Mockup Madness: Ike's New Room

Thanks again for indulging all my hemming and hawing about the office. I think I've fully vetted the possibilities and have a pretty good idea of what to do for Plan A and Plan B. I've also come to the scary realization that we need to get some doors on that room or it's not going to matter how pretty it looks -- it won't be functional for an office. So decor for "the office" is tabled for the time being until we solve that problem, and I'm moving on to one of the many other rooms that need attention before baby gets here: Ike's room.

If you don't recall, here's what his room in the old house looked like:

Now for this room I really wanted to give him something different, but I also want to reuse as many things as humanly possible. I have so much stuff to buy for this house that I need to make SOMETHING easy on myself (ha! as if). So, without further ado:

Hmmmm, yeah. Maybe not that different. Let's discuss the room itself. It's long and narrow and has zero architectural interest -- not even the pair of large windows the other room had. The one small window faces west, so it's dark during the day and then gets a burst of sun in the evening. There's no way a light color would work in here, so Sanders helped me pick Deep Secret, a kind of gray/navy that I think will look nice with the sisal carpet and also have some kid appeal (I foresee some hubble telescope posters in here someday soon... Ike is obsessed with space).

I don't love the white furniture, but I tried very hard to use what I already had, and Ike still sleeps in his crib... IT'S A MIRACLE. Like, he climbs in himself, but we have convinced him that climbing out is dangerous. It's kind of hilarious. Anyway, when we he outgrows it I'll get a cute antique twin bed and paint the white table set, or more likely just pass it on to #2.

So the only things here that need purchasing are the curtains, light fixture (hot air balloon fixture is going in baby's room), a colorful basket, and that leopard stool -- which is only $1400. Just kidding, suckers! I'm going to paint the old ottoman and add a cute cushion. Donezo.

I think the basics are here, but it's missing the wow factor. Does it need wackier pillows and bedding? Or maybe I have a big piece of art I forgot about... Or perhaps I should spend $400 on a roll of this wallpaper and frame a few panels:

But $400/roll?!... I'm thinking no.

Ok, enough of what I think. What do you think?

Baby (BOY) Update

Hi. I feel a little self conscious about dumping my gross pregnant problems onto you, so if you want to keep it light and fluffy, I don't blame you one bit -- see you tomorrow! For everyone else, I decided I should stop being so cryptic because you're probably all imaging worse things than are actually happening, like maybe I'm growing a hydatiform mole in my stomach. Or a Snooki. But no, it's just a baby. And he looks great, and also very well hung if I may say so myself. The problem is that I have this giant bleed in between my uterine wall and amniotic sac called a subchorionic hemorrhage. It's actually not that uncommon; what's uncommon is the size (ginormous) and how late it appeared in the pregnancy (2nd trimester). Also it doesn't seem to be absorbing and shrinking, which means that every time I go to the bathroom and blood comes out (sorry, but this is my life right now), I start panicking that the baby is next. This occurs on almost an hourly basis.

But the clot appears to be stable for now, and the baby is stable for now. So really all I can do is wait and stress out and do very little in the way of work. Who's going to do all the wallpapering for me? And the painting??? I have TWO hunky baby rooms to design and unless I learn how to wiggle my nose and make magic happen, I don't know how it's all going to come together.

You know what, big effing deal. It will probably make the blog boring since there will be a little more conversation and a little less action, but I'll do my best to spice things up. With blood and guts (hopefully kidding).

Now let's get busy dreaming up some fancy boy rooms. I really thought it was a girl so that penis threw me for a loop, but luckily I already have experience in the field.

And luckily I love boys.

[Francois Halard]

Crazy Wallpaper I May Buy

First of all, thank you SO MUCH for your kind and generous well wishes on yesterday's post! While making babies is lots of fun, carrying them is... not so much fun. Thank you for filling the gaping void left by my good friends gin and tonic. Now I promised to get off my ass and play decorating party with you, so yesterday (in between American Pickers and Pawn Stars... I am obviously addicted to vicarious antiquing) I ordered a motherload of wallpaper samples.

I'm really digging this Abigail Edwards Seascape paper for the small but bright nursery, be it boy or girl:

For a boy I would paint the ceiling dark teal, for a girl I would use aubergine. White roman shades trimmed in matching cord, deco mahogany furniture, Ike's old hot air balloon chandelier (see it and the furniture in Ike's old room here), this chair reupholstered in warm charcoal (patterned?) velvet, and a few tiny persimmon accents. Bam! And that's about all that tiny room can handle. Except for a baby. (please, jeebus, let it handle the baby!)

So here is my tentative nursery girl palette.

And the boy palette.

Plus there will be lots of gold and black and flame mahogany up in that joint.

ps: we painted our front room that teal color, but darker.

pps: planning to paint the master bedroom that aubergine color... but darker.

Thoughts? Concerns?

Am I already scarring the fetus for life by plotting such things?

The scarring has to start sometime.