See Dick and Jane decorate my loft???

(Inspiration board made up of Michael Miller fabrics, and IKEA furnishings)
In a couple of weeks, my mother, who is a magician with a sewing machine, is coming to visit me. My dad is coming, too, and they don’t come to sight-see or vacation–they come to work! I am trying to get my brain organized enough to decide where to have them start in our new home. I have enough project ideas to keep them busy for a month or two, but decisions have to be made. I like to have the grand scheme of things in my head, even if we only have time or money to begin, at least I like to know where the each room is headed. And as I pondered over, and googled various ideas, inspiration struck! I found these incredible fabric by Michael Miller , based on the old Dick & Jane readers, that are perfect for my loft (craft workspace/playroom)!

(This is the furniture I already have in place, except the IKEA shelf has multi-colored bins)

I already have kind of a muted primary color scheme going on, and wanted the room to feel somewhat educational, since it is the area my young children are going to be spending a lot of time in. I have planned for sometime to put the entire alphabet on the wall and have toyed with different ideas on how to do that. I have been planning to make a reading corner and was considering having my mom make a cozy kid-sized chair for it.

(like this one she made for my sister).
The tough part is choosing which fabric or combination of fabrics, to use. What do you think? I am liking #1 with accents from #3, #9, and or #16. Or maybe #8 would be best for the background? Really, nearly all of the fabrics from this Dick & Jane line would work great in there! Then I would hang the canopy from IKEA in square #7 above the chair.

Then add some of these on the wall:

(these can be purchased here.)

And pull a little inspiration from this…

I found this room makeover on this blog by Kathy Miller, one of the owners of Michael Miller fabrics. That is actually fabric from this line applied on the wall with liquid starch. Those rugs would work nicely in my loft and this picture is making me think I need Red Shutters! And thinking those round rugs would be awfully fun, as well.

So does anyone know the best (read: cheapest) place to buy Michael Miller fabric? I know these all come in cotton, but Kathy has a tutorial on her blog for a splat mat (which I desperately need) using laminated fabric with the same designs. Where can I find that?

I will end this novel-length post with a project for the loft that is already complete. I’ve had this clock for ages and it was getting boring. I was on a spray paint kick a couple of weeks ago and decided this needed a face lift (get it?). The dots on the acrylic came out of the need to cover up some of my over spray that tape didn’t prevent. This was all done before I found the Dick & Jane fabric, but I am loving how the old-fashioned numbers tie in with the vintage feel of the books, but the dots keep it young and fun. Oooh! I could always rub on letters on the red part that say some thing like,”look!” or “see the clock!” in a small font.

All the rest of you old things in my house better watch-out because I’m feeling a little spray paint trigger happy, lately!

So much fun…with Dick & Jane!