The Nursery

Our Baby Boy's Room

Without further ado I present to you my son's nursery! Honestly, not to brag, but we could not be happier with how it turned out. This room is about 5x7 feet for the main area and the alcove with the dresser is around 4x2 feet. While not roomy by any means it is enough to create a cozy, happy environment for our little guy. 

Changing Table/Dresser

This little moose is also a bottle opener, ha! 

A portion of his book collection

Crib Bedding by Dwell and Pottery Barn

All Furniture from Restoration Hardware Baby and Child

Don't forget this is what it looked like before! 

I hope he loves it as much as we do! 

Nursery Progress Report

And progress we have made! Here are the final stages of getting our nursery prepped and ready for it's new owner. Our contractor got the shelves torn down and the paint and crown molding up in a few weeks. Once the furniture was in we were ready to get moving. Pictures of the final product will be up soon (it's 95% there), until then enjoy this little sneak peek! 

Mini Bedroom Makeover

We bought our bedroom furniture way back in 2008 (and wouldn't select the same set if we were buying in 2012), and for the last 4 years I have wanted to get new hardware for it. The silver knobs this dresser came with were quite boring and masculine and I wanted something to femme up the bulky piece. These ring drawer pulls were the perfect change. They gave new life to a piece I was previously over for less than $40, win! 

Before...Blah

After...ta DAH! 

 And now for my second act...When we first moved in the walls were painted a beige color, with that in mind we picked these silver sage lamp shades. Since then though we have painted the walls a dark grey and the shades were no longer cutting it. The new white shades were again an easy quick change and they look much better with our all white bedding (which I love because you can bleach it and keep it looking brand spanking new, even after spilling Chinese food all over it!)

Before- Shades Blending into the Wall

After- Shades pop and the nightstand magically are clean! 

Next we will add a pack and play...it should be a real fancy finishing touch for the room;)

Nursery-Before

Height of messiness...too bad I never took pictures of the room when it was nice and organized

While our love for our little man is already as big as can be, his room is unfortunately quite small. Historically this space was probably a closet, we were using it as an office and in a few weeks it will be transformed again into a nursery. I had the daunting task of somehow making everything that was in this room pretty much disappear. To achieve this, we relocated some things, dumped about 3 garbage bags, donated over 5 boxes full and stored 4 in the garage. Now we are pretty much ready to have our contractor come and tear down the shelving and repaint. Furniture will be delivered shortly and soon we will be ready for the baby's arrival (well as ready as having a finished room can make us)! Until then, here is how far we have come.

Soooooo Close

Where we are today- Most of the stuff on the shelves is for him so we're in good shape

Bump It Up

From left to right...Weeks 12, 14, 18 and 20

As I have crossed the half way point in my pregnancy (WOOOOWHOOOO), it seems that every day I am getting a little bit bigger. It's now funny for me to look at the first "bump" picture I took when I was 12 weeks when I was convinced I was "showing"...10 weeks later there is no comparison, or hiding that I have a little one in my belly. I was trying to take these every week but that hasn't panned out so well as me or the hubs seem to always be running late whenever I mean to take one...but this is what we have accumulated so far. Here I am (above) with my growing bo(d)y and (below) where I'm at right now(22+ weeks)...I'm/he's getting huge!

Guiding Light

Ta Dah! 

Changing the lighting in our bedroom made such an impact on the room that I immediately got on the ball and ordered a new chandelier for our entry way.  The original light, below, wasn't offensive but it most certainly didn't match either of our tastes. While the new piece may be more my style than my husbands (ok, is completely more my style), the bronze finish gives it a less precious look. Speaking of precious, this chandelier is actually designed for a nursery. This fact worked to our advantage because the sizing was scaled down as was the price. All in all, this little pretty addition has given me something extra to smile about when I walk into my doorway.

Oldie but not Goodie

Before and After- Chandelier Rehab

Before- Rescued from the basement

This DIY project is by far the most impressive one I have personally tackled, and it was easy! My grandmother had the sad chandelier pictured above in her basement for the last 10 plus years.  I remembered it hanging in her living room during its glory days and brought it home to resuscitate it. I knew it had potential to be great again-my husband on the other hand wasn't so convinced. The arms were wayward and all the crystals were caked in dust and spiders but a little Windex, paint and time got this lighting back in shape.

We decided to only paint the metal so every inch of glass was carefully covered with plastic bags and  all loose crystals were secured within. Once that painstaking process was complete we spray painted it white, 4 coats to be exact. Due to  the pieces age some rust did come through so we needed additional coats to cover it. I then individually cleaned each crystal with Windex and made new hooks out of picture frame hanging wire for those that were missing them. At this point it was ready to be hung but we needed some additional hardware to attach it to the ceiling. We also needed additional convincing for my husband who was still not excited about having this in our home. Thankfully last Saturday was a lazy one and he was feeling handy and got to work hanging it, it's quite nice to have a hubby that knows how to do these things!  For additional impact we added a ceiling medallion (very easy to install and cheap!) and guess what happened- we BOTH could not be happier with the outcome. Rather than buying a $300 chandelier we were able to rehab this one for less than 15 bucks! And it looks even better turned on so you'll have to come over and see it in person!

After- The new pride of our bedroom