Operation Baby Nursery

As disappointed as Mike and I are about not moving to Fort Rucker...it means we get to start on the nursery! We had a busy weekend that consisted of painting, upcycling an old lamp and making decorations. We bought a gorgeous antique dresser last month--early 1900s and refinished in a shabby chic look.  We still need to order the crib and get something to store my cloth diapers in but we're already making major progress.

Originally I had thought that I'd like to do a shabby chic nursery with pale colors, kind of a country cottage look. I was stuck on that for several weeks but I recently found other inspiration on Pinterest during a bout of insomnia. I saw these gorgeous nurseries and fell in love.The bright pops of color are much more "me."

Inspiration:

 

First step: Pick a paint color. I knew immediately what color I wanted on the walls:

Because what girl DOESN'T like Tiffany's?!

I think Home Depot's Color Match Technology did a great job.

So our little girl's room is painted and looks so beautiful. I found a glider/ottoman on a re-sale site on Friday for $75 and originally thought that I would re-cover it but as it turns out, it looks pretty awesome with the blue walls! It's so comfy too-the lady I bought it from actually replaced the bottom cushion with a Tempurpedic one and the arm rests seem to be a great height for nursing too--score! I have already spent some time in the chair, imagining what it will be like to rock our little girl to sleep and reading her bedtime stories. After all the years of not knowing if this was ever going to happen, it's enough to make me cry! Speaking of crying, have you HEARD this Taylor Swift song? I had my phone on shuffle and it came on while I was fixing my hair. Luckily I hadn't done my makeup yet or I would have had mascara all over my face! I can't wait to meet our baby girl.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this entry, I've also started on some decorations for her room and Mike and upcycled an old lamp that was just sitting around our house. I love the way it turned out and it was so easy! I forgot to take a 'before' picture but it looked very similar to this lamp. Black base with metal scroll work, cream colored lamp shade.

We took the lamp shade off and Mike taped off several inches on the cord as well as the switch and spot where the light bulb screws in. He hung some plastic draping in the garage and sprayed it with two coats of metal primer (Available in a spray can at any home improvement store). We let it dry overnight and then it was time to spray the color on. I chose "heirloom white" so that it wouldn't look stark white and I ended up loving the way it turned out.

I also bought a new lamp shade with the intention of covering it to match the color scheme of the nursery. The good thing about having a former sewing business? I still have a closet full of fabric to use on this type of project. Learning how to re-cover a lamp shade is really easy and there are several video tutorials online to help you out. Basically all you need though is some fabric, a glue gun and whatever embellishments you want to add to the lamp. For the lamp shade I chose a cheery yellow with white polka dots with a grosgrain ribbon trim. It does take some time to get it carefully stretched and pulled over the shade so that they aren't any bubbles or bunches of fabric---oh and be sure to iron all the creases out of your fabric beforehand too.  Total cost of this project: Around $15, the majority of which was the cost of the new lampshade. It was fun to make, gives the room a personal touch and now we don't have a lamp just hanging out in a random corner of the house, it has a new purpose.

Finished project!

Okay, I guess I'm going to have to make a post another day about the decorations I've started making. I've got plans to make a huge batch of cookies for Mike, who leaves for training tomorrow, and I also want to take some next door to my neighbor whose husband deployed today. Until next time...