A Crib and a Craft

Hey all! Today I'm sharing the long-awaited crib and dresser post I've been promising! :) I'll show you pics from putting together the furniture pieces, along with a craft I completed for above the crib (that I mentioned in my last post.)

We ordered both the dresser  (by Sauder) and crib (by Childcraft) together from Amazon.com back in my first trimester. It shipped free (sweet!) and arrived pretty quick, so we put the dresser together almost immediately.

Here it is still in the box:

And a closeup of what it would look like once put together:

Unfornately it came in a bajillion parts :/

But the good news was I'd already put this dresser together (a separate one in a different finish) for our bedroom back in the summer, so I was pretty familiar with the process. We got to work:

And before we knew it, we had the frame up:

And then the drawers:

These pictures are just fast forwards of the process obvisously. The whole thing probably took us a total of 3 hours spread out over two evenings after work.

Then came the crib. Being a little superstitious we waited until my 2nd trimester to assemble it. :)

We took it out of the box and laid it out for assembly...

...And then didn't take any pictures of us putting it together, haha!

But here it is, along with the dresser, all set up in their spots along two of the nursery walls:

We have the changing pad all ready to go on top of the dresser :) and see the letters 'S' and 'L' up there on the crib? That's part of the craft I just finished and LOVE how it turned out!

You might remember in my last post when I showed you the curtain fabric that gave me the room's color inspiration?

And I had this pic of it with yarn laid on top:

Well here's what the yarn was for:

I bought large block letters to spell 'SLEEP' from JoAnn's and wrapped different colored thread around each letter. I started with L cuz I thought it looked like the easiest letter to start with, haha:

I hot glued the yarn to the exposed parts wrapping didn't cover up (like the underside and tops of the L), and before I knew it I had the 'S' done:

And then I used the baby blue, gray, and royal blue on the two 'E's and the 'P'...

...and VOILA! :)

It was a little tedious work doing all that wrapping, but at the same time I really enjoyed the repetition and rhythm I got into with it...it was kind of soothing, haha.

Now that it's done, it sits on the back of the crib for now...

...until I figure out how I want to hang it on the wall, maybe between the first tan and second white stripes. And I don't know if I should hang it with more string from nails or glue picture hanging teeth on the back of each letter and hang them on nails, OR mount them to a large wooden board and then hang the board...decisions, decisions! :)

YAY! so excited to have the biggies like the crib and dresser/changing table ready and waiting for our little man!

Next time, I'll show you a little sumpin sumpin I've been working on for the wall above the chair rail over the dresser/changing table and this wall (that's the closet door, btw):

And see that little lamp on the table by the rocking chair? Here's a closeup:

That got a makeover and I'll fill you in on how it came to be the sharp looking white and lime lamp it is today :) Happy Friday everyone!!! :)

5 Months! and Nursery Progress

It's been a few weeks since I announced our pregnancy on this lil old blog, and as of last Saturday I'm 20 weeks pregnant!

WOOOOO HOOOOOO! - halfway there!

To mark the occasion I snapped my first real 'bump' pic the other day! :)

Since finding out we were pregnant, Mike and I have been taking pics at each month mark to document my growing belly :) I'm so happy to be finally showing this month.

Here are pics from each month, along with a little announcement attached  :)   ..............................

......................................

.............................

.........................................................

...........................

We found out at Christmas that we're having a boy and we couldn't be happier! :) Now if only we could just narrow down our name list :/ haha. We like so many it's hard to choose!

Now that we know what we're having I'm so excited to add some boy touches to our nursery's neutral palate. I've always loved animals and wanted to do a zoo/jungle animal theme with elephants and giraffes and alligators and hippos, oh my! :)

Then I found the perfect inspiration fabric for curtains (at JoAnn's), and it was just the launching pad I needed to run with my ideas:

Polka Dots! in blues, gray, and greens. As you can see in the photo above I also picked up some yarn in corresponding colors for a project that'll go on the wall above the crib - pics of that and the crib and dresser to come!

But first I want to show you the toybox project we just completed. This is an old chest that used to be my grandparent's:

I remember all the fun my sisters and cousins and I had playing with all the toys this chest used to hold...old Barbies, stuffed animals and dolls, wooden games and squeaky toys...what fun memories :)

It used to be covered in a reddish brown paint and when I acquired it about 3 years ago, I stripped it down to its original wood. At the time, I didn't know if I wanted to stain it or paint it a different color, so I just left it as it was.

Now that we're planning to use it in the baby's room for toys and extra storage, this inspiration pic I found on the web gave me a fun idea:

But instead of doing chalk board paint all over, I wanted to do a scaled down little area for magnets and chalk drawings.

So to start, I wanted it raised off the floor a tad. I bought four legs (feet?) from Lowe's, painted them white, and attached them to the bottom. They're a little too high for my liking, so not sure if they're staying or if I'll cut them down an inch or so.

Here's what's sitting on the toy box in the pic above:

It's the same magnetic and chalk board paint I used on our kitchen message board project.

I sat those aside for a minute and began painting the chest white:

First I used a brush for all the angles and detail work like around the hinges since I didn't want to take them off:

Then I used a small foam roller for the rest of the piece:

Here's an action shot Mike snapped after I'd applied the first coat of magnetic paint:

And here's a shot after the chalkboard coat was done. Notice the black paint on my neck...apparently it was a messy job :)

Mike measured and cut the trim we used to frame out the magnetic/chalkboard rectangle. It was pre-primed so he began painting it ahead of time to cut out having to paint it after it was applied to the front of the chest.

Once everything was dry, our next step was to add the trim. We used a level to make sure everything was straight, then used painters tape to keep the pieces in place while we tapped a few finishing nails into each.

You can see an oops piece we had to add when we goofed on the length of the bottom trim piece. No biggie - you won't even notice it once we add caulk, sand it, and do paint touch-ups in that spot and over the rest of the nail holes.

But before adding those finishing touches, I was itchin to test it out first and start drawing with my chalk! :)

Please excuse my dusty floor underneath. It has since been swiffered since looking at these photos ;)

I also tested out its magnetic power with some magnets from our fridge and it works! So I'd like to find a magnetic plastic alphabet and/or numbers set to add to the fun :)

Next up was to make the curtains with the fabric I'd bought.

I don't know how to use my sewing machine (I've tried, believe me, oh how I've tried!) so I made my hems with Heat-n-Bond that I bought (also at JoAnn's) and ironed on.

Here's the first side finished:

And both sides done. Not bad for the first curtains I've ever made, eh? (well, curtains that weren't drop cloths anyway..those come pre-hemmed) :)

Oh, and I did the curtains before we added the trim to the toy box. There was a lot of waiting for dry times in between coats so I made myself useful and completed the curtains awhile :)

I love how from a distance the dots aren't too distracting, but up close they're so vibrant and interesting.

 Oh yeah, and see that cute little giraffe in this photo from further up?

Well he got a bit of a makeover with some paint as well - and he happens to be holding the first blue outfit I bought ;) 

Can't wait to so you the new color he's sporting now! I'll snap some pics and show you soon.

Til then, Happy Wednesday!

Oh Baby!

While the rec room renovation has made some more progress, it's also on hold for a bit right now while we're waiting to install our sink (we're making a vessel sink vanity) and faucet in the room's bathroom.

So while that's on pause for a moment, let's press PLAY! on some changes happening in another room of our house: our future little one's room!

Here's a BEFORE picture of the nursery, which until recently was a catch-all room where we kept my crafting stuff and Mike used the closet for his clothes (since the master closet was too small for both of ours).

You can tell in the pic above that some of the ceiling is partly painted. The panels were a dingy off-white color from when we'd moved in, and so I'd started freshening it up with some bright white ceiling paint.

Here's a BEFORE of the left-hand wall where the crib will go:

Oh, and I should note that all the random nails and stuff hanging from them in this room were all there when we moved in (the nails, not the stuff - the stuff is ours). Apparently the previous folks who lived here were nail happy and drove a bunch into the walls all over the place and at random heights...weird.

And here's the right side of the room with the door to the closet where Mike kept his clothes. We bought a $40 second-hand TV armoire that we converted to a clothing armoire, so now I use that and Mike was able to move his clothes out of the baby's closet and into the mstr. bedroom closet.

So here's what we did- I found an inspiration nursery on the internet. It's from a blog called Joy in the Journey:

I copied Emily's chair rail & wall stripes and applied it in our nursery:

closet door



I just marked where I wanted the chair rail to begin, and measured the space above it to the ceiling. Then I divided that by the number of stripes I wanted (4), taped off those lines, and got to paintin! :)



door leading to hallway


I love the subtle, tone-on-tone stripes. And we went neutral so that we could add pops of color later with accessories like curtains, bedding and art.

Next, we measured and cut the chair rail. Here's an in-progress shot of that:


crib wall before chair rail


We held the chair rail up to the wall, used a level to make sure it was, wait for it...level :) and then used painters tape to keep it up while we nailed it to the wall.



crib wall after chair rail


We don't have a nail gun so we did it the old fashioned way, by hand, and then sunk the nails using another nail, like so:



Then all the holes and gaps got filled with caulk, sanded, and painted out in semi-gloss white (including the wall below the chair rail and the entire room's baseboard molding and window trim).

And here's a finished shot of the painted ceiling and re-vamped celing fan (it was gold with black blades and outdated glass shades). I outfitted it with simple stuff from Lowes: spray paint in oil-rubbed bronze, new espresso wood blades, new white glass shades, and updated fan and light pull chains.

I really wish I had taken a proper before picture (you might be able to catch a glimpse of it in one of the BEFORE room photos above) cuz the difference is night and day! I'm in love with the result.

Well, those are the first steps in the transformation of our extra bedroom into our baby's nursery. We bought a crib and dresser (which will also be the changing table) so stay tuned for pics of those - the room is really coming along! :)

What do you think? Do you like the neutrality so pops of color can come in later? Or do you prefer bold wall colors with neutral accents? Anyone else out there recently make over a room into a nursery? I'm loving every bit of it as we prepare to meet our little one in only 4 months! 

Happy Monday!!