I must say, when I found out that we were going to be having a baby boy, I had a moment of thinking "But I don't know much about boys...how am I going to actually raise one?". I've never had a brother. I didn't grow up with close boy friends. I grew up with a sister and a house full of tons of little girl friends playing Barbies and 'house'. Tea parties, dolls, mom's makeup and pig tails filled our house and my poor dad had to put aside his manly instincts and learn how to braid our hair and get down on the floor to play Barbies with his girls.
So when we found out that a little boy was on the way, I had to ask Terry a lot of questions.
"How do you decorate a boy's room?"
"Is this too girly for a boy?"
"How do we raise our son to be exactly like you? I want that so badly".
When we'd pass by baby bedding and I'd pick it up thinking it was boy-ish enough to add to Carter's room, he'd just look at me and laugh, saying "That is so girly...this is a BOY we're having". I really had no clue. But I'm learning. And part of me secretly loves that I have to go to Terry to ask his opinion about so many things now since with Mya it was the exact opposite. I knew exactly what I wanted her little girly nursery to look like. I knew exactly what little dress would be perfect for her or which hair clips to buy. I love that Terry can now teach me...and I'm sure he'll continue to teach me every step of the way.
One of the things that I found though to be the most difficult process when prepping for this little boy's nursery was finding a light fixture that wasn't covered in jewels or crystals or cute little girly details. As we walked the aisles of literally every home improvement store in our city I said to Terry, "Do people just not buy light fixtures for their little boy's rooms?"...because there was literally nothing that caught my eye and most lights were clearly meant for girls.
So I decided to take things into my own hands, and make my own (well, kinda). I ended up buying a simple fixture that I liked...but I thought it was a bit boring--and it was also covered in cream fabric and I wanted it to have white in it to match the rest of the room. So I rummaged through the fabric that I already had on hand in my house, and I decided to cover the light fixture myself--which literally only took minutes to do. And I realized (and Terry--the boy--confirmed) that the fabric isn't exactly the most boy-ish of choice...but it was free to me since I already had it, and it matched the colours of the room while also meaning that I didn't have to leave the house to go to the fabric store one more time. I kinda like it too...it works.
Anyway, here is how I did it:
1) I bought this light fixture--which is just fine, but a little plain.
2) Pick a fabric and measure your lamp shade, then cut your fabric to size.
3) Get your glue gun out and start tightly wrapping the fabric around the shade, applying small dabs of glue to the inside of the shade to make sure the fabric stays put.
4) Place lamp shade back on fixture and your done!! I think this took me about 20mins tops to make.
I'm now looking at every other lamp shade in our house envisioning beautifully fabric wrapped shades and a quick and easy update to so many rooms in our house. It was just so easy, quick (and cheap!) to make.
Let me know if you've ever done this before or have any other great DIY ideas for a quick fix to update a room on the cheap (and easy). I'm always looking for new ideas.
Happy Weekend! Hopefully I'll have good news to share soon about our new arrival...I thought we might have had to run to the hospital last night with all of the contractions that I was having, but again they dwindled down to nothing. We're so ready to meet this little boy (and show him his new light fixture!).
No comments:
Post a Comment