A Broken Commandment

You know that commandment that says "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house?"  Well, I kind of broke it.


And by broke I mean that I smashed it to little bits.

You see, this weekend I visited my sister-in-law's house and oh my goodness is it ever beautiful (totally worth breaking a commandment for).  In fact, one of these days I'm going to do a full-on John and Sherry style house crashing tour but today you'll just have to settle for a sneak peek of some of my favorite elements.



Element #1 is the giant chalkboard in her kitchen:

(I had a hard time getting a good photo so I'm including two...)

My sister-in-law had the idea and my father-in-law helped her execute it.  He built a frame out of molding and attached it to the wall.  Then they filled in the center with magnetic chalkboard paint. The picture really doesn't capture the fabulousness of it.  It is huge and usually sports the artistic stylings of my three-year-old niece.  (Are you starting to feel a little envy?  I know, right?  A total commandment breaker.)  

Honestly, I would love to have one of my own.  Unfortunately, I have a weird thing about chalk dust.  (It's right up there with pumpkin guts in terms of giving me the heebie-jeebies which is a strange thing for a former teacher to admit....)   I do have a similar idea in mind though, and if I ever execute it I'll let you all know.  

Speaking of similar ideas, I wanted to show you another one of my sister-in-law's projects.  This one is in her dining room:

Again, she made a frame out of molding.  She then proceeded to wallpaper the middle.  The project isn't exactly complete; there will eventually be a console table and a mirror resting against the wallpaper.  I will definitely post a picture when the room is done.  I just know it's going to be fabulous.  

  

Here's a close-up so you can see the frame a little better:

Another room that I love is the kids' bathroom.  I wish there was a good way for me to capture the whole thing in one shot.  For now I'll just show you this:

It's only a tiny corner but this little built-in suggests just how charming and whimsical the whole room is.  Don't you love the striped paint and the punchy green color inside the niche?  I mean, who wouldn't want to be potty trained in there?

The last part of this mini-tour focuses on an adorable craft that I spied in my nephew's room.  It was made by his babysitter who also seems pretty awesome.  (Is there a commandment about coveting thy sister-in-law's babysitter?  Just call me a sinner...)  

She pinned the idea here.  (Original source and tutorial found here.) 

It's a hot air balloon mobile that hangs in the middle of the room.  The top is a painted embroidery hoop...

...and the balloon baskets are made of corks.  (How cute is that?!)

 

And if you're admiring the rest of the room, wondering about the pretty painting or the fun architecture, don't worry.  I really do plan on doing a full house tour some day.   

Until then you'll just have to covet this tiny bit.

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Linking:

http://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/2013/01/sns-171-link-up-your-charming.html

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