Art Smart

Art Smart

Instagram can make an IKEA paper roller look pretty fancy.  I wanted to share the newest space in my soon to be vacated home.  Not being able to move furniture around and DIY a new wall piece is kind of driving me crazy, so I decided I should start packing!  First thing to go into a box were the ubiquitous backwards facing books on my credenza. I've come to realize this only makes sense on a West Elm display case. It freed up some space for something I've been trying to do for a while.  All of our art supplies are kept downstairs out of necessity, but there's a lot of art happening here and homework requires coloring shapes and drawing pictures to write about.  I needed an art space with the basics. I finally gave up on the old easel (it was a good idea in theory) and bought this low profile paper roller, which has a push down top to easily brace and tear clean sheets.  I put the crayons, colored pencils and canister of glue sticks, sharpeners and rounded scissors on a lacquered tray that can easily be moved to the kitchen table. Spiffy and sensible.

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A Small Wonder

A Small Wonder

When I made the kids play table from a LACK end table and a bargain kitchen table top, I had visions of miniature bentwood chairs completing the look.  After spending a few days testing it out, I soon realized that the kids needed to be able to walk around it, and I had to revise my plan.  Unfortunately this meant little stools, and I decided that IKEA's MAMMUT stools would make sense.  They are pretty boring, I chose white so that I wouldn't have to add anymore color to the room.  Today when I was reorganizing my office I found a roll of woodgrain contact paper and had a thought.  10 minutes later the MAMMUT's are not so boring and also not neon green.  I think this could also be cute using red contact paper with circles cut out to look like toadstools. 

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My Space

My Space

I used to have an office.  I had to give it up in order to house a child, so I guess it went to a good cause. I kept a desk in our living room for the past year and it caused a fair amount of design dithering, shifting art, moving furniture, hand wringing, hemming and hawing. It finally occurred to me what I was missing was having my own room, not a bedroom, I like to share that, but a Don Draper style office to retreat to (minus the creepy locked drawer).

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