Logan, a brilliant, adroable, and strong-minded three year-old little girl, loves the color orange, as her thoughtful Mother told me. So we planned her room by choosing fabrics highlighting orange with some hot pink thrown in the mix. We used most of these fun pillows for a pillow nook area for her to hang out and read her books. I found the polkadot buckets to use for storing toys. Organizing and designing her bookshelves made them more practical for Logan and aestethically pleasing to the eye. I couldn't resist using her old hot pink cowboy boots as a design feature! They are adorable and tie in one of our colors, hot pink. We custom made a duvet for her full size bed. One fabric on each side with a green polkadot welting. When we first showed Logan her finished room, she immediately dove into her bed. The bright colors beckoned her to smoosh her face into her comfy setup. Now, her Mother's chair from high school serves as a night/bookstand next to her bed. Even the bottom rungs can be used to stack books! Along with books, Logan loves animals, which probably has something to do with her Mom being an Internal Medicine Veterinarian and her Father being a Wildlife Biologist. The room then had to have lots of animals displayed. The animal wall decals above the bed were a temporary addition due to the below explanation. ![]() Fortunately for the family, in the middle of designing Logan's room, a house came on the market on the street that they always wanted to live. They bid on it and the house was their's. Lauren, the Mom, did a brilliant thing when submitting the purchasing contract. She wrote a letter to the homeowner detailing how her daughters love animals and always have dreamed of living on that street so that they could have the space to one day have goats, chickens and horses. Turns out the homeowner raised her children in that home from a young age and her children had enjoyed raising animals on the property. Even though, Lauren's bid wasn't the highest, because of the letter they got the house. It almost seems like a made for TV movie, but it actually happened! The point of this story is that we didn't do everything that we were going to do in Logan's room because she is moving. So instead of putting the above wall decal purchased for her room in this home, it's going into her new room. Of course, it will have Logan's name inside the bubbles instead. (Purchased at www.RosenberryRooms.com) I also designed a fabric covered cornice board covered in Michael Miller's Pretty Bird Spice fabric to coordinate with her custom made orange pindot fabric window panels, but that we are saving for the new house as well since the window in her new bedroom is of a different size. So back to what we did do... ![]() Her dresser needed a cute mirror hanging above it so that each morning the mirror could respond to her that she is the fairest maiden of them all. Using ribbon, I hung the mirror from a picture hanger. In addition, that corner needed a light. I found the mirror at Colorado's Antique Gallery on Broadway just north of W. Powers Ave. and the lamp, I purchased awhile ago at the Village Antique Mall on Corona and 8th Ave. knowing that I would need it for a little girl's room one day. It used to look like the picture to the left. I love taking this style of lamp and modernizing it by painting it one color. I used Navajo White Spray Paint Satin Finish, and in a well ventilated area and using a face mask, I updated the lamp. The funnest addition to the room was designing Logan's Creative Area! I started with a magnetic board that Logan owned and painted it orange, of course. We purchased a dry erase board and a corkboard. Then transformed the corkboard into a fabric covered corkboard that matched the welting on her duvet and pillows (refer to DIY Fabric Bulletin Board Blog on 10/5/11 if you would like to learn how). With the addition of ladybug and white rose pushpins and a pad of paper with a clipboard attached, the area was ready to be put together. Lauren wanted to surprise Sage, her other daughter, with a bulletin board as well. Both are pictured below. Since they will be selling the house, I recommended waiting to do this, but there is one more step needed to complete the creative area. To ensure that the boards stay in one place, use doublesided sticky tape or foam along the back sides of the boards to adhere to the wall. Since Logan's room was finished, her Mom told me that she finds Logan up on her desk just touching her ladybug pushpins; that she wants to sleep with her comfortable bolster pillow every night; and she overheard Logan tell her friend to come see her "pretty room." When Logan saw her room for the first time, her smile from ear to ear while she literally leaped into the air and landed on her bed, signified the moment that I knew another client was happy. Mission accomplished.
0 Comments
![]() I adopted a beautiful little Cattle Dog/ Rat Terrier mix from Boulder Humane Society back in April of this year. I named her Scout after the central character in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." Naming is power; giving the named the start of an identity. Scout was a puzzle. I first thought that I would name her Zoeey, but that didn't fit. I always loved the idea of Brooklyn and tried to make it stick, but it just didn't fit her. As I was organizing books, I ran across one of my favorites, "To Kill a Mockingbird." Immediately, I knew that she was and always would be Scout -- strong-willed, confident, smart, sassy, empowered, loving, and kind. I only knew her for a couple of days when I discovered her name, but she is every bit of those descriptives. I adopted her so that my other dog, Oliver, would have another in his clan; to keep him company and to be his playmate. She is half his size, but can take him down in two seconds flat and make him wimper. Scout just turned two years old yesterday. When I adopted her, she was about ten pounds lighter than her current 28 pounds. She lost ten pounds on her trip from Tulsa, where she sat in a pound, to Boulder. Her picture on the website had her toungue sticking out. Of course I couldn't resist that sassiness. We took Oliver to meet Scout to make sure that they would get along. A bit of indifference the first day lead to them being inseparable by day two. She has been a wonderful addition to the family and we love her tremendously. From day one she moved in acting as if she had lived here all of her life. I couldn't imagine our home without her. In my life, I have had the privelage of adopting four dogs all from animal shelters. They all have been the best, most loving and sweetest dogs. Every year, over four million cats and dogs are euthanized. Adopting these animals from area shelters and spaying or neutering your animals are two ways to address this problem. If you are lucky, you will get your very own Scout! ![]() When designing Logan's room recently, my three year-old client, I suggested to Mom to extend her little girl's "art" area beyond her pint size table and chair to a full on artistic station. Upon discussion, we concluded that Logan would get the most use out of bulletin, magnetic and dry erase boards. Logan already owned a magnetic board so I painted that orange, her favorite color. I purchased a dry erase board and for the bulletin board, I purchased the store bought framed board seen on the left I wanted the board to be personalized for Logan and for the board to coordinate with the colors in her room so I decided to create a fabric bulletin board. This particular bulletin board was papered over on the backside. Thus, I had two options. One, I could cut a piece of fabric, glue it to the board and then use ribbon along the four edges to give it a finished look. The problem with this method is that the glue can create bumps and result in an unsmooth look. It also looks more "homemade" than the alternative. The alternative option, the one that I chose, is to wrap the fabric around the cork. This method includes the following steps: 1) Tear off the paper on the backside. The backside of the board is then exposed and is contained by metal clips. 2) Using pliers, remove the multiple two prong metal clips that are driven into the wood frame. Once the clips are removed, the bulletin board pops out easily. 3) Choose a piece of fabric that at least allows for one inch of fabric to show on the back side of the board when it is wrapped. I used a fat quarter of fabric (normally a sample size of fabric measuring 18" x 22"). I chose the same fabric that I used for the welting around Logan's comforter and pillows. 4) Drape the fabric over the front of the board, centering the fabric and wrapping the extra length around the backside of the board so that the fabric shows about one inch all the way around the backside. Make sure that the fabric is taut so that no air bubbles will be visible on the front of the bulletin board. 5) Using Velcro Iron On Tape, cut a strip long enough for each of the four sides. 6) Wrap the square like a present with each corner of fabric folded over, again make sure the fabric is taut. Place a strip of the Velcro Iron On Tape directly onto the backside of the cork. Pull the fabric taught over the strip and iron the fabric with a hot iron, making sure that you are keeping the hot iron on the fabric and not on the cork material. The material will adhere to the Velcro Strip and the Velcro Strip will adhere to the cork. Repeat for the three other strips. 7) Now, your fabric is secured to the board and the front of the board now displays a beautiful fabric instead of just cork. Next, insert the fabric covered board back into the frame. 8) Secure the board with the metal clips. Using a small hammer, gently hammer the pronged clips back into the wood frame from the spot that they were dislodged. Secure all four sides. 9) If you want you can repaper the backside using butcher block paper and hot glue or you can just leave it exposed. 10) Now, use pretty pushpins and have fun! I will display pictures of the art station on the blog dedicated to Logan's Room, so stay tuned! |
Cathy SchuberthI am a lover of life! As an eco-friendly interior designer and a social worker, my passion is to create fun, harmonious and healthy communities. I will be sharing design ideas and projects; green living advice; entertaining tips along with new recipes; tools for personal growth; travel ideas; restaurant and out on the town information; and so much more. Please feel free to send me ideas on topics that you would like to see. I'm excited to have you join us! Archives
October 2011
CategoriesInterior Design
Green Living Entertaining Recipes Personal Growth Travel Restaurants Events Outdoors |