Return to Ryder's Room

Its been an awful long time since we've visited Ryder's Room, but with all the attention his little brother has been getting lately, it was about time that we give this room a little spiff.  You may remember that Ry's room was one of the very first rooms we worked on in this crazy project house.  We knew we were going to tear the big dump up, and that it would be a construction zone for quite awhile, so we wanted to create a space where our little guy could find some sanity.  In fact, one of my very first posts was about building the rocket shelf for this room, quickly followed by this post about refinishing all the furniture, something I did while we were still living in The Bungalow so it would be all ready when we moved in. 

So not very long after we moved in, I was able so show you this:

This pic is from the big reveal back in May of 2011. In that post I mentioned that we still needed to find a rug for this room, but that the search was tricky.  I'm sorry to say that nearly 2 years later, my baby's floor was still bare.  I don't want to over exaggerate, I mean really, it's just a rug right? Let's keep this in perspective, it's not like I haven't bathed him since then.  But the honest truth is that his floor is really, really cold.  I've mentioned that these 2 kid rooms were additions to the house, and Ry's is the most unique, as it is only connected to the house at one wall.  That means he has 3 exterior walls, a ceiling with nothing above it and since this space doesn't have a basement, just a small crawl space, a floor with nothing below it. Virtually a cube with 5 exterior walls.  And in a Minnesota winter that means some cold piggies, no matter how high your heat is turned up. 

I've been on the hunt for. ev. er.  Seriously.  We've looked at Home Goods, Ikea, Pier 1, World Market, Overstock, West Elm, CB2, Crate and Barrel, Ballard Designs, Land of Nod... all dozens of times.  I just couldn't find the right combination of soft yet durable, and big size but affordable.  And then, finally last week, this happened.

Overstock had this huge, nearly 8' x11' chevron rug on sale for under $130.  While the black and white was a little too contrasty for me, the light blue and white seemed to be a more muted version.  Actually, the navy got my attention first, I love how the pattern is a little more subtle with the dark colors.

But I worried that this color would be too dark in Ryderman's room with his dark blue walls.  So I did a quick coupon search and found an additional 15% off, making this rug just $115 all in with free shipping.  I've been holding my breath until it got here, and today was finally the day.

Tahhhh- Daaaaaaaa:

Sorry for the dark photos, but it was dark outside by the time I got myself and my munchkins finally home from work.  So I've gotta be honest... I just don't know.  It feels a little too busy to me.

It's also really big, almost too big as it comes really close to the dresser on the other side of the room.  It would be perfect if it was 8x10 and not 8x11.

But then again maybe its just the bit of fun and flare this kid's room needs.  Perhaps I'm just used to this room being "safe?"

Maybe the duvet is too busy?  Originally I loved this Land of Nod robo-duvet, but I have to admit it has been a challenge to design around.

So give it to me straight, because I'm crowd sourcing this decision.  Do you:

-Love the rug and the room.  Keep it all.
-Hate the rug.  Send it back for something more neutral like a soft charcoal gray.
-Love the rug, but not with the duvet. (Or the curtains?) More neutral fabrics will let that baby sing.

For those that don't want to get a cramp from the scrolling, here's the before and after again:

Let the dishing begin!  And thanks in advance for your opinion!

Update: I was able to take some photos in the daylight.  Repositioning the duvet slightly made a big difference in the busy factor too.

 

#93- Robo-cessories & Ryder's Room Reveal!

Let me start by apologizing for the lame title of this post. In reality this post is going to be much cooler than its title (don't judge this book by it's cover baby), because it's all about the fun wall art I bought/made for Ryder's Robo-Room.  Plus, you get to see his room all put together for the first time.  Without further ado:

One of my biggest challenges was finding a way to place some wall art above Ryder's bed, which is the very first wall you see when you walk into the room.I didn't want to detract too much from the Robot Duvet or the Rocket Shelf, but I did want some elements of interest there. The problem for me is that the ceilings in there are so high, that just simple picture frames stacked above the bed wouldn't come close to filling the space.  Then I discovered these awesome wall decals from Blik. They come with six 21" x 19" stickers, so they were sure to fill that giant wall space more appropriately.  I got them in silver, which I figured would look robo-tastic on the blue walls. 

They were really easy to install.  First we laid out the pattern by taping the gears to the wall.  Then Bliks transfer method makes application a breeze.  You first peel off the back white panel (leaving a clear adhesive panel still in the front, that you can use to affix the gear to the wall.  

You rub like mad with the little squeegee they provide to make sure that the gear is properly affixed, and then you can slowly peel off the top layer, leaving just your smooth, shiny decal below.

 Here they are from the other angle:

 

 Can I just say that I'm so proud of how the Rocket Shelf I built and painted turned out?

In this photo above you can see Grobot the Robot Growth Chart.  I stumbled upon this little bad boy on Etsy early on in the brainstorming process, and it sealed the robot deal. 

Grobot the Robot Growth Chart

Ryder runs into the room anytime I have the camera out yelling, "Cha-eeeeeeeze!"

Since I'm already in love with the Duvet from Land of Nod, I considered purchasing the signs like they have in the catalog listing:

At $100 a piece though framed, they would have broken the budget big time.  Here's a tip though, you can get them for much cheaper from sellers on Etsy.

My favorite bit of wall art I created myself after searching the web for some robo-inspiration.  I created this alphabet poster in Adobe Illustrator, and had Costco print it as a 16 x 20 poster print for just $5.99.  Then I just tossed it in a nice, clean white Ikea matted frame.

Here's a close up of the art:

What do you think?  It's hard to really capture what the room looks like in photos, since the ceiling is so high.  These photos sort of give the impression that the room is too cluttered/full of colors, but in the reality of that vast space, it all seems to fit really well. The real important thing though is that Ryder LOVES it. Whenever anyone asks him about his new house, he begins a 5 minute speech all about his Robot Room and the stuff that's in it.  I'm just thrilled that he seems to be adjusting so well. 

What do you guys think of "themed" Kid's Bedrooms?  Easy way to decorate or a little too much?   We were considering race cars and rain forest before settling on the old robots.   Are themes too expected?  I already want to start redecorating... Good thing we have a dozen more rooms to get to first. 

#92- What a Sham

Pillow shams might be the biggest sham of all time.  I'm going to tell you a secret... they are just pillow cases. It's true! Just a pillow case with a little pocket in the back.  But somewhere along the line people got the idea to call them a "sham" instead of a "case", and somehow we all thought it was reasonable for Pottery Barn to charge $79 for one. 

So when it came to the finishing touches on Ryder's big boy bed, I knew I was going to have to do a little DIY. (Who's got 2 thumbs and hates to pay for over priced home goods?  This guy.) If you remember from this post, I bought this awesome robot duvet from Land of Nod:

I love how the orange throw blanket and pillow sham break up the white and add color to the room.  But at $160 for the twin blanket and one sham (Nope, that's not a joke, true story), it seemed a little ridiculous for just a pop of color.  So back when we were still living in The Bungalow and I was desperate to get started on projects for The Lodge,  I looked at a number of different stores for something similar, but could never find the right shade, style or size.  I struck out on about my seventh attempt, this time at Ikea, and left the bedding department borderline crabby.  Lucky for me I stopped in the "As Is" section on the way out, and found this little bad boy:

A big, soft felt, orange & gray blanket. Perfect. I'm not going to lie to you, the strange cut out circles around the border said, "No wonder I'm in the As Is section," but the $5 price tag screamed, "Put me in your cart and figure it out later."  So I did. 

We went home, put Ryder down for a nap, and I went to work.  I started by cutting off the ugly circle perimeter with my super sharp, fabric scissors.  I bent back the trimmed off portions as I cut as a guide to keep a straight, even line.

Then I cut off a piece the width of the blanket, and 36" high and set this aside for the sham.  Since this blanket was for a double bed, and Ry's bed is only a twin, that still left plenty of blanket left for a nice throw.  Then I used my old scraps as a guide and cut a curve at each corner.

This might have been the easiest sewing job ever, since the blanket was made of a super soft, thick felt, I didn't have to worry about any fraying of the edges or hems.  I simply stitched a simple zig-zag about 1/4" from the edge for a finished look.  The orange thread looked great on the reversed gray side too.  

Next it was time for the sham.  I took the piece I set aside, and cut it into 3 pieces, one 36" x 24" for the front, and 2 that equaled 36" x 24" when put together with a 3" overlap.  It doesn't matter exactly the lengths of the pieces, unless you want the fold on the back to be directly in the center, then cut them each 21" x 24".  

Here are my three pieces, with one back piece flipped to the reverse gray side to show you how they overlap.

I lined up my 2 back pieces overlapping so that they were the 36" wide, and placed my front piece perfectly lined up on top of them, right sides together.  I pinned the edges to hold it all together, and trimmed the curves around each corner as I did with the blanket.  Then I simply stitched all around the perimeter, about 1/4" from the edge.  When pulled the fabric back right-side-out, I had a big orange pocket.  

Then all that was left was to pin a line 3" from the edge all around the sham, and then sewed along that line to create the "flap" around the sham.  Here's how it looked from the back so that you can see the pocket.

At this point we were about 1:30 into nap time, and I knew we had about 30 minutes left, so I got a little cocky.  I had yards of orange and gray scraps, and had a vision of creating a robot throw pillow.  What I didn't have was fabric for the pillow, but I was feeling pretty thrifty after only spending $5 on both a pillow sham and throw blanket, so I dug through an old box of Ryder's baby blankets and found this little guy:

It was also felt, which I didn't want to over-do, but it was the right color, right size, and FREE.  Plus, Ryder has a much larger version of this same blanket that he still uses, this was just a smaller piece that came with it that had always ended up on the bottom of the drawer.  I did a little Edward Scissor Hands with the scraps, and came up with this:

I pinned the pieces on and stitched around all the borders for a nice clean edge.  I positioned the robot on the bottom half of the blanket, so that the other half could be used for the back of the pillow.  Once the robot was all sewn on, I folded the blanket in half, right sides together, and sewed all around the edge, leaving a 3" opening in the bottom to pull it right side out and stuff.  Since the name of the game was free on this little guy, I took the stuffing out of an old throw pillow that I knew we wouldn't use anymore.  Once stuffed, I just hand stitched together the opening.  Like clockwork, the moment I finished the last stitch Ryder woke up, so I brought him downstairs where I had laid out the finished product:

The orange looks much brighter here then it actually is, mostly because my camera's settings have it out for me.  In reality the color is much closer to the orange sham and throw from Land of Nod than "Hunter Orange."

He was so excited, that I couldn't keep him off the blankets to take a picture.  On second thought, the photo is much better with his happy little face in it. 

So that's the story on how I made a pillow sham, throw blanket and throw pillow out of one $5 As Is Ikea blanket.  Have you guys ever found any treasures in the As Is department?  I once purchased a $25 Mystery Cart there, and was thrilled with over $200 worth of great items!  I don't know if you've ever purchased a Mystery Cart before, but it may be the secret to happiness.

#87- Here's the Story, of Some Ugly Furniture...

Movin' on up from The Bungalow to The Lodge means not only a bunch of new style and home improvement projects, but 1000 more square feet.  And you know what that means... we're going to need some more furniture.  So instead of making over Ryder's existing nursery furniture to work with his new big boy bed, we decided to leave the nursery furniture as a set and come up with a new grouping for his room.  And that's where this gang comes in...

This motley crew of items is the "Some thing old, something new, something borrowed..." of toddler rooms.  The dresser in the top left corner came from my parents house years ago, and then I shamefully tried to spray paint it white well before I learned the lessons of furniture refinishing.  The top right corner is the new rocket shelf I built with the help of my Dad and this tutorial from Ana White.  I intentionally left the back pieces off to make painting easier.  I forgot to take a shot of the cube in the lower left corner before prepping it, but it's an old storage cube that Jason used to use as a nightstand back in his bachelor days.  And finally my parents generously passed on to me the head and foot boards from my brother's old bed back when he was a kiddo. This group may not be pretty, but it was cheap.  Everything but the Rocket Shelf, which I spent $27 on lumber for, was free.  Which is my favorite four letter word by the way.  

I started by prepping all the surfaces, which means sanding, sanding again, and when you think you're done, sand it one more time with 220 grit.  Honestly, patience and I are like oil and water, but I learned my lesson from the "spray paint it with a cheap can of white" fiasco that the most important step to furniture refinishing is the prep.  For the dresser I started with 60 grit sandpaper on a hand held power sander to really blast off the old layers of paint.  Since the paint was cheap spray paint and already chipping, it came off pretty easy.

This old guy was pretty roughed up, so I also went through and filled some of the cracks in the wood with some wood filler and sanded it smooth once it dried.  Here's the hot mess I started with below.

I used the same technique on the bed to remove the top layer of varnish and years of scratches and dents.  The cube shelf also needed a good sanding since it is particle board and I really needs to create a rough surface for the paint to adhere to.  As you can see from the close up here this bed has seen better days...

Then I went back to all the pieces with a super smooth 220 grit on a sanding block by hand.  I spent a lot of time making sure that every surface was smooth as my hubby's bald head, because smooth finish in prep means a smooth final finish.

Then it was time for the primer.  I go with Kilz 2 Latex primer, because it is water based, low odor, blocks stains and you can top it with either a water based or oil based product.  Its a slow process getting a smooth, thin coat on all four pieces of furniture, but in the end I had this:

Don't judge the mess by the way- we were moving, okay?  Step Three added a nice, rich charcoal gray paint to the dresser, bed and portions of the rocket shelf.  My Hubs is always saying, "we need to work smarter, not harder," so after priming one side of the bed, waiting for it to dry, then flipping and priming the other side, I rigged up a little solution with some extra 2x4s I had laying around to keep this baby upright. 

I may or may not have done a little swagger through the garage after shooting this photo.  Sometimes you have to celebrate the minor successes in DIY.  I ended up needing 2 coats of the charcoal gray to achieve a nice even coat, leaving me with this:

Step Four added a punch of color with some bright orange on the rocket and the night stand.  Since I only needed a small quantity, I bought a sample of orange for just $2.69.  That plus my quart of gray for $10.99 and some sand paper kept this total refinishing project under $20.  And if you're doing the math that's $47 total for all of the furniture in Ryder's Room! (A little more swagger.) I used some leftover white from a previous project to put a nice crisp coat on the shelves of the rocket.  In tribute to Billy Mays, BAM- I was left with this:

Step Five is much less visually exciting, and really tedious- the protective finish.  After a couple frustrating attempts with oil based poly in the past, I'm a huge fan of Minwax Water-based Polycrylic.  It has no odor, goes on really smooth, dries quickly and cleans up with soap and water.  I fought my intense desire to just finish this project up quickly and spent the time to put multiple, thin coats on so that all my hard work would stand the test of time.  Luckily each coat dries in about 2 hours so it goes quickly.  In between each coats I made sure to sand lightly with 220 grit sand paper, and remove all dust with tacky cloth.  In the end I put on three coats, four on the most used surfaces like the top of the dresser, shelves of the rocket, and all over the cube since it is just particle board and is the most likely to scratch.  I waited a full 24 hours after the last coat before putting the pieces together and adding the hardware. 

Then this group, had somehow formed a family.

That's the way they all became... 

Okay, sorry.  Little tangent there.  Here's the final result:

All-in-all the garage at The Bungalow was out of commission for a week, but I think it was totally worth it since we were able to move in with this furniture all ready to go and are going to be able to get our little man settled in his new space quickly.  I'll post pics of the furniture all set up in his room once I have a moment to clear some boxes out of the way.
More on that soon.

#91-Come on Ryder Light My Fire

When Ryder was born, as a gift from one of my college friends, we received this beautiful lamp from Dwell Studios at Target.

I love it's clean lines and modern style.  It was the perfect fit to my little angel's room.  And then my little angel grew up into a little tornado, and one day I came into his room to find his lamp on the floor, and his adorable little foot kicked through the side. (The shade was made of a lightweight plastic.)  Thankfully he wasn't hurt, but the lamp was DOA.  I peeled off the broken shade and was left with this.

When life hands you lemons.... blah, blah, blah.  To save some cash I decided to make a lamp for Ryder's new room.  And to save even more cash I decided to use a material that I already had on hand, the cloth bag that his sheets came in.

It seemed like such a waste for this cheapthrifty DIYer to let that perfectly matching fabric just go to waste.  So I carefully cut the seams and was left with this:

Then I put the lamp back together, and measured the width around the circle, and the height.

In the original lamp, the supported circle part actually went down, and the stiff poly-styrene that the shade was made of was able to stand on it's own, with just the wire circle at the top to help it hold the shape.  My fabric wouldn't be able to stand on it's own though, so I flipped the supported circle upwards, and used the other circle on the bottom.  Once the fabric was cut, I ironed it smooth, and folded down one edge and ironed a nice clean seam.

I started with the plain circle, and glued one of the top edges of the fabric around it with my trusty glue gun.  By placing my glue line just 1/4" from the top of the fabric, I had just enough to wrap over the wire to make a nice clean seam.  There may or may not have been a bit of cursing from burning my fingers with hot glue, but let's be honest, it's a rare DIY project that doesn't involve at least one curse word.  (Which is why most DIY occurs at nap or bed time.)  Once I had it attached all the way around, I placed it on the lamp, and began glue the other edge to the top circle.

In order to pull it tight, I had to go back and glue the bottom circle to the lamp base.  My glue gun failed me here though and wasn't strong enough, so I pulled out the big guns- super glue.  Here's a close up of that edge wrapped around the top of the wire.

Surprisingly this project went pretty much as planned, and when I was done, I had this:

It's not perfect, but looks pretty darn good for a completely free lamp. Or as my Mom would say, it's "better than a kick in the pants."  I love how this fabric has a lot of white in it with all the coordinating colors so it will stand out from the blue walls in the room and the bright orange night stand it will be sitting on.  I can't wait to get it in the room and all set up!

Any one else ever make their own lamps?  Apparently Martha did a show on lamp making recently so it's all the rage, and online stores like The Lamp Shop that sell poly-styrene are going gang busters.  I'm not sure I have the imagination for it though, so I'd love to see what other, more creative people can do.