Cozy Guestroom

Do you have a room that is more like a storage closet? We did. For the past year our den has been a souce of shame. Before we moved in we had hopes and dreams of it being a man cave. We painted it Gentlemen's Grey by Benjamin Moore and set it up with a desk, library, tv and lounger with a nice jute area rug. But soon it just became the room that stuff got dumped in. By summer it had gotten so out of hand that you couldn't even step foot inside. So this fall we said ENOUGH and turned it into our guestroom. Aka the room that Dave sleeps in every night because our kids don't sleep through the night.
The spare bed had been in the playroom up until this point. Not ideal. It took up half the space and forced the room to be split into two different decor styles: childish playroom and calm, adult sleeping area. It was a mess. Moving the guestroom into an unused den was a great design solution. And it forced us to deal with our horder issues.

With the dark blue walls and deep plum drapes and dark brown bedding it is so cozy. We took all our old art - mostly from Ikea - that we had no place for anywhere else to decorate the walls. The transformation was dramatic yet FREE! Perfect!

The pillows are old ones I bought to make the master bedroom feel cozy two winters ago. They don't really go with my new bedding so they'd been sitting in storage. And the nightstands are from back when we were first married. I keep meaning to throw them away but then I always end up finding a place in the house that needs a side table. They work for now and save me money.

The room faces onto our neighbors house so it doesn't get much light and has zero view but it's not like company is going to be hanging out in here in the daytime anyway.

Kitty approved.
I plan to hang a new pendant or lighting of some sorts and find new bedside lights and tables one day down the road but those are distant plans as this room has just fallen to the bottom of the priority pile.
If you are ever in the neighbourhood and need a place to crash come over to Casa de Strang (still need a house name) and enjoy one cozy slumber.

Children's Playroom

I would like to show you our playroom but it's still a (constant) work in progress. Instead, today I will share my favourite kids' playroom inspiration photos.

Vogue

I actually stole the idea to use painter's tape to hang a gallery wall of Georgina's art from this photo. I haven't looked at this photo in a long time but I see that G's art looks pretty much exactly like the art in this picture, making me a super copy cat.

Pencil Shaving Studios

I love the pastel primary colours in this room. We have the same bookcases running sideways along a wall just like in this room, and as mentioned, a gallery wall of Georgina's art above the bookcases. I've never heard of wide-format washi tape but I must look into this. I also like the graphic, colourful rug in this room. I'm never sure about laying a rug over carpet but it works here as much as it does in my front room.

Lay Baby Lay

Another ikea bookcase on its side. Our playroom shares a lot of the same elements as this one: a kids table for colouring or tea parties, a tipi (made by my uber talented sister, Morgan Ard), a plush toy basket, and art displayed on the walls.

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I love the beautiful wallpaper on an accent wall. Right now my walls are all white and I'm so undecided about colour - pink? yellow? black chalkboard? - that they remain white. The vintage toys and that doll house are so sweet!!! I really like the look of the bookcases standing tall like in this photo but this is more suited to older children, not my babes. How is Miriam supposed to pull all the toys off the shelves if she can't reach?? The fun lighting in this room is also something I want to do in ours. I've already updated the lighting in our playroom but with something pretty boring. Put it on the to-do list.

Brooklyn Limestone

This seems like a straightforward DIY. I'm in need of dress-up clothes. Georgina's getting to the age soon where she'll understand and love to play dress-up. It was one of my favourite games to play growing up and my mom gave us the best clothes to play with! This would create a fun and inviting little station to store them in.

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I love this! Creating a little store like this could keep an imaginative child busy for at least 10 minutes! Such a cute idea.

Our City Lights

Pink chalkboard paint! Who knew they made pink chalkboard paint???? This would be a good dipping-the-toe step for getting colour in the playroom. Or instead of painting the door I could do a pink chalkboard feature wall. Question: does chalkboard paint make that terrible nails-on-a-chalkboard sound like a normal chalkboard? If so, this may never be happening in my house *shudder*

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I would really love, love, love to have a slide/playground indoors. Especially here in Raincouver. There's been a few loooong rain spells where I've been holding the mouse over the purchase now button for a slide like this yellow one where I'm telling myself I'll figure out the logistics when the slide gets here. What stops me is knowing that a slide will arrive and sit in our garage indefinitely. Or worse: we somehow pull off an indoor playground like this one and it gets used for the first 15 minutes of its life never to be looked at again. I feel like this slide could change my life but I no longer keep us confined to the indoors on rainy days anymore and fresh air is better.

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My heart goes out to this talented parent when the little paws wiped it all away. This is how I love to romanticise a chalkboard painted room. I say romanticise because children would ruin everything want to scribble all over and wipe away and scribble some more. When Dave and I were first married, our basement suite had a huge chalkboard wall and it looked similar to this: colourful, well preserved doodles. I also really like this Ikea rug. I'm never sure about it but I see a lot of rooms that look great with it.

This post almost turned into a dumping ground of complaints about my children but I reigned it in. Honestly, I love decorating for them. It lets me get more creative and decorate with colours I would never want to live with in an adult room. It's fun!

How about you? Do you have a special room designated just for play? If you'd like to share it I'd love to see it!

A New Rug

I just love it when the smallest tweek can change a whole room and the way it feels. And on Friday last week I found such a tweek. I went to Ikea to pick up some picture frames for an art project I'm working on for my dining room and instead came home with a rug. Above is the before photo. And here's the room with the new rug

It ties the room together and grounds the furniture. I am still looking for a coffee table to place in front of the sofa and a little tray table for beside the lounger. And I'm not sure what I want to do with both side tables beside the sofa. I'm in no rush. The best part about this rug is that I stumbled across it when I wasn't looking.