Nursery Preview

It's not done, but by the time it is, my hands will be full. The nursery was a project that I've poured a lot of time into over the last four months. Between deciding on which items to purchase and putting a lot of my own handiwork into it, it was a real time suck. Sure, I could have made it much easier on myself and bought a really cute matching set of things, but I wanted to add my own touch. Plus, I had the time and I enjoyed it, so why not?

It is colorful and busy, just as you'd expect from me.

Looking in from the doorway

The baby's Aunt Kristin made him the diaper wreath for his baby shower. I painted the birdhouses and the letter G.

The closet door

The crib skirt matches the window valance, bulletin board, and one of the pillows that will go on the glider. My mom and I made the skirt and valance, and I did the pillow by myself. Not a huge feat to tackle, but still I was proud. The prints hang clothesline style on the same white hooks as in the entry of the room (see below), and my favorite thing, the Etsy bird mobile, hangs just to the side of the crib so that it doesn't actually fall into the crib if it comes loose. I'm sure I'll have to move those prints a bit higher once the baby can stand and has busy hands.

If you can picture the glider chair and matching ottoman somehow angled in front of the tree sticker, you can get a real feel for what the finished reading corner will look like. At this point, because of a shipping delay, the baby will definitely be here before his glider. I want him to always have lots of books, so I ordered that book rack from Land of Nod, along with the orange hamper, blue bird pillow, and white lamp. The orange shelves are just IKEA racks that I painted orange, and the tree sticker is also from IKEA. A few of the books are new, but most of them were mine as a kid, including the Berenstain Bears collection. The owl table is that same one I bought a long time ago from Urban Outfitters. That humpty dumpty doll was mine as a little kid. It needed some repairs. Those pillows will all go on the nursery glider, along with the blanket that Peggy, Tariq's mom, gave me.

The chalkboard with the sideways names was from the gender reveal party when people wrote down their name suggestions. The bookcase is another Land of Nod find, and I love the enclosure on the bottom for toys and stuffed animals. Those stuffed animals were all mine as a kid, including some Pound Puppies and a Cabbage Patch Kid. My project of adhering the map to dowels and hanging it like a scroll over the changing pad was a success! The owl bin was a find by Amanda at The Container Store, and it holds the baby's cloth diapers. The aqua bin is a trash can. I did not realize how many hampers/bins/etc. that I'd be collecting. Some of the maternity pictures are in a frame behind the door, and this frame is identical to the bulletin board frame on the opposite wall. The rug was an Overstock find. It's a little scratchy, but I like how it looks. I'll just have to remember to put a blanket down if the babe ever wants to hang out on it.

From the crib, looking toward the door.

I received some awesome bamboo swaddle blankets as a gift, so I hung them on white hooks from Amazon in the entry of the room. There's the matchy matchy bulletin board I keep talking about. It currently features warm wishes from friends and a real masterpiece that baby's big cousin, Hudson, made for him.

Baby boy should pretty cozy in there for a while. And if there's ever a baby girl, or another baby boy, I think he or she will find it comfortable as well!