Nursery complete, except for baby...

I wrote about two months ago about the great job DH did with decorating the nursery. Well, he did the heavy lifting and I did the actual decorating. This past weekend we put the finishing touches on it and I wanted to share it with you all.

We received a bunch of books to start the baby's very own library. The pictures on the wall are Flower Fairy prints.

The changing table is all set up and diapers are in the basket just waiting for the first diaper change! Place your bets, will I or DH be the first to use the changing table?

DH's sister-in-law generously donated her glider and ottoman for all the night-time feedings. My mom sewed the curtains.

We also made a big trip to Babies 'R Us for all the remaining items from our registry. Plus a few more "must haves" that caught my eye while we were shopping :-) DH was a trooper but it only took about 2 hours door to door so it wasn't that much of a strain. Then when we got home he had fun putting together all the baby gear. My house now has a lot more "stuff" than we did a few weeks ago!

I did 4 loads of laundry for this baby that still has 5 weeks to percolate. I was motivated and wanted to finish off the nursery with all the cute clothes we received from the baby shower. I can already sense that the itty bitty socks are going to cause me the most headaches when it comes to doing laundry! Another annoying baby clothes discovery is the clothes that are not labeled consistently. For example, a onesie says, "3 months." I assume that means 3-6 months but what if I'm wrong and it should be in the 0-3 month pile? And what about those onesies that say M? They look like the 3-6 month clothes so I put them there. Am I way off base? A first time mom needs to know.

The closet built ins are filling up quickly! Right now there is room for everything but I'm sure it won't last long once our daughter arrives.

Currently I have the closet organized into 0-3 months, 3-6 months and 6+ months for the 3 racks. Does anyone know where I can find the round plastic size indicators to hang? Department stores use them but I can't find them to buy. And getting arrested for shoplifting is probably not a good idea at this stage in my pregnancy. I found some adult sized ones but not for infant/baby sizes.

The finishing touch for our nursery is still to come! Right now we are t-minus 5 weeks for my due date. I am more than happy to go early but family history indicates this may not be the case. Either way, I am feeling like I am ready for her, at least from an organizational standpoint. I can't wait for the hardest and most wonderful part to start but she needs to arrive first!

Adventures in Home Improvement: The Library

When DH and I moved into our house we starting making a list of everything we wanted to change about the place. The former home owners had done a good job with a few things (installed hardwood floors on the second floor, removed the wallpaper and popcorn ceilings) but the house was lacking in design aesthetic.

The biggest room in the house is the front room which would usually be designated as the formal living room. The only problem is that we don't exactly entertain frequently so dressing up a room that we would never use wasn't an economical use of our time or money. That's what the dining room was for :-)

As I have mentioned previously, I am a big reader. We knew we needed more storage for the massive amounts of books I currently have and plan to have. What can I say, if you are an avid reader of fantasy books the series can be very numerous. We also knew that eventually we would start a family so additional storage for that would be ideal as well as a room that could be versatile. The result? Our library.

The first step was paint. I picked out two colors: True Blue for the accent wall/built ins and Loft from Ralph Lauren. Here's a tip: name brands really do cost more. But for the darker colors, it is important to have high quality paint. I'm very happy with the colors I chose. DH, of course, did the painting.

We got an excellent recommendation for a contractor who built 17 feet of built ins for us out of red oak. It took him about 2 weeks because he was working on a few other jobs as well. It's the first time I've seen DH with total tool envy. DH also peaked in periodically to shoot the shit with Adam and picked up a few tricks of the trade that helped him immensely when he was rebuilding the nursery closet built ins.

The built ins at 75% complete

The trickiest part of the whole project was staining. DH decided that to save money, he was going to stain the wood and poly it himself. I was skeptical. But we got one quote that was for $2200 just to stain the built ins. That was more than we spent to build them (including materials)! So DH spent several weeks staining the wood. The problem? Apparently the wood filler used to cover the nail holes does not accept stain, regardless of what the directions say. So we had beautiful built ins with lots of light colored spots. It did not look good.

We managed to get another quote that was much more reasonable for someone to come in, sand down all the hard work DH did and re-stain it along with a couple of coats of poly. I think the revised quote was $600. Needless to say, the previous painter was trying to rip us off, no?

Built ins, complete. The left side is a cabinet, the middle a desk and the far right are drawers for additional storage.

Once the built ins were complete, it was time to get decorating. I searched for weeks for the perfect accessories and furniture. In fact, it may have been months! The most important piece of furniture was the chaise I knew needed to be included. I wanted a two armed chaise for reading. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a two armed chaise? And I live in NC, the furniture capital of the country! I finally found a floor model from a furniture outlet. I wasn't thrilled with the pattern (green with light blue dots) but figured I can always get it re-upholstered. Turns out I just integrated it with other things and I think it works. DH was very happy to save that money :-)

The chaise that I now have some issues getting in and out of because of the burgeoning belly.

I always knew I wanted to integrate my college and MBA chairs (thanks for the graduation presents Mom and Dad!) into the room with a "library table". Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a round pedestal table that isn't dining room table size!?! It was a beast, to say the least. DH and I were using up some left over gift cards from Crate and Barrel when we saw the perfect table. It was the final missing piece of furniture. When I work from home I find myself working from this table. It will be great once the baby gets older and wants to color, etc. Now if only the high gloss of the table was forgiving for children's play...

Library table and college chairs. We also put up our diplomas around the room to give it the additional "library" feel. I still have to get my Darden diploma framed but it's gigantic so it can wait.

My mom stopped by during the several months it took to finish up the room and helped me buy knickknacks and style the bookshelves. Thanks, Mom!

Another shot of the library from the doorway. This one of only three rooms in the house with curtains. Sad, but true. Why are curtains always the last to get put up?

I hope you all like the adventures in home improvement. If you do, let me know and I'll post more. DH and I love improving our first home together. Well, I love designing and he is great at doing. Perfect combination!

Nursery update: construction complete

DH put in long hours last week finishing up the nursery so that it is now all prepped for the final decorating touches. He has probably put more effort into this room than any other in the house. His goal going into the project was that the room look great - like a professional did it. I would say he succeeded but you be the judge...

The first step was to rip out the closet built ins and rebuild them. The first time around DH built 3 drawers and some shelves. Here is a picture.

Original closet built in

We both weren't happy with it for a couple of reasons. The primary one being that the drawers were really shallow and would be hard to use. DH has also gained in knowledge and number of power tools over the past year and a half so he knew he could do a better job. I also had a better sense of what I wanted for storage. So we re-designed the built in and DH went to work. It went much faster than the first time around. This was due in no small part to DH knowing what he was doing and having the correct tools. The two best tools? Table saw and nail gun.

New closet built in

While DH was working on that, I was planning the design of the nursery. I found a great 8x10 rug on Craig's List that coordinated with the fairy prints I had framed. We bought the changing table/dresser off of Craig's List as well. That website is a gold mine! It had quite a few marks on it so DH sanded it down and re-stained it. New hardware completed the look. The crib is new but we got a floor model and a really good deal. Plus it converts to a toddler bed so we should be able to use it for many years. The other knickknacks I found through HomeGoods.

The next big decision was the paint colors. I was thinking about two different colors but ended up picking two shades of purple. We used Glidden's "Touch of Violet" for the base color and "Elevator" for the contrasting stripes. The base color was flat but the stripes were in semi-glossy to give them a little extra pop. That was DH's idea and worked really well. He also removed the shoe moulding and base board so that he had more room to work with and didn't have to cut in the walls as much. We planned on getting slightly higher baseboard anyway. The shoe moulding was easily removed and reused. Total cost for the baseboard and the chair rail was $140.

DH and I set up a chalk line around the room to represent the chair rail. Once that was set he drew 6 inch lines to represent the stripes and starting painting. One thing we learned from hard experience is that you can't leave painter's tape up very long or when you peel it off it will take paint with it. So DH did a few stripes at a time. As a result it required very few touch ups.

Stripes, in progress

DH also removed the door and the bi-fold closet doors. He sanded them down and painted them. Twice actually since the first time around he used flat paint. Glossy paint is the norm for that type of woodwork. I told him that it looked fine with the flat paint but he was in his perfectionist mode so Saturday morning was repainting time. The chair rail, baseboard and shoe moulding went up easily. Thanks, nail gun! You've paid for yourself!

Then it was time to bring in the furniture. The crib took us about an hour to assemble. It was a lot bigger than I remembered. That made furniture placement a little more challenging. We are still going to bring in a glider and ottoman (thanks Scott and Penny!) and a small table and lamp for next to it. Other than that, the room just requires hanging the pictures and mirrors. We may be replacing the ceiling light/fan as well but it depends on what Lowe's has in stock and on sale.

The finished (almost!) product

So, let's hear it. What do folks thing about our little girl nursery? DH thinks that she will be sick of purple but I think it works well. Of course, purple is one of my favorite colors so I could be biased.

Here is a link to all before and after photos. You need a Snapfish account to view.

Designing Woman

DH will be the first to tell you that I've gone a little crazy with decorating the nursery. I ordered prints from the UK as the focal point for the room's theme. When I was a child we had a couple of books by Cicely Mary Baker about Flower Fairies. The are from the 1950s so they aren't the cute-sy Disney style of fairies. I decided that if I was going to have a girl I would use that as the theme for her room. Good thing we ended up with a girl because I'm not sure what I would have done for a boy!

I ordered 6 prints and ended up getting them custom framed at Michael's. I was just going to have them matted to fit a regular frame but they were having a 60% off custom framing sale. See how much money I saved you, honey? Hee hee.



We picked up a rug off of Craig's List that is primarily lavender and green (with some cream and yellow) that is a perfect fit for the room and hardly used! The last two things I need to think about are fabric for the curtains and paint colors. My mom has graciously offered to sew the curtains so I'm trying to track down the perfect fabric. So far, after perusing 5 fabric stores I am not happy with anything. If anyone knows of a great online store that I can get samples from, let me know.

The pain colors are also throwing me for a loop. DH has said he is willing to go as crazy as I want and I'm thinking striped walls could be good. But perhaps too busy with a patterned rug? I know I have tons of time but I am the type of person who wants it done now. I will definitely post some before and after pictures so you can all marvel at the massive amount of work that DH will have done. As I type this he is re-building a custom built-in for the closet. It's so great to have a handy husband! I am more likely to outsource...

As I have been going through this process I do have to wonder, how much effort do people put into nurseries these days? I mean, aside from the ridiculous spreads in design magazines and the parents in Us Weekly. There is a limited life span to a nursery which means it will have to be done again within 10 years. If I hadn't focused on a theme I probably would have slapped some paint on the walls, arranged the furniture and called it a day.

All I know for sure is that we can't move for many, many years. I have several rooms now decorated and I refuse to start over again in a new location! Up next, our bedroom and bathroom...but that might be a lot farther out once the little one gets here.