michelle paige blogs

Monday

Wave Themed Teen Bedroom

Hello! I thought I would try to get another post out before the back-to-school madness hits around here. I've been wanting to share my teenage daughter's beach themed bedroom for awhile, now. It's always a bit sad to watch your child grow out of their little kid room and want something a bit more sophisticated. However, this room still has plenty of playful touches that doesn't feel too grown up.

We decided to go with a beachy 'wave' theme. My daughter picked out her favorite color--a soft blue. Paint color is Soothing Blue by Valspar.

The surfboard belonged to my father-in-law. It was in bad shape, so we gave it a couple coats of paint and leaned it against the wall.We chose to put mirrors in this dark corner niche to add more light to the room. These wavy mirrors are from IKEA. (They don't sell these mirrors online, but here are two other fun options. Click here and here.)

This inexpensive canvas wave print is from Bed, Bath & Beyond.

On one wall, we framed out a rectangle with basic molding and painted the wall with magnet paint. After a couple coats of the magnetic paint, we covered it with BEHR's semi-gloss paint in the color called, Wipeout. (This is the same color we used on the surfboard.)

The wooden tags were found at Michaels.
Small green and blue buttons were hot glued to magnets.

A few other art pieces and an old skimmer board were hung on the wall by the bed.

Beachaholic pillow came from Joanns. Bedding is from IKEA.

The drapes, pillow shams and the recovered chair were made out of fabric from two IKEA twin duvet covers. We fell in love with the bold stripes and the blue and green colors. I cut up the duvets and with some simple machine sewing, made them work perfectly. (This particular duvet cover is no longer available at IKEA, click here to see more options.)

We ordered the vinyl 'wave' scripture from here. Have you ever put vinyl lettering on your walls? It's super easy and looks amazing!

I love how this verse goes perfectly with the room's theme.

The fabric draped on the ceiling is to look like waves.

Simple clear-colored tacks hold up the lightweight fabric shades (these were found at IKEA.)
Light fixtures are from here.

and the best part...
My daughter loves her room!

Anchor Themed Birthday Party

What is it about summer birthdays that makes them so fun?
The majority of the birthdays in our family are in the winter and early spring. That's when our weather is so dark and gray and most of the time--rainy. In fact, we're usually surprised when it doesn't rain on our birthdays.

Affiliate link: These exact plates are found here.

But my mother-in-law...she's the lucky one, with a birthday in August!
Oh, how we all wish we could have an August birthday with blue skies and sunshine and fresh watermelon and berries.
August in the Seattle area is absolutely gorgeous!
The warmth, light and sun always makes you want to celebrate!
Just take a look at my mother-in-law's nautical anchor party.

Anchor's Aweigh!
It's a Nautical anchor-themed party.
'Love is where the anchor drops.'
'You are my anchor in the storm.'
Heb. 6:19-- Love anchors the soul.

Affiliate links: Anchor paper fans are found here. Wrapping paper found here.
Anchor tags and clips were found at Target Dollar Spot.

Affiliate link: Chalkboard anchor found here.

A very simple party was made easy by a few anchor party supplies. Red & White striped wrapping paper down the center of the table makes a great and easy table runner. Instant color, just cut to fit.

Red & white stripes and navy & white stripes are perfect nautical colors. This could also be a great 4th of July theme.

Our simple summer menu included: garden salad, watermelon, black pepper chips and salmon.

You do have to have fish (and chips) at a nautical party, right?

The cake was store-bought (gasp!) I know. (It was purchased at WinCo.) I was planning on making a cake, but when I saw this one in the store, I couldn't resist! Just take a look at it!

4 different sections:
1 section chocolate
1 section caramel spice
1 section red velvet
1 section carrot cake
We all chose to try a different kind, sort of. Well, most of us tried out every flavor! Delicious!

An anchor pillow and gift bags with anchor tags helped decorate the cake table. The anchor pillow is from Coastal Living found at Bed, Bath.& Beyond.

Light up boxes help set the occasion. Do you have a Lightbox?
These things are so much fun! No having to print out posters, just change up the letters, plug it in and... it's spectacular!

I own 2 of these fun light up signs.

Affiliate link: Lightbox from Heidi Swapp and this one from WOPS.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

For a complete list of all parties on my blog, click here.
Check out more of my Mother-in-law's summer birthday parties:

Whale party decor.

Whale Party

Hiking Party

Balloon Party

Sunshine Party

Beachy Starfish Party

Puppy Party

Linking up to BFFParty@TT&J

Vintage Oar Wall

Ah, these sunshiny summer days...blogging just doesn't seem to happen much in the summer. Trips, family outings, visitors and just relaxing is much higher on the priority list. However, I did want to bring you a few posts of summer. Starting with my oar wall!

It's a whole wall of oars!
I've been collecting oars for a few years-- just waiting for enough to create my wall. The little antique shops on the island know me by name. Garage sales, junk sales, craft markets have all helped me with my collection.

An oar gallery wall. Perfect for a large wall in a beach home!

Yes, I know this doesn't work well in every home, but in a beach home...I love it!
This post contains affiliate links to help you locate products.

A collection of oars--ready to go on the wall!

Obviously, the first step in creating an oar wall is collecting oars. Mine were all different. Some vintage, some just old. Some in terrible shape, others looked pretty good. Some long, others short. I loved the ones with old chipped paint and the ones with the oar locks still on them. I did end up staining a few so I could get a darker color on my cream wall.

The next step was figuring out how to hang them.
We used picture frame hooks on the back of each oar. The hooks are so easy to nail into the wood oars and can safely hold a bit of weight.

AH (Awesome Husband) helped me. We put one hook on the handle of the oar and another one close to the paddle. If an oar was longer, we used three hooks.

Creating an oar wall. One paddle at a time.

I laid out the pattern I wanted on the floor. Colored oars next to wood oars. Older ones next to newer ones, etc. Mixing up the directions of the oars added to the charm.

We measured the wall and determined how many rows we could create with spacing in between. We couldn't even come close to being exact in our measurements, due to each oar varying in widths and heights, but we did our best. We pounded nails into the wall, hanging one oar at a time, measuring AND eyeballing as we went.

Now, here's the hardest part...stopping! There's a part of me that wants to keep collecting oars and adding more and more...but yet, it's important to call it done and be done and be happy.