Nursery

So the nursery is finally finished- at least for now!- so I thought it was time to share! I did a lot of DIY'ing in the nursery, which I am honestly so proud of. No, it's not perfect, but I love that I was able to put such thought and time into making a special place for our baby girl. So, without further ado, here are the pictures.

 Her room is really small, so it was pretty much impossible to get a picture of everything all together. Here is a shot from the doorway looking in.

 The crib is the Graco Lauren crib, but I got it on Craigslist with the mattress for almost half the price! The chandelier was a not-so-pretty brass one that we had taken down in another room. I spray-painted it pink, and now it's fit for a princess!

Wall decal from Expressing You's shop on Etsy. Quilt I made using the Bloom Quilt pattern from Amy Butler. It's hard to see so I may do a more detailed post about it, but we all (all three of us that read this!) know my blogging history so don't count on it too much!

 I agonized over finding a chair for the nursery. They are all either so expensive or look very uncomfortable, and the room is so small I wasn't sure how a bigger chair would fit. I knew I needed a place to nurse and rock Arabella- or just to even sit and read books when she is a little bigger, though. My mom was looking to make some space at her house, and just happened to have the perfect chair! It was dark brown with a green cushion, so I just painted it and recovered the chair and made a new cushion. LOVE it! Thank you Mom and Dad! The shelf and lamp are things we already had in another room (from Target), and the faux wood blinds and white curtain panel are from Target as well.

 Collage of art above her changing table. Jared painted the ballet slippers and ballerina, which are probably my favorite things in the room. I need to take a better picture-they are beautiful! Arabella is one lucky girl to have such a talented daddy! The lower left frame holds this print that I downloaded from Lay Baby Lay, the bird at the top is this print that I received as a gift from my sweet friend Stephanie (this is actually just a printed copy of it until the real thing comes in, but I love it!, I made the "sweet pea" print at the top and the two small white ones at the bottom right (I'll try to take a better picture, but one says her name and the meaning and the other has 1 Samuel 1:27, and finally the ballet shoes were mine when I was 12 and I just hung them with some ribbon from an empty frame. Most of the frames are just painted thrift store frames from Goodwill.

 The dresser that I found and painted. You can read about it here. In the corner, there is just a small garbage can and little hamper.

 The armoire is something we already had in another room (from Craigslist). There is no closet in the room (it was used as an office by the previous homeowners), so we brought it in as extra storage for hanging clothes and other things!

 Diaper cakes from her Aunt Amy and Sally!

 This photo needs some explanation. For some reason, the door to the nursery just will not stay all the way open, so I made a doorstop using this pattern out of leftover fabric from her chair and quilt.

And finally, this is the outfit Arabella will wear home from the hospital. My daddy bought it for me to wear home when I was born, and I can't wait for her to wear it, too!

So that's the nursery! If there are any last minute updates, I will try to share them, too!

Nursery: "Chester Drawers"

Before anyone comes to the conclusion that I'm totally illiterate, let me just say that I know it's "chest of drawers" not "Chester Drawers", which is saying more that quite a few of the folks selling dressers on Craigslist! However, this post is not about grammatical errors on Craigslist or someone named Chester. With our sweet baby girls arrival only 13 weeks away, I have been spending some time getting started on her nursery. A few weeks ago, I noticed a dresser on the side of the road right around the corner. I had been planning finding a cheap dresser that I could fix up and paint to use as a changing table, and it doesn't get much cheaper than free!

The nursery walls are aqua blue, so I am using lots of pink accessories, including the changing table, to make it girly! The dresser was in pretty good shape, so I just removed the handles, sanded, primed and painted it. (The color is Behr's Strawberry Freeze.) I finished it off with a coat of polyurethane. It is a changing table, after all, so I'm sure the wipe-ability will come in handy!

(after 2 coats of primer)

(after a coat of pink)

Then I just added new knobs (with her sweet initials!) and some pretty pink handles (knobs from Hobby Lobby; handles from Target).

The handles proved to be more of a challenge than I would have like because the dresser's holes were pre-drilled for handles with 4 inch centers, and most standard handles come with 3 inch centers. I just drilled new holes, and didn't bother filling in the new ones because they are covered by the handles.

(close-up of the handles)

Finally, I wanted to add one last detail. I lined the drawers with some cute patterned fabric. I just cut the fabric to size and used a thin layer of fabric glue to stick the fabric to the inside of the drawers. (Idea courtesy of John and Sherry over at Young House Love. LOVE THEM!)

So pretty and cheap! I will have more nursery updates coming soon so keep checking in!