The Nursery

Well, there were definitely times when I didn't think it would get done before his arrival.  But now, three days before my scheduled c-section, I have to say. . . Andrew's nursery is complete.

With each nursery, I have gotten more confident in what I want and less concerned about finding the "perfect" anything.  I have realized that most of the nursery is going to be spit up on, pooped on, peed on, and that most of my time in that room will be spent in the dark.

This was, by far, the least work that I have ever personally done on one of my nurseries, too.  First off, the room was already painted with the perfect accent color.  Secondly, my nanny set up all of the furniture and washed and hung/folded about half of the clothes.  I hung/folded the other half here and there (this kid has a LOT of clothes).


This was also the nursery that didn't turn out AT ALL as I had originally planned.  There were lots of "accidents" along the way, and it just goes to show that "accidents" can be a good thing when nursery decorating.

My MIL purchased the bedding set for us.  This is a very generous gift and we were very grateful.  The only small hitch with this was. . . it was the wrong set.  She had asked which one we wanted, and I had another in mind.  I sent her the link for that set (and I have double checked, it was the right link), but for some reason, when she clicked on it, it brought up several choices, so she picked what she liked.  When I opened the bedding set, I was a bit surprised.  Had this been my first baby, I am sure I would have freaked out and spent much angst deciding on how to handle it, but this being my third baby, I threw the bedding into the crib without so much as a second thought.  Will loves the trains and Emma likes the airplanes, and it has ended up being a fun set to decorate with.  We definitely ended up with a very different look than what I'd been aiming for, but I am very happy with it.

I then found a framed picture at the Goodwill that I thought would look nice with the bedding.  It was $1.  In the store, I found the red frame and blue matting too garish and planned on reframing it.  When I got it home, I LOVED the look of the red with the bedding.  So much so, in fact, that I decided to run with the red as an accent color. 

When I was admitted at 35 weeks, I made M a list of things to do, one of which was to buy red curtains (I had already bought the accent rug and told him to just match to that color) and a curtain rod.  So he purchased and hung up the curtains as well as some other things.  Again, things didn't end up quite as I had planned, but it ended up looking great.

I did stumble across two things during my search for nursery items that really make the room special.  The first is this set of transportation prints. My MIL made these at a crafting party when my husband was 5.  They were in pretty ugly brown frames, which I was willing to use, simply for the nostalgic value, but even M wanted to change them out.  I found these fun frames at Ikea in th red I was going for.  I love how they look and the very neat fact that they hung in M's room for a decade.

The second is thing I found in a Hallmark store for 75% off when I was about 8 weeks pregnant.  I think it ended up being $4.  The funny thing is that I hemmed and hawed about whether to  even buy it.  $4, people.  I just hadn't really thought much about nursery theme at that point, and with our history, buying anything for the nursery seemed a bit nuts.

Then I realized that I could use the picture in another room OR just send it to the Goodwill if I didn't end up needing it.  The thing about this picture is that I have always sang this song at bedtime.  Both of my kids can sing it, word for word, with me or on their own.  I loved this song, especially with Will, as I almost stopped believing so many times that I would ever have my own RLB.  With this baby being so unplanned, it is really full circle for me.  These stars are also from Will's original nursery decoration, so again, I love repurposing things and how well it all came together.

This shelf is actually a bath shelf from Ikea and it is the thing that I spent the most on in the entire nursery - $25.  But I love, love, love it.  I love how it matches the curtain rods and also that I can hang little things from it.  Since we actually purchased so little for this room, I don't mind that I splurged on one thing.

I don't know if you can see the star hooks that the clothes and red bag are hanging on.  These are also from Will's room.  I had planned on spray painting them red, but I decided against it.  They don't really pop on this wall as I was hoping, so I might still paint them later.  But. . . probably not!  Once Andrew is here, I will be too busy to worry about whether stars pop.

So, that is the nursery.  It really came together well.  I don't think these pictures do it justice.  I just got this camera phone and haven't figured out the settings yet.  In person, the red is really vibrant and the navy wall is really warm.  The room is cheerful and bright.  It makes me happy just to walk in there.  Now, it's time to add the key ingredient. . . Andrew!