DIY Custom Dressing Room - Progress Update

Time flies when you're having fun!  I just realized the other day that we've moved in for just over 4 months!  It's so nice to be in our own house again, and be able to just play house.  

The Mr. has been building our closet with the little spare time that he has in a day, some nights right after dinner or playing floor hockey with the little man.  Though I never rushed him (never did!), I'm sure he just wants to put this behind him.  It's a huge undertaking, and I don't blame him one bit.  

During this time while he was building the closet, I had my clothes at the seating area of our bedroom, while his were at the playroom's closet.  All of a sudden our seating area looks so spacious =)

That's because the Mr. has completed our closet to a point where we can move in our clothes.  Woo hoo!!  

Excuse the building material in the pic, they're just more handy for the Mr. while he was working in the closet.  The Mr. was afraid that I won't have enough hanging space for my side of the closet.  But after I've "KonMari"'d my clothes, I've purged bags of clothes and folded whatever I can KonMari-style.  All those bottom drawers sure came in handy with the folded pieces of clothing.  The vanity drawers are like our mini dresser for our intimates.  Last but not least are my dream-come-true pull-out racks!  The Mr. would use his side for ties and belts, and mine would be for scarves and belts.  It's great to have a spot for everything.

The Mr. has primed and painted the exterior frames and the closet interiors.  My colour inspiration was from this photo:

Natty by Design

I love this bluish grey, not too dark nor too light.   Our dressing room doesn't get much natural light, so a dark colour would make the area a dark hole.  This shade will highlight  the cabinet's detailing just right.  A close match to this greyish blue is Benjamin Moore's Sidewalk Gray, which we chose in a glossy finish and tinted down to 50%.

Benjamin Moore Sidewalk Gray

This colour is a gentle backdrop for the gold hardware we chose for the closet.  I stuck with one out of my choices of gold hardware mentioned here -  a crystal knob for the vanity drawers that we'll also be using for our kitchen cabinets.  

Lee Valley

This time around, we opted to have doors for our closet, so that our clothes aren't collecting dust while they're just sitting around.  (See the dressing room at our old house with open hanging space).  While I was shopping for gold-toned handles for the doors, I noticed the Bar Series handles from Lew's Hardware are a very popular choice amongst decorators:

Lew's Hardware

They would've been an easy choice, but I think that something dressier and less contemporary would be more appropriate for the dressing nook.  The boxy bar seems to make everything else boxy in this boxy closet.  So I continued to search for something more rounded.  Rounded, I did not find, but looking around paid off...  I found this gem:

House of antique hardware

The beveled hexagon ends really give this glass handle a gem-like resemblance.  It has a good weight and it sparkles elegantly in person!  

With this splurge for the glass handles, I sure was glad when we found plate handles at just $3 a piece at Ginger's clearance section!  They would go on the bottom drawers, giving a balanced contrast to the sparkling hardware above them.

The 3 cabinet hardware look lovely together:

Here is a hardware map for our dressing nook:

The Mr. is now working on the cosmetic fronts for the closet - trims, moldings, drawer fronts, and doors.  Over the weekend, he has put in the first trim around the top of the drawers.  I wanted a "lip" that extends just beyond the drawers to give the unit some details.  Similar to my original closet inspiration from Carrie's closet in Sex and the City 2:

CARRIE'S CLOSET IN SEX AND THE CITY 2, IMAGE VIA MARKS & FRANTZ

I thought the hardest part of building this closet was framing the structure and building the drawers, but he said the trim work and doors are just as much.  I guess my point was, if he could build this closet from scratch, the trimwork and doors must be easy peasy to him.  

And that's our little update on the Mr.'s DIY custom dressing room/ dressing nook/ closet.  No matter what we call it, it's truly one of a kind.  The Mr. is no carpenter; he's been learning as he went along, and I continue to be amazed by his skills...  and dedication to the project.

Just as the Mr. thought that he's safe to move along and close up the closet with trims and moldings, I added a special request for the closet.  Yup, the wifey requests never stop ;-) Can you guess what it is?

For the latest update, be sure to check my instagram feed!

5 Things to Consider for an "Effortless" Gallery Wall

Now that the Holidays are over, I'm still reluctant to pack away the sparkly decorations and Christmas lights that line our staircase.  Actually, call it a case of mild procrastination.  Afterall, it took quite some effort to lay out the decorations, they should stay out for a bit longer, don't you think?

I blame the delay of packing up our Christmas decorations on decorating the little man's headquarters - his bedroom and playroom.   Not that I'm doing any of the installations...  Anyway...  Little man's working corner in his playroom is finally in place, and I should really unpack some packages lying around that are for a gallery wall in the room.

A gallery wall is an eclectic display of art, giving the room a casual vibe.  For our house, there's no better place than the playroom to have some fun with it!  The. Mr is not a huge fan of gallery walls, but he has reluctantly played along with the idea for one in the playroom.  So to honour that, I promise to keep it small scaled with a somewhat neat demeanor.  My plan is to have it above a future toy storage unit, with a wall space of around 5-feet wide.

I want the gallery wall to look effortlessly casual, but it still takes some effort while taking these factors into consideration:

1. DETERMINE THE BOUNDARY

The width of most gallery walls are bounded by, or just beyond, the width of the furniture below it, if any.  For dramatic effect, you can even go wall to wall, similar to the sample image below.  As for a vertical boundary, a more comfortable grouping would see the bottom of the layout at 6"-8" above any piece of furniture, up to around 2-ft off the ceiling.  You know the general rule of hanging wall art at 60-62" from the ground?  In the case of a gallery wall, treat the whole layout as a group, so that the group's centre is at eye-level.  You don't want to be crunching your neck to look up to ALL your pieces!

via Emily Henderson

2. SHAPE OF THE LAYOUT

Do you have a neat and structured personality, like my Mr.?  Then a square or rectangular shape gallery wall will most likely be your pick.  Or are you more coherently random, like me?

Structured shape via The Southern Thing

coherently random shape by Lay Baby Lay

3. SHAPES, SIZES, AND COLOURS OF THE FRAMES

Using various shapes and sizes of frames for the gallery wall is one way to give it a dose of your personality.   For little man's playroom, I originally planned on using colourful frames.  I'm having second thoughts about that, and I think monochromatic frames would play a balancing role against the pops of colours around the room full of toys.  

via Love Grows Wild

via rh baby and child

4. SPACING AROUND THE PIECES 

A visually appealing gallery wall should have just enough pieces that are grouped comfortably together.  The key is to avoid looking too messy.  Spaced too tight, it would look like too many pieces are crying for attention, and the frames would look crammed; spaced too far apart, then they look like individual art pieces sharing the wall.  

To be easy on the eyes, I find that the optimal distance between each piece should be around 2-3".  There're no hard and fast rules about it, and it all depends on the different sizes and shapes of the pieces.

via Driven by Decor

via RH Teen

5. INCLUDE WHIMSICAL ACCENTS

Gallery walls are never boring - display some loved and dearest pieces to let your personality shine through!  A touch of whimsical accessories bring these gallery walls to life!

via Project Nursery

via Something to be Found

The next time you see a casually and effortlessly chic gallery wall, you can count on the fact that the more casual it looks, the more effort it required!  A lot of planning goes into perfecting even a seemingly random placement of pieces.  But don't be boggled down by the planning; afterall, the point of a gallery wall is to have fun with it!  Once you have collected your pieces, it's definitely a fun exercise to hone your sense of design and use of space.  Let loose and have some fun!

Simple Christmas Tour - New House

I should thank the eager Christmas enthusiasts in our neighbourhood that started decking their exteriors in early November.  It got our little man all hyped up and on repeat...  "When are we putting up our Christmas decorations?  Mommy I'll help you!"  "Do we have (exterior) lights like those?"  And when he was told no, we don't, "Aw~~...  can we get them?"  Well, you know the drill...

Don't get me wrong.  Christmas is my favourite time of the year - who doesn't love all the sparkly festival decorations?  I love decorating for Christmas, with Christmas tunes playing in the background on the radio.  It's also a good opportunity to refresh decor around the house.  

With all the hussle and bustle leading up to the Holidays, I opted to keep our Christmas decor simple.

So with little man's help, while he also managed to flip through a Lego catalogue and announced his Christmas wishlist, we put up the Christmas tree.  That was several weekends ago!  After playing around with placements and such, I think I'm happy with our Christmas decor this year.  

Welcome to our new house (not so new anymore)!  This is our entryway console table, on which I placed two IKEA faux sheepskin to mimic fluffy snow for the grazing brass reindeers.  I like how the whiteness of the sheepskin tones down all the gold accents on the table.  

Coming in through the hallway, I kept the garland on the staircase simple this year.  I used to wrap these faux garlands around the banister, but I noticed how the metal parts would scratch the railings at our old house.  This time around, I just used floral wires to gather the garland at the swivels.

We've placed our Christmas tree at the entrance of the sitting area, so that we can enjoy its twinkling lights from most of the ground floor.  And those are real presents underneath the tree!  Wrapping up fake presents is not for me.

I've started to hoard a good supply of LED stringlights* this Christmas.  I've put them anywhere and everywhere I can!  Here in our sitting area, I placed a strand of the LED lights into the container of extra ornaments.  The lights add even more twinkling effect to the beaded cone tree and the mercury glass tabletop finials.

For everyday Christmas decor on the dining table, I added two pots of faux greeneries with some berries on either side of the candelebras.  I pulled apart 2 twigs of faux branch arrangements and fanned out the smaller branches into the mercury glass lanterns.  

The Mr. commented that setting the table makes it more festive, but I'll save that for when my family comes over for Christmas dinner =)

The console table is another spot for me to use those beloved LED stringlights, which I wrapped around tiny Christmas trees placed in the birdcages.  Those are the same birdcages we used in the Spring Tablescape decor back in old house.

Aside from string lights, I've also added some gold accessories to our Christmas collection.  This gold resin deer from Target...

... and this pair of gold antlers were part of my recent haul.

Don't forget to deck the bar cart!  Check out my post on styling the bar cart for the Holidays!

I always love how decorators load up their rooms with Christmas decor, but I can never achieve their same look without everything looking messy and myself being overwhelmed.  I'm never one to dump Christmas all over the house.  Now that we're in a smaller house, I definitely don't want Christmas overload to happen.  I see that's the way it'll be for Christmases hereafter.  (Not to mention, it'll be much easier to clean up!)

I'll save my oohs and aahs as I indulge in other Christmas enthusiasts' instagram feeds #xmasdecor #christmasdecorations.  But for our home, I'll leave it livable and manageable.

I'm also happy (and relieved) to announce that, as of this morning, I'm done with my Christmas shopping!!  Woo hoo!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

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