The Nursery

Otherwise known as my new favorite room in the house.

One of the things that I looking forward to doing during this pregnancy was creating a real nursery.  With both Bug and Monkey, we were living in apartments when they were born, so things such as painting and hanging up decorations were just not possible.  And there just wasn't room.   (Although I did paint a room for Bug in one apartment - only to have it quickly repainted over the day we moved out.)

This time, I wanted a dedicated baby room.

Our office/guest bedroom was emptied and all its contents were relegated to the basement (still yet to be finished.)

The before...

I started creating color schemes and design plans almost the very moment I found out I was pregnant. I created a Pinterest board dedicated just to nursery ideas.  And wow, did I have ideas.  I wanted something bold, striking, colorful, unique. Somewhere along in the planning process, I changed my mind.  After all, this was going to be a room for a newborn, a sweet, soft, snuggly newborn.  So I backed off the oranges and teals and lime greens and yellows and decided to go for something soft and soothing. 

And blue. 

The after...

At first, I couldn't believe myself.  How stereotypical, how expected could the nursery get - being blue for a boy. I was a little disappointed with myself.  I could have chosen any color, and I chose blue?

But I'm completely over it.  I love the room, blue walls and everything.

I hand painted trees and cardinals on the walls by finding a picture I liked online, tracing it onto a page protector.  I borrowed an overheard projector from a lady at the boys' school and traced, then painted each tree, leaf, and bird.  The cardinals were my mom's idea.  The nest was Monkey's idea.

Bug helped me create art for the reading/rocking corner.

I completely altered our old mobile, covering it first with brown floral tape, then with artificial vines and felt leaves.  I painted over some cheap bird Christmas ornaments to hand from the mobile.

And look at these darling black and white animal flashcards I found...I had to hang them up as art (but they are still easy to take down, so we can actually use them.)

I still have ideas: I need to get letters for the baby's name to hang on the wall. I want to create some baby accessible bookshelves for all the board books. I'm completely lusting after this owl lamp.

But for now, the nursery is done.  Often, when I walk by, I stand in the doorway and just look at everything, take in my new favorite room, and hope that its future occupant loves it as much as I do.