Nursery Porn, Part III

The floor and the walls looked great. The crib looked great. The closet had tiny baby clothes in it.

But really, the nursery was still just an empty room with a crib in it.

The DDH and I plundered other rooms in the house to provide a shelf/changing table, bedside table, and rocking chair. We hung up the decor pieces that matched the crib bedding (the MIL bought us the entire set). We completed a few other decorating projects. We made no fewer than four trips to Home Depot to get the blinds cut down to the right size for the window.

And so, without further ado, the grand finale!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Bring on the nursery porn!

The crib, complete with fuzzy dino mobile and sweet dino wall decals:

 

The MIL and Step-Sister In Law painted the letters and had them on the mantel at the baby shower. Now they're above the windows with the awesome stegasaurus valances and the way-more-trouble-than-they-should-have-been blinds.

The SSIL also made this ribbon for me to wear at the shower. It now adorns the door so everyone knows what's within.

Forgive my truly awful phone pictures; the battery on my real camera is dead and I can't find the charger.

This is the wall opposite the door, with the changing table station, the rocking chair, and the night table.

The table we stole from the guest bedroom; the finish almost exactly matches the crib! It has a cute little slanted shelf underneath on which I've put a bunch of board books. The majority of our children's and YA books are on the built-in shelves in the guest room.

The rocking chair was actually in the DDH's nursery when he was a baby. It's not the most comfortable for long-term sitting, but it serves the purpose.

And more little dino decals!

So the story behind this ugly but really functional piece of furniture: The MIL's husband worked at Home Depot for many years. One of his coworkers built this and another piece for use in the tool department where they worked. It was a storage cabinet/workstation, and it's just unfinished wood with plexiglass on top.

The coworker retired. He didn't want Home Depot to keep the pieces, which he had made himself with his own materials, but he didn't really have any use for them. So he gave them to the StepFather In Law, who gave them to us, because we are furniture magpies.

Eventually the DDH may refinish it, but he is understandably sick of sanding and staining right now. So for now, it's just unfinished wood. But all the shelves are fully adjustable to different heights, and it's about the right height for a changing table. So yay!

I have the changing pad on top (secured per safety instructions). That blue box on top is actually a tissue box covered in duct tape; it holds a bunch of cloth wipes (aka t-shirts cut to wipe size with pinking shears). The green basket holds cloth diapers; the basket below it has receiving and swaddling blankets, and the two below that have mittens and hats. The wooden clementines box has burp rags, and the blue plastic and black cloth drawer units hold a variety of random baby things--diaper cream, Lansinoh, pacifiers, etc.

Yes, we have the canvas wall art that matches the bedding, valances, lamp, and wall decals, too. He's the first grandbaby on both sides, okay?

Do you not just love that wooden t-rex pull toy? Mom found it on Amazon. The lion and dog in the rocking chair are mine from when I was little.

 

The closet is much fuller than in Part II, isn't it? Still pretty organized, though! I'm on the lookout for either a brown-and-blue or dinosaur shower curtain or other fabric to hang up eventually.

A few more pictures:

There's one more project for the wall over the changing table, but since it's only about two-thirds done and there's no guarantee it will be complete before T-Rex arrives and the room stops being so clean and organized, I figured I'd better go ahead and post these now. ^_^

So that's it! The culmination of all our the DDH's hard work! Isn't it gorgeous? It is absolutely the only room in the house that is even remotely designed, coordinated, painted, etc. I already told you the crib is the only Purchased New piece of furniture in the house (ok, fine, other than our desk chairs).

Clearly T-Rex is a First Baby. My apologies, Subsequent Children, that your living spaces were never this totally awesome.

But for now? So happy.

Okay, I cannot get over the adorableness of this lamp. Or the pull-toy, for that matter.

THE END!

Nursery Porn, Part II

In Part I, we left the nursery with the floor finally finished. Now it was time to tackle the walls.

First, the DDH painted the bottom three feet or so brown:

Then, the top part of the wall and the ceiling got a coat of light blue paint:

We removed the blades from the ceiling fan to make it easier
to paint the ceiling.

And another:

And finally the bones of the room were done and I could start moving in the cute baby things.

Like clothes in the closet:

We removed the doors from the closet when refinishing the floor and painting, but I convinced the DDH to leave them off. If you've ever had one of those tiny sliding-door closets, you know they're a huge pain when you're trying to find something.

You slide the door all the way to the left and scrabble around on the right side. Then you need to get something on the left side and have to slide the doors the other way. Then you need something in the middle and you can never quite see where it is. And between the doors and your own shadow, the interior of the closet is always dark--they never have lights on the inside (admittedly, where would a light go?).

This drove me crazy with the master closet upstairs, so I had the DDH remove the drawers, stuck in a tension rod (like for a shower curtain) and hung some curtains that I had inherited from an old college friend. The curtains can be shoved all the way to one side or the other (or the middle) so I can see and access the space more easily.

Since the nursery is really small, removing the doors to the closet also help to open the space a bit and make it seem bigger. For now it's curtainless, but I'm on the lookout for a nice one to hang up, since I'm sure the closet will not forever remain as neatly organized as it is now. ^_~

Then, my parents came into town for the wedding shower and brought the crib they bought us. It is, seriously, the only new piece of furniture in the entire house. Even our computers were bought used, okay? Oh wait, our nice computer desk chairs were both bought new. Other than that, every single piece of furniture in our house is inherited or thrifted--all of the beds (and there are four), all the dressers, all the couches and tables and chairs and desks.

But not the crib. And it's a beautiful one, isn't it?

Dad and the DDH set up the crib and I filled it with all the matching bedding stuff my MIL bought us. It was adorable.

Come see the grand finale in Part III!

Nursery Porn, Part I

You know this is what you've been wanting to see.

The nursery: she is done!

Thanks to the DDH's hard work over the past several months, we finally have a finished nursery, just in time for a certain T-Rex's arrival. Not that he'll actually be there overnight for awhile, but all his stuff needed a place to live. :-)

Let's take you back to the beginning. Originally, this room was sort of a storage-slash-guest-bedroom. The Roommate lived here for almost a year, and I wish I had a photo of what it looked like during his occupation. But here it is after we moved him out:

Ugly old Berber carpet, poorly painted dirty white walls, and not much else.

We pulled up the carpet, revealing the original hardwood floors:

And then we pulled up all the nails and staples and tack boards that had held the carpet in place:

And let me be clear: for all of this, when I say "we," I mean "the DDH."

Then he sanded:

You can see the belt sander he used in the bottom center
of the picture.

And sanded:

And sanded, all with his little belt sander and, in the corners and along the edges, by hand.

That was the longest and worst part, by far.

Then came the stain, three coats:

And the polyurethane:

We added to the baseboards to cover up a gap between the floorboards and the wall, and installed the little metal piece that seques the carpet in the hall into the room:

Now we were ready to paint!

But to see that, you'll have to wait for Part II.

Nursery Update

Y'all.

YOU. ALL.

Look!

I can't even tell you how happy I am with this room. It's all refinished and stained and painted and ready for the furniture and decorations.

The crib should theoretically be here by the end of the week. It better be, since my dad's supposed to help the DDH put it together when my parents are in town this weekend. My mom only ordered it last Wednesday, though, so we'll see. Nothing like the last minute....

The baby shower is on Saturday so we'll get all the bedding and curtains and things we picked out that my MIL bought us. I can't wait to see what it looks like all put together.

I've even stashed away all the T-Rex clothes we already have in the closet:

Tiiiiny little baby clothes!

Somewhat bigger baby clothes, sorted and labeled.

Everything else in this house is secondhand and inherited and mish-mashed together with no forethought. I'm living with a hideous hunter green accent wall in the living room (right when you open the front door. Right in a room that's dark to begin with. UGH) and yellow plaid wallpaper in the kitchen and ugly, odd-sized cabinets that nothing fits in properly. The rest of the house is still gross Berber carpet and looks-dirty-even-right-after-mopping linoleum and mint green tile.

But THIS ROOM is just how I want it. And it makes me so happy.

I can't believe what an amazing job the DDH did, and all by himself. I didn't even pretend to help do anything. Oh, I held the fan blades for him while he screwed them back in, and at one point I helped dust some things. But I don't think that counts, compared to all the sanding (by HAND) and staining and taping and painting and everything else he did. He's amazing. ^_^

I am busy (busy, dreadfully busy).

I'm not sure when I'm going to learn to stop overscheduling myself. But some things just can't be helped.

Friday, the DDH's coworkers threw him a wonderful baby shower. I got to put faces to a bunch of names (not that I can guarantee that I'll remember either). The DDH loves working there; we'll both be sad when they make him move.

We hit up the state fair again Friday night, stuffed ourselves with more junk food, pet ALL OF THE RABBITS and a bunch of goats and a WALLABY and things, and watched a super awesome fire-spinning show. Yay fairs!

Petting a wallaby.

Disapproving rabbit does not approve.

Saturday managed to be quite productive, as you can see:

Brown is done!

Taped.

We took the blades off the fan to make it easier to paint
the ceiling.

The DDH takes all the credit for that. I went to the farmer's market and made pumpkin gingersnap oatmeal and cleaned the kitchen.

Saturday afternoon we attended a beautiful wedding for one of my college friends. And stuffed ourselves on more food. Then I bought pinking shears and turned two t-shirts into wipes while watching Breaking Bad, because nothing says preparing for baby like a show about meth cooks.

Wedding cake and Mario Mushroom groom's-cupcakes.

Sunday after church we were incredibly productive, and the nursery now looks like this:



First coat of blue on the walls done.

Exclamation point!

Again, that's all the DDH's work. I was trying to clean up the office, which is now the office/second guest bedroom, since the second guest bedroom is now the nursery. I made progress, but nobody would admire any pictures of the room in its current state. So.

I also turned another t-shirt into yet more cloth wipes, and discovered that I had bruised my hand with Saturday's cutting. Ow.

We went out to dinner with some friends who were in town from Maryland. It was a lot of fun, though it brought home the fact that most of our friends have moved away and we don't really have people to just hang out with anymore. Sigh.

After that was a couples' wedding shower for an old college friend, the highlight of which was getting to see a different old college friend who had just flown in from Japan, where he now lives (I told you all our friends moved away).

Anyway. That is sort of our schedule from now until the baby comes, I think: lots and lots of work to do at home and lots and lots of other obligations. Doctor's appointment and hospital tour were Monday (doctor's appointments every Monday here on out!), church stuff Wednesday, a different church thing tonight, work AND a wedding Saturday, etc., etc., etc. And I have so much to do that I decided that I needed to start getting up earlier, so I'm getting less sleep right when I'm exhausted anyway. I suppose I'll have two months to lounge around and nap once T-Rex gets here. Right? Oh dear.