Nursery

It has been 5+ months, and I realized I have not blogged about my new favorite room in the house...the nursery.  Starting about my 2nd trimester of pregnancy, I went into a super crazy nesting mode.  This lasted until about a week before B made her arrival.  On the infinite list of To Do's:  upgrade dining room, bedroom, activities area, closet/office, and, most importantly, turn the record player room into a nursery.  (yes...we had a record player room...but don't worry...it is now in the "activities area"). 

poor quality before photos below

Thank goodness for:  Pinterest, Etsy, creative friends, old stuff, great grandmother's quilts, creative friends, Craigslist, Ikea, and husbands who will take direction without flinching and complete every Honey Do list with a smile.  (I married my own personal handy man!!)  Drawing inspiration from Pinterest, I drew up a plan in my head.  We had painted the walls gray when we first moved in, and this is what I wanted in the nursery, boy or girl.  I went to touch up the paint when we moved the record player set up out, and I used the WRONG color of gray...smooth.  We ended up having to paint the entire room with the new gray!  

 The crib was a hand me down in a dark wood, so we painted it white.  It is not easy to paint a crib.  The rocking chair was a hand me down in a light wood.  Jess's mom, Janet, helped me spray paint it a summer squash yellow.  The floor vase with sticks was black in another part of the house.  I decided we needed more yellow squash so we painted it too.  The lattice table was actually a plant stand given to us.  I spray painted it white and I keep her quilts/blankets and baby book inside.  I got the window frame a few years back at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.  The old dresses were mine and my sister's.  I had the mirror sitting in a closet forever.  The hanging storage box, basket, baby pillow and wooden crate came from the Santa Monica Flea Market.   The ROYALL banner and the bunting above the window came from our baby shower. The dresser and bookcase came from Craigslist.  I got new knobs for the dresser at Anthropologie. The shelving brackets and hooks also came from Anthropologie thanks to Nana.  The raggedy andy plate and cup and the framed Lil Slugger hat were Jess's when he was a boy.

 The rug was $19 at Ikea!! We actually had it in our living room for about a year before we got pregnant.  It looks so much better in here!  Thank goodness for Ikea!!! We got the silver buckets and rod, blue diaper cart,  and picture frame from there too!  That is the ukelele that jess bought and played for me on our wedding day.  He purposely got a kids size for our future kid, so now it is B's ukelele!  The Let's Go Anywhere and bird mobile are both from etsy.  I had grand plans to make my own bird mobile, but that was wishful thinking.

We have some creative friends who were so sweet to make B some paintings.  The one on her closet is from Pat...a groomsmen in our wedding. The bouquet is from the art teacher at the school where I taught.  She based it on a picture of my wedding bouquet.  so sweet!  The mural behind the crib was done by my awesome friend, Natalie! The tissue blossoms are also from my baby shower!  The Boby Dylan Forever Young quote was given to me my Candy and painted by Lacee.  I love it and I sing it to her all the time!   The L + J at the Venice Beach Pier was actually a wedding gift from Jess's Uncle John, but we thought it fit right in the nursery!

Besides filling the frames, it was a completed project by the time B arrived.  She has loved her room from day 1.  It has such a nice filtered light through the curtains, and the room seems to make her calm. In the beginning, her favorite place to interact with daddy was on the changing table.  She loves to stare at her bird mobile.  She loves the rocking chair.  And she is sleeping through the night in her crib, so she must really love it!  Creating this space for her consumed my mind when I was pregnant because I felt it was my first duty as a parent.   It makes my heart happy that she loves it because I put so much of my heart into it.