Professional Nursery Pictures

We had a newborn photo shoot a few weeks ago, and the photographer took some professional shots of the nursery.  They look so much better than the ones I took myself.  Here are a few, and you can see more here.

My Nursery Sources Breakdown

You can see more pictures of my nursery under the "My Nursery" tab at the top of my blog, but I have had a few questions about where I got items so here is a list of my sources:

Changing Table - IKEA Gulliver with 30" LA Baby Contour Pad
Yellow Storage Bins - Container Store
Changing Pad Cover  - DwellStudio for Target
Pink Store Bins - IKEA

Closet Curtains - Restoration Hardware Baby

Vanity - Vintage, given to my by a friend & refinished.  Fabric on stool from IKEA

Window Curtains - Restoration Hardware Baby

Wall Mural - Hand painted by me

Crib - Bonavita Payton Classic Crib in White

Crib Mobile - Hand made by me - tutorial here

Crib Bedding & Banner - Mostly IKEA fabric, sewn by etsy seller Fingers and Toes

Rug - Surya 17 Flirty in Pale Yellow, discontinued

Glider Chair - Best Chair Irvington, bought from Craigs List

Side Table - Marshall's Homegoods

Side Table Lamp - IKEA
Hadley Name Art - made by me - tutorial here

Bookshelves - DIY, tutorial from Centsational Girl

READ Alphabet Cards - Free printable from The Handmade Home

Memo Board - DIY, purchased frame at flea market - tutorial here

Dresser - Pottery Barn Outlet

Dresser Tray - IKEA

Lamp - Restoration Hardware Baby

LOVE Wall Art - made by me

IKEA Gulliver Changing Table

Since I am turning my nursery closet into a dressing room with changing table, I needed something slightly smaller than the standard tables.  After much searching, I settled on the IKEA Gulliver Changing Table.  Its just over 32" wide, as opposed to the 36" size that most tables come in.  Plus, its white and matches my other furniture pretty closely.  Since it is a little on the small side I needed a changing pad that would fit, and I ordered the LA Baby Contour Pad in 30" from overstock.com.

Here it is all set up in my pink closet:

Here is a close up with the storage containers I found at The Container Store.  The changing pad cover is from DwellStudio for Target.

Overall, I am really happy with the table, and its $69 price tag, but keep in mind that if you want to add bins to conceal your diapers and wipes you can expect to spend another $60 for 4 of them. 

Before & After: Nursery Closet Makeover

This is a picture of my nursery closet after I took the doors off.  The doors were these huge sliding doors that took up a ton of space and only allowed access to half the opening at a time, making it very difficult to access.  The closet is really wide, and has about a foot and a half of space on either side behind the wall that you can't see.

I thought it would be much more functional and cute if I turned it into a changing and dressing area, with little curtains to look like a boutique.

boring before:

And here it is after painting the interior, adding curtains and the changing table:

cute after

Sources:

IKEA Gulliver Changing Table

LA Baby Contour Changing Pad, 30"

Possibly Pink paint by Behr

Restoration Hardware curtains

White shower curtain rod from Target

Pink storage bins from IKEA

Nursery Progress

We finished up a few projects in the nursery this past weekend, including re-covering the vanity stool and hanging the crib mobile.  My crib skirt and banner also came in the mail last week and I am really happy with how it turned out.  I decided not to do a crib bumper, so I thought the banner added a cute touch for now.  Once she can move around in the crib I think I will move it to hang over the curtain panels.

Here are some updated shots of the progress:

view when you walk in the room

the crib with drawer underneath to hide extra linens and blankets

 

the vanity I painted and stool I recovered

her "reading nook" with bookshelves, memo board and a place to hang the diaper bag and coats

Nursery Accent Wall Reveal

When I was planning my nursery, I knew I wanted to do some type of paint treatment or accent wall.  I had originally thought stripes, but our walls are heavily heavily textured and the one attempt I made at painting a square in our master bathroom was a disaster.  The edges would not come out crisp no matter what I tried and I ended up having to make a molding box to mount on the wall to cover them up.

Inspired by k.f.d designs, I decided to do a medallion pattern on the crib wall.  The concept was very hard to describe to The Husband and my mom, but a few weekends ago while The Husband was away decided to measure my pattern and get started.  And I could not be any happier with how it turned out.  I literally go in there and stare at it sometimes because I love it so much.

So, without further delay, I am pleased to reveal my accent wall to the world:

The wall color is Olympic Faint Flicker and the shapes are painting in a mixture of Faint Flicker, Benjamin Moore Grey Horse and another random gray sample I had originally tested as a wall color.  After a lot of math and measuring I traced my shape on the wall with a watercolor pencil (which allows for easy wipe off with water) and gave it 2 coats of paint with a small paint brush to outline the edges and a larger wall paint brush to fill in the rest.  It was really much easier than I anticipated, total time to trace the shape and paint 2 coats was just about 6 hours.

I love the tone on tone of the gray and the way it kind of looks like wallpaper.  Its not too babyish, and I am hoping it will grow with her and make an easy transition into a big girl room.

The Great Glider Debate

When I made my nursery budget, one of the most expensive items I accounted for was a nursery chair/glider.  After testing a friends glider with recliner option, I knew I wanted a recliner and they are generally a little more expensive.  And they don't come in the wood/pad variety, you have to get a full on upholstered version, which is more pricey.

A few weekends ago when my mom was here, we set off on a quest to test nursery chairs at some of the big box retailers (Babies R Us and BuyBuyBaby) and sadly found that gray (the color I decided I would need) was not a popular choice.  Which led me to baby specialty boutiques and $800 price tags.

Since I don't know how long I will be breastfeeding, and I am generally just cheap, I just couldn't pull the trigger.  I didn't LOVE any of the custom fabric choices either, and $800 seemed too steep.  So I decided to settle on a white wooden glider with cushions that I could recover in cute fabric.  And I set out on a Craigslist search to find one.

Until I ran into an ad for a Best Chair recliner, fully upholstered, never used.  Retail price was $900, they were asking $400.  And it was light yellow.  Interesting, I hadn't considered yellow because it wasn't gender neutral enough for a possible baby boy #2.  But now that they mention it, yellow would look good....


So I drug The Husband 30 minutes away to check it out.  He tends to hate my obsession with finding deals on Craigslist, so it took some bribing to get him to go.  But we returned triumphant to the house with this:

 

Best Chair Irvington Recliner

And you know what else?  Long story but the lady we bought it from actually had 2, one she used and one she didn't (which I purchased).  She was all done with the one she used, and was going to trash it.  So crafty Kim took one of her used large cushions, and will be cutting fabric from the back side to be used on my crib banner.  Now everything can match perfectly.

I scotch guarded the new chair and I could not be happier with how the yellow looks.  I have already caught The Husband laying in "his" new chair.

Nursery Progress: Outlet Mall Purchases

This past weekend my Mom came to visit and we literally shopped for 10 hours on Friday and 10 hours on Saturday.  I was a marathon that include a trip to one of the largest outlets in the country, a furniture repair man, IKEA, fabric stores, registering a 3 different places, testing nursery recliner chairs and several trips to Marshall's.

First up was the San Marcus Outlet Mall, home of Pottery Barn Baby and Restoration Hardware Baby.  We stopped at Restoration first, and I feel in love with a curtain panel, but they only had 1 and I was super sad.

Then, on to Pottery Barn.  They didn't have any cribs, but I did purchase a white 7 drawer PB Teen dresser for a decent price.  After much debate, I decided that the antique white and wood crib I had originally ordered was just not white enough so I decided to go with a more true white furniture.  The dresser needs a little repair work, so I already too it to a furniture fix it guy and as soon as a can get the paint color matched, he is going to fix it up good as new.

After shopping ALL day, I had a dresser, an adorable Vera Bradley duffel back for Baby Cox's overnight trips (totally unnecessary but I had a gift card), a bunch of hostess gifts for my showers and a new bra ($12 from VS!)

At the last minute on the way out I decided to stop back into Restoration Hardware and dig through the curtains one more time to make sure there wasn't something in the wrong package that was what I was looking for.  Boy am I glad that I did!  I found the 2 pannels I needed and so much more!  This is what we came home with:

These will be the pannels for the closet turned dressing room.  They are a pale pink with ruffles along the edges.

Vintage Washed Ruffle

Online right now for $49 each, I paid $14.99 each!

For the window in the room, I scored these fully blackout lined pannels in a little darker, but still matching shade of pink:

Cotton Canvas Pannel

Online right now for $89 each, I paid $24.98!  These are the nicest drapes I have ever owned, much nicer than I would have been able to purchase for her at a retail store for a decent price.

I got this lamp, with a plain white shade instead - I plan on adding some trim or rolled fabric flowers:

Reese Table Lamp

Its on final sale online for $41, which is the same I paid.  A little pricey, but the pink matches perfectly and it saves me stress and shipping on having to find one somewhere else

Lastly, I picked up the pillow that coordinates with this set for my glider chair.  It was originally $38 and I paid $8.  It was too cute to pass up:

So pretty much everything I came home with is pink, so that means no more pink for the room!  Now I need to focus on finding a recliner/glider in the right color, a yellow pattern rug and finalize my fabrics for the bedding.

All in all, a pretty sucessful outlet trip!

Nursery Detail Projects

Here are some of the projects I plan on doing in the nursery (in different colors of course!)

Painted frame with chicken wire back to hold pictures, cards, etc

Take off closet doors to allow easier access into closet.  Changing table will go in closet and curtains will make it look like a "dressing room"

Forward facing book shelves for a library nook

And last, if it fits, I have a small vintage vanity I plan on painting for next to the closet.  The top flips up for storage, so I can but all her hair bows and headbands in there!

I am trying to keep the DIY projects to a manageable level, so I have hired someone to put up crown molding and paint the room and closet.  Then I will go back and do the stencil detail on the accent wall.  And I am hoping my Dad will come up and help me work on a few of the minor construction projects!

I feel like I am finally making progress with my plans!

A Tale of Two Cousins' Gray Nurseries

The Husband's cousin's wife is due with a baby girl a month before me.  Let's just pretend the is my real cousin though, because I only have one and I like his.  I knew we would be friends when we had this conversation at a baby shower several years ago after meeting just a few times:

Me: Do you want to split this giant cupcake with me

Her: Yes

Me:  Do you care if I touch your half when I cut it

Her: I don't care if you lick my half, I will still eat it

Anyway, I she and I have been sharing decorating ideas via email, and I am always bugging her sending her pictures that go with the colors/theme she told me she wanted to use.  We both really want to use gray, and last week I came across room photos that were just perfect for both of us.

Here is mine, I think this gray wall color is nice and not too moody, plus I love the pink and white.  Just add a few pops of yellow in there and it is perfect for me.  Love love the ruffled curtains.  And those wall flowers are amazing~!

image from Ohdeedoh blog

And here is my cousins, grey stripe on the walls, with a chevron crib bumper.  She is thinking of using green or aqua, not orange, but you get the idea.  Its interesting to see gray used in a more traditional way, as well as a modern room.

image from Stella & Henry blog

I can't wait for to see how our designs turn out and for our little girls to meet!  I see many years of Aggie games and holidays ahead for us!

My Design Board

I have been saving tons of pictures of my ideal nursery, and have pretty much decided on gray, pink and yellow as my colors.  I want graphic details, with a few girly touches.  So I sat down to make a digital design board the other night and realized it was MUCH harder than I anticipated! 

After a few hours of playing around with it, this is what I came up with:

Walls - gray

Accent Wall with crib - gray with some graphic stencil

Inside of Closet - pale pink

Crib - Baby Mod Roxanne 2 Tone from WalMart

Dresser - tall 5 drawer

Changing Table/Dresser (to be placed in closet) - Maybe Ikea Hemnes?

Crib Bedding - a mix of pink and yellow patterns

Possible Accent Color - Aqua?  Only if its not too much to add another color in

Lucky for me, a fellow blogger and designer is going to make me another design board, so I am excited to see what she comes up with!

My Nursery: Top Baby Girl Design Ideas

And here are my top inspiring girl pictures.  I am not set on a color scheme yet and I don't know how I am going to make up my mind!

Ok I take it back.  After seeing all these pictures together I guess I am set on colors!  Pink, yellow, gray, brown and white!

My Nursery: Top Baby Boy Design Ideas

May 24th is the big day.  The day we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl.  As the time draws closer I am starting to think more and more about decorating.  I sorted through my Style File pictures and deleted ones that I no longer loved.  And I sorted them into boy and girl folders.  Here are my top inspiring boy ideas:

Can you tell I am almost dead set on wide horizontal stripes on the wall?  I also want a light, airy feeling.  And the last one is for touches of rustic that will make The Husband happy.

Big Changes Are Coming!

I have a room that you never really see on my blog.  Its our 2nd guest room and in addition to providing a comfy place for guests, it houses misc decor in the closet, packaging stuff for my paintings and exercise equipment.  It pretty much looks like this on a good day:

I never bothered painting the walls or really decorating that much because I had bigger and better plans for it all along.  I will soon be transforming it into something that looks like this:

Or maybe this:

Depends on if I have a girl or a boy.  Which will be making his or her arrival in October.  Yes, you read that right, The Husband and I are expecting our first baby in early October!

We are super excited (and I am a bit nervous!) and I can't wait to share all the decorating steps with you guys.  I plan on doing lots of DIY projects so there will be much to share.  We find out the sex in late May but I am already brainstorming ideas.  After all, I have been tagging posts on the blog for My Dream Nursery for the last 2 years!  Everyone tells me I am going to have the cutest nursery ever - ya - no pressure!

Feel free to leave a comment on what types of things you would like to read about as I navigate through this new chapter in my life.  Do you want to see bump pictures?  Want to read a post about how I agonized over what stroller or crib to buy?  Do you only want to read about my nursery decorating?  Want to read humorous posts about my quest for maternity clothes that fit or all the freakin' food I am eating?  I would love to hear your feedback on what you want to read about as this blog slowly changes directions a bit.

Style File: End of January

Here is the best of what I saw on the web and added to my personal style file over the last few weeks. I am noticing that everything I put in there has some element of white and feels light and airy! That is the beauty of collecting pictures of what you love over time, you start to notice trends that you can use when it comes time to decorate.

Style File Week of December 13

Here's a look at some of my favorite finds on the web from the last few weeks:

Neutral but with subtle pops of color - that minty blue armoire is to die for!

Make your own tiered serving platter from vintage china

I am loving knitted mobiles!
2 colors of blue horizontal stripes! I am in love!

Book shelves like this would fit perfectly in my future nursery room!

Have a good week, only a few more until Christmas!