to keep it that way!!

(Do you see the photo bombers up above??) I mostly used items that we had already. I did buy the MAMMUT stools at IKEA. The rug under the table is from Walmart. I purchased the easel at a second hand store earlier this summer. And we have had the table downstairs since Peachy was little. It is actually an end table similar to the one in this bundle also from Walmart.

The cork boards are made from spray painted frames to which I added cork panels. (I have had good luck finding frames on clearance at Hobby Lobby and Michaels. You just have to imagine how good they will look with some spray paint.) The chalk board frame is made with chalk board paint. You can read about it here.

As long as I was doing work in the lower level, I added a collage above where I do my ironing. The print is from this great Etsy seller whom I had the privilege of meeting a sale we did together. Again the frame is a spray painted one that I added some extra color to. The other frames I picked up at Kohls at the beginning of the summer. (It looks like the exact frames I got are no longer available, but there are some other ones here.)

I also finally got some pictures of Cream up in their bedroom and her name on the wall. I guess you have to be a member of the family for two years before you get those honors.

Hope you like what I have done. What plans do you have to beautify an area in your home?

Nursery and Big Girl Room

Well, I think I can finally check "changing Peachy's room into a big girl room" off of the to-do list. You can read about the beginning of the transformation here. The short and sweet version is that our kiddos are going to be sharing the room and now it is a combo nursery/big girl room. While we didn't make many big changes, the paint color is the same, the crib bedding is the same, the basics are the same, I love that the changes we did make give it that little bit extra.
It started with making the bedding for the big girl bed. You can read all about the quilt here. (Coincidentally, Peachy decided it was time to start sleeping there. She does really well at night. Naps however, have turned into playtime. I am really struggling with trying to figure out how to get naps back.)

Other than the bedding the other major change was adding shelving to the closet. While it may not be picture perfect, it is nice to have more shelves to put things on.

All of  the other changes involve art work and decorations.

We put up some Chinese lanterns above the bed.  (They were purchased at Hobby Lobby.)

I made a subway art with Peachy's birth information. Below that I hung her name out of wood letters. To the right is the barrette holder I made. You can read about the barrette holder here.

We used IKEA spice racks for book shelves and I made an alphabet wall art. You can read about that here.

I added new ribbon to the dresser pulls. You can see the original idea here.

I painted a canvass of Peachy's favorite song, "Jesus Loves Me." I got the orginal idea from Etsy.

After lusting after the frames from Organic Blooms, I decided to try my hand at knocking them off. I will post more on this later this week.

Here are some of the original nursery items. You can read more about our original nursery transformation here.

And that about sums it all up!

I am linking to the following parties.

Alphabet Wall Art and Wall Mount Book Shelves

The kids' room is definitely coming together. (You can see some more posts here and here.) My parents visited this weekend and helped us to knock some more off of the to do list. One of the projects my dad and Mr. Cherry finished up was the wall mount book shelves. I had been looking for ideas for Peachy's books that we keep in the room for bedtime reading. Since the room is quite full, adding a book shelf wasn't an option.

Then blogland came through for me. I started seeing these posts about using Ikea spice racks as small wall mounted book shelves in children's rooms. It was the perfect solution and the $4 price only added to their appeal. We made a quick detour to Ikea on our way to Mr. Cherry's parent's house last month and the shelves were mine! All I had to do was paint them and have Mr. Cherry install them.

 I decided to add some sort of artwork above the shelves. In the end I made an alphabet print which I framed in a white frame from Michaels. (The mat was white when I purchased it, but I painted it aqua to set off the print.)

Edited: I wanted to share the alphabet poster with you, and first uploaded to docstoc. However, it appears that you can't access it without paying for a membership. I have since uploaded it to Google Docs. Hope that this works for everyone and sorry for any inconvenience. You can find the free download here.

I am linking to the following parties this week:

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