A Porch Update + Nursery Art

Today's post is a combination of two small projects.  First, I have a little update to the porch window seating.  This is what it looked liked before:

Not too shabby right.  The only thing that I didn't like was the open cubbies on the Ikea Expedit shelves.  Ikea makes door inserts for their Kallax shelving units (formally Expedit).  They are $15 a piece so it wasn't the cheapest of updates but I think it was totally worth it.

The lighting wasn't nearly as good as it was in my before photo and don't mind those little gnomes hanging out in the window.  That is where they live in the winter!  The inserts were very easy to install with the exception of a few cubbies that had screws blocking the way because that was where the mdf was screwed into the Expedit shelf.  I just had to cut some pieces out of the backs of the inserts to get them to slide into those cubbies.

I like how much more built-in the benches look with the doors installed.  I also like that things stored in the the cubbies can now be hidden which will make the space more functional and less cluttered. I think that the door inserts also add even more stability to the benches.  They don't creak at all when I sit on them now (even at 6 months pregnant)

Next up is another nursery project.  This was one of those projects where I thought I took more pictures but when I was uploading them from my camera I discovered that that was not the case, sorry! One of the things that I have become obsessed with while designing this nursery is hot air balloons.  I think that they are the perfect vintage travel vehicle and are so whimsical (just wait until I write a post on the decoration that I made for above the crib!)  A long time ago when I found this print for the porch, I also found some awesome hot air balloon prints.

The prints come from an Etsy shop called PRRINT that prints on vintage dictionary pages.  I knew that I didn't want to cut the dictionary pages down to a standard size so I found 4 similar frames with mats at TJ Maxx.  I wanted to add a little pizzazz to the frames so I started by painting the inner portion of the mats gold.  Here is the one process pic I took for this project where I had taped off the mat with painters tape:

The frames were all black which wasn't quite what I wanted so I decided to spray paint them all navy. Unfortunately the glass was glued into the frames so I spent a lot of prep time covering the glass. Also it is sometimes challenging to find a good day to spray paint in North Dakota because even when it is warm enough outside it is often ridiculously windy.  Last Saturday I found a window of about 3 hours where the temp was warm enough and the wind hadn't picked up yet.  Today I am hoping to spray paint something else so I am hoping the wind will cooperate today.  I used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch in navy blue.  This is the first time that I have used the Painter's Touch paint and I have to say that it is awesome.  It took one coat folks and it turned out smooth and glossy.  I am not the best spray painter in the world so I appreciated that this looked so nice even with my lack of spray painting skills.

Now in some of these pictures it is hard to discern that the frames are in fact navy but that is just the nature of navy blue.  

Here is a picture that shows you what a mess the rest of the nursery actually is right now.  Those trim pieces in the corner are quarter round for our bedroom which has been a project on our list for over a year now. Better get on that soon!

By the way, I picked that adorable fox lamp up at World Market.  I spray painted it gold when I was spray painting the curtain rod a few weeks ago.  The bookshelf is from Target.

Well that is about it.  I hope to be back soon with a fairly detailed post on the decoration that I made to go above the crib in place of a mobile.  It is seriously one of my favorite projects so far so I can't wait to share!