Nursery Progress...

Our old office is slowly being transformed into a nursery. I say slowly because it really is a lot of work to get a room together! I took me until Luke was 2.5 to finish his room- so I'd like to get this one together a little more quickly!

On move-in day this is what this room looked like:
This room turned into an office and we painted the walls Oyster Shell. It was a Lowe's color.

Last year (Valentine's day) we put our house on the market (more about why we did that and why it never sold here) and our agent told us to minimize everything hanging on the walls. We took alot of things off the wall in the office and alot of holes were left behind. I got around to Spackling them, but I never painted over them. Whoops.
Before we even knew we were pregnant, we started rearranging things and we even bought a futon. Our original plan (before the best surprise ever) was to make more space in the office so it could double function as a guest room and office. We ordered the futon 2 days before I got a positive pregnancy test. Surprise! We ended up getting the black (which obviously isn't pictured).

Our plan changed ALOT with the news.

The green curtains (that came with the house) are gone. We used them simply because they "worked", but never really loved them. Green isn't my color anyways. More on the curtains in a little bit.

On to the wall! They have paint on them...
On our surprise snow/sleet day I got in there and sanded/primed all the sheetrock mud patches. I cut in the same day and my mom came up the next day to help with painting. The color is the same gray we used in the living room, dining room, hallway; Gray Horse by Benjamin Moore. The pink that we are using on 1 accent wall is called Powder Pink. It is a Glidden color, that I had color matched at Sherwin Williams.

I got the paint with the primer since it's such a light pink I was worried about coverage over the tan and I must say that I am very disappointed with this paint! Not to throw any store under the bus, but when it comes to coverage Behr paint is SO much better. At $52 a gallon for the paint + primer at SW I didn't think I'd have to put 3 coats on. The gray went over in 1 coat (with a few areas of touch up). The SW paint almost seems watered down compared to Behr. I've always loved how thick that stuff goes on. Lesson learned.

Here is an after shot of the pink accent wall:
I worried about not liking so much gray in our house, but I love that so much of our home flows together! You can see the nursery from down the hall and with the natural light in there it doesn't look like the exact same color. I do eventually want to paint our master bedroom, but I think I'll go a shade darker in there.

The nursery colors are gray with pink and navy accents. More pink than navy. I am super excited about being able to use the throw pillows from Luke's room (since the rocker is no longer in there) and his old changing pad cover!
Speaking of changing pad covers... I also wanted a pink one (so one can be in the wash while the other is on the changing pad). I had my eye on one on Amazon and it was around $10. I kept my eyes out at consignment stores I frequent and found the EXACT same one for $3.99! Buy used and save the difference!

The dresser came from IKEA...

...and is already filled with baby goodies. I have bought maybe 3 outfits for this baby. We have received SEVERAL hand-me-downs from some amazing friends. The cloth diapers make me giddy happy! and teeny tiny newborn diapers are just so sweet. You forget how small they really are!

We decided to keep the futon (even though the "plan" was for it to be a guest bed). It's easier to pull out than an air mattress and it's nice to have somewhere to sit in the nursery. The brassy lamp will be re-done later this month.

The futon is waiting for some throw pillows. Still thinking on those...

The crib is set up and ready to go- I know bumpers are widely debated in the baby community. We had them with Luke and plan to with this baby as well. We took them out for a few months once he was able to roll over and then put them back once the SIDs risk dropped after 6 months. We'll probably do the same this time around. Of course this crib is filled with extra sheets, and other stuff that will go in an under the bed box.
I refused to spend a ton of money- Luke's bedding set was a generous gift from my coworkers. I just couldn't stomach spending $150 on girl bedding when I knew I could do it cheaper! The bumpers came from Amazon for around $30. It's minky softy goodness. The crib sheets are from IKEA and Target- I spent right at $20 for 3. My mom made me a quilt with left over fabric from outfits when I was a kid. Amazingly? It's mainly pink and navy! Another reason we're going with those accent colors. We have barely used Luke's quilt- it looked pretty draped over the crib or on the rocker, but not used daily. I suspect this one will be the same. The skirt I am still brainstorming. I am either thinking a simple paneled skirt like this made from leftover curtain fabric:
or this...  a great tutorial for a faux/velcro-ed crib skirt. I may be hacking this idea as well. (oh I just love that blog so much!)

The curtains are up! After a lot of procrastination I finally got it together.
I found an amazing deal on fabric.com right at the beginning of the new year. I was budgeting to spend around $75 on them, and with a clearance sale they ended up being right at $50 (with free shipping). This is over 9 yards which boils down to $5.50 a yard. Not bad! I have about a yard and a half left over- not sure if I'll make a crib skirt, sew some throw pillows, or do both! Still deciding.

We will hang some black out roller shades behind the curtains. This was the easier option compared to buying blackout material and lining the curtains. All I saw was $$ and time. We have already purchased 2 (need 3)- we debated between the "room darkening" or "blackout". At $10 the room darkening work well, but they don't compete with bright western sun. That shade will go on the single window on the right side of the room. The blackout shades are $20 a piece and are well worth the extra $10. They are literally double the thickness of the room darkening shades. We need to grab 1 more to finish the far wall.

We reused the same curtain rods that were already there but swapped out the finials that came with the house. They resembled arrowheads?

After our curtain remix in the living room this summer I realized how easy it is to buy new finials for old rods. I scored the new ones at IKEA. They remind me of an Edison Chandelier that I LOVE. Swapping the old arrowhead ones out for the new glass ones was not as easy as the living room curtains- but all's well that ends well right? (we ended up having to use sheetrock anchors to hold them in place). If I remember correctly they were around $7 for each window.
We also raised the rods 4ish inches. It makes all the difference in the world! (it's a habit to put the hardware right at the trim on the window. But raising it up adds so much height to the room. It's something we're slowly doing all over the house). If you scroll back up to the 2nd picture in this post (the one with the green curtains) you will see how low they were- with the tabs you could see the moulding!
The closet came together nicely too! I like the toys stored in there when baby is small and then swapping out the dresser/bookshelf once she gets bigger (just like we did with Luke).
The closet was blue so it has come a long way! Although the office had been painted, we never touched the closet, so it was in desperate need!

I still feel like this space is unfinished. Here is what is left to do-
  • Buy remaining needs:

1. Angel care monitor   2. Sound machine (we have this exact one for Luke and we love it   3. Wet bag 4. Sit and Stand Stroller   5. Cloth Diaper safe diaper rash cream.
  • Make pillows for futon
  • Put her monogram in vinyl over the crib. 
  • Fill the empty black frames (a verse in 1, button art in the other)
  • Collage wall over futon
  • Something on either side of the large window
  • finish hemming the curtains. The bottoms are still the raw edges.
I hesitate saying that's all- because I'm sure there's more. But I would LOVE to not have anything to do in there but wash clothes! What a relief that will be. I am SO loving this space and I can't wait to welcome our little girl!

Also, once I finish everything, I plan to do an updated post! I have just been itching to show what all we've done! It feels like such an accomplishment to see it all together in one post!

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