Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Nursery

The nursery has been a work-in-progress for about 5 months. We hemmed and hawed over which room to convert (the guest room or the Steelers room) and when Ben finally agreed that the Steelers room made the most sense, I wasn't about to argue. He began the (slow) process of cleaning it out sometime shortly after the holidays, and my mom & Christian (AKA "Gigi" and "Sweetie") came down to paint in early February. I knew I wanted gray walls regardless of the gender, and we decided on Voyage by Valspar. It actually ended up a bit blue for my liking, but once the furniture went in, I was good with it.

In the meantime, we've been slowly purchasing her furniture (ouch!) and putting things together ... and then completely rearranging them because my pregnancy hormones make me indecisive.

The Nursery, Before:
I know what you're thinking - why wouldn't you just leave it as is? What baby WOULDN'T want this room? (Yes, my husband actually said those things)

I'd love to use this post to tell you about all the great crafts I did for her room, or the designs I used that were inspired by Pinterest, but honestly ... I got pretty lazy. I guess there's still time, and I'm going to need something to keep my mind occupied for the next few weeks!

The Nursery, During:
We did a few renovation projects (besides just the paint). We bought her crib (very similar to this one) from a consignment sale, so Ben touched it up before putting it together with his dad. I forced asked Ben to paint the closet, which he then took to the next level by adding an additional bar and shelf - so grateful for all that space!


After several failed attempts at ordering cute bedding sets online, I finally gave up and ordered plain white separates and bought some pink patterned sheets at Target. Just a head's up:

I finally landed on Tadpoles White Tulle curtain and crib skirt, Super Soft Dot Crib Bumper from Carter's and a variety of Circo pink crib sheets (stripe is pictured, and we got the gingham and the lattice)


As you might remember, the dresser search was one of my greatest pregnancy woes, but I am so pleased with what we finally settled on. The pink gingham knobs Ben put on (to match the pink gingham curtain rod finials and pull-back) are some of my favorite touches! We decided that, given the small space of the nursery, it made sense to use the dresser as a changing table rather than having two pieces of furniture, so we added a changing pad (passed down from Sloan) and we're good to go!

The "final" touches were all the wall-hangings. Actually, that's not true, the final touch will be the rocker recliner that is scheduled to arrive about a week after her due date (oops! #parentfail). But before that, and before putting together the nightstand (that I decided we needed after rearranging the room ... yes, I moved a 150lb dresser at 8 months pregnant!), we needed to hang all the beautiful wall-hangings. The letters were something I've wanted forever, but Ben was very particular about the font, so I found a custom site where he could order something to his liking and I painted them white and attached pink ribbon with a glue gun. The distressed wood sign came from "Aunt Kiki" (my best friend Kelly) with one of my favorite verses. She was there for me during the devastation from my ectopic pregnancy last year and knows very well how much this little one means to us - and to her! It was actually ordered before we found out we were having a girl - that's how sure she was that she was going to have a niece. The prints actually started as a contest that I won from a friend's blog several months back. I contacted the etsy vendor and asked if we could wait until we had picked nursery decor, and she gave us a wonderful deal on the additional custom prints so we could do a set of three.


The Nursery, After:
I'm so pleased with the way it all came out. It is such a calming feeling to walk in there and just "be" - anticipating the precious girl that will soon inhabit those walls. The room is just as much for me as it is for her at this point, and I feel very serene when I walk in. And it's feminine without being too girly, young without being too babyish, and easily convertible to a guest room (if we sell) or another baby's room (if we don't sell) should the time come.
the view walking in
the view from where the chair will go
Lucy seems to enjoy it too - we've left the door open so she can get used to the changes and she has yet to mess with all of our sweet girl's toys - I'll take that as a win!

1 comment:

  1. It looks awesome. You did a great job with everything. Our crib came from a consignment store too. One of those way too good to pass up type of deals. It wasn't until almost a year later that I realized it was from Pottery Barn Kids and what a steal it really was. Maybe I should hire Ben to come down and do some touching up on ours. I'm sure after years in storage it is going to need it!

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