The Interior DIYer
Artwork

Toddler painting (+ Baroque style picture frame)

As soon as I hung up our Baroque style picture frame I knew it wasn’t going to be one of those projects that sat around for six months waiting to be worked on. A few days after I bought it I headed to our local DeSerres to pick up some art supplies and a few days after that, I was sitting at the table with Cora mixing some peachy paint for her.

RANDOM STORY – when I was pregnant with Cora I craved some really weird things. Like 90’s movies and the colour peach. Both of which stuck with me after having Cora [and let’s face it, I loved 90’s movies to begin with], so now the moment I see anything peach or rose gold coloured I will find it hard to resist. I’d say 70% of Cora’s wardrobe is some shade of peach.

Because this frame’s ratio is a bit longer than typical frame sizes, I had to buy a canvas that was wider than it and cut it down to size [I used a really sharp kitchen knife since I couldn’t find my exacto knife].

I absolutely love painting with Cora supervising Cora painting. She really loves it and I love sending pieces to friends and family as little unexpected presents. I guide her at times [just by pointing at different parts of the canvas for her to paint] and she stops, listens to my suggestions and with a quick “okay” she gets to work. It is equal parts hilarious and adorable.

This of course isn’t Cora’s first time painting. She did a black and white piece for my One Room Challenge, which she points at and shouts to let me know she’d like to sit down and paint something else.

I also want to get our bar cart in bit more of some kind of order. I want to add something green too as this is all screaming, dare I say, too much burgundy? I’m not sure what plant though to get. If you have a favourite small house plant [that is hardy and won’t die too easily], please let me know! I’d love to have something potted on our bar cart, but I’m not entirely sure what. And it can’t be too fragile either because of curious toddler hands.

I can hear you all screaming “fake plant” at me as my only option.

Also featured – bar cart – black dining room hutch – Bill Murray print [which won’t be staying here for much longer. It looks strange here] – dining room One Room Challenge

#DarkRomanticLuxe

Secondhand Schoenhut baby grand piano

As I was searching Kijiji for a storage bench for our hallway last week, one of the ads to show up in my search was this tiny toddler grand piano [and subsequent tiny toddler grand piano ‘bench’, which is how it showed up in my search]. I had to have it … for Cora. I showed Robert its picture and within 15 minutes I was arranging to collect it from the seller.

It was advertised for $40 on Kijiji as some of the legs on the bench were wobbily and the seller explained they were unable to fix it for years. Challenge accepted. I took the piano as is and 5 minutes after bringing it home I fixed both wobbily legs [I wrapped the screws on each leg with a bit of masking tape and screwed them back into the bench. The screw and socket (?) seal had just become loose over the years]. I leaned back and allowed the smugness to wash over me and I bathed in it for several minutes.

I’ve tried finding this ‘Schylling’ piano online but the closest thing I’ve found was this Schoenhut Baby Grand Piano online from Target [I can audibly hear Canadian’s weeping] for $169.38. It’s a surprisingly solid piano made entirely of wood – no cheapy plastic parts.

It has the sweetest little chime sound to it and Cora is already a huge fan. Unlike our poor neighbours. If you’d like to see our new-to-us baby grand piano in action, check it out in my saved stories on Instagram under ‘Thrifted’ [only viewable via the app]. It’s amazing and perfect and I can’t wait to put it in Cora’s room once it gets more organised.

Do you have a favourite secondhand piece you found recently for a sweet deal? That’s my favourite thing about finding excellent things secondhand; how much cheaper they are than brand new and I feel almost no guilt when buying them.

Baby

Two designs, one room. Which would you pick?

I’ve been taking my time thinking of a design for Cora’s bedroom. I measured her room soon after we moved in and since then I’ve made quite a few designs on Google SketchUp. Some good, some very bad. But only within the past few days have I managed to narrow down the design to two options; a dark design and a light design.

Keep in mind that these mock-ups are minus a lot of accessories and details that will be added to the room (like Cora’s faux taxidermy pig, her Katy Perry cross stitch, our Bill Murray print and some Christmas lights to name a few), so it looks very bare. The dark walls may seem a bit overwhelming, but they’ll be covered with fun pieces.

I got fancy and made Google SketchUp videos to show the different angles of each design. I went entirely dark with the dark room, but for the light room I added a kind of feature polka-dot wall. I didn’t want just one wall to have polka-dots, but I also didn’t want the entire room to be overwhelmed by them, so I kind of ombre-d the polka-dots onto each adjoining wall. Does that make sense? I’m using a lot of hand gestures as I’m explaining, but I realise you can’t see that. These videos will hopefully better explain what I mean …

I like the idea of a dark room for Cora as it might be a calm space for her (especially around nap time and bed time). I also like the idea of going with a less traditional colour palette for her / “a little girls room”. But at the same time, I want Cora’s room to be somewhere fun so I keep coming back to the light design with polka-dots. I am leaning towards one design in particular, but I’m curious to see if it’s the most popular choice.

So which design do you prefer? Are you more dark side than light side? Or does the idea of black walls in a little girls room make you think WHY WHY WHAT ARE YOU THINKING I’M CALLING CHILD SERVICES. I’m very curious to know, and even more curious if there are very strong opinions on either. I’m looking at you, dark side.