Baby Room (finally)

Way back in April, we "finished" the baby's room (shortly after I shared the "sneak preview").  And I thought I would get a little blog post together, and then four months later, I still hadn't done it.  So here it goes.  This is my favorite room in the house, and of course, Mr. Baby just doesn't care at all.   

Before we found out that we were having a boy, I wanted to paint the room navy, and then do bright colors as accents.  A girl room would look almost the same as this, but with bright pink instead of the orange and green.  Or maybe I'd keep the green...  

Anyway, as one does, I started searching Pinterest for ideas.  And as I do, I kind of went into it without a real plan, but I really love how it all came together.  So I'll just share pictures of each main area and then give a brief summary (brief? not likely) of the situation.  

Step 1 was painting and adding the molding.  John did most of this work.  I didn't know it was weird to put chair rail up so high, but I wanted the lower part of the walls to be navy, and I wanted the majority of the wall to be navy.  I really like how it looks.  My only complaint is that hanging pictures gets a little awkward.  

I made the mobile after seeing this pin, but I made up my own directions, and used felt instead of paper.    

The crib is a convertible, so it will transition into a toddler bed, etc.  I made the crib skirt using these instructions.  And the crib sheet is one of my favorite things!  I found it on Amazon, and it's elephant print!  FYI, the price keeps going up and down.  I think it was $12 when I first added it to the registry, and then a few weeks later, it was $200 (who would spend that much for a crib sheet??), and then it went back to a normal price.  

To the left of the crib...

The little table is a hand-me-down from John's great-grandma, which we painted to freshen it up.  Since it was laminate, I used these instructions.  

I made the pillow-cover using these instructions.  It's polka dot, but hard to see in the picture.

The lamp and ottoman are from Target.  (if we are being honest, the ottoman is currently sitting on top of the side table, so the video monitor can see into the crib.  Night-vision doesn't work through the crib slats!)

The little basket was a gift from John's mom (filled with books), and I think it makes a pretty perfect stuffed animal holder, but it is overflowing already.  

I have made a big 16X20 canvas with baby's first initial on it, but haven't gotten it hung up yet.  I painted the stripes on it before he was born, but didn't add the letter until we were 100% sure of his name.  So just imagine a big canvas in the empty white space above the chair.  

The chair is a hand-me-down from my parents.  They bought it about 35 years ago as part of a living room set.  If memory serves, the couch was floral (cream, olive green and burnt orange), this chair had a twin, and there was a mustard yellow recliner.  Imagine this furniture sitting atop bright green carpet, and you have my childhood home.  When my folks redecorated in the 90s, my sister and I each claimed an orange chair.  And I still have it!  I think it's in pretty good shape considering the beating it probably took when we were all young.  I thought about trying to cover it, but I kind of love the orange velvet.  Oh, here's a picture of my brother and me in the chair when I was 6 weeks old, and he was 3.  It's cool how his turtleneck kind of blends in with the chair.   

Wait, what are we even talking about?  Oh yeah, room tour...  

Continuing around the room...

I looked and looked for curtains that I liked, but couldn't find any, so I made these.  Fabric is from Hobby Lobby.  I didn't follow instructions, I just followed my own common sense.  

The art was one of my projects.  I just painted stripes on the canvases, found silhouettes that I liked via google images, and printed them out on cardstock, which I then painted and mod-podged onto the canvas.  There were a ton of cool ideas on Pinterest that you could buy, but nothing exactly like I wanted, so I just made my own.  

The changing table is just a dresser from Ikea (this one) with a topper attached (this one).  A lot of people say a changing table is ridiculous, but I'm so glad we have this one.  The basket contains essentials, like hand sanitizer, diaper cream, extra diapers.  I sewed the basket liner using the same polka dot fabric as the pillow cover.  

Following around to the left, is the closet, which I almost left out, because it is not fancily organized.  Basically, I have current "dress" clothes (like polo shirts and stuff) hanging on the left bar.  Bigger sized items hanging on the higher right bar. Extra diapers and wipes stored up high.  Shoes are in the basket (which he has yet to actually wear).  The 2 woven navy baskets are full of random things that he either doesn't use anymore (like the newborn insert for the carseat) or things that he doesn't need yet (like toys for older babies).  

The pretty hamper thing in the bottom corner is full of blankets.  The gift bag in the middle is full of things I need to take to consignment.  Pretty exciting, I know.  

The final main wall in the room is small, and mostly taken up by the width of the crib.  This dresser matches the little nightstand, which I also painted.  And apparently didn't push all the drawers in before taking pictures.  I'm a real professional, you guys!

The top of the dresser has important stuff, like the carbon monoxide detector, the thermometer, and the night light (this one).  And a couple cute gifts for decorations.  Because every baby needs a rolling xylophone!  

The art has the same origin story as the ones on the other wall.  

AND NOW, quite possibly my favorite part of our whole house:  THE BOOK NOOK!

The door opens into this little nook, which is just wasted space.  I'd seen this pin a while ago and knew I wanted to do something similar for baby's room.  After talking through the options, and realizing how expensive these little shelves would cost (and not necessarily be the right size), John determined that he could make them.  And I think we can all agree they look awesome!  Plus it is so much fun picking different books to read each night.  

Another idea that I copied was putting "READ" above the shelves.  I stole it from this pin.  If you happen to be a perfectionist, don't look too closely.  Stripes are not all the same size.  

So basically, this is the nicest room in our whole house now.  And since I stole almost all of my ideas from Pinterest, I'm linking up with Anne and Jacq for Pin to Present this week.