de Jong Dream House: master bedroom

Showing posts with label master bedroom. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Expedit Ideas for Every Room

Like many Ikea fans, I was shocked to hear that the iconic Swedish retailer was discontinuing the uber-popular Expedit. Fortunately, all is not lost. The Expedit 2.0, aka Kallax will roll out in April.

Expedit on the left, Kallax on the right.

The two systems are very similar. The main differences are that the Kallax does away with the distinctive chunky border, has slightly rounder corners, and is supposed to be more scratch resistant. The interior size of the cubes are the same and all the boxes and accessories for the Expedit will still fit the Kallax.

The nice thing about the change is that it that the slightly smaller trim will significantly cut down on the number of trees Ikea uses produces the units. This tree-hugger loves that. But my slighly-OCD tendencies drove me to Ikea this weekend to buy the last two Expedits I wanted for my craft room. I'm sure we will purchase a few Kallaxes (Kallaxi?) in the future, but at least my craft room closet will have Expedits to match my Expedit craft table.

I love how perfectly the Sterilite bins fit in the Expedits.

Here's a quick peek at my craft room closet organization in progress.

We also have a large Expedit in our master bedroom.

I've started a Pinterest board with some of my favorite Expedit uses and hacks. Take a look at some of my favorite ideas for using Ikea Expedits around the house.

Nursery

I wish we would have thought of using an Expedit in our son's room when he was a baby. What a creative, versatile changing table!

Expedit changing table via Little Lovely

Child's Bedroom

I could see our son loving this Expedit storage bed. What a great way to store all his books!

Expedit Storage Bed via Meredith at Ikea Hackers

Any Bedroom

We actually have Ikea Hopen drawers for nightstands in our master bedroom, but I love the idea of using the Expedits and saving a lot of money!

Affordable Night Stands via Free Sylin Beth (Update: the site has since been deactivated)

Closet

Make the most of your closets with an Expedit and a few bars.

DIY Custom Closet via I Heart Organizing

The same idea works in a walk in closet, too.

Kevin Wilson via Ikea Hackers

Kitchen

Make your own kitchen island or bar with an Expedit and a table top of your choice.

Kitchen island via Decorating Insanity

This command center is a creative way to make a corner work for you.

Family Command Center via Iron & Twine

Pantry

I just love the look of this walk-in pantry, especially how the Expedit makes a shelf. I would use that for my appliances.

Pantry via Mel 'N' Rob's Knockdown Rebuild

Speaking of appliances, how cute is this appliance storage idea?

Appliance storage via BHG

Dining Room

Add legs to an Expedit for a simple home bar or sideboard

Ikea Expedit as Home Bar-use the 4 not the 8 and add a wine fridge and floating shelves above...and the black/brown color

Home bar via Live Creating Yourself

Living Room

Technically, I don't think this example uses Expedits, but I have my eye on a variation of this idea in our basement living area. Instead of books, we'll use the shelves for DVDs and board games.

Sofas with Shelving via Apartment Therapy

Bathroom

Did you know you could use an Expedit as a linen closet? Why, yes you can!

Expedit linen closet by Live Creating Yourself

Foyer/Mudroom

Expedits have long been uses as room dividers, but I this rendition is really creative.

Expedit as foyer via Apartment Therapy

If you have a little more room, Expedits can create an organized mudroom.

Photo credit: IKEA catalog

Laundry Room

Find more storage room in your laundry room by hanging an Expedit above the counter.

Expedit laundry shelves from Achieving Creative Order

Here's another way to organize the laundry area. I actually have this idea pinned for our son's book nook when we are ready to turn it into a desk area.

IHeart Organizing: Reader Space: Creative & Compact Laundry Storage

Laundry Room Revamp by Six 2 Eleven

Exercise Room

Expedit TV stand for a treadmill via I Heart Organizing (Note: the original post with this photo seems to have been taken down)

Craft Room/Office

Of course, I'm partial to my craft room, but lots of people have found creative way to use Expedits in their work spaces. I just love this desk.

Rambling Renovators: Getting Organized #office #ikea Home office for 2...nice set up for one wall of your craft room with work table in center...

Desk by Rambling Renovators

And here's a smaller version of my craft table with space for a chair.

Craft table via Mama.ie

Playroom

This is one of the first images I ever pinned on Pinterest. I love this idea for a play area. And if you don't have an Ikea in your area, you're in luck, because these shelves were made at home, courtesy of Ana White's tutorial.

Console height cubbies by Ana White

My little guy prefers dogs to dolls, but this Expedit doll house is adorable.

Dollhouse by Land of Nod

Do you share my love of Expedit? How do you use Expedits in your home?

Linked to:
Craft-O-Maniac * Crystal & Co. * DIY Dreamer * Feeding Big * Fluster Buster * Home Stories From A to Z * How Do You Do It * The Idea Room * Just Us Four * Kiddie Foodies * Krafty Cards, Etc. * Moonlight & Mason Jars Link Party * Practically Functional * Romance on a Dime * Sew Can Do * Sew Many Ways * Tatertots & Jello * Val's Quilting Studio * Will Cook For Smiles

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Master Bedroom Reveal

Yesterday morning I took a bunch of photos of our bedroom. We have a housekeeper who comes every other week to clean the bathrooms, kitchen, and floors. (Yes, I am capable of cleaning my own house, but living with a brain injury means I have less energy each day. It is worth it to us to use my limited energy enjoying time with my family, cooking, exercising, and doing fun projects that also keep my brain sharp-ish rather than cleaning). That said, Kim was here on Friday, and on Saturday morning, our room was so pretty, I decided it was time to post the reveal.

Part of the reason I procrastinated about posting this reveal is that in the 5.5 years we've been married, we've never had a headboard so our room only looked nearly finished. We've been looking off and on for the last, um, 5.5 years for one, but we didn't really want to spend hundreds of dollars for a headboard, even though that seems to be the going rate for a king size padded leather one.

So, yesterday, I was out running some errands and low and behold, I found this beauty for a song.

There's a teeny tiny scratch that you won't see because I won't point it out to you. But it was cause for the store to practically give it away! (I suspect the staff had a contest to see who could unload it that day!)

So, after re-taking the photos, I am ready for the reveal! Welcome to our master bedroom.

The color is Sherwin Williams Sensuous Gray. It's a nice soft grayish-plum. It's very serene. Just what we wanted in our bedroom.

You may notice that our bedroom is smaller that most in a home our size. We didn't want a or sitting area or owner's retreat. Our whole house is our retreat!

Elements:

After living with the teeny tiny nightstands we used when we staged our old house, we went big with these Ikea Hopen chests. We bought the curtains at Target. It's hard to see, but the stick lamp is from Target, as well. Maybe at some point we'll get larger ones, but for now these are just fine.

Behind each of our nightstands, Niels attached power strips to the wall. One little tweak we would make is to have our outlets installed under the windows instead of on the back wall between the windows. With the power strips we don't have to search for our plugs. My hubby is brilliant.

We had lots of ideas for above our bed, but I'm so happy we landed on this 11x14 framed photos from our wedding day. I found the frames at one of my favorite discount shops for less than $20.

Our marriage motto is "No Returns. No exchanges." I bought this vinyl from Uppercase Living, but as soon as I figure out how to use my Silhouette Cameo, I can start making things like this on my own!

Our Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) walls give us nice deep window sills. They can make hanging curtains a challenge, but mini-tension rods work well.

The bathroom is nearly done, so we'll save that reveal for another day. On the other side of the bathroom door is the "We Do" gallery.

On the wall next to the We Do gallery, we put up some Ribba shelves to hold our wedding album and scrapbooks.

Our big Valentine's Date this year was putting together the Expedit shelf from Ikea. We opted for a bookshelf rather than dresser because our closet is plenty big, and we love our books! Styling it is an ongoing process, but this is what it looks like today. The items on top still need to be hung up, but until we figure out our final design, they are fine to sit on top.

I LOVE this watercolor that my super talented friend Dave did for us of our late great Bailey dog. (Check out his Etsy shop for more of his work. In addition to custom pet portraits, he also does wonderful landscapes that you can see on his blog).

As you may have guessed if you've been following us for awhile, we like art that is personal to us. We knew we wanted a map of some sort, so when I saw this custom heart map in Breeding Fancy's Etsy Shop, I knew we found what we wanted. She let us choose the colors and specify our hometowns. Love it!

The tulips were held by the youngest attendant at our wedding, our goddaughter. (She was living in China at the time, so we kept the flowers for her). The heart was just a fun project I did with D one day. It serves as a place holder until I find something I love to go in the other silver frame like the one Bailey is in.

I made a few printables for the frames within the bookshelf. This first one was inspired by Craftiments, who was kind enough to provide the background for free on her site.

I designed the other two, which you can save to your computer by right-clicking and saving to your computer.

This cute little suitcase was the card holder at our wedding.

And these We Do letters were on the cake table of our wedding. I love that we are still using our wedding decor almost six years later.

Thanks for touring our room!

If you've missed our other reveals, click the links below.
Boy's Bedroom
Guest Bedroom
Flex Room
Kitchen
Pantry
Family Bathroom
Upstairs Laundry Room
Paint Tour

If you'd like to see the images that inspired us, check out out master bed and bath board on Pinterest.

Linked to:
36th Avenue * 52 Mantels * Better with Age * Crystal & Co * DIY Dreamer * DIY Showoff * Fluster Buster * House of Hepworths * Housewife How To's * Liz Marie * New Nostalgia * NY Melrose Family * Oh My Creative * Pursuit of a Functional Home * SNAP * Sumo's Sweet Stuff * Taylor House * Uncommon Designs * Will Cook for Smiles

Monday, January 14, 2013

"We Do" Gallery

Now that the holidays are over, I'm finally taking the time to post about some of our latest projects. Today I'm going to write about another gallery. Yes, I may have a slight addiction to photo galleries.

When Niels and I got married five years ago, we had white wood letters spelling out "We Do" on our cake table.

Since our honeymoon, we've used those letters as decor in our master bedroom. We liked "we do" better than "I do" because of course, we both chose to get married. When our son started noticing our wedding bands, he called them our "we do" rings. I knew that I wanted to make a "we do" wall, but it took a little time--made longer by lots of sentimental trips down memory lane--to decide on the photos.

A bit about our story. Niels and I met online in September 2006. He was sure pretty quickly that he wanted to marry. I was a little gun shy. I spent Christmas of 2006 in China visiting some of my best friends, who had just moved there a few months early. Niels spent that Christmas in the Netherlands with his family. The day after I arrived in China, a tsunami knocked out all the underwater network lines, which meant I couldn't access my email from home. However, I couldn't connect with the Netherlands. So Niels called my family to tell them I had arrived safely...and introduced himself as my boyfriend. I had also planned to pay my bills online, but since the internet was out for almost the full three weeks I was in China, I took the leap to trust Niels with my bank password so he could pay my bills. Over that time, not being able to communicate well or often, I realized how much I missed him. Talking to my friends, they helped me realize that Niels was exactly the kind of man I had been praying to find. On the first night I returned home, Niels came over and we talked long into the night about how we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. In March of 2007, we flew to the Netherlands, where my dad had a short layover on his way to Israel with my sisters and brother-in-law. I met Niels' family, and Niels was able to ask for my dad's blessing. A few days later, we went to Paris, and Niels proposed at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Clearly travel was a big part of our courtship!

So, the challenge was to figure out how to put all those memories on our wall! I started by playing around with a layout, and then listed favorite memories of our life together.

I bought a variety of frames and shadow boxes with white and silver frames. Then I found photos and mementos that worked.

Once again, we used command strips to attach the frames to the wall. They are so easy to use.

It was a little confusing when all the frames were flipped, so I was glad to have my cheat sheet!

We used our level for spacing to make it easier on ourselves.

Niels liked the first row of photos so much, we were tempted to stop there.

Then we lined up the four 5x7's along the top.

From there, we started working down.

And then we completed the outer square.

Finally, we filled in the middle.

I'm so happy to have all these fun moments to look at when I wake up each day.

Here's a tour of some of the photos.

Engagement day!

We say Niels is beckoning me over to the Dutch side in this picture. I'm in Belgium and he's in the Netherlands.

I love this free printable from Sweet Rose Studio. It comes in several designs and colors so you can download your own.

We had our engagement photos taken at the Keukenhof in the Netherlands--the most amazing flower garden in the world.

This is the card I gave Niels just before he headed to the airport before Christmas. I made him wait awhile, but his Christmas gift was our first kiss.

After we lost our second baby, I was pretty down. We booked an Alaskan cruise for my due date so I would have something to look forward to experiencing. As it turned out, I got pregnant again and SO sick. It took some bartering, but my OB cleared me to go, and it was the one and only week of my pregnancy that I was feeling good.

One of my favorite wedding day photos was taken by Niels with our rings and the local paper.

I love this photo from our first trip to Europe. Clearly we were still in our silly courtship days. I have no idea what Niels was doing, but I love the look on my face. It's the same one my Grampa Leo made.

This photo was taken in Niels' hometown, at the castle where his parents were married.

When we planned our honeymoon, we did not think through the folly of needing to be at the airport at 4:30 the next morning. So I flew with my veil on and took out the 16,000 bobby pins when we arrived in Curacao.

More than a decade before I met Niels, I started praying for my future husband. This is the list of character qualities I prayed that my husband would possess. Nearly every day, I prayed these things for him, and I love seeing this evidence of God's answered prayers.

For our initials, we couldn't find a plus side or ampersand, so we decided to use a foam cross instead.

This shadow box includes mementos from our wedding day: our program, invitation, and name cards. We had an international theme. Each table had a destination and the name cards were tickets to that destination. Our table was Curacao, our honeymoon destination.

I love this picture of our late great Bailey.

Another photo from our wedding day. We used this photo for our first Christmas cards. The rhinestone Eiffel Tower was pinned to my bouquet.

This photo was taken a few weeks before D was born. We made a choice to not have pictures of our son on this gallery, but he did sneak in a little bit.

We had grand plans for a Vegas getaway this spring with just the two of us. D's dog allergy prevented the alone time we were hoping for, but we still had a great time with D and my mom.