Nursery Reveal!

I know, you thought it would never come.
But it has!

I've been working on the nursery for...a long time now.  Putting it together bit-by-bit since August.

People have been asking Joe at work what the theme is for the nursery.
Theme?
Uhhhh...

There's no theme.
My goal was to make a gender-neutral nursery (we don't know what we're having), and since I didn't want to do yellow and green, I decided on a different route.  I decided to put feminine and masculine elements into the room and (hopefully) strike a balance between them.  You can judge for yourself how I did.  And if you don't like it, just lie and tell me you do, or I might break into a bout of hormonal crying :)

37 weeks this Sunday, by the way!

Here is how the room looked when we moved in.

Not bad...just boring, and like the rest of the house, "oaky" (check out the Kitchen & Dining Room Reveal if you want to see more).

I decided first that I would put a "lemongrass" color on the wall.  Awesome.
So I mixed up a sample, pretty excited to get started.
I tenderly painted the color on the wall, thinking fondly of our little munchkin-to-come.
...and then I just about bopped in my mouth.
I. Hated. It.
I'm going to be looking at enough baby poop in the coming months, I don't need the walls to be singing the same tune!
Okay, time to revamp.
So I headed to my computer to Pinterest (where else??) and my trusty Nursery board.  And I found a solution.
Phew!

I know, beige and white are a bit...boring?  But I like it.  Simple, and I could add whatever color I wanted in the rest of the room without worrying about clashing.

So that's the introduction, and here is the finished room!  I'll list out some items and details at the end.

SCREECH!!!

Hang on a second.  Where the heck did that INCREDIBLE blanket come from???

Oh, you know.  

My Mom made it.

SAY WHAT?  She Made it??  I knew she was knitting a blanket, and I picked out the colors, but I was pretty much envisioning a simple stripe or a basic chevron pattern.  Then at Christmas I open THIS.  I was completely blown away.  Thank you, Mom, for slaving away for six months +.  Baby is going to love it.

Yes, I am still in shock.

She made it.

So exciting!

Here are the dirty details:

Paint & Moldings:  We painted the walls, window and trim.  The trim around the top of the room is actually two different moldings, and we painted the wall between them white to give a bigger impact.  The top trim is a small crown, and the lower one is Picture Rail Molding.  I think we spent about $60 for both moldings.  We had to special order the Picture Rail, and I still need to order hooks to go on it.  It's a molding you can hang stuff from with special hangers they make (Google it, it's pretty snazzy).  And I think it makes the ceiling feel higher, which is nice.

Joe thinks it's funny that the only room in our house with crown molding is the Nursery.

Meh.

Okay, here's where I got a bunch of stuff.  I did a lot myself, many were gifts (recent and from the past) and some I bought from stores or other creative people.  

Crib:  A Beautiful and generous gift from my parents.  It's the DaVinci crib made by Kalani, in Espresso.

Mobile:  A gift from my Grandparents.

Embroidery Hoops with Fabric:  I bought the embroidery hoops at a thrift shop, painted them white, and put  in fabric that I had on hand.  $8.

Knitted Blanket:  A gorgeous gift from my awesome Mom.  Wow.

Crib Sheet:  Carter's Brown Plush (Velour) Easy-Fit Crib sheet.  Babies-R-Us.  $18.

Crib Skirt:  A gift from my Grandparents

Curtains:  I bought plain white grommeted panels at Target ($29.99) and bought a yard of the super cute Argyle fabric on Etsy ($9?).  I sewed a strip of the fabric onto the panels and voila!  Custom panels for under $40!

Metal Bucket O' Blankets:  I bought the bucket (with red handles! Eee!) at Now & Again.  ~$20?

Glider & Ottoman:  I bought it on Craigslist for $25, in desperate need of new foam and fabric (but the wood was already white.  Score).  I recovered it with fabric from Jo-Ann Fabrics and replaced almost all the foam.  Total came to about $60.

Red Changing Table:  I found this at one of the Occasional stores in town, This & That, for $50.  Already painted and everything!

Changing Pad Cover:  Mod Pod "Pop Monkey."  Babies-R-Us, $17.99

White Wall Shelves:  I bought these at Now & Again, and painted them white.  I used a little stamp for the green flourish and bought the hooks at Menards.  $19.

Rooster:  The rooster on the shelf was a gift from a dear friend.  

Large Wood Sign:  The piece of wood was a tabletop that I really loved...and couldn't let go of (look at the grain, I know you wouldn't let it go either).  So I found a new purpose for it!  We took it off the table frame (it was wobbly and couldn't be fixed), and I painted the Robert Frost quote on it using a large engineering print from Staples and transfer paper.  I used the same method that I did for the Mailbox Makeover and DIY Canvas Art.  Then I distressed the writing a bit with sandpaper and waxed the whole thing with a dark furniture wax.  I am super happy with it.  And in case you're worried about baby, we hung it on the wall with two hangers, each rated for 50 lbs.  Special order at the hardware store for this worried first-time Mom :) 

"Imagine" Sign:  This was a gift a few years back from another dear friend.  The company covers letters with recycled metal containers.  Crazy fun.  I don't know where my friend got it, sorry.

God Gave Us You Book:  A sweet little gift from my parents. 

The pictures I took myself and other little knick-knacks I had on hand from random places.  

If you have questions about anything else, just let me know.

So there you have it!  The Nursery is finished and just waiting for a perfect little bundle to arrive!

We're all packed (well, as packed as we can get at this point) for the hospital, and waiting impatiently for the time to come.  But the baby will come in God's time, we know.  

We're hoping & praying for you, Little One,  

and we can't wait to meet you!

~The Doodle Bug

I'm usually partyin' at these hangouts:

Friday Feature @ Redoux

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Furniture Feature Friday @ Miss Mustard Seed

Show & Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Simply Creations Link Party @ Simple Home. Life

It's a Hodgepodge Friday @ It's a Hodgepodge Life

Spotlight Saturday @ Classy Clutter

Trash 2 Treasure Tuesday @ Kammy's Korner

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm

Tuesday's Treasures @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Be Inspired @ Elizabeth & Co.

Make It Pretty Monday @ The Dedicated House

White & Grey Distressed Table & Chairs

Well, at long last here I am!
I was going to post this baby last night, but then I got all responsible and stuff and did all the dishes.  Normally I do them every day and it only takes about 15-20 minutes.  Well, I had procrastinated for a few days, and it took an Hour and 15 minutes.  Yikes.  But that's done now, and I get to do fun things like:
1. Hope that it rains today so my rhubarb & chives can grow.  UPDATE:  I JUST HEARD SOME SPRINKLES!!
2. Watch my tomato seedlings grow (they're almost all up!)
3. Work on an upholstered biscuit box--you'll see that another time
4. Show you a great table and chair set!!

That about sums it up.  And since I've done the first two a little today already, it looks like it's time to skip to #4!  I got this table and chair set off of Craigslist, and boy was I excited to get my paws on it.

Driftwood-Look Table & Chairs

Well, today has been a good day.  I have pieced together & fixed, painted, and upholstered four dining chairs, and then made a cutie little hanger out of some of the scraps!  You'll get to see that soon, but for today I have a big project that took me a good week and a half to complete.  And it was worth every minute.

Here she is.  My first dining table project, with chairs to boot!

Closet Door Sofa Table

The leaves on the trees are starting to turn, kids are back in school, and I just heard that we have a chance of frost in the next few days.  As much as I have tried to deny that fall is coming, it doesn't really care what my opinion is.  I am starting to embrace it--slowly.  And I'm starting to get Christmas decor ready for the store.  The store is such a great excuse to make pretty, Chrismasy things in September!  So be ready for some simple Christmas decorating ideas coming in time for you to do a couple yourself!

But for today, I have a DIY repurposing post for you.  It starts with two solid wood closet doors that I found at a salvage store:

Ooh, look at that molding!  (Confession: I always want to write "moulding," does that mean I've read too many British novels??).








I bought these doors really inexpensively, not really knowing what to do with them.  Finally, after talking it over with Joe, we decided that making a sofa table would be a good idea.  They're nice and narrow, so it gives the right dimension for the tabletop depth.









We started by cutting down one of the doors to make the top, and cutting the other door down for two legs.  I also bough one 1"x6" board 8ft long to cut into a bottom brace and two aprons (those boards that go under a tabletop to support it).

Long Black Library Table

Do not fall in love with what I am about to show you--because it didn't survive very long.

I decided that sometimes it's best to learn from others' successes as well as their failures, so in an attempt to be completely honest I am going to show you a failed project.  Pretty, yes, but failed.

Let me introduce to you, the failed table.  It looks like a bench, but the way that the legs and top are attached does not provide the stability that you really need in a bench.  Thus, a long coffee table thing is what I call it.  This is the picture of the "final" finish...before I did it over again.  Looks great, huh?

 

 

So here's the story, morning glory.  A few weeks back, I painted up a bookcase using a wax-resist technique that I thought of, and it worked out really nicely.  So I thought I would just do the same thing with this table, allowing some of the natural wood finish to show through in a rough pattern.

And it worked...kind of.