The Nursery Reveal!

Psst -- If you haven't checked the blog in a few days, scroll down for an appointment update, The Bump Chronicles post, and a post on baby showers!

At long last, I'm ready to post pictures of the nursery! It's been ready for weeks, but I've delayed the big reveal so that I could take pictures with my new camera (see here for a sneak peek with details of some of the fabric another items). It arrived about two weeks ago, and then I waited thinking I needed to learn how to use it before I took pictures. I finally just decided last night I can't delay any longer, so forgive the bad quality of the photos -- I am going to learn!

I've mentioned before that this map from the Future Mapping Co. was the inspiration for the whole room, color palette and (loose) theme. I bought it earlier in the year for our living/dining room only to receive it and realize the orange was far too bright to work in that room. I didn't want to send it back (it came from England), and it is still really cool, so the nursery ended up being the perfect place for it. It's magnetic, too, so we can put little magnets over the countries and cities that are special to us or that Baby G has visited (he has already been to five countries in utero!).

Hazy picture of the nursery! You can't see the changing table or one of the windows... Or the closet... Maybe I need a wide-angle lens? Or maybe I need to learn how to use my camera first. :)

Reading and rocking corner. I hate the look of these types of chairs, but I hear they actually are pretty wonderful for rocking a baby and they don't cost a babillion dollars like some of the really high end ones that don't look like rockers. And ours is pretty comfy. The forward-facing book racks are spice racks from IKEA. I think I saw the idea on Pinterest.

Another view of the nursery. I DIY'ed that bench in front of the chair; it is part of a vanity set, but it was sort of beat up, and I use a different chair with the actual vanity. So I painted the legs and reupholstered the seat, and now it's an ottoman! The print on the right side of the chair is an ABC wall hanging from somewhere in Asia. It looks really old, but it's probably artificially aged since I got it at World Market for like $2. I got it years ago... It hung in my bedroom at my first apartment when I was 19. I don't know why it never occurred to me that it's kind of youngish (ABCs); I just like the way it looks.

The map and changing table. Changing table baskets are a mess right now; I'm going to wash and fold all of the cloth diapers in the next week or so, then it will look much tidier.

Different angle of the nursery.

Closet! I love his closet. So sweet. Just ignore the stuff crammed up at the top. ;) The drawers on the left have newborn stuff in them, babywearing stuff (a couple of slings), and all of the instructions, manuals, etc. for baby gear. The drawers on the right are pretty much empty since most of his clothes are hanging at the moment. Not pictured: A hanging organizer on the right side of the closet that has shoes, socks, hats and the like. (Oh, and see that baby quilt that's draped over the arm of the rocker? I won that in a blog giveaway!)

Wider view of that same wall.

I made a little bunting out of samples I collected while fabric shopping. The flash cards are just there to obscure his name, which is in the center of the bunting, until he's born. They're not permanent, although they kind of look cute!

This art was a DIY. A couple of years ago Brad and I were wasting time in Borders and found a GIANT copy of Corduroy, which we both loved as kids. It was on clearance for $4, and I thought it would make good art in a kid's room someday. So I hung onto it, got some cheap RIBBA frames from IKEA, stuck photo corners on the mat, cut out Brad's two favorite pages, and boom! Cheap and adorable art.

Another DIY. IKEA had KVARTA clocks on sale for about a dollar each (maybe $1.99?), so I bought one. I just didn't like how the face didn't have numbers on it, so I decided I'd print a different face for the clock. Popped off the plastic cover, made a little clock face in Photoshop, printed it on card stock and stuck it in there. Then I used some of the laminated cotton I had left over from lining the changing table and tacked it onto the front. It's not perfect, but I needed a clock, and this one certainly matches (in addition to the changing table, the bench/ottoman in front of the oatmeal-colored chair has this same pattern, but the cotton is not laminated).

Here's part of the bookshelf that I DIY'ed last month, now with a few kids' books on it. You can also see the bottom of the curtains my mom sewed. I had bought some ivory, blackout-lined curtains from J.C. Penney on clearance, and hoped to lengthen them by adding a panel of fun striped fabric at the bottom. While shopping for the fabric, I managed to get the pom pom trim for a steal. It came together nicely! (Thanks, Mom!) I do notice from this picture I need to steam the curtains though. They're just a little wrinkled. Oh well. The storage cube at the left holds some of Baby G's toys.

Wider view of that same corner. There's a door next to the tall lamp that leads to the bathroom. The sailboat over the bookshelf came from the nautical-themed shower Brittney threw for me. I made the upholstered cornices at the top of all the windows; the fabric on the cornices matches the crib skirt.

A view of the sweet crib. Mom made the box pleat crib skirt. We velcroed it on to the mattress frame.

I love the mobile over the crib. It's from Restoration Hardware, and it's one of the only non-gender-neutral items in the room, which is kind of nice. Supposedly they are replicas of WWI fighter planes. I dunno, I just like it. Plus they kind of fit with the very loose "travel" theme in the nursery (map, boat, planes...).

Sweet little soft friends in the crib! Don't worry, I'm going to remove them before the baby ever sleeps in there (safety first), but since he'll be sleeping in our room for a while, it's kind of cute/fun to put them in there, like they're waiting for their buddy Baby G. And yes, everything still has the tags on it... I'm a freak about removing tags from anything in case we have to take something back for any reason.

So there you have it! The nursery reveal is complete. I'm proud of how it turned out. It's sweet without being overly babyish, it's not too boyish with footballs and camo and trucks, etc., and it's just kind of lovely. Depending on how long we stay in this house, our kids may end up sharing this room, so I like that it's gender neutral, if the next Baby G after this one is a girl. Not to mention that since Brad, Mom and I did a lot of the work ourselves, it didn't cost a fortune. Sure, we had to buy a crib, a couple of chairs, and a rug, but beyond that most of my money went toward fabric, which I got on sale, and the rest was just a matter of reusing pieces I already owned.

List of the DIY projects in this room:

• Curtains
• Upholstered cornices
• Crib skirt
• Bench/ottoman
• Lamps (painted)
• Ceiling fan (painted)
• Artwork
• Clock
• Bookshelf
• Fabric bunting

List of things we already owned and moved into the room:

• "Changing table" (actually a nice shelf from Horchow that I bought second hand last year)
• Map
• Storage cubes
• Lamps (I painted these - see above)
• Side table
• Asian ABC wall hanging (over oatmeal-colored chair)
• Bench/ottoman (owned and refinished - see above)
• Corduroy "prints" (pages from an owned book)

Other no-cost items:

• Pottery Barn picture frame on top of bookcase (won in blog giveaway)
• Baby quilt on arm of rocking chair (won in blog giveaway)
• Sailboat over bookcase (was a shower decoration, along with the little blue pail on the bookcase; it holds pacifiers)
• We were also gifted the books in the room, the stuffed animals (except the lion, which I bought at Anthro with a gift card and coupon), the light-up soother thing in the crib, the blankets... 

Bought:

• Chair and a half
• Rocking chair
• Rug
• Crib
• Airplane mobile
• Fabric
• Paint
• IKEA spice racks (BECKVAM - on sale for $2.99 each)
• IKEA clock (KVARTA - on sale for about a dollar or two)
• Large IKEA frames (RIBBA - on sale for $17.99 each)
• Wooden chests of drawers for closet (IKEA RAST - on sale for $29.99 each)