The Nursery Now

Oh hey there.  I have a blog?  Oh yeah.  I suppose now that the school year is over, my brief stint of jury duty is over, and I don't have to worry about setting up a first grade classroom in July at eight months pregnant after all (three cheers for Dave Ramsey, FMLA, and careful financial planning!), maybe I could update this blog thingie.

So let me get up to speed with where Mr. Baby's nursery is now, since I haven't posted about it here in over a month.

We decided to repurpose the mantel Steve made when we first moved into this house into a header for Mr. Baby's window.  We knew that there would be a lot of painted items in this room, so it seemed like it'd be nice to have some wood tones.  Also, the mantel is special because it's one of Steve's first woodworking projects.  And can't beat a little extra display space for sentimental and decorative items like Steve's firetrucks, Grandpa Mel's old binoculars and the toy revolver he whittled and painted.

Boy stuff.

Next, I tackled refinishing the dresser Steve's grandpa made him when he was a boy.  In our last discussions, we were considering doing some kind of a distressing treatment, but after stumbling across this camp dresser in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, I was completely sold on going blue.

{via}

After removing the drawer pulls on our dresser, filling the holes and sanding them down, and repairing some minor damage like reinforcing some slides and re-nailing in some spots where things were pulling away, everything got four coats with a small foam roller of the same blue that is on our back door, Behr's Twilight Chimes.

Lookin' sharp.

The body of the dresser got four coats as well, and everything got a couple passes with water-based poly to protect from the damage regular use is sure to inflict.  I loved the color when everything was put back together, but it still lacked personality.

Missing something....

It wasn't until we got the barn-style pulls attached that things really came to life for the dresser that Grandpa Mel made.

Campy.

The turquoise tub was a shower gift and is currently holding all of Mr. Baby's bath time things.  The baseball plaque was Steve's when he was a kid (the back of it is held upright with wire, string, and tape).  The bowl is a melamine cereal bowl from Target and is holding Mr. Baby's collection of pacifiers and binky straps.  I love that this piece essentially became a pottery barn knockoff for all of $16- we purchased the pulls new but had everything else on hand.

Mr. Baby's changing table is still about in the same spot as far as being "finished."  Our only update there is that the drawers have filled with diapering supplies and baby clothes since my baby shower.  More diapering supplies are on their way, so I'm hoping to make more progress on this area in the next week or so.

On the opposite side of the room, Mr. Baby now has a bookshelf!  I re-purposed this cheapo Wal-Mart shelf that had previously been holding math manipulatives in one of the buildings I worked in.  The lamp and the orange wire basket are both from Target; everything else is from my childhood or was a shower gift. Eventually I'd like to hang some narrow forward-facing shelves on the wall above for books that need to be handled carefully.  Rain gutters and spice racks seem to be popular options for this, according to Pinterest.  Maybe I'll have room for some art there too?

Fun times ahead for Mr. Baby and Grammy, who loves to read to littles.

The most recent updates in this room are the ones that are starting to finally make this room feel a little finished.  I finished staining the rocker skis for our wingback chair and Steve attached them earlier this week.  The chair is nice and tall.  We're actually considering getting a little pouf or ottoman to make it easier to rock Mr. Baby while in a lounging position.  The skis added a couple of inches of height to the chair, so my feet don't rest flat on the ground unless the chair is rocked all the way forward.  We also added some light-blocking drapes around the window in a really pretty navy with subtle aqua stripes  (from Target, found here).

Looking better!

Although I am feeling a little panicky about not having the room "done," I keep having to remind myself that we still have six weeks before Mr. Baby is due to make his grand entrance, and he's not going to care a whit if the room doesn't look exactly like I want it to.  And I'm very happy with how the room is coming along so far.  Steve is too- a few days ago he wandered into the nursery and then remarked that it's his favorite room in our house so far.

I hoping to have another nursery update within a week (pending a giant shipment from Amazon arriving here), so cross your fingers for quick shipping!