Ideas to inspire: Playroom with daybed storage

Today's inspiration room is a combination playroom and guest room designed by Diane at The Perfectly Imperfect Life.

I've always loved the look of daybeds.  And in a playroom or guest room, where the sleeping area does double duty, they make even more sense.  The little perch shown here would make a perfect sunny spot on which to curl up and read or play games.

This particular daybed also caught my eye, as I love the idea of the extra storage underneath.  The baskets she uses are a fun and colorful way to store toys or art supplies, and low enough that little ones can help pick up.  Getting your kids to actually help pick up their toys... well, that one I don't have any tips for.

The finishing touch on this room is the art wall Diane created using her little ones' creations.  This is a great way to showcase your little Picasso's favorite works, and you can easily swap them out as new masterpieces are brought home from school.  The key to making this wall work is to use similarly colored or styled frames to give the wall a cohesive look.

If you want to see more pictures from the inspiration room, as well as some step-by-step photos of how she created it, hop on over to Diane's blog.

Happy Friday!

Ideas to inspire: A pink and brown modern nursery

In case you've missed it, pink and brown seem to be the "new black" when it comes to decorating baby girl nurseries.  I see it popping up everywhere.

Today's inspiration nursery is a nice illustration of how to do it really well.

Late at night, when I should be sleeping, I sometimes hop around on different parenting blogs.  One I really like is Harper's Happenings, written by a mom named Mandy.  If you haven't checked it out, there are some touching and entertaining reads on there.  And even though the Type-A in me secretly wants to go through and capitalize all of her sentences, I find myself drawn back pretty regularly to her blog.

Anyway, Mandy has some pictures of little Harper's nursery posted on her blog, with some great inspiration ideas.

The pink and brown color combination helps set the stage.  It's feminine and classic, but the taupe on the walls adds a modern, contemporary look that keeps it from being too frilly.

I also like the tree wall decal that adorns one of the corners.  She's hung a little birdcage hook from one of the tree branches, which really completes the look.

My favorite thing, though, is probably the paper lanterns hanging in the corner above the crib.  I imagine most babies would be fascinated by them.  Perhaps they would help them drift off to sleep and dream of giant pink gumballs.  I've written before about using found objects in unexpected places for effect, and this is a great example of that.

If you'd like to see more, you can read the full post as told through Mandy's eyes here.

Enter to win: Custom nursery artwork!

ENTRY IS NOW CLOSED.

OK, folks.  I'm kicking off a new giveaway for this month.  The winner will get a custom 16x20" piece of artwork created by Bobo's Room.

Sound interesting?  Keep reading.
 
You can enter in two easy steps:

1. Become a Facebook fan of Bobo's Room Custom Nursery Artwork, if you're not one already.
2. Come back to this post and leave a comment about what kind of artwork you'd like hanging in your little one's room.  Please give me a few, concise details about what styles, subjects and colors speak to you, so I can get a feel for what look you're going for.

That's all you have to do to enter.  Easy peasy.

It's worth mentioning that this is a completely biased, non-random-drawing contest.  The winner will be chosen based on what sounds interesting to me to paint.  As a commissioned artist, I truly do enjoy working with parents to create all types of artwork, but I rarely get to pick and choose the projects I take on.  Thus, the inspiration for this month's giveaway.

Oh, and if you tweet or Facebook (is that a verb?) about this contest, please leave me an additional comment about it here.  This last step is purely optional, but will earn you big brownie points, and will probably sway my vote a bit if I get a couple of entries I really like.

Hey, I warned you this was biased.

What You'll Get:

• A custom, hand-painted 16x20" piece of artwork for your little one's room.  If your entry is chosen as the winner, I'll send you my contact information, and we'll work together to create something really unique.
• Shipping within the continental U.S. will be included with the painting.  If you live in Timbuktu (literally), or anywhere else outside the lower 48, you're welcome to enter, but I may ask you to help out with shipping a bit, depending on the costs.

Looking for inspiration?  Check out some representative samples of artwork I've done for other rooms here.

Contest entries will close on Friday, June 4.  Good luck!

Wearable art for your tot's tootsies

OK, so I know this is supposed to be a blog about artwork and decorating ideas, but I thought this was worth sharing some "wearable art" you can make for your little ones.

Chip was invited to a one-year birthday party a few months ago.  I figured his little friend probably had enough toys.  (I did contemplate getting a musical drum set for her, but her mom is my friend and I wanted to keep it that way)  I went with the safe route and decided to paint some nice (quiet) shoes instead.

It was actually very easy.

The nice thing about canvas shoes is they come in so many colors.  I chose hi-tops because there's a little more space to work with.  And they're just so darn cute.

For the flowers and dots, I just used acrylic paints you can pick up  pretty cheaply at at any craft store.  You can sketch out a design with pencil first; I just drew this freehand.  For a design like this, you need a pretty small brush, and I went over the design several times to make it "pop."

I also thought it would be fun  to further personalize the shoes by painting her name up the backs.  Good thing she didn't have a long name like my kids; that never would have fit.

When I was done painting, I sprayed the shoes lightly with a couple coats of acrylic sealer.  Word of note:  make sure you spray the sealer outside in a well-ventilated area because it stinks!  Chippy's little friend is not doing a lot of stomping through mud puddles at this point, but hopefully the sealer will help the paint from peeling or rubbing off some.

As a final touch, I switched out the plain white shoelaces with some cute grosgrain ribbon.  Turned out pretty cute, I think.

Is your refrigerator too small?

My refrigerator is literally wallpapered with fingerpainting masterpieces done by Bobo at preschool.  I'm pretty sure there's stainless steel under there somewhere, but it hasn't seen the light of day for quite some time.

As a self-professed packrat, I can't bear to throw any of it away.  But buying a bigger fridge isn't really an option, either.

If you're in the same boat I am, here's a great way to recycle those childhood memories and create some original artwork in the process.

I saw the idea for these adorable animal prints at Sarah Jane Studios.  If you check out her website, she even provides templates to make these cute cut-outs.

Add some hand-printed words (or use stencils if you're penmanship-challenged), a simple frame and voila!  Instant artwork... starring your child.

Ideas to inspire: Modern nursery on a budget

I found this nursery today while dinking around on the internet, and was struck by the colors and bold design. It's modern, crisp and clean, yet it has classic elements like the beadboarding and crib that really anchor the room. I also love the fact that this room has feminine elements, but doesn't scream "girly."

Best part of all: the entire room makeover, including flooring, furniture and decor was done for less than $900. Just proves that good design, some creativity, and a little DIY savvy can stretch a long way.

To view the entire room, plus before and after pictures, click here.