Big Boy Room Reading Corner - The Plan

I often go through very, very, long phases where I get absolutely nothing accomplished because I get paralyzed by what-ifs. 

What if it looks dumb?!?

What if it ends up in that random pile of junk in the basement in a few months' time?!?

What if I can't do it?!?

What if I spend too much time and energy on it?!?

What if I waste money on it?!?

What if other people don't like it?!?

What if I don't like it?!?

I'm trying to face my irrational fears and come up with a plan to finish up Cooper's big boy room. It's been a bit of a challenge since I decided to work with the existing gray-green, striped walls.

The room is long and narrow with oddly placed windows. Also, I have Cooper's twin bed placed in the corner (so he doesn't roll off) when I would eventually like to have it more in the middle of the room.

Here is the overall look I am going for in his new room:

I've decided that one step toward finishing the room off would be to create a little reading nook in one of the awkward corners. I'm envisioning giant wall letters, book ledges, and a great big bean bag chair.

I splurged on the wall letters awhile back. They are from Restoration Hardware Baby and Child and I waited until they were on sale before I purchased them. Whenever I buy anything from the U.S. I always wait for a good sale (at least 20% off) so that the difference covers the shipping, taxes, and duties that come along with ordering from Canada. Each letter is about two feet tall, metal, and painted a dark, navy blue. Fun, right?

Extra-Large Vintage Metal Letters - Restoration Hardware Baby and Child

I purchased four letters to spell 'COOP' and for fun, I decided to wrap them around the corner instead of having them all along the same, long wall.  

My plan is to build two book ledges that run underneath the wall letters (also around the corner). I know that book ledges have been done a thousand and one times. However, I do love the look of them, and I want to encourage lots of reading, so I'm just going for it. 

Inspiration pictures, you ask? Here are a few favourites.

Source - Daffodil Design

Source - Boston Globe

I finally found a giant bean bag chair that would be perfect for the space. It's called the Navy + Cement Boxter Plaid Beanbag from Pottery Barn Teen. But the shipping. Oh, the shipping.

Navy + Cement Boxter Plaid Beanbag Chair - Pottery Barn Teen

I thought I completely lucked out when the slipcover went on sale 30% off from $99 to $69. (They won't ship the whole bean bag chair internationally, only the cover.) I was going to buy the slipcover and just do the insert / stuffing myself. But by the time I converted the price to Canadian dollars, added the shipping fee, factored in the taxes and duties, the total for JUST THE SLIPCOVER came to.....

$354.07!!!!!

That is absolutely ridiculous and there is no way that I would pay that crazy amount of money. 

So, I surfed and shopped and surfed and shopped (all in the wee hours of the night might I add) and finally found a bean bag chair pattern and some fabric that I think would work! 

The bean bag chair will look like this:

Rollie Pollie Bean Bag Chair

And the fabric that I've chosen looks like this:

Premier Prints Swiss Dots Navy

I'm giving myself a deadline of December 24th to get this all done. I'm thinking that a giant bean bag chair would be a great gift for Coopaloops to find under the tree on Christmas morning. :)

Life Lately

The Coop-ster:

The Win-ster:

Daily shenanigans with these two have been keeping me mighty busy.

;)

Charcoal Painted Exterior Door Love

I'm back! And I tackled a project! And it only took me seven days to paint a door! It's a world record!

:)

In my last post I asked for your help to decide whether I should paint our new exterior side door white or charcoal. Many of you weighed in (thanks so much!) and I'm pretty sure every single comment and email suggested....

.... charcoal! 

And you were right. The charcoal looks great. (Well, except for the bubbles and discolouration that comes along with painting an exterior door in 7 degree Celsius temperatures during a lightning storm.)(Nothing that an extra coat of paint in the spring can't fix.)(The perfectionist in me is cringing right now.)(Moving on.)

Before I share the after picture, let's take a look at how our side entry looked a few years back. 

Yup, pretty awful. After some sanding, primer, paint, and elbow grease it started to look a little bit better. 

It was a challenge to find a light fixture that would still leave enough clearance for the storm door to open. We ended up choosing a fixture from a local lighting store that was on clearance. Alex was probably the happiest I've ever seen him. Heh heh. Apparently he did not like my other Pottery Barn option. ;)

Recently, Alex surprised me by removing the old, metal storm door and old, exterior door with a new one from Home Depot (Craftsman 6 Lite Primed Smooth Fiberglass Front Door). In the next picture you can see some progress. We still needed to install and paint some new brick mold around the door. We also hadn't purchased new door hardware yet.

This past week I made it my life's mission to get the door painted before the cold weather settles in for good. I froze my little tushie off and had to work in 30 minute intervals when the baby was sleeping and Coops was playing. He did come over to inspect my progress one day and left a nice little hand print in the wet paint. 

At first I left the window frame white like we did on the Fixer Upper doors. After going back and forth looking at the door and some inspiration pictures I decided to go back and paint the frame charcoal as well.

Charcoal door with white window frame: 

A few inspiration pictures with the doors all charcoal:

Without further ado, here is how our side entry door looks now! We're making progress, people.

{There is a significant gap between the door and the window frame which didn't take paint very well. I'm going to ask the hubs to add a little bit of paint-able caulking around the frame so that I can paint it as well and thus have a cleaner look around the window. The door was on the cheaper side so I'm not too worried about it.}

Here is a side by side comparison of how our side entry looked before and how it's looking with a little bit of progress. 

I've been shopping around town looking for a few decorative items to amp up the curb appeal. I'm on the hunt for a doormat, some house numbers, a fall mum, a simple wreath, and a cute mailbox. I will most definitely share when I find some of my wishlist items!

P.S. Some days I longingly wish for a home that looks like this:

But then I come to my senses and realize that a) I would be one broke girl, and b) I would have no silly little projects to blog about!

:)

Oops, I almost forgot. The new door colour is called Iron Mountain by Benjamin Moore!

A New-Door-Paint-Colour-Dilemma

Remember how we bought a Fixer Upper a few years ago? Remember how we replaced both exterior doors with new craftsman-style ones from Home Depot? Well, this summer we finally got around to choosing a paint colour for them. (They came pre-primed in white and it was time they got painted!) I ended up choosing a charcoal colour from Benjamin Moore. 

{I'll update this post with the name of it once I dig the can out of the basement.} 

My father-in-law did all the work and painted them one afternoon. I LOVE how they turned out. They look so pretty against the lighter grey siding. Here's a quick snapshop I took with my iPhone the other day: 

So, here is my dilemma. We just installed the same style of door in the side entry at our house. I love how crisp and clean the white door / white siding looks right now. However, a white door is just not practical with a toddler, a baby, and two large dogs. 

Should I stick with my usual impractical decision-making and paint it white - knowing that it will forever be dirty and need 1001 touch-ups. Or, do I paint it charcoal with the leftover paint from The Fixer Upper?!?!?!

HELP! I need to make a decision today since the weather over the next few days might be warm enough to paint. Soon it's going to get all bleak, rainy, gloomy, and, you know, freezing.

So if you're reading this post (is there anybody out theeeeeeeeeere?!?!?) can you help me out by sharing your two cents.... white or charcoal?

Thanks a billion.

Oh, and if you came here for pictures of the kiddos, here are just a few random pictures from our boring (but lovely) everyday life.

Winnie chillin' in her jumperoo.

Coops painting a rainbow on a dreary and rainy fall day. 

Oh, and just because our lives seemed like they couldn't get any crazier, they did. We just bought our very own lakefront cottage. More details to come!

:)