Our Baby Boy Nursery

Louis is nearly 2.5 years old and I’ve been meaning for some time to document his nursery. He is transitioning from baby to little boy and someday soon I’ll forget what it was like when we had a crib in his room and how I would sit him atop his changing table each evening to change him into his pajamas. 

We did not find out Louis’ gender while I was pregnant and I wasn’t really sure how to decorate the nursery. I had painted the room navy blue a few years before. I liked the navy but kept thinking I should do something different for a baby (whether boy or girl) and considered switching to grey, cream, or a light blue. These early months of fretting soon gave way to laziness and I decided nothing was as exciting enough of a change to bother painting it another color. John seemed to be in agreement. We shrugged and went with it, and I’m glad we did because I’m still really into this room.

So we had the navy wall color, then I figured into the equation the key “building blocks” to the room… black crib (repurposed from Mia’s nursery), cream upholstered rocker with black piping (also from Mia’s nursery) and a black antique dresser that had stood empty in the room since I had painted it a few years before.

I added grey/white bedding and punched it up a bit with the teal striped rug and small teal side table.

The changing table is the vanity from my grandmother's bedroom set. The grey chevron changing pad matches the bedding we purchased on Amazon. The wall hanging is from Urban Outfitters, which is my secret resource for cool kids room decorations.

The built-in shelves house a collection of favorite bedtime books, the teal containers (Amazon) conceal practical baby supplies and memorabilia. The floor baskets (Target) are a convenient place to toss toys for a quick clean-up.

The dresser, above, is circa 1950s and painted black a few years back. My father's jersey hangs proudly in a shadowbox frame.

The crib, a black Jenny Lind style, is still my favorite. That was a good choice for Mia -- and now Louis. Grey chevron bedding ordered on Amazon. The blanket was lovingly knit by my niece and Louis sleeps every night curled inside it. The cordless, pale grey shades block the light, and were a steal (JCPenney - my secret source for roman shades). The chair was moved over from Mia's nursery and I spent many nights sleeping there when Louis was an infant. The striped rug was another Amazon purchase.

I can already picture this room transitioning into his “big boy” bedroom one day. It’s so cliche, but where did the time go?

Our "Little Girl" Room

M's room has undergone a few tiny transformations in the 3+ years since I last checked in here. 

The crib and cozy rocking chair were moved to her brother's room. 
(More on that room another time. Don't hold me to it.)

She's been sleeping in a twin-sized bed like most kids her age. We never did a toddler bed - just went straight to the single bed. It worked out fine when she was about 2.5 years old. 

She still has the guard rail. A few months ago I thought she might be too old for the rail and I was thinking about taking it down. Literally 2 nights later we wake up in the middle of the night because the rail was loose and she rolled out of bed onto the floor. She wasn't hurt at all, just confused. The rail will stay until she is 25. JUST KIDDING.

The bedskirt and sheets were purchased off Amazon (like everything else in my life) and the duvet was ordered from H&M - did you know H&M made kids bedding? I didn't know until I was looking. The pink lamp is from Target. 

The shades are the most expensive thing in the room (from Pottery Barn) (don't even ask) and they are outside mounted because they didn't have the EXACT size as the window, but they are still marvelous.

(For comparison, my son's window shades were $35 each from JCPenney and they are still in the box. He is 2 years old. In all fairness I just ordered them, it's not like the boxes were sitting here this whole time. But still.)

The rug is from Urban Outfitters and I really recommend them for anyone looking for cool, cheap rugs.

 This is all usually much messier.

Sorry for the gigantic shadows that make the walls look brown. It's really a pale minty blue. 

Random stuff in the room... Pillows from Home Goods and Target (where else?). Books. Moonbeam clock I highly recommend for it's vintage appeal. More books. Converse. Doll from Hong Kong and 1980s jewelry box.

Yes my last post was 3+ years ago. I'll try to do better but let's face it - my only motivation is record-keeping at this point. My goal is to get those shades hung in my son's room and to take and post photos of his nursery soon. 

Maybe. We'll see.

xo

Our Nursery

*I know, it's been forever since I've updated the blog. In theory I'd like to do it a little more... but in reality it becomes the very last thing on my plate each and every day. I'd like to say that I'll post once in a while just to keep a record of what we do to the house. I really enjoy looking back over the last few years to see the dramatic changes we've made so far, so I'd like to keep up with it in a minimal way just to keep that going.

With that being said...

I would like to introduce our nursery!

*Disclaimer: The "after" photos are about 1.5 years old, taken just after Mia was born! It still looks about the same but we've added some blankets, and made some minor adjustments. I wanted to record the "original" nursery here for posterity.

So almost 5 years ago, we started with a basic box of a room. It was painted bright colors, and had wall-to-wall purple carpet. I saw potential!

First we ripped out the carpet, then we refinished the floors for the whole upstairs. For a couple years afterwards, the room became a dumping grounds for all sorts of mish/mash, hardware, storage, etc. Then we cleaned it out and it was our spare furniture storage closet. Then it became my workroom for painting furniture.

We knew this room would someday be a nursery. Months before I was pregnant I decided to just go ahead and paint the walls and trim. I just wanted a semi-finished space and I was sick of looking at this lilac and teal horror show.

Because we knew this would be the "someday" nursery I strategized about the paint color - nothing too girly or boyish. I picked a pale aqua - of course with white trim. I think we succeeded in making this room unisex. I assumed the addition of toys, blankets, etc, that we were sure to receive after the birth would make it lean girly or boyish but I like that all the foundation pieces of this room could go either way.

Incidentally, my insane nesting instinct went into overdrive those last few months of pregnancy. This is the only room in the house that I am still 100% satisfied with. It is the only room in the house I feel is "done"...

Sources:
Wall paint: Benjamin Moore Aura matte - color-matched "Pianissimo 7005-20" from Valspar
Trim paint: Benjamin Moore Ben semi gloss "Decorator's White"
Ceiling paint: Benjamin Moore Ben matte "Decorator's White"
Floor: Oak finished in MinWax Jacobean
Rug: Urban Outfitters Herringbone Rug - Grey
Dresser, Mirror, Nightstand: Vintage 1950's painted Benjamin Moore Aura satin "Stonington Gray"
Crib: DaVinci Jenny Lind - ebony finish
Ceiling light: Overstock Luray semi-flush fixture
Window Shades: Pottery Barn Grosgrain Ribbon Cordless - black
Chair: Buy Buy Baby upholstered rocker/recliner - ivory with black piping (custom order, not available on website)
Pouf: Etsy seller BobbleKnit
Table lamp: HomeGoods
Laundry Basket: HomeGoods
Paintings: original, IKEA Ribba frames
Bedding and changing pad cover: Land of Nod Aqua Diamonds collection (no longer available)
Bins: Lowes, not available on website
Rocking Dog: Restoration Hardware "Shaggy"
Large elephant paintings: my own originals. 
Small desert paintings: paint-by-numbers from the 1950s - found in another old piece of furniture.
Most of the small toys and baby items are gifts

Can't believe how that little girl has grown in the past year and a half!

Follow me on BlogLovin'...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin... https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/6172077

I nearly lost it when I found out a couple of months ago that Google Reader would be shut down. After trying a couple of other blog feeds, and not being completely satisfied, my friend told me about Bloglovin' - I'm going to give this a try.

In the meantime, working on some new posts and hoping to get back into it pretty soon. I feel as though there is lots to share. Just working on finding the time to squeeze it all in!

Mia

I've been keeping busy with my little lady, who is now almost 6 weeks old...

Photo taken when she was 2 weeks old

We are over the moon in love with our little Mia. She has completely taken over our lives in the best way possible.

So I swear I haven't abandoned this blog... her nursery is finished and I've finally managed to take some photos, which will be posted soon.

Nursery Sneak Peek / Where have I been?

Right now I'm at 31 weeks and although we still have time, we've been working HARD the past few weeks trying to get the nursery together.

What we've done so far:
- finished painting the closet (thanks to Mom!) and now all surfaces are painted, yes!
- crib, dresser, chair, nightstand and lamp, all assembled/painted/delivered and in place
- acquired lots of baby stuff, unpacked and sorted into loose piles
- washed, sorted, and put away all baby clothes

What we need to do, yesterday:
- call electrician to install ceiling light
- acquire and hang window shades
- acquire and hang closet curtains
- acquire rug
- acquire toss pillows and comfy pouf ottoman thing
- organize shelves
- frame and hang artwork

What we need to do soon:
- pick out a name for this little one
- pack a hospital bag
- wait and freak out

Here is a sneak peek of the nursery: 

puppy rocker courtesy of my lil sis

Ok, so apparently I only post once every 3 months or so? What happened to me? I think I have a pregnancy-induced reluctance to sit on the blog. While we've been prepping and making the house cozy, I've just been meh about blogging. It's weird because it started almost exactly when I became pregnant. 

I've gone so far as to take a bunch of blogs off my reader. I have a really strong aversion to "crafting" and any mention of someone making custom labels for their leftover paint supply or anyone referring to themselves as a "maker" - it's just like ughhhhhhhh. Can't take myself that seriously. 

Also - I have, like, no time? What's up with that? I'm still going to sleep after midnight, waking up at 6:30am and running what feels like a marathon all day (big belly and all). Chores, errands, paperwork these things are, like, never-ending, in addition to my job. Thankfully the work load is lightening up and I will spend the next couple of weeks at work doing the "nesting" equivalent of office work. Organizing, throwing old stuff out, planning for the time I'm not there.

Now it's Christmas-time and I'm in overdrive getting presents wrapped and together. I think next year I'm going to cut back on presents. It's getting to be too much work. (Yes, I'm a Scrooge).

John told me he would be working late tonight, so when I got home I managed to get a bunch of Christmas lights up in the front window and even hung a wreath on the front stoop. I can't wait to surprise him. (I already made a big deal that I was too tired and busy to deal with Christmas decorations.) Well, 4 days before Christmas - not too bad, right?

Basement

Since we've had the driveway replaced, John pointed out that we haven't had any leaks or water in the basement when it rains. A minor victory!

I cleaned out the basement yesterday - 6 hours and 4 large construction bags later, we are almost all cleaned out. I still have to make a donation of some old items and we have to drag some old sheet rock and doors to the curb.

---

I don't anticipate ever having a completely "finished" basement. We're looking for a cheap and quick update. We're both schkeeved every time we walk downstairs, and I hate feeling that way.

So we're thinking of having someone paint the space - ceiling, walls, and floor.

The basement is now used for:
- working out - we have a treadmill and weight bench
- laundry - right now we set it and forget it
- storage - the back corner is walled-off and we use it to store hardware, paint, etc

Ideally we would add the following function:
- Storage shelving for larger excess kitchen items, Christmas decoration, etc
- Storage area for toys and excess baby items
- Empty area for kids to play

The main goal is to keep it neat and simple, but it would be awesome to add some rugs and have cohesive shelving to prevent things from looking sloppy.

This shelving from IKEA might work out nicely:

I would also like to add some nicer track lighting. We currently have those flourescent tubes that are really harsh. 

Below are some examples of unfinished basements that have been painted - I would love a white ceiling, but I fear that it might take more coats of paint and get expensive, so I'm thinking a medium grey color.

Crazy how the ceiling paint immediately pulls it together:
 

I like the curtain the installed to the left of this photo, something like that might come in handy:
 

All white - looks nice, but might be too "neat" for the basement anyway?
 

Hopefully we can get this thing painted within the next few months - have to call up some people for estimates!

Nursery

The day we closed on our house, the third bedroom looked like this:

This room went through many stages over the past 2 and a half years. 

First weekend we owned the house, we tore out the purple carpet. 

6 months later we had the floor refinished (along with the rest of the second floor). Click here for the cruddy before photo.

Then we replaced the door to match the rest of the house, and added the missing quarter-round molding.

Last winter I painted all the trim white and painted the walls soft aqua blue - Benjamin Moore matched to Valspar Pianissimo:

Last winter I painted the dresser and mirror soft grey:

We just got around to hanging the mirror. 

The dresser was a little musty smelling. I had tried cleaning with Murphy's oil, spraying with vinegar water, and then I left sprinkles of baking soda in the drawers for a long time. I left the drawers open for a year just to air out, but none of these remedies worked! So last week my mother and I gave the inside of the drawers a quick coat of polyurethane. It is airing out right now and so far so good. 

The ceiling fan has to go. I ordered a new light from Overstock. I really hope it works out because the price was almost too good to be true. Crossing my fingers and will be sure to write it up when we're done with that.

I'm just so glad we are this far along at this point! I still have some touch ups to do on the built in closet shelves. Then I'll tackle the window treatments. I already have a crib and comfy chair picked out. Also I need to shop for some lamps, pillows and fun stuff. There is a new Home Goods opening up nearby in a couple weeks. Just saying.

Big news!

Just dusting off the cobwebs in here. Wow. My longest hiatus by far, it's been over 3 months since my last post.

What the what???

I've been busy doing a million things, traveling, and - you know - making a baby.

barefoot and pregnant at 13 weeks

I just haven't had the desire to do much of anything the past few months. It's weird. I think there are many psychological side effects of this craziness.

But now I am a woman on a mission. 

I have a long to-do list that I won't bore you with. But basically it's like:

Part A: Do all this stuff before baby is born

Part B: Forget about accomplishing anything from Part A after baby is born

I'm due February 20th. Just under 6 months from now. Can I get it all done? Will I drive myself crazy trying? Is anybody even reading this anymore? Besides my mom?

Check that box off...

Remember this post a few weeks back? 

Oh yeah...

I am disproportionately excited about this driveway

Just to remind you again, here's the before...

And the view from the backyard...

 before and after

Not too shabby, not too shabby at all...

Just for fun, here's a photo taken in March, 2010 - 2 years ago...

And here's the same view now...

Over the next couple of weeks we have to work on that front bed - do some trimming, weeding, and mulching. We need to rearrange some of the plantings too.

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend everyone!

TV cabinet

How our tv cabinet went...

 

from this... to that...

This cabinet (like many other things in our house!) came from one of our grandparents (specifically Grandma Millie!). It has been with us for at least 5 or 6 years. It is something from about 40 years ago? I don't know.

It is a great size and pretty solid piece of furniture. But... the top is veneered and the center quatrefoil panels are plastic. The back is masonite board. In other words, it isn't an exceptional piece of woodworking. So no guilty wood-empathetic feelings, please!

 

We always intended to replace this piece with a new TV console. I've looked around a little bit but have not really seen anything I loved. The main problem with this piece is that all our components are stashed in the cabinets, but with the doors closed we couldn't use the remote. Whenever we watched tv, the cabinet was open and stuff was spilling out onto the floor. I know there are ways to add a remote control "eye" or whatever, but then realized I can re-purpose this cabinet to be a little more multitasking and leave room for future devices and future technology. Also, as much as I love quatrefoil, I was growing weary of the 3 solid panels.

So we detached the side doors and popped the center panel right out of the frame... 

I searched high and low for some kind of metal mesh the insert into the empty space. There are many places that sell beautiful decorative metal mesh and will even cut it to size... for a price. I highly recommend this website if you want someone else to take care of this part for you. But, just warning you - it is not cheap and you can probably find a new cabinet for the price of two small mesh panels...

So I took a trip to Lowes for some brainstorming. Brainstorming at Lowes means I walk up and down every aisle looking for something to repurpose. I found rolls and rolls of soft mesh for window screens, which really would not work well.

But in one area I found this:

A "Screen and Storm Door Grill" - It's a hard mesh inside a metal frame. People use it to prevent toddlers and dogs from tearing through their screen doors. I bought two panels for $20 each.

The next issue was - how do we cut this thing to size? First I tried our mini power saw with a metal-cutting blade. 

"Hahahahaha" the universe said as I struggled to even put a dent in the edge of the frame.

Next trip to Lowes we bought a bolt-cutter. It cut through the mesh like butter.

BUT! You can only make one or two cuts before the thing gets in the way of itself. Kind of like a metaphor for DIY!

I almost gave up but remembered these wire cutters:

I was able to trim 2 pieces to size and pop them into the cabinet door frames. I didn't take pictures of this stage, but I glued the edges down with wood glue and it stuck...

Next came the paint - "Wrought Iron" Benjamin Moore Aura in Satin finish, which I already had left over from this project.

Everything was painted - both inside and outside the cabinet. The hardware was sprayed with a fresh coat of Rustoleum "Oil Rubbed Bronze." Then we put everything back together.

Next we re-wired everything. I'm not kidding when I say it took about 3 hours to sort through this mess: 

We zip-tied most of the excess wires into loops and even stashed some things inside a bin in the cabinet. The surge protector was screwed onto the back of the cabinet and everything went in and out of that. All the wires are now off the floor and the only wire going from the cabinet to the wall is the power strip plug and the cable cord... If you are interested, I think this website has some good tips on basic wire organization.

So this is the final result. It's much much more usable than before and looks updated too.