Love in the littlest details
I am not Little Suzy Homemaker, I'm a far cry from Martha Stewart in the making and as much as HGTV has convinced me that I, too, can have the design sense of Joanna Gaines, in actuality, I don't.
But I like projects, and I've always been partial to decorations and furniture that tell a story.
When my son was born, my husband's family reminded me that we could use the furniture that my father-in-law first made nearly 40 years ago. It included a crib, changing table, nightstand and dresser. My brother-in-law used the crib as a baby, then my husband, then my nephews. And now Jack. It was pretty incredible to think about the love and memories in these pieces of wood.
I wanted to jazz it up a little though and decided to buy new knobs and pulls for the drawers and cabinets. My father-in-law encouraged me to make it my own. I went with plain white and then painted them with various zoo animals that matched Jack's quilt (which was made by his great grandmother).
Now that baby #2 is set to arrive, I started thinking about nursery ideas. Jack is keeping some of the furniture in his room because I'm not ready to splurge on a full, new set for him, and the nursery is a dual purpose room (1/2 my closet-I blame my profession). I couldn't pick a unisex theme so I found some sheets I liked, and I'm going to do a focus on aqua geometrical shapes with a punch of yellow. The crib and changing table will go in the nursery so once again I decided to spruce up the pulls. I took off the old paint and put on a new design.
It's not much. I'm sure neither of my kids will even remember them when they're older, but sometimes it feels good to make a house a home with a few, tiny touches. Sure, they don't look as good as something Suzy or Martha would do, but Made by Mom is nice too.
But I like projects, and I've always been partial to decorations and furniture that tell a story.
When my son was born, my husband's family reminded me that we could use the furniture that my father-in-law first made nearly 40 years ago. It included a crib, changing table, nightstand and dresser. My brother-in-law used the crib as a baby, then my husband, then my nephews. And now Jack. It was pretty incredible to think about the love and memories in these pieces of wood.
I wanted to jazz it up a little though and decided to buy new knobs and pulls for the drawers and cabinets. My father-in-law encouraged me to make it my own. I went with plain white and then painted them with various zoo animals that matched Jack's quilt (which was made by his great grandmother).
Now that baby #2 is set to arrive, I started thinking about nursery ideas. Jack is keeping some of the furniture in his room because I'm not ready to splurge on a full, new set for him, and the nursery is a dual purpose room (1/2 my closet-I blame my profession). I couldn't pick a unisex theme so I found some sheets I liked, and I'm going to do a focus on aqua geometrical shapes with a punch of yellow. The crib and changing table will go in the nursery so once again I decided to spruce up the pulls. I took off the old paint and put on a new design.
It's not much. I'm sure neither of my kids will even remember them when they're older, but sometimes it feels good to make a house a home with a few, tiny touches. Sure, they don't look as good as something Suzy or Martha would do, but Made by Mom is nice too.
