Projects

A Bright and Cheerful room for our Little Man

A 2nd birthday party based on the book, Little Blue Truck!

My oldest daughter’s room is very neutral, with lots of white, beige and gold accents (photos below) – colors I naturally gravitate toward when decorating. When deciding on a theme and color scheme for our second daughter’s nursery, I knew a few things – I wanted to do something bright, in contrast of Isla’s neutral space, and I did not want to have a typical nursery nursery. I was wandering through Target a few months ago and I saw a brightly color Oh Joy pillow and knew immediately I’d found the inspiration for the room. I loved the pairing of the bright yellow, turquoise, blush pink and neon coral and thought I could have some fun designing a room around those colors.
You can read more details on my blog here!

My daughter’s favorite activity is to get messy, so I thought what better theme for her 3rd birthday than an Art Party where she and all her friends could go all out and get really messy!  Party goers enjoyed painting small and large canvases, as well as wood and paper craft activities, and artist themed food and drinks.  Attendees were instructed to “dress for mess!”

This room was for a pink loving little girl named Brooke who’s family had just moved into a new home.  They saw this as an opportunity to properly transition Brooke into a big girl room, finally parting ways with the crib and nursery odds and ends and investing in some pieces that would grow with her for the next many years.
I like to keep as much open floor space in a child’s room as possible for play.  I suggested we pull the doors off one of the closets (she has 2 in her room!) and move her existing changing table/dresser into it.  We painted the back of the closet the same shade as the ceiling and her old changing table got new knobs and a coat of glossy white paint.  It is the sweetest little vanity area with vintage brass butterflies all aflutter.  I had a few of these in my hoarding stash and we slowly amassed more for the nook.  The grouping of them like this is just so fun!

www.charmingincharlotte.com
A vintage glam nursery for our first born little girl that we wanted to be sweet and feminine yet cozy and inviting.

After having two girls, I was very excited about the prospect of finally creating a “boy” nursery! I knew immediately that I wanted to do a classic light blue color, since our home already has a plethora of pink and purple.

For the past couple of years there was no real organization or theme to the playroom.  Everything was just kind of thrown in there and it was always a mess and not fun to look at.  It got to a point that we didn’t even know what we had!  My two year old just started preschool recently and I wanted to mimic the structure (and fun!) of her new school in her playroom.
First I scoured Pinterest and of course Project Nursery for ideas.  I knew I wanted an art section and a reading section.  What was the most fun to put together was her little cafe area (cafe idea found here).  Instead of printing and framing the menus, I used chalkboard and a chalk marker to create my own (please excuse my poor handwriting).  I purchased the letters on the wall from Michaels in white and painted them a fun turquoise color.  I wanted to keep the room gender neutral as we would like to have more children.  Most everything in the room was either purchased at Target or Michaels Craft Store.
I love seeing my daughters art hanging on the wall and so does she!  It’s the true focal point of the playroom.  This was such a fun room to put together!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle First Birthday Party!

First birthdays are always a huge celebration in our family, and keeping with the tradition, I had a ton of fun planning and crafting for our little one’s first birthday. I chose a birdie theme, and the colors were coral, peach, a sea foam blue and gold. It was a beautiful day celebration our last beautiful daughter!

A mint, pink and coral vintage chic nursery for our baby girl Harper. After going into preterm labor unexpectedly and delivering at 27 weeks, life was became a bit chaotic. Creating a beautiful nursery became the one thing I felt could still turn out as planned. After visiting my baby girl in the NICU, I would come home and paint (and paint, and paint), plan, and work on things to create a lovely room for her to come home to. It was my therapy.

Decorating Carter’s nursery was a very exciting time for me.  I love to decorate and this project was so dear to my heart.  I wanted his nursery to be a place that could transition very easily.  I didn’t want anything overly trendy or “babyish”.  Yet, I wanted it to be a room that he would love as much as I do. It does have some newer trendier things but I also incorporated some refurbished and traditional items.

It was pretty exciting to prepare a peaceful and neutral room for our little boy that is coming soon. We wanted the style of the room to grow with him.
White paneling were installed to warm the room with pale gray paint for the walls. We chose white furniture and accents of color were incorporated to get a happy feel.

Although we live in Upstate New York, my husband is from San Diego and I wanted to pay homage to his hometown and a beloved activity of his: surfing. I didn’t want to go overboard with the theme and be too beachy or nautical, since I want this room to grow with my baby boy. The result was “classy coastal”. There are some beachy elements and some nautical elements. I love to play around with patterns and textures so you can see that throughout this room. The first two things I chose that inspired the whole nursery were the Serena and Lily wallpaper, and the surf car print from Minted. I hope you love looking at these photos even half as much as I loved creating it!
 
*All photos taken by Michelle Lange Photography
**I’ve tried to link all items below but some were not available online

My daughter’s second birthday was coming up and wanted to make it extra special for her. So I created an Under the Sea themed party for her with the help of my sister Vanessa at Amaya Party Productions.

Have you seen those amazingly made over playhouses on your screen lately?  You know, the ones that are nicer than your own home?  So have I, but not in my own backyard.  We purchased the playhouse almost two years ago for our daughters second birthday.  After much love and (A LOT) of labor, the house was put together with no extra frills or details and was placed in our backyard.   We had a great time playing and letting our imaginations take over.  Now almost two years later, the playhouse no longer looked loved.  The elements had gotten the best of it and the house was being overrun by the awful W’s.  Wasps and wolf spiders (eek!).  The house was just begging for a make over, and after all, I do love a good project.
After thoroughly cleaning the house, I was able to persuade my husband to help take it apart and move it inside.  Thankfully, after taking some measurements, it would fit in the playroom and so we moved it in there.   Because of it’s size, I chose to keep the colors light and bright.  I started with a good primer and brushed painted the entire house.  I then went to my go to white paint, Benjamin Moore Simply White, (this is my trim, door, and cabinet color in my house) and gave the house three good coats.  I chose a pretty blush pink for the door and top window shutters and spray painted the phone, phone holder, and planter boxes in black.  The play kitchen and food shelves fit perfectly on the back wall with two additional shelves installed above the kitchen for storage.  Since the playroom can sometimes be a little dark, I opted to keep the window areas bare and not reinstall the plastic windows that came with the house.
To complete the space I moved the art desk and it’s crayons and pencils to the opposite wall and painted the roof on the dollhouse in the blush pink to match the playhouse.  Everything else in the playroom was able to stay the same (sources all listed here).  The project took a full five days to complete and we are all enjoying having it inside.  After a much needed makeover the playhouse is now loved again!

I wanted something slightly girly with not too much pink for my baby girl’s room.  This room used to be our “office” and the walls were already painted this color.  I worked around the wall color to avoid painting again and it turned out just as I had hoped.  This room is pretty small and her closet is on the tiny side as well.  We knew we would need some additional storage, so we decided to add the floating shelves.  The baskets store things like bibs, socks, shoes and extra blankets.  I did a lot of planning for my boys’ nursery , so I had to give her room just as much love and thought.  It’s such a calm, relaxing space and I hope it grows with her.
I linked all of the products I could (on a mobile device – scroll all the way down, past the comments for the links; on a desktop, links are to the right of the photos).  Here are details on the rest:

Hairpin Table – found at At Home but replaced the top with a wooden circle from Lowe’s and stained with Minwax Special Walnut (this same stain was used in all other projects in the nursery too)
Dresser Knobs – Hobby Lobby spray painted gold
Name String Art – hand lettered by me and made using this tutorial
Other Artwork – made by me.  Floral artwork made using these vector images.
Lumbar Pillow and Boppy Cover – made by me and my mom using this fabric
Blanket – made by a friend
Quilt – made by my grandma using this tutorial
Footstool – made by me using this tutorial
Banners over mirror and above crib – made by me using paint chips and twine
Changing Pad Cover and Crib Skirt – made by my mom using a sheet from Walmart

I wanted to create a peaceful, dreamy and cozy room for my baby girl (not born yet, my due date is in august). Something modern, pure and simple, with few touches of bright colors…
I had a little space challenge in this room that is quite small (8 feet X 9 feet) so I made a diaper changing station in the wardrobe.

I designed this coral and gold nursery for our second daughter, Lucy. I knew I wanted to keep it simple and affordable, but also wanted to make a space that was warm and invited Lucy to be herself.

Creating a bright and happy space for my sweet baby boy!