Olivia's Butterfly Wall Mural

When we moved into our new "old" home, our children's bedrooms were first on the "To-Do" list.  I was very pleased with their transformations as Caiden's room had originally been wallpapered in a leopard  print and Olivia's had been used as a walk in closet.  Upon completion the bedrooms were bright, comfy, and playful, but best of all the kids loved them!  Although completely reimagined and now functional for our family, I always knew that the finishing touches were missing, but could be addressed later.  So this past weekend, I took advantage of the kid's Grammy being down for a visit, and dealt with a blank wall in Olivia's room.  Her favorite colour is purple and after discussing with her what she would like to see on that wall we decided upon a butterfly mural.

I checked the internet for some inspirational images and began drawing and cutting.  I knew that I wanted it to appear whimsical and to have the images be different from one another. 

Then realizing I didn't have any purple paint, and wanting to keep the budget low, I mean free, I created a soft purple with some leftover paint.  Next I taped the "stencils" randomly on the walls.

Then I painted, pulled the stencils away and repositioned them, and painted again until an overall sweeping butterfly's in flight effect was achieved. 

 

We are all very pleased with the end result, especially our daughter Olivia, who asks everyone who enters...see my purple butterflys?  What do you think?  Have you done something similar or different for one of your children's rooms? 

Laundry Room aka Craft Room aka Mom Cave!

As any mom or dad knows, kids create a lot of laundry, and although we had a designated space to do laundry the refinishing of this room quickly became a priority on my to-do list.  The original location of the laundry room resided in a concrete framed, pipes exposed, electrical panel, sump-pump, ugly room with horrible fluorescent lighting that flickered to the point of almost causing seizures (even after having the bulbs replaced)!  Here's a quick before pic!

I wanted to redesign the layout of the whole space, make it functional for our family and make it beautiful.  I figured that if I have to spend as much time in a laundry room as I do, it should be lovely, and calming and just for me, since I am the main launderer in this household!  But as designs often transpire and ideas flow I soon realized that if this was going to be the one selfishly "me" space in the house then it also needed to function as a craft room, have more storage, and why not act as an overall mom cave, a place I could go to should a mom and wife need recharging!  So the demolition of walls, moving of electrical and plumbling began.  Did I mention how thankful I am that my hubby is handy?

When the room starts to come together, that's when it gets exciting because that's when we get to decide on finishes and accessories (my favorite part!).  Since our house is in the country and our overall style has been morphing into what I'm calling Modern Country, I thought that this room could be slightly more contemporary in feel, more the style I was drawn towards in my 20's.  With that theme in mind, we chose Benjamin Moore's Cloud White for the walls, white cabinetry from our local big box store, and a counter top, faucet and sink from Ikea.  Our one splurge was on the tile for the backsplash, a combination of glass mosaics, marble and stone that really gave the room the crispness and modern element we were looking for.   So after weeks of work, the laundry room portion of the laundry room/craft room/mom cave was complete! 

Some beautiful glass knobs to make it just a bit more feminine and there's that gorgeous tile!  We still have to address the trim, mouldings, doors, and of course the accessories, but I just love it.  I actually smile walking into this room, even though I know it's the dreaded laundry that needs to be done.  Can't wait to keep tinkering away at the craft room portion and the elements that will bring it all together to create my mom cave!  So what do you think?  Do you have a room in your house that you've made pretty and functional?