The Nursery So Far

Neither of the bedrooms at the back of our loft have any natural light (that's just what you get with a loft). I was rather conscious of putting my baby to bed in a room that closely resembled something between a cave and a prison cell, so it was the first room that got my attention when we moved in.

{Before}

All the walls are painted greige. Now, griege certainly has it's place - I'm even beginning to like it in the living room, especially since I repainted the fireplace. But in a little room with no windows and fat off aluminium ducts on the ceiling, it just doesn't work. It absorbs happiness. I hate it.

Please keep in mind that this was a very quick fix. The little man is only going to be in there until I finish his big boy room, which hopefully won't be very much longer. For the time being, it'll do. (You'll have to excuse the photos too - it's a little room with not a lot of light - neither of which make for very good pictures.)

{In progress}

The white furniture helped lighten it immediately, but there were still so many blank and depressing walls in there. The little man loves photos, so I printed baby pictures of his grandparents (with the exception of my Mum - still waiting on a baby photo from her almost 2 years after I asked - so S's 11 month photo is currently occupying that space) and hung them over the dresser/changing table.

On the wall next to them is a little watercolor painting my grandma gave me before S was born. Truthfully, it's a bit too small for that space, but it didn't fit any better anywhere else. The rest of that wall was crying out to be filled, so I bought a decal for a whopping $10 and it found a home there. It's not ideal - I was hoping the blues and greens would be brighter and more prominent - but it's a good size and it works for now.

Over the glider are more baby pictures - this time of me, the Mr and the wee man.

The glider actually deserves an honorable mention, I think. It is awesome, and it cost $69 from Walmart. I have spent a huge amount of time in it - rough calculations put it somewhere around 1800 hours since S was born, or 75 full days (!!) - and it has held up remarkably well. I think it'll keep going through all our babies and then some.

The wall over the crib is now the only blank slate, because I am paranoid about hanging anything over a sleeping baby. I did think about another decal, but I'm a bit decaled out after the tree.

A $15 rug from Ikea gives a bit more life to the bland carpet, and there you have it. It's certainly no feat of decorating genius, but it was a very cheap transformation and it's a much happier room to be in now. I have a lot of ideas for the future of this little room, but that's another post.

The Floor Plan

I've just updated the Tour Our Loft page and thought I'd share the floor plans that I spent hours creating today (thanks to floorplanner.com). So, without further ado, here is the basic layout of our loft.

You enter from a hallway and there is a balcony at the "bottom" of the living area.

Although the whole place is still a work in progress, here is the layout at present.

{Disclaimer: position of dog accurate at time of publication}

So, what's going to change?

• Master bedroom - The master will probably stay pretty much as it is now, although I would like to find a little chair (maybe on Craigslist) if I can figure out how to fit it in.
• Guest room/office - I'm in the process of converting this into the wee man's big boy room, so the double bed will be replaced with a single and the desk will move out to make way for toy storage.
• Nursery - The nursery will probably become a little office until #2 comes along, whenever that might be. Then, of course, it'll be back to being a nursery.
• Living/dining area - This will mostly stay the same, except the toys will be gone (yay). Eventually we might have to make room for the desk, maybe on the right there next to the kitchen.

Interestingly, if all my measurements are correct, this actually puts our square footage somewhere around 1210 - significantly less than the 1650 I thought it was (according to the listing). The balcony is around 220, but still. I believe our old place (a 2 bed 2 bath condo in the burbs which we're renting out now) is around 1200, so actually this place isn't much different. That extra room makes such a big difference though, so I'm certainly not complaining!

Paint Colors for the Big Boy Room

I have finally decided on paint colors for my little man's big boy room. I emailed our landlord two weeks ago, and he agreed that we could paint all three bedrooms (yay!), which has resulted in numerous trips to Sherwin Williams, Home Depot and Ben Moore and my amassing a small army of paint samples.

I found this photo in a Crown paint catalog in England and loved the feel of the room (excuse the photo - I tried to find the image on their website, but had no luck).

Thinking the room would be lighter with cream as the main wall color, I picked up a sample of Behr's Kansas Grain, which is very similar to the color in the picture. When I tried it on the wall with the lack of natural light though, it looked too bland to be the main color.

Then I stumbled upon this image from the latest Pottery Barn Kids catalogue, which gave me more ideas.

{PBK's Madras Nursery}

Maybe I could do blue walls, still use the cream in stripes and add a few other colors in to keep it bright and cheery. Remember the design board I did for this room?

I wanted to pull the colors from the rug, so I picked up more samples in cheery shades of green, orange and a couple of different blues. I wanted to try my trusty Bird's Egg too, but when I pulled out my extra can of said Bird's Egg (left over from the living room fireplace) though, it wasn't actually Bird's Egg. Thank you, Ace Hardware, for mixing me paint a shade darker than I asked for (Benjamin Moore's Tranquil Blue) - as it turns out, I kind of love it!

So, as it stands, the main wall color is going to be Behr's Airy. It's no longer available and I can't find a good picture but it's a light, calming blue which reflects a lot of light and makes the room brighter. The accent colors are going to be Behr's Japanese Fern, Ben Moore's Tranquil Blue and Behr's Citrus Blast (top to bottom below).

I'm not quite sure how the stripes are going to work yet, but I've been experimenting. I used a sheet of cardboard to test the colors on the wall. It's messy, but it gives you an idea. I might end up doing three sets of stripes because of the 10' ceilings, but I want to get the walls painted before I make any decisions on that.

Now, I'd love to say that I'll be able to show you a freshly painted room by the weekend, but our landlord is complicating things. You know how I mentioned he'd agreed to us painting the rooms two weeks ago? Well, yesterday I got another email from him saying he wants us to sign a new lease prior to painting. Oh yeah, and he might raise the rent. It's a bit more complicated than that, but needless to say, I'm not going to paint until it's all sorted. Gotta love renting, right?

Tour Chicago

It's seems only right, in a blog titled Pretty City Things, that I take you on a little tour of a few of our favorite places in the city. So I have just added the beginnings of a list of things to do and see in Chicago.

I plan to blog about each one in turn, so eventually there will be a lot more information and some pretty pictures for your perusal too. You can check the list out at http://prettycitythings.blogspot.com/p/tour-chicago.html (or just click on the page link) and, in the meantime, here's a sneak peek at some of what's to come.

{Millennium Park and The Bean}

{Venus Greek/Cypriot Restaurant in Greek Town}

{DeColores Mexican Restaurant in Pilsen}

{Quadcycling on the Lakefront}

{Northerly Island Park}

{Segway Tours and Buckingham Fountain}

{Old Town}

{The John Hancock Building}

Image credits/sources:

Millennium Park and The Bean, The John Hancock Building - Jamie Emmerson

Venus Greek/Cypriot

DeColores

Old Town - jaunted.com

Quadcycling, Northerly Island, Segway Tour - me

Recipe for Bird's Nest Treats

Happy Easter! Though this blog is not going to have a lot of recipes, this one is super quick, ridiculously easy and just too cute not to share!

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: None
Serves: Makes about 10 treats

What You'll Need:
4 oz shredded wheat cereal
4 oz crispy rice cereal (Rice Krispies or Koala Crisp)
8 oz milk chocolate
Speckled egg chocolate candy (Cadbury's Mini Eggs or similar)
Cupcake liners

Directions:
1. Break up the shredded wheat until it's basically crumbs - you can use a rolling pin or something similar but I find that hands work best! Put the crispy rice in a separate bowl.

2. Melt the chocolate in a Pyrex bowl over bowling water.

3. Add half the chocolate to the shredded wheat and half to the crispy rice. Stir both until cereal is completely covered in melted chocolate. (I might have put more chocolate on crispy rice. Ignore that.)

4. Enlist the help of a dashing young assistant. Spoon the crispy rice evenly into cupcake liners and add the shredded wheat on top. (The reason I don't mix them together is because the shredded wheat looks more like a birds nest than the crispy rice. Why not use all shredded wheat? Because, to quote the hubby, "it tastes too much like breakfast.") 

5. Make dips in the middle of each treat and add chocolate eggs - I used four or five on each, but you can do more or less.

6. Set in the refrigerator to harden for at least an hour. And voilà - yummy treats cute enough to be an Easter centerpiece!

Sharing this post:

I Love Lamp (And Other Things)

(Sorry, I had to!) Since I'm not any further on with any of my projects yet (thanks to a sick toddler), I thought I'd share some of my most-wanted/recently acquired pretty things...

1. Lamps I love...

I just bought two of these over-sized table lamps for our master bedroom and I am completely smitten!
Gold Leaf Glass Lamp by Pier 1 Imports - $125

{So lovely but so impractical with a toddler}
Eva Colored Glass Table Lamp by Pottery Barn - $99

{These would be gorgeous in a baby girl's nursery}
Lily Hanging Paper Lanterns by Pottery Barn Kids - $12.00 to $19.00

2. Cushions I'm digging...

{Pretty sure I could DIY my own version of this}
Rosalina Duck Egg Felt Round Rose Cushion by Laura Ashley - £22.50 (on sale from £35.00)

{This would look great on our sofa}
Ashling Round Cushion by Laura Ashely - £24.50

{I just love the texture on these cushion covers}
Vintage Dreams Pillow Cover by The Home Centric on etsy - $29.90

Angelic Charm Silk Pillow Cover by The Home Centric on etsy - $29.95

Vintage Romance Pillow Cover by The Home Centric on etsy - $28.45

{I bought one of these for our living room and I wish I'd bought two - they're sold out now - cry}
Gold Foil Pillow by Urban Outfitters (no longer available)

 3. New rug love...

{This recently arrived for the wee man's big boy room - it really brightens up the space}
Colorful Stripes Rug by Rosenberry Rooms - 2'x3' - $74.00 (other sizes available)

4. Spring!

{Pretty tulips!}

5. Stuff from that Swedish furniture store

{Cute and colourful candle holders}
Rotera lanterns for tea lights - $3.99 each

{What can I say? I just love the color (as you might have noticed)}
Sokerart vase - $7.99

{We picked a vibrant pink one of these to brighten our balcony - very cheap and very cheerful}
Ramso Umbrellas - $14.99 each

Image sources:
Laura Ashley
The Home Centric on etsy
Urban Outfitters
Tulips - me
Ikea

Living Room Progress

I've been in a bit of a frenzy since I got back from England less than four weeks ago, trying to get the living room sorted. I'd say it's about 70% done now. First, let's sneak a peek at what it was like not long after we moved in...

A not-very-good shot of the living room.
Note the army green fireplace surround (how could you not?) and undersized rug.

Dining on an old desk and patio chairs. Classy.

And now, behold the difference...

Still to do:

- Replace the side tables

- Finish/redo my "lack hack" coffee table (I wallpapered an Ikea table, but it didn't go exactly to plan - I'll post more on that later)

- Make light teal throw pillows for the chairs and maybe one for the sofa

- Replace the bookshelf (I have a bigger one that I'm planning to paint and prettify)

- Paint the two kids' chairs a less obtrusive colour

- Accessorize

Once the little man's big boy room is complete, I'm hoping to move most (if not all) the toys out of the living room too, and just keep his little table.

So, still a fair way from being "done," but I'm excited with the way it's looking so far.