looks totally crisp + white + oh-some, right? wellll i don't know if its the lighting in ikea or the finish they use on much of their white merchandise, but, it sure looked pretty yellowy to me when we actually stormed the store to pick 'er up. major disappointment. i was hoping for the white to add some polished panache against some of the other tones in the room. thankfully at the time they also sold a grey option which i thought could be sharp as well, and just as neutral gender-wise. i also liked how the grey upped the utilitaritan factor even more. basically it looked like i backed a truck up to a local elementary school and ripped it right out of a classroom. totally bad+ss.
my kid will thank me. someday. i mean, he will. right??!what i also like is that the only way to keep the doors from swing swanging open is to actually lock them with a little set of keys that comes with the unit. while this may seem cumbersome, i like that it'll enable me to keep things somewhat in order + stowed vs. allowing baby h to rip all the books off the shelves just for the fun of it any time of the day. which i've heard kids like to do.
and now that baby h is here, i do like that the grey of this sideboard boasts a bit more of a male edge. not that i don't love grey in girls' rooms too, but i think this particular piece looks a little more manly this way.
now i couldn't move on to curtains + lighting without talking toppers, could i? as in locker toppers?? as in, the fun stuff??!
here are some of the fun trinkets and tchotchkies that warm my heart each time i enter the room:
+ mini iconic orange chair [normally sold for $12 msrp, i found at a sale price of $4.99, clearanced to $2.50, and bartered the price down to $0.99 since the legs had come apart from the chair + needed to be tlc'd ie: superglued back together]
+ silver squirrel mug i myself drank out of as a wee babe
+ areaware twice clock [once....twice....THREE TIMES....a laaaa-dyyyy] original price was $100, bought on one king's lane for $5 after discount + credits. let me know if you would like an invite to okl, its a great site for designer bargains! such as this two-faced 'twice' clock that can actually hang perpendicular to the wall like a train station or school clock. and since its so chunky + rectangular, it can also just sit on its end or side without needing to be hung at all. if you have some spare minutes do check out the fun areaware website with its sweet urban nyc vibe.
+ handmade beaver-squirrel-totally-cool-puzzle-thing. a friend of ours graced us with this gem making it even more near + dear to us
+ superbad bunny brush set. white + orange + functional fun. alongside....
+ hardcover books, nice + neat with their white bindings.
+ ikea tin [yes, you've seen this pup before] and metallic owl bank. that sounds like a band, doesn't it? metallic owl? hmm, having deja-vous there. the bank was a steal of a deal at $7 on the clearance shelf at tarjay. love the vintagey quirk factor.
and what do those items all have in common? nothing, necessarily! but to my eye each is playful in its own right and relates either scale-wise or color-wise to the rest of the group, so it just....works. especially for creating an eclectic kid-room feel overall.so who put the pom in those pom-pom curtains that keep popping into my pictures? my mom + i, that's who! while i love the length, simplicity + grommeted tops of these ikea curtains for the nursery, they definitely needed a little spice to liven them up + tie them into the room's decor. i first laid eyes on fun retro orange pom-pom trim on etsy, but later snagged a cheaper [read: no shipping fee] version at my local fabric store.
thanks to my mom's trusty jetson-esque singer sewing machine, circa 1940-something that is, we got those poms wrassled down to the curtain panels in no time at all. talk about injecting a little vintage into a room! this machine is a beaut:
in this shot you can really see the second face on the twice clock, and the chunky white profile that is sandwiched by the light grey facades.
also dying to get in on the pom-pom-a-tini action? this light fixture i snagged from the same antique shop where i found the fun foursome of wooden apples.
while perusing the store i saw its [originally] ivory chipping paint + greek key inspired patterning and instantly fell. right onto my credit card, which swiped faster than kevin could say whatdidyouspend$40onatfound?! i just loved the swagger this fixture walked with and knew a punchy color could make it totally gender neutral, since the cream colored paint it was clad with at the time made it decidedly more feminine overall.
indeed, i discovered this lovely light with its pommish trim before hatching the curtain idea, but i think these two elements get along swimmingly.
that poppy orange color was no accident, it was sprayed on by my helpful husband as i was pregnant and fearful of fume inhalation. i was going for bright + funky and i think this shade captures that! ....especially in contrast to the calm, pale grey walls.
i also swapped out the shade for a fresh retro one from menards, that you see above, as the round bulb shade it came with had a flaking floral print on it. not so neutral, no?and on that note....i must admit defeat. while i thought i could conquer my nursery posting in three total posts i apparently have the gift of gab and it's going to take one more. i'm sorry. forgive me. and read on, blog-pal-warriors! more to come.
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