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Basement Paint Colors

We’re tiling the half-bathroom and laundry room in white Octagon & Dot with charcoal gray grout, and we’re going to paint the rest of the basement floor. Since it’s just paint, I figured I’d pick a fun color (as opposed to tan/brown/gray), so I’m going with “olive tree” by Benjamin Moore. The studio is getting my favorite shade of pink (“wild aster”), and I think the play space will get “sweet pear,” a lighter version of the floor color.

I still need to choose colors for the laundry room (something that will work with our red washer and dryer, which you can kind of see in this lovely picture), and the half-bath (with its very short ceiling and lack of windows). I had a dream that I painted the bathroom orchid, like the Crayola crayon color, but I don’t know if that’s the way to go in reality. And maybe a creamy white for the laundry room? I think a robin’s egg blue would look nice too, but I’m not normally a big fan of blue.

Any suggestions?

Making Room for Baby

Among all of the congratulations (thank you!), one question is popping up repeatedly. How are we going to make room for another baby? After all, our hundred-year-old bungalow is just 1400 square feet, and I run my stationery business out of it.

My Studio

My sweet, colorful, lovely little studio is going to move into the scary basement. I’ll miss you, studio!

I’ll be honest. I’m pretty sensitive to my surroundings, so working in our unfinished basement is going to be a bit depressing. Plus I scare easily and I think my assistant Erika might too, and I can see us both being weirded out by spending time down there. It IS a little spooky, but we don’t have any other options.

IMG_1252.JPG

Eventually Brandon and I would like to put up drywall and make the lower level feel like the rest of our home, but we don’t have the budget right now. We’ll clean it up and arrange things as best we can, but I fear it will still be icky.

*Update*
I mentioned the basement walls in a couple of the comments below, but here is a photo. Unpaintable, bizarre crackled tiles. No ceiling either, and wires everywhere. Here’s a link to view the photo in a larger size.

Basement Walls

My studio will become Eleanor’s new room though, and that will make me happy. It’s going to be adorable! And the room (12×12) feels so much bigger than her current space (7×14 with sloped ceilings), so that will be nice for her. The nursery will stay a nursery since it works really well as such. I do plan to make at least a few changes though, regardless of gender. I want the new baby to have a look of his/her own.

Eleanor's Nursery

Now all of this puts greater urgency on #9 of my 30 Before Thirty list: Clean out the basement. All of this shuffling of space hinges on getting it ready, and I am SO not looking forward to that task.

A Little Pick-Me-Up

Jessica (of {BLACK. WHITE. YELLOW.} fame) was kind enough to pick up an Orla Kiely pitcher for me when she spotted one all by its lonesome at Target. She knew that the pitcher was the one item that I had been most looking forward to in the Orla collection, and I was having trouble finding it. How thoughtful of her!

I had been planning to use the pitcher as a vase all along, so I picked up some asters and kermits when I was out running errands today. So cheery.

Floral

Oh, and I highly recommend checking out The Pioneer Woman’s Photoshop Actions if you like the faded look of the photo above. I used the “Seventies” action on that one, but they’re all pretty amazing.

Studio Tour!

I spent the weekend tidying up my studio, and I realized I had never posted proper ‘after’ pictures. I’ve shown little snippets here and there, but never the whole thing. Time to remedy that, yes?

My Studio

My Studio

The studio is where I package up all of the orders for my shop (Pink Loves Brown). The room may not always be this tidy, but it usually stays fairly neat because everything has a place. That makes my little perfectionist heart happy.

It looked like this originally (eek). Brandon and I put in the bamboo floor ourselves, painted (walls, ceiling, and trim), installed new closet doors, and switched out the ceiling fixture. I made the curtains out of Moda’s uptown “mom’s couch” fabric.

Here’s the view in from the doorway.

My Studio (View from the Doorway)

This is what I refer to as “the shipping center”. It’s my least favorite side of the room (all of the open storage looks a little cluttered), but it’s very functional and necessary.

The Shipping Center in My Studio

I’ve shown this photo of my order sorting process before, but here it is again. I put patterned paper along the back of a shoe cubby from Target.

Orders Sorted

Here’s the underside of the table with all of the shipping boxes and supplies. The white shelves are also from Target.

The Shipping Center in My Studio

I store envelopes for my cards and stationery along the open shelves of my IKEA VÄRDE kitchen island. Most of my crafty supplies are inside the closet. I removed the clothing rail that was originally in there and I assembled shelving from The Container Store to hold everything.

My Studio

Here’s a peek inside.

Supply Closet (Left Side)  Supply Closet (Right Side)

I store some extra envelopes and my ironing board behind the door. You can also see a little of my photo shoot setup along the right (which I’ve shown before) tucked into the funny little alcove there. I store extra shipping boxes under that table.

Storage Behind the Door

Here’s another view. Those suitcases along the top of the bookcase are for sale in my shop.

My Studio

So there you have it. My studio!

My Studio

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