The Nursery of Little Martha

I know many of you are waiting to see this baby’s room, so I’ll keep it short. A few weeks ago my friends Allison and Chris adopted a baby, and I immediately sprung into action to help Al plan a nursery. Here is what we ended up with. I think it’s a pretty cute room for a pretty cute girl.

We didn’t have a lot of time to plan, so most of the items in the room were sourced locally or ordered somewhere online that offered quick shipping. I arrived in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon and had to leave Tuesday morning, so we had a tight schedule to get the room and crib painted, hang shades/curtains, and assemble everything. I would just like you to know that, although we achieved our goal, tomorrow I have to have my gall bladder removed. THE SACRIFICES I MAKE.

The crib is a Jenny Lind, which we painted a color called “Bumblebee” from Lowes’s Valspar spray paint line. (Dear Valspar, Your spray paint color selection is fantastic.) There was a communications mix-up between me and our workers (Vince) at home base, resulting in the purchase of 12 cans of spray paint requiring trips to 3 different Lowes stores. The tale of Vince and the Spray Paint is best told by Allison, so I’ll leave that to her. Maybe she’ll tell it in the comments.

The crib bedding and lamps are from Target. The glider is from a place called, I am not joking, “New Baby Products.” The yellow Ikat pillow is from the awesome Fabricadabra, and thank you Raina for that tip! The dresser is from Babies R Us, and we love it because it doesn’t look like baby furniture.

The rugs, bookcase (Expedit, what what!), and white grommet curtains are all Ikea. The uglydolls are from Heliotrope Home. The pink chair is Vitra from Hive Modern. The most excellent cardboard moose head, which took me approximately 40 years to put together, is from Uncommon Goods. And finally, the walls are “Atlantic Fog” from the discontinued Martha Stewart line at Sherwin Williams.

I wish I had gotten better pictures of the bed, and the room from other angles, but we woke up in the middle of a HURRICANE, so there was very little time and even less light. I did get a shot of one of my favorite things in the room, the Mason jar full of twinkle lights, which was Al’s inspired idea.

Welcome home, Marlo. I hope you love your new room.

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Living Room: Sneak Peek

This is actually my Bench Monday submission for today, but it’s also a tiny glimpse of our newly painted living room, the last room in the house to be painted. It looks worlds better. Dear Super White, I love you forever.

More details and pictures soon.

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The Results

Y’all must have been voting it up for me in the bedroom contest, because I won the Readers’ Choice Award! That’s right! Power to the people! Thank you so much for voting, both from the link here and on Twitter. Also, thanks to my ladies over at Design Crisis, for their aggressive Pro-AB campaign.

I was also given an Honorable Mention by the judges (Dear Kelly Wearstler: CALL ME), which is doubly awesome. See the results, and the super fabulous winners, right here.

Now everybody go paint something Down Pipe!

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Overwhelmedness(iosity)

Oh my goodness, it’s been a banner week here at Chao Central. First of all, the temperature has dropped below 75 at least 3 times. Secondly, one of my favorite blogs, Creature Comforts, did a super sweet post on our house. THIRD OF ALL, I will be doing a guest post on one of my OTHER favorite blogs (Karly and Erin, what what!) very very soon.

FINALLY, and this is going to blow your mind, I am a finalist in this All The Best Bedroom Contest. I mean, how sick are you of hearing about my bedroom? I know, me too. However. Not only is it an honor to be chosen, but your favorite and mine, the crazy awesome Kelly Wearstler, is one of the judges. This makes me squee. A lot. Y’all, the other contestants are so good. They are obviously professionals. So I cannot even tell you how happy it made me to find out I was in the top 12. As a bonus, there is a Reader’s Choice poll you should go vote in. (For me.) (I mean, you don’t have to. Only if you want to.) (Dewit.)

Talk about an embarrassment of riches. I am the luckiest girl in the blogosphere!!!!!!1!

And now, here are 2 more pictures of my bedroom. YAY!

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Our Bedroom: Before and After

I don’t have much to say about this except 1) I’m so happy with the result, 2) “Down Pipe” is my new favorite color, and 3) I am very tired.

New things bought for the room: Paint, roller shades, and throw pillows. I bought the antlers on eBay.

If you have any questions I’ll try to answer them!

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I have decorating ADD

The burlap shades have been shunted to the side for the time being. I can’t decide on a trim fabric or color, and it’s making me upset. So I’m putting them on hold. It’s ok, though, because I’ve decided that our bedroom must be painted now, now, now. This is all Abigail Ahern’s fault. She paints lots of her walls this gorgeous chalky black blue gray color that I have fallen in love with, and now I must have it somewhere in my house. The bedroom — which hasn’t been painted since before we moved into this house — wins.

I am not happy with this bedroom for many reasons. First of all, because the curtains don’t cover the edge of my window trim, which is a most egregious error committed by my husband when he measured the curtain rods. But most of all, because of that dumb Ikea locker in the corner. It holds our TiVo and DVD player and other technology, and every day when I see it I am filled with rage. The locker is cute — on your porch, in your hall, in your bathroom. Not in my bedroom. I want it out. The new walls will help me with this problem, I’m sure of it.

This is the color:

Whee! Just looking at it makes me happy. And the name! Down Pipe. That’s right. It’s awesome and dirty at the same time.

Watch this space.

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Hi hi hi!

Hello there, Apartment Therapists. Welcome to hashai. I never update, and when I do it’s usually a disappointment. I’m glad to see you here, anyway!

(Just kidding about the disappointment.)

My next project is our guest bedroom-cum-tv room. It’s about 85% finished, and I’m currently working on the shades for the 6 windows the room contains. If anyone knows where to find some fabulous velvet ribbon in this specific color of green I cannot describe, then I wish you would tell me.

Sneak Peek

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What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Before

My 5 year old child (she is actually 14 but that hurts to admit) is going to high school in a few weeks, so I decided she needed an all new big girl room design for her new big girl life. She went to a 3-week camp in mid-July, at which point Vince and I began working furiously to paint, refinish the floors, and redecorate her room. The whole thing was a big surprise, so I spent the last 3 weeks being alternately excited about the whole thing, and nervous that she would hate it. She didn’t. A lot.

Before

Admittedly, these are some awful before pictures (I had already started slinging stuff around, and the bed was originally against the opposite wall), but you get the idea. The walls/floor are the biggest improvements. They were in pretty bad shape.

I got most of the furniture at Ikea. Accessories/rugs are from various sources — Crate & Barrel, Urban Outfitters, eBay, thrifted.

After

After

After

More pictures on Flickr.

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Attn: Identification Geniuses

Who can tell me about the wallpaper in this adorable bathroom? I cannot seem to identify it, nor can I remember where I found the photo. Also, can someone please send over a small cast iron tub painted red? No reason.

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A Homemade Life

Am I the last person to read this? I think so. But I’m fairly sure I’m the first person to read it with a yogurt snack and Diet Coke.

I’m going to need Molly to go ahead and write another book, because I finished this one way too quickly. It is excellent. I cried. Then I made a list of the recipes in the book that I wanted to try first. I can’t wait to get started.

Buy it here.

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