Tales From the Box

There is a serious lack of photo’s displayed at the Box. We have plenty of artwork – framed prints (mostly Brett Whiteley‘s) and the like. But we actually don’t have any photographs displayed. I mean pics of loved ones, holiday snaps, that sort of thing. Not even a wedding photo. We have the wedding album displayed on a shelf, but not actually any individual pics.

(from Desire to Inspire)

I do have plans to change this, but it’s one of those things that never really makes it to the top of the to-do list. And although I haven’t actually gotten around to choosing, framing and hanging any photo’s, you know I have already come up with a bazillion ideas on how it will look when I finally do.

(from Apartment Therapy)

I love the idea of mismatched frames – different sizes but all the same colour, or same size but different materials. I like the not-too-neat-ness of it all, that the pictures or frames aren’t all samey, but there is a common element to the collection.

(from Apartment Therapy)

I also love the idea of hanging them in a non-symmetrical manner, so that they don’t line up. Having said that, there’s something quite calming about symmetry in your home.

(from Apartment Therapy)

The way these frames (below) are hung all the way to the ceiling is pretty awesome (especially since this house has no architraves, like ours).

(from Desire to Inspire)

I also like the idea of playing with colour in the actual frames. Of course this will depend on what room I hang the frames in. Some rooms of the house lend themselves to colour more than others.

(from Desire to Inspire)

And then I have also toyed with the idea of not actually hanging the frames directly on the walls at all, but of having really narrow shelves on the walls and then sitting the frames on the shelves.

(from Desire to Inspire)

Whichever way I decide to go, we have many many photo’s to choose from: pics of friends and family, of the Widg, of places and events. At the moment they are all living happily on our computers or online. Eventually I will have to get them blown up and printed. Where’s that to-do list?

It’s only a small start, but I have begun decorating the Box for Christmas.

We always love Christmas here at the Box, but this year is going to be particularly awesome, with the little man celebrating his first.

There will be a real tree still to put up, and various other decorations, and I love every bit of it. I’m so excited I could burst!

I have blogged about our bedroom before, and how important it is to me to keep it tidy and organised. Well I thought I would add some info here about how I achieve that.

Our Pax wardrobe from Ikea is great for keeping clothes sorted and organised. It is made up of 3 sections, 2 for me and 1 for the man of the house (I easily have twice as many clothes).

As you can see above, in my side of the wardrobe, I have things double hung, which gives me twice the space. In this section of the wardrobe I only keep tops, cardi’s and skirts. I keep long pants, dresses and coats in the second section, which isn’t double hung. Hubby’s section is also double hung.

Then in both of our double-hung sections, we have this awesome little pull out drawer (they are from Ikea also, but I don’t think they make the same one anymore. I think they sell a similar one, but I haven’t found the link yet. If anyone would like to enlighten me, feel free). I use mine to store scarves and jewellery, and his is full of belts and ties.

There are also shelves above the hanging spaces in each section, which we use to store spare blankets, doona’s and pillows, my wedding gown, and a few other random bits and pieces.

Of course, I always have way too many clothes, and I am constantly getting rid of some to allow for the new. But this also means that I am constantly re-organising and tidying the wardrobe. So my shopping habits are really a good thing, right?

A little while ago I promised that there were some more projects I was yet to complete in Widget’s room. Well, I have successfully completed said projects (almost – more on that later) and here are some pics.

This one is the Bekvam shelf I had already bought from Ikea.

I have used it to display some of the cute little toys that the Widg received from some of his “uncles” (John and Buzz), a lovely little handmade jacket and booties and some special stones from a dear friend of mine (thanks Rhi) and of course his first Swannies attire (thanks Grandpa). I have a few more items that I would like to put here too, but I will rotate them so that the Widg has some variety to look at. The hooks are just basic ones from Bunnings.

And the reason I said this project was “almost” finished, is that there is still some debate among the grownups at the Box about whether to paint the shelf white or leave it as is. Stay tuned (but don’t hold your breath).

This idea (below) I had seen in many variations on heaps of blogs and in magazines, and thought it was a great idea, so I had to rip it off.

I plan to hang different things from it over time. At the moment it has a selection of cards that we were sent or given on the birth of our dear Widg, welcoming him to the world. But I also plan to display things like Christmas and birthday cards, photos and his artwork.

I am using old-style wooden pegs to hang the cards. They were given to us as part of a gift at the Not-a-baby-shower-shower (it’s a long story), and since I don’t have a clothes line (another long story) I decided that this would be the perfect use for them (thanks Tony, Amanda and Ivy).

So as you can see, the decoration/completion of the Widget’s room is a moving target, as is the rest of the Box really. Keeps me out of trouble. Most of the time.

So I have a problem with throw rugs. I like them. A lot. Some might say too much. I have something in the vicinity of 25 different throw rugs (essentially blankets that you “throw” over a chair/couch/bed/lap).

I actually do use most of them on a regular basis. Either to decorate our bed or one of our couches. This then makes it easy to grab one on a cold night and snuggle yourself up. I regularly change them around for different looks when I get bored with the way the house looks (another good way to redecorate without actually buying new stuff), and I store the not-in-use ones in the huge Ikea Nasum basket in our living room.

(from Ikea)

Really, I haven’t spent a lot on these rugs. Most of them are from Ikea or Target or places like that.

(from Ikea)

But there are few things more comforting than curling up on the couch on a cold night with a cuppa and a cosy throw.

I found this amazing little boys bedroom over on Ohdeedoh.

(from The Bumper Crop)

No, we have no plans to have 3 sons. But if we did, this would be the coolest shared bedroom ever!

(from The Bumper Crop)

It even gives me ideas about how the Widg’s room could evolve as he gets older. I love the colours (I have a thing for grey) – the yellow and black on the beds, the white bedding against the raw pale wood. There’s just the hint of a nautical theme (with the thick rope and the blue step stool) without being really obvious and naff.

(from The Bumper Crop)

And of course the whole suspended bed thing is just too cool. Can you imagine being a kid and playing in a room like this? Great for pirates! I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it!

Any fan of Ikea knows who Billy is. It’s their standard, inexpensive bookcase.

(from Ikea)

And we have many Billy’s at the Box. They are a great size for storage as they are quite shallow and don’t take up a lot of valuable floor space. They also have handy height extenders so that you can make the bookshelves go all the way up to the ceiling (depending on your ceiling height of course).

We have 2 Billy’s in the lounge room. They house books, odds and ends, vases and magazines.

We have a wall of Billy’s in the office/study/spare bedroom. They house books, stationery, art supplies, work equipment and random odds and ends. For example, all of those white Kassett boxes are full of things like extension cords and power boards, small tools and craft supplies.

The contents of our Billy’s are regularly rearranged depending on what we need to store, what we are using on a regular basis, and how bored I am. Rearranging bookshelves is actually a great way to scratch your “need to redecorate” itch without actually buying new stuff. Plus it means you go through your belongings every now and then and assess whether you need to get rid of or replace anything.

On our recent trip to Armidale to visit some friends and sample the local cafe culture, I was inspired to start sewing (thanks Jen!). Now, let me explain that my entire sewing history to date involves taking up pant leg hems (by hand), sewing loose buttons back on (by hand) and making a bag and a shirt (poorly) back in early high school.

So why the sudden desire to sew? Well, now that I am a stay-at-home-mama, I find myself with small nuggets of time on my hands where I can’t leave the house. I also have lots of time to spend on the laptop browsing blogs looking at pretty things that I can’t really afford to buy. Many of these things I often think “surely you could make that yourself?” Well, yes, surely someone could. But not necessarily me.

However, I figure if I can sew a straight line, maybe I can successfully whip up something relatively simple. So I borrowed my mums old sewing machine, and I have set myself up with a little sewing area. Believe me, if I had to pack it all away every time, this new little hobby would last about 5 minutes.

Noah and I then trotted down to Spotlight, where we picked up a few essentials (thread, scissors, fabric). Then I spent about an hour reading through the instruction manual of the sewing machine, reacquainting myself with the mechanics of threading bobbins and such. Then I browsed a few of my favourite blogs (along with some suggestions from Jen) for some easy projects to begin with.

Firstly, I was drawn to this one:

(from Lovely Design)

Mainly because I totally agree with the blogger about not needing a whole nappy/baby bag. I have managed pretty well so far with the Widg without needing to carry around some huge luggage full of baby stuff. I have been able to get by quite happily with just my normal handbag (it’s like a satchel and quite large anyway, but it’s still just a handbag). So I made this one for myself:

So far, it has worked a treat. I keep it stocked with a small pack of wipes, a couple of nappies (depending how long we will be out for) and this adorable change mat that I bought here (and completely ripped off from the above-mentioned blog).

I have since made several bags using the same pattern, and used them as gift bags for a few friends. Then I attempted to make some toys for the Widg. I found a seemingly simple pattern for some soft blocks on Make It and Love It. Mine turned out ok. Not as squared as intended, rather quite rounder.

But Noah doesn’t seem to mind.

Oh, and in case I’m in need of some additional motivation to sew, this is my view from my sewing table:

So when we were designing the renovations to the Box, we needed somewhere clever to put a laundry. There wasn’t a lot of free space (as with everything about the house) so we had to be smart about where we put things, and how much space we could allocate to the different areas and uses of the house.

We ended up deciding on using underneath the staircase for the laundry. It’s only a small space, as you can imagine (about the size of a cupboard. Actually, it is a cupboard). But it serves its purpose. There is a washing machine, a dryer and a sink, plus a bit of room for storing cloths, detergents and the like.

As I said, it serves its purpose. However, if we had more space, I would love to have an actual room dedicated to the laundry.

(from Apartment Therapy)

I would love some space to hang things while they dry, somewhere to store clean linens and towels (we don’t have a dedicated linen closet either), somewhere to leave the ironing board set up, and even a bench top to use for folding large items like towels and bed sheets.

(from Apartment Therapy)

But for now, a cupboard is what I have. It’s okay, it works. But one day…

So I always knew our baby’s room would be relatively gender neutral, in terms of its design and colours. Even after we found out our Widget was a boy, I was still drawn to colours and themes that could easily be adapted for a boy or girl. Throughout my pregnancy I trawled my usual favourite blogs for inspiration: apartment therapy and young house love, as well as Ikea (most of our house is furnished by the collective Swedish genius). I played with a few ideas, but kept coming back to shades of grey with green and white.

I liked images like this one (below) for the grey walls and white furniture, but also how they used accents of aqua and taupe to add interest. I also loved the animal decals on the wall.

(from Ohdeedoh)

I also really liked this one (below) – the shade of grey was very close to what I had in mind, plus they have used the same cot we were planning on buying.

(from Ohdeedoh)

I had been scouting the Ikea childrens range for a while, and after much discussion with my husband, we decided on the Gulliver cot in white, the Malm 6 drawer chest in white, and the ever popular Poang chair.

We liked the versatility of the Gulliver cot (it converts to a toddler bed), and the Malm unit was big enough to fit lots of tiny little clothes, blankets and such, while the top of it would serve as the change table. We thought about buying an actual change table, but other more experienced parents than us told us how their little ones grew too big for the table quite quickly, or that they ended up changing their kids in or on other places (even standing them up when they were old enough) then it just became a useless piece of furniture. Always ones to consider the cheaper option, we decided that a chest of drawers would be far more useful and could serve double duty for us. So we simply added the Gullunge change mat to the top.

Oh, and people have asked if it’s difficult to change our little monkey while he is laying sideways, but we have actually found it easier this way, and we feel awkward when we have to change him lying facing us (like brushing your teeth left-handed). Plus I think we get peed on less. Always a bonus.

We then added some Lack shelves above the Malm drawers for more storage, using the Agen and Branas baskets to hold various bits and pieces. We also use the Fabler boxes on top of the Malm for nappy changing paraphernalia.

You’ll have to excuse the wonkily hung pictures – they are cheap frames, and so don’t sit straight. Noah doesn’t seem to notice. And the white coat hanger you can see hanging from the basket is actually a rush job I whipped up. We hadn’t gotten around to buying a mobile for Noah (he was born 2 weeks early) and one day he seemed suddenly much more aware of things than previously. So I decided to hang something above the change pad so that he would have something to look at. The hanging objects are actually some animal socks my mum bought for him, which are too big for his little feet. They are a tiger, a cow and a lamb. He thinks the cow is hilarious, and he learned to smile at the cow before either of his parents. Good times.

The Poang chair currently sits in our grown-ups bedroom, as this is where I feed the Widg in the middle of the night (so that I can watch DVDs. We are currently working our way through Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Someone has to educate the little man.) But once he no longer needs these feedings, the Poang will be moved into his room to become his story time/reading chair. It will look like this:

Oh, and that lovely quilt you can see hanging over the chair was made for Noah by his wonderful godmother Jen.

On the floor we are using the Nasum basket to hold a few blankets like these Vitaminer (and later will be filled with toys) and the Knodd bins for dirty clothes and nappies.

My grandfather made this stool (which I plan to re-paint), Noah’s Great Grandmother crocheted one of the rugs, and the other one was a gift from Noah’s Gran’s craft group ladies. And above this stool is where I plan to hang this Bekvam spice rack for small toy or book storage. I also have some hooks to hang underneath it for hanging bags and coats and things.

I use these Len fitted sheets on the cot, and this Renate rug is on the floor to add a bit more colour. We bought a few of these Frosta stools, which so far have been great as little side tables, but will also function as seats or Widget-sized tables. I plan to buy the Kusiner boxes to put under the cot for more storage.

I bought a whole bunch of these Krama washcloths and Nackten hand towels, which have come in very handy for general baby fluid cleanups. (And since they are so cheap, we don’t care if they get stained or ruined. I am going to buy more when I go to Ikea next.)

We also wanted some kind of image on one of the walls, and we really liked the idea of trees. There are heaps of decals or wall stickers to choose from (you can find them online), but my talented hubby decided to paint it himself.