Home Tour: Nursery

The baby's nursery is finally completed. Our little one is due in just 2 weeks. Part of what has taken so long to finish the room is that the crib has been on back order. It finally arrived this week. Once Todd finished putting it together, I was able to put the finishing touches on the room. I would say I helped assemble it, but really, in my 9th month of pregnancy I mostly sat in the rocker reading directions aloud and keeping him company.

Since we want to be surprised and haven't found out the baby's gender, we went with a pretty neutral color scheme. I'm not big into themed nurseries but I couldn't resist giving this sweet babe's room a coastal feel.

The room was already this color when it was my sewing room. We love the color and its calm vibes so we kept it. Todd painted the ceiling since it had several scuffs and we wanted to go with a more durable paint so that we could wipe any marks off the ceiling easily. Todd also spent many hours sanding and refinishing the dresser, which we set up as the changing table. He also replaced the hardware.

My DIY contribution to the room is the baby's quilt. I went with a disappearing nine patch pattern in slate blues, grays, white and mustardy yellow. I love quilting and hadn't made one in awhile. It was so fun to make something for our sweet little one knowing he or she will use it as a playmat on the floor while little and as a blankie on their bed or for family movies on the couch as they get older.

I am so pleased with how the nursery turned out. The colors are so relaxing to me and I can't wait to sit and rock our sweet babe in there. I think if we have a boy I'll add in more touches of navy or mustardy yellow and if its a girl I'll throw in some touches of coral.

Source List: 
Paint - Sherwin Williams Halcyon Green
Crib - Buy Buy Baby
Dresser / Changing table - Craigslist
Dresser handles - Hobby Lobby
Rocker - Pottery Barn Outlet. It is the Comfort Swivel Rocker.
Rocker Slipcover - Pottery Barn Kids
Ottoman - Restoration Hardware Baby and Child
Drapery - HomeGoods
Drapery Rods - old from Bed Bath and Beyond
Hamper - West Elm
Starfish Pillow - Pottery Barn Outlet
Gray Crib Sheets - Buy Buy Baby
Sailboat mobile and mobile arm - baby shower gift, Pottery Barn Kids
Sailboat Nightlight - Pottery Barn Kids
Baby Quilt - made by me
Bookshelf - Old, this was in my room as a kid
Whale - The Summery Umbrella on Etsy
Lamp - Target
Clock - Ikea
Crab Artwork - Boutique shop in Baltimore, I can't recall the name.
Beach painting - purchased on our babymoon at an art show in Hawaii
Pier photograph - Taken by us on vacation in Michigan
Artwork Frames - Michael's and Pottery Barn Outlet
Lantern and Sand Art Print- My parents picked this up for us on a vacation in Maine a few years back

If I missed anything and you want to know where it is from, please comment below.

Nursery Dresser

We picked up this dresser on Craigslist for $100. It was posted for over $200 but the girl selling it was moving out of state and had to get rid of it so we got it for a steal. It is structurally in excellent condition. It is super heavy and made of solid wood. I don't know where you can find a solid wood dresser for 100 bucks these days, most furniture stores charge upwards of $1000 for a solid wood dresser. We decided to refinish this and use it as the changing table and dresser for the baby's room. I wanted a white dresser in there, and while this piece is already white, there are several marks on the top and on the drawers, it definitely needs a fresh coat of paint. Plus, the hardware is dated and doesn't go with the coastal vibe I have in mind for the nursery.

Since I'm pregnant and my doctor doesn't want me sanding or refinishing any furniture right now, Todd has taken over this little project. I would love to be helping out more, we all know I love a good DIY project, but he is loving working on something that will be used by our little one for many years. We first removed the old hardware. The knobs look so small on such large drawers and are spaced too far apart to be able to easily open and close the larger bottom drawers. Since we knew we would be replacing the hardware and changing the placement, Todd filled in the original holes with wood filler.

We decided since the surface was pretty beat up it would be best to sand it down to get a smooth surface for a fresh coat of paint. Todd started this process at our house, but as you can see in the background, our garage is a disaster zone and the weather has been quite unpredictable lately. He took the dresser over to his parents house to utilize their garage to finish sanding and painting. They have more space where he could lay out all the drawers to dry without fear of a sudden pop up rain shower ruining the paint.

The dresser is going to be right in front of a window in the nursery. We opted for the same white as all of the trim work and doors in our house for the dresser paint. This way everything matches and the dresser won't look weird with the blinds and window casing directly behind it. I am not big on everything being matchy matchy, but if the trim and doors are one shade of white and the dresser a different shade, it would look like we tried to match and missed and would be an eyesore. Or maybe I'm just telling myself that to rationalize my crazy pregnancy brain. haha.

I picked up several handle and knob options from the hardware store and didn't love any of them. Ultimately, we settled on these handles from Lowes. The knobs on our built in cabinets are from the same collection. The knobs on our cabinets have a brushed nickel finish, but we opted for the bronze finish for the dresser pulls. We changed the placement of the handles. We centered the pulls on the smaller top drawers first. Once those were centered, we lined up the hardware on the two larger drawers. Now that the handles are closer together on the larger drawers it is much easier to open and close the drawers.

Todd painted the dresser beautifully. He also put some wax on the bottoms of the drawers to help them glide easily in and out of the dresser. We are so pleased with how the dresser turned out. After he was all done, we moved it into the room. I got to work right away lining the drawers. Now all we need to do is start washing everything and put it all away. We are so excited to fill this piece with all the baby's tiny clothes, blankets and necessities. 

A Coastal Nursery - Mood Board

I started coming up with inspiration images for our baby's room. The room is already painted a beautiful blue/green color which we love. We want something gender neutral but nothing super babyish. Neither of us are really into themed nurseries. I do love coastal decor so we are going for more of a coastal feel, not necessarily a nautical or beach theme. Here is just a fun little mood board of items I've seen online that I like and think could fit the coastal vibe.

Sources:
Chair and mobile - Pottery Barn Kids
Light Gray knit ottoman - RH Baby and Child
Cribs - Buy Buy Baby
Square pouf ottomans and Lamps - Target
Dresser - Already purchased, Craigslist
Drapery and Carpet - Stock images
Dark Gray Knit Ottoman - CB2
Paint - Sherwin Williams Halcyon Green