There’s a very special baby going to be born very soon, and I’m terribly excited.  When I discovered that the nursery was going to have a nautical feel I was even more excited.  I’d had this quilt in mind for years and this fabric in my stash for just as long.  This was the perfect opportunity to bring it all together and surprise the mom-to-be!

The receiving blankets are a simple square of quilting cotton backed with a flannel.  I adore this sailboat print.  It’s an old one from Moda - a line called “Hamptons”.

The red blanket has a navy flannel backing and the blue one has a flannel navy ticking stripe.  I love me some ticking stripes.

The quilt has a smaller scale patchwork sailboat that I adapted from the book Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.  (I love that book.)

The reverse side has some sweet flag bunting:

I love doing baby quilts - they’re such a manageable size.  Hopefully this one is well-loved!

Home of Chris and Dave Plantan, photograph by Vickey Weiss (via Design*Sponge)

New header… that is all.

Design by Peter Pawlak, Photograph by Joshua McHugh for Elle Decor

Stylist Kendra Smoot

Design by Kelly Deck featured in The Globe and Mail via Our House

Design by Kelly Deck, photo by Barry Calhoun, via The Globe and Mail

Design by Kelly Deck, photograph by Barry Calhoun, via the Globe and Mail

One of the things we’ve needed since forever is some art to hang above our bed.  But that’s a tricky spot to choose art for, I think.  It’s your bedroom.  It’s awfully personal.  The subject matter has to fit the space.  And the size of the art needs to be fairly substantial.  (My general rule is that art should fill at least 2/3 of the width of whatever it hangs above - so in this case, our headboard.)  But usually, bigger the art = bigger the cost.  

The thing is, I can paint.  I just almost never do - it takes space, time, creative energy, and focus, which seems hard to come by in these baby years.  Furthermore, living with my own art can sometimes be tough (I’m my own toughest critic).  

But for the sake of getting this place “finished” to sell, it was time to finally get something hung there.

I decided, since it was for my personal use, and I didn’t have a photograph I wanted to paint, I’d copy a painting from an art book I have.  I liked this painting by James Whistler - it had all the cool colours I’d want in our bedroom.  And the image of the calm water, the sun setting, and (what I thought was) ships returning home, it seemed like a great image to see at the end of the day.  (Further research showed, however, that these are probably war ships that Whistler saw down in Chile, shortly before Spain began bombing them.  Hah.  I’ll choose to ignore that part…)

We managed to get the kids to bed early and I got straight to work.  It was lovely to paint again - it’s been forever.

And here’s the finished product:  

I still have bunch more stuff to finish in our bedroom - that throw pillow and that portrait on the side wall are place holders from other spots in the house.  And we have to install closet doors (there were none when we bought the place).  

And I have to do something with those lampshades - they’re especially ugly when the light is on.  I’m thinking I’ll spray them a matte gold or bronze, and then depending on how they look after that I may add linen to the outside.

And I’ll probably check HomeSense or Zellers for an affordable white coverlet or something to change up our bedding… but if none is found for the right price I think we’re OK for now.  In a perfect world I’d install a great light fixture, layered low just above the painting - but that won’t happen before we leave this place.

For now I’m just glad to get some art up!

Design by Ashley Whittaker