Nursery Progress :: All Done!
Update (November 8th, 2010)
Welcome Spearmint Baby Readers! Feel free to look around, and bookmark me if you like what you see.
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Update (October 22, 2010)
I wrote this post a while back, and figured I would submit this post for the “Show Us Your Life – Children’s Rooms” week on Kelly’s Korner instead of rewriting it. Enjoy!
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All Done! The nursery that is. The baby….well that doesn’t seem to have an end in sight.
But back to the nursery. Over the past few months, pretty much the past 8 months, I have been working my little tushy off trying to make the perfect resting spot for the bambino, and I have to say I am quite proud of myself. I love good design, but always feel that I fall short when it comes to bringing a room to it’s full potential. Although, if I had the money, there are a few things that I would have done different. I think that this is my favorite room in our house. Even the dogs like hanging out in here.
This is what the room looked like when Derek 1st purchased the house. Yowza! Believe it or not it was a 6 year old little boy’s room. Yeah….me too.
Then our good friend Amy moved in and the room blossomed into this….
After Amy moved out we converted the room into a guest room/crafting area that I barely have photos of. This is all I could find.
Guess I forgot to take pics. Oh well. Too late now.
Then just before Christmas we found out that we were expecting, and demo (a.k.a. – wallpaper removal) began.
After the demo portion of the room revamp was done we needed to decide on what style we wanted the room to take on. We really like the bright whites and clean fresh look of the MOD style. So that’s what we went with.
First we found the bedding. I am a huge fan of Dwell Studio, and although they have a great selection at Target I fell deeply in luv with another one of their designs that unfortunately is NOT for sale at the bullseye retailer. So my big splurge on the nursery was the crib bedding. Hey, you can’t stop true love.
Once the bedding was decided upon I knew exactly what mobile I just had to have. This mobile is a Flensted mobile that I order from Amazon. I just couldn’t resist those sweet sheep.
For his changing table we didn’t want to go with the typical changing table for two reasons (1) what do you do with a changing table once the kid grows up? stick it in the attic? and (2) we already had a perfectly good piece of furniture that could double as a changing table and provided hidden storage….score!
So in effort to reduce costs and not having to find a new location for the Pottery Barn Channing Buffet we had in the nursery prior to it becoming the nursery; we converted the buffet into a sleek and stylish changing table. However, we may no longer want to serve food from this buffet after it serving up poop and pee for the next 2 years.
Over the changing table Derek hung some inexpensive floating white shelves we picked up on the cheap at Target. I spray painted some old frames we had just lying around and filled them with some homemade artwork. Some of the artwork I created in Photoshop, and the other is just cute craft paper I already owned.
See that owl? Precious right? My friend Sarah found it on Etsy. It matches the room perfectly. Okay, so there is one piece of art over the changing table that I didn’t make, and that’s the silhouette of the German Shepherd. I found this awesome piece of art at the Mod Dog Etsy shop. We love GSD’s around here. Bet you would have never guessed that. For that reason, I thought it would only make sense to start the G-man out on the right paw foot.
As for the wooden toys on the shelves, I scored the hippo and fawn natural wood teethers at the Little Alouette Etsy shop and can’t wait for Grayson to sink his gums into them. And the elephant, giraffe, and sheep … well I picked them up from Oompa. Stealing an idea from the kiddos at Young House Love I intend to mount the little guys hospital bracelet in the currently empty frame sporting the bright blue background.
All of the little man’s pacifiers seem to all be beautiful blues, greens, and whites, so I thought it would be fun to make them part of the room’s decor. I got this idea from my friend Sarah. She did something like this at a shower she threw for me a few months back. PLUS!….it provides easy access to a key baby soothing tool. I used a glass canister that we owned from our wedding. We used it to hold candy at our sweet (pardon the pun) candy bar.
See that shadow box? Pottery Barn Outlet…thank you very much. That’s a pillow case inside. Clever, I know. I just printed out a G in one of my favorite fonts….American Typewriter, and added one of our baby shower invites. Over time I plan to add keepsakes from our little guy’s life. Maybe a cap from the hospital, foot prints, a picture of him and his puppies? Who knows.
The robots are my creation. I know they aren’t anything special, but they help complete the corner. I didn’t want the walls to be too busy, and I think the simplicity of the white frames and gray robots give the walls that something extra.
For the closet, we have the usual clothes and storage, but on the middle shelf I have a basket for bibs and burp cloths for easy access. Next to that I placed a few of his swaddling blankets and hats. Just in case I need something on the fly. This way I don’t have to go digging through the huge drawer of blankets and other misc items when I have a screaming kid on my hands. See that blue bucket on the floor of the closet? That’s his hamper. I wanted something easily cleanable. You know baby poop and barf….it gets all over everything. Yuck! I also wanted it to have a bit of style too. BTW…it’s bigger than it looks.
As for the flooring in the room, we went with FLOR tiles. We hunted around for quite some time trying to find something affordable yet stylish. We hit up Home Depot, Lowe’s, Pottery Barn Outlet, and a few other places. Not to mention I dug around on Overstock.com and other online retailers, but alas nothing. Finally, I took a peek at FLOR.com. Believe it or not, FLOR has some quite affordable carpets. We decided to go with the Cream :: Easy As Pie. I couldn’t love it more. A great thing about modular flooring is that if one tile gets stained beyond repair you can just order one new tile and forgo the cost of replacing the entire carpet. And we all know how messy kids, and dogs can be.
So what do ya’ll think? I’m also hoping that if the next one is a girl I can just modify the design a smidge. Any suggestions on what we should add to the shadow box? Did I do okay?
I want to be like the big dogs on the blog block, so I thought I too would add me a little source/cost list of our room makeover.
Crib :: gift from my parents (Walmart.com)
Soy bean mattress :: gift from Derek’s parents (Walmart.com)
Window treatments :: gift from Derek’s parents (Target)
Shadow box :: already owned (Pottery Barn Outlet)
Artwork :: I whipped this up in Photoshop & owned the paper
Changing table :: already owned (Pottery Barn Outlet)
Carpet tiles :: $105 (FLOR.com)
Chest of drawers :: $100 (Target)
Glider :: $75 – (Babies-R-Us) * remainder paid for by gift cards/coupon*
Floor lamp :: $99 (Target.com)
Shelving :: $10 each (Target)
Dog silhouette art :: $20 (Mod Dog Etsy shop)
Crib bedding :: $320 (Fawn & Forrest) * free crib sheet and weekend tote w/ purchase*
Table lamp :: $10 (Target)
Large green bins :: $15 each (Target)
Small green bin :: $10 (Target)
Mobile :: $33 (Amazon.com)
No VOC Paint :: $40 (Sherwin Williams)
If there is something that I didn’t list and you want to know where I got it from just leave me a comment, and I’ll let you know.
[...] Fairly neutral in white, gray, blue and greens. Spotted here. [...]
I love your nursery! You did a great job! I actually just saw it on Spearmint Baby. I always like reading more about a nursery I like, so I visited your blog. I think your Robot Artwork is SPECIAL! I think anytime you can design something yourself and use it in your decor it is so much more personal!!!! I do it all the time. You actually bought the crib that I want someday! {I do not have a baby yet!} I love your color scheme and the fact that you used your green buffet! Again, great job.
Jessie, you are so sweet. Thank you so much for the kind words. I popped over to your blog too, and it looks like we have the same taste.
Came over from Spearmint Baby. Amazing job on your little one’s nursery!
I love everything. You are very creative. The robots are the perfect touch And I love the idea of re-purposing the buffet as a changing table! The bedding is amazing! We are doing an owl themed room for the next one {owls seem to be all the rage these days, but I won’t let that stop me!}…. the little owl your friend found is adorable.
Why thank you. You are too sweet. The robots are my husbands favorite part of the room.
Love it! It is one of my favorites. Trying to get ideas for our future nursery.
Beautiful
. I totally splurged on my bedding, too. I promise it’s worth it.
Thanks so much. I am still very happy I made the splurge.
I was trying to pick my favorite part out – but I seriously like EVERYTHING! You have done so many creative things.. it’s simply adorable!
You are too sweet. Thank you.
I absolutely love it! The bedding is so cute, and all of the details are just amazing. Great job on the robot – nice touch! You have excellent style. Love your blog, btw.
Sarah,
Thanks. I originally had two other designs along with the robot, but my husband loved the robot so much we went full force with it. I think it turned out better that way too.
W.O.W. I would never get anything done if I were you, b/c I would be spending all my time in that big comfy chair, just looking around, admiring my work!!! It is gorgeous =)
Colleen,
OMG…that chair is so comfy! I almost got something totally different. I almost got a more stylish less comfy option. I’m really glad I didn’t.
Such an amazing room! It’s fabulous. And it will totally grow with the baby as he gets older.
http://camachohouse.blogspot.com/
Thanks! That’s what I was aiming for. His bed is convertible so I’m hoping to get quite a few years out of everything.
I love your room. Where did you get the blue hamper/laundry basket and trash can? I have been looking for that color and am having trouble.
Thanks,
Allison
Allison,
Thank you. The hamper and trash can are both from Target. I found them this summer. I don’t know if they still have them, but all Targets are different so yours may still have some.
The room is beyond beautiful! I was wondering if you remember the color green that you used on the changing table/dresser?
Well thank you. We actually didn’t paint the changing table. We purchased it that way at our local Pottery Barn Outlet two years ago.
Hi again, I meant to ask you about the Flor tiles. Do you still like them? My husband is not sure about them and we’ve talked about getting them in the past but he’s still worried they won’t look as nice as a rug. Your pictures look great but wonder how it woul look in person….decisions, decisions. You don’t have to post this if you don’t want
Tiffany,
We actually love the FLOR tiles. The tiles we purchased were even in the cheapest group they offer. We have two German Shepherd dogs and the worst thing they have left on the tiles is fur. I was worried for a long time that tiles would not look as good as a rug so I held off. Then I started seeing the FLOR tiles on other people’s blogs that I read and noticed how nice they looked. Not to mention everyone seemed to love them. The reason I decided to bite the bullet on the tiles is that I thought they added clean streamlined look to the room while still being visually appealing.
When we were originally looking at “normal” area rugs for the room I never seemed to find anything either in our price range or anything that wasn’t just boring and flat. Before we purchased the tiles we did order a few samples just to give us an idea of the quality and color. Maybe that will help your husband visualize the final product a bit better. The quality (so far) seems excellent and the customer service was fantastic.
Can you tell me the font you used to create the word bubble Grayson Davis, do you have the photo shop template to create your’re willing to share?
thanks
Thanks for the comment. I found free shapes online, and then used the custom shape tool to create the speech bubble. No template involved. I don’t remember exactly where I found the shapes (it’s been a while). I often uses Deviant Art to find many of my free shapes and brushes.
As for the font it is called Elephants in Cherry Trees. The font is a free font on Kevin and Amanda. They have all sorts of free super cute fonts. Good luck on your project.
ok I just had to let you know that I went out and purchased Network Gray paint today. After my little one goes down, hubby and I are going in his room to tape and hope to start painting tomorrow! We’ll see how that goes as we also have a 2 yr old. I also am going to purchase that floor lamp as I love the look and color. Your room INSPIRED me after a very long time of not knowing what color to do. I really didn’t want blue, literally after seeing your pics the light bulb went off! Awesome job!
Thanks so much for the kind words. Good luck on the painting. We love the lamp. For a Target lamp it is extremely sturdy and gives of great light. I love the color of the shade. I was inspired myself by some of the amazing nurseries on Project Nursery.
Found your nursery at Project Nursery and you did a great job! I am loving the Target floor lamp, so I came here to make sure it was actually from Target. Awesome work!
Thank you so much. I fell in love with this lamp when I saw something similar at CB2, but it cost $200 bucks. So while doing one of my infamous Target.com window shopping-a-thons I stumbled upon this little gem. I love it! For a $99 Target lamp it is extremely sturdy and gives off the perfect amount of light.
I’m glad that Grayson will grow up around so much Target stuff. Way to get him started early!!!
Did you do okay??? This room is beyond perfect. It’s magazine-worthy. I love how non-themey it is. My favorite parts are the artwork, the mobile and the awesome colors of the buffet and floor lamp. I want to live in this room!
Oh and that craft room wasn’t lookin’ too shabby either!
Why thank you. :: blush :: I did my best to stay away from the theme type design. I’m glad I succeeded.