Tessa's Room

This weekend, like everyone else in the region, we took advantage of the nice weather and headed outside to enjoy the nice weather and take care of some projects around the house.  I set foot in an Ace Hardware and Menards and both were chaotic.  Justin continued his constant garage organizing and I decided to take care of two small furniture updates that I have been wanting to do forever. 

 

 The little white shelf was in my childhood bedroom forever.  I can't remember where it came from.  I took it from there last fall and it has been irritating Justin in our garage ever since.  The metal table is some old 70's piece of junk from the farm also that I can't remember ever seeing used in a living room or anywhere else.  It is strong and stable but just never had a spot in our house.  I have been dragging it around for awhile and Justin has done nothing but complain about it the whole time.  I have been very close to just throwing it in the dumpster many times just to get him to forget about it.  This weekend I finally decided to get the paint to do what I have planned all along.  I painted the white shelf for Tessa's room, and I plan to put the table under a window near our patio door for a plant to sit on. 

So, now that the shelf is painted and in place I can finally, after all these months, post some pictures of Tessa's room fully assembled.  I know I have shared the color of the walls and the letters of her name but not the whole thing in cohesion!  It was a long time coming due to me procrastinating and also the fact that the room is generally a mess with clothes and toys and blankets strewn about.  Until yesterday, there was a garbage bag of hand me downs and also a plastic container of hand me downs needing to be sorted and put away.  There was also a hoard of diaper boxes in the corner which I love to keep for storing clothes but they really pile up. 

The color scheme is lavender with navy blue accents.  I had three weird old prints of kittens by some Japanese artist that I bought at a rummage sale many years ago before I was even thinking about having kids.  I wanted to put them in navy frames without spending what would add up to hundreds of dollars for professional framing.  Of course, finding the right navy frame was impossible so I ended up ordering some pretty cheap ones from a wholesale framing website where I was charged a small amount extra for only ordering three.  They were just what I wanted thought for a fraction of what custom framing would have cost. 

 

I love this wall collage.  Notice the fully completed "my first 12 months" frame.  Oh yeah...it wasn't done early but it has been done for a few months!  I printed photos and placed them in the frame for each month of her first year!  Ben has one too and they are both filled!  It's a small victory but it pleases me anyway.  The oval is a wicker framed mirror, also from my parents house and the other small frames are a 5x7 of Allan and a small framed picture of Tessa!  That small frame is also navy blue.  It was an oddball TJ Maxx find. 

I already shared her name months ago.  That little shelf above the closet is also a castoff from the farm.  I think it was in my sister's room. 

It looks lack like all the other blue accents, but the crib sheet is blue.  I ordered it from Pottery Barn on clearance.  So it's almost like this room could be straight out of a PB catalogue, right? RIGHT???

This little corner formerly held the pile of boxes.

 

Here is the little white shelf wearing it's new navy blue coat!  Those books don't stand a chance of being shelved for longer than a few hours. 

 

Here is the changing table area with the framed cat calendar pages that I had in Ben's room in our old house.  I splurged on a new purple fabric bin when she was born to replace the green one Ben used! 

 

Here is the newly cleared dresser which formerly was piled with birthday cards (yes from five months ago), books, and other debris that we wanted out of reach including a four pack of dead batteries from the baby swing. 

This rug is one of my favorite accents in the room!  I love rag rugs.  In my hometown, there was a resident at the nursing home who made rag rugs as a hobby.  I imagine there were several but in my youth there was one man who really churned them out.  He made so many of them which were sold in the gift store for like $8.00.  They were in every house in town.  Well, it was a nursing home so you know what happened and eventually the supply dwindled as the rugs faded and wore out.  My mom and I saw some at the Fargo street fair a few years ago priced at $35.00 and up and I was intrigued but I had to pass on that price.  Right before Tessa was born I saw these big ones at Kohl's with the typical Kohl's built in discount of 40% or 50% off which made them under $10.00!  I'm sure it was mass produced in Singapore or somewhere and not lovingly handmade in a nursing home activity room but I'll take what I can get. 

So that's Tessa's room!  I am proud of it and I love being in there when it is all neat and orderly although those times are rare.  We all know that depictions of stylish and organized kids rooms are generally B.S. 

*disclaimer:  Right before I took these pictures Tessa went in the room and opened a low drawer and pulled all of its contents out and spread them around the floor.  Also, the birthday card pile I was mocking is actually still there.  I just moved it for the picture!