INSPIRATION: HOME ART SPACES FOR KIDS

The idea for creating a home art space for kids came when our kitchen table started to be filled with paper, glue, pens and our kids wanted their art to stay for days. It was driving me crazy! I kept trying to clear it to one side when we ate dinner, and I finally realized that their art was more than a 15 minute activity to fill time; it was a treasure they had created as a way to express themselves and we needed more. More room, more time, more expression, more art. To be honest, it was a pretty simple solution: clean out and take over the back room of our basement which was filled with boxes and boxes of, ahem, junk.

I wasn't exactly sure of where to start so I started scrolling and scrolling through Pinterest, my favourite way to escape into design heaven and I began adding all of the spaces I loved to my Kids Art Studio board. 

Here are some of the ideas for art spaces that I found and loved.

Megan's home art studio has gone insanely viral and I can fully imagine having a playdate with her kids here. I love how friendly and inviting this space is and amazingly, she designs creative art spaces for kids through her site, The Art Pantry. Creating an art studio is an INSANE amount of work and I admire Megan for doing this for clients.

The Art Pantry

I just love how the bookshelves take over the space below creating an atmosphere that I can imagine any little one whittling hours away in. I still love chalkboards, kid sized play tables and that whimsical air balloon mobile is dreamy too. 

I saved this space because it appears to not have windows like the actual space we have in our basement. I liked the wall shelves but still fear an earthquake in Vancouver so knew that any art needed to be secured to the wall in our art room. I think I like how busy but clean this space is, the intentional lighting and the number of seats at the table. Again...hours and hours of art could happen here!

Clipboards and jars! Simple tools that work...YES!!! I mean, look how much you can store (and see!) in those jars. Yup, I definitely needed jars.

The idea that I saw and KNEW I had to have was giant pegboard. Here is the inspo right here! This tutorial was helpful and the result (although a bit tricky) is so, SO amazing!

Vintage Revivals

As you know, I love simplicity. Ideas just don't have to be fancy (or pricey or hard!) to be so, so good. The below, a piece of rope and some wooden clothes pegs is just right for hanging kids art. I love this idea and knew we needed to use wall space a little like this to showcase special pieces.

Mother Mag

I just can't wait to share our space this week. I love these spaces and love how versatile art rooms for kids are too. You can play there, read, paint, colour, draw, build anything you can dream up. Even a tiny little art nook is just so, so worth it.

ART BOOKS FOR KIDS

Photo by Amanda Haddow Photography

In anticipation of sharing the first reveal of 2018, our home creative art space next week, I'm sharing a sneak peek of all of our favourite books that sit on the shelves there!

You know I LOVE children's books and for this space, I wanted to include books that were both informative to the art process and also ones that we could pull out in the throws of frustration that happen throughout craft making and the creative process. 

These books are ones we read again and again and I can't wait to keep adding new ones as the kids grow and get more involved in their own artistic endeavours.

For those who are wondering, yes, these books will get dirty, likely get paint on them but more importantly are used and loved. Remember to PIN the image below to save it for future reference!

1.// Tinkerlab; 2.// What Do You Do With An Idea; 3.// The Day the Crayons Quit; 4.// The Wonder; 5.// Beautiful Oops; 6.// Art Play; 7.// Mix It Up; 8.// Anything Is Possible; 9.// The Book of Mistakes; 10.// What To Do With a Box; 11.// Art; 12.// Art Workshop. 

Happy Friday friends...have a great weekend!!!

GET THE LOOK {CHRISTMAS PLAYHOUSE}

Thank you for all the love on our holiday playhouse this week!!! I am so happy you love it as much as I do.

If you are thinking of getting a playhouse for your little ones for Christmas, I still love these wooden playhouses for this project.

If you are curious about how we achieved this look from the original playhouse, please find the details here.

01. // Playhouse; 02. // Birch lit tree; 03. // Boxwood wreath; 04. // Mini mugs; 05. // Welcome mat; 06. // Holiday garlands; 07. // Playhouse stools; 08. // Diamond rug.

KIDS CHRISTMAS WOODEN PLAYHOUSE

GET THE LOOK…

Our little wooden playhouse is all decorated for Christmas!!! You may remember the summer makeover of this cubby house from last year and I finally got a few things together to decorate it for the holidays. I had this idea to surprise the kids with a fun afternoon outside eating shortbread cookies and drinking hot cocoa and I am so thankful we did it before the crazy rain started because they LOVED it!

The white lit birch trees were such a fun addition that I will move inside later; one for the girls' room and one for Xavier's.

We swapped summer lemonade for hot cocoa and the menu changed to include cookies, brownies and candy canes (kids dream menu!). All three kids wanted to take turns 'serving' the others and the shortbread cookies were gobbled up nearly instantly.

I just love the unexpected colours in the peppermint garland from Pearl and Jane. It's so cute for the playhouse and would be equally as adorable as holiday decoration in a children's room!

I adore the little details in our playhouse: the tiny HO HO HO banner, gold drop garland and JOY banner are all from Etsy. So many creative makers that I love to support! I just had to include this photo of our youngest smiling broadly and poking over the door. 

If you missed the original makeover, you can find that post here. I hope you find inspiration and a little fun from our holiday playhouse.

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A NEUTRAL NURSERY {& HOW TO STYLE TO SELL}

If you've been following along on my Instagram over the past couple of weeks (and if you don't, come follow!), you'll know that I've been busy decorating a new baby nursery. Well, this project is different than any I've done before as it is set up in a house to sell!!! That's right, this neutral baby room was set up entirely for staging a home.

Other than sharing the nursery reveal, I thought it would be fun to share how the space came together, how my thought process was different for this space given it is set up temporarily and most importantly, how to style your nursery to help with selling your home!

I started with two key pieces of furniture: the crib and the ladder shelf. Given the room is set up so temporarily, I left out a chair although if this space was going to be used with a baby, I would have moved the crib over and added one in. 

Here are my key tips for styling your baby's room for sale.

Keep colours neutral:

When I saw the room, I knew that a simple white crib would be perfect and this one from Babyletto fit the space well. A white crib works perfectly for either gender and I wanted to keep the space neutral so prospective buyers could envision a baby boy or girl in the room. I just love this cloud mobile from The Butter Flying. This colour palette works equally well if you are setting your nursery up and waiting for the big day for a gender surprise too.

Make the most of the space but leave options: 

My goal was to make the small room feel bigger, to highlight how babies only need a few things and to show that by keeping the clothes organization elsewhere (there is a built in storage solution in the closet), you can keep the room tidy and calm. Although this space is quite minimal, this also enables the new owners to see that they could add in some of their own personal touches easily (such as a special photo on the wall or some art). The key here is to keep the paint soft and bright, bring in just enough furniture to give an idea and leave the window coverings open to enhance natural light.

Add in some personal (but not too personal!) touches:

I wanted the prospective owners to feel connected to the space when they walk in. A few sweet baby outfits hanging usually bring the oohs and aahs and adding books and some simple toys could helps parents envision sitting and reading to their baby in this space. These little details also made me dream of snuggling a newborn again!!! 

If you love the soft, organic, neutral vibe that this nursery has, you can find all of the details to shop the look below. 

01. // White ladder shelf; 02. // Irregular dot decals; 03. // Wooden book shelf; 04. // Mama brown bear; 05. // Babyletto white crib; 06. // Cloud felt garland; 07. // Large soft sheepskin; 08. // Seagrass belly basket; 09. // Linen star pillow.

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