The Nursery

So I will forewarn you that this is probably my longest blogpost to date. But this is not only to share with you but to document for Joe and I one of our most important house projects....our baby's nursery:) We started working on it in July and have constantly been adding this and that up until yesterday. We couldn't have completed it without the help of our families and you will see all of their amazing contributions to the room. I think that's what I like most about it!

When we moved in to this house 4 years ago, all but 2 rooms were covered in "popcorn" paint. I guess it was supposed to look stucco which is cool when it is nicely done, but this was the worst stucco job we had ever seen. They used it to cover up wallpaper and flaws throughout the house. I spent about a year sanding, skimcoating and repainting to get rid of all of the popcorn. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than it used to look. So the nursery used to be yellow popcorn with a pink and purple flower border at the top when we first moved in. A few years ago, we got rid of all of that and painted the room a dark purple with fuschia and black accents. It was known as the "purple room" from then on! So even though Joe thought the purple was gender neutral (hmmm??) we decided to go with a very light grey on top and white wainescoating on the bottom.

Here is Joe and his Dad beginning the process....

Thank you to our Dads and Kevin for all the work they put in to get this done. It definitely made the work more fun and go a lot faster with your help. And we are also grateful for Kevin and Steph's assitance in getting Joe to the hospital quickly once that very very last piece of finger moulding was cut. If you missed that story, click on this link: http://joeandjamieiskow.blogspot.com/2011/07/handy-man-loses-part-of-hand.html

The closet in this room never had a door and we decided not to replace it. This was our coat/junk closet. Notice I already had started collecting diapers!

So without further adieu....let's open the door!

Ta da! If you can't tell yet, we went with an owl theme. I couldn't get into any of the monkeys, farm animals or sea creatures. But owls still seemed fairly cool and modern:) Our goal was to be as economical as possible and cut corners where we could. I think we still spent more than we planned (as is always the case with projects) but overall I am really proud of the money we spent by doing a lot of it on our own. And we were blessed with some very nice gifts that helped us pull it all together.

Ok so I am going to take you on a little tour and since the room is the smallest room in the house it won't take very long:)

Starting with the window wall...

The Iskows were kind enough to gift us the glider, ottoman and brown shag rug. The glider is from K-Mart (you don't have to get the way overpriced stuff from Babies r Us and Buy Buy Baby!) It's extremely comfortable and a lot cuter than what those stores offer anyway. The rug is from Overstock.com. I already owned the little white side table from Ross (less than $20) and found a space for it here.

My Mom sewed the valance from fabric I found on etsy.com. I used etsy for a lot of things in the room and on our registry. If you haven't checked out this site yet, you are missing out on some amazing homemade goods. If you want to see the fabric up close, here is the link:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80324442/bright-owl-cotton-fabric-retro-design-on

I reused the same curtain rod that was already in the room. Might not be a perfect match but it was an easy way to save a little cash!

The blinds are from Lowes and thanks to Dad for installing them! I had been back and forth to Lowes for weeks trying to figure out how to size the window properly.I think I bought 4 different ones before getting it right. And then as Dad put in the last screw and went to hang it, he dropped the whole thing and broke the bottom piece in half:) Nothing super glue couldn't fix. I was NOT going back to Lowe's for another blind purchase.

The purple orchid on the table is from Stephanie. She brought it over the day she asked me to be her Matron of Honor. She didn't know it was going to go into the nursery at the time:) I know these are such detailed things I am explaining, but I just want to remember it all one day! The purple and yellow blanket hanging on the glider was made by Joe's Aunt Paula.

Joe putting together the glider while I was at work. He knew he better document the project or else I would get upset!

Roxie helping to sniff out the drill...

We have had this bookshelf from Ikea for years. I stained it when we first got it and thankfully the color stain I had picked worked out perfectly! All of the items on the shelf were gifts from the showers.

The wall book ledges proved to be a very hard item to come by. But then Ikea came to the rescue! There is an Ikea by my doctor's office and it became a regular habit to just "drop by" after my appointment. If you have ever been to an Ikea, you know there is no such thing as dropping by. You have to come prepared to walk 10 miles to get through that store. But since I drove an hour for my 10 minute appts, it seemed like a good use of my time. And I only got ONE cinnamon bun the whole pregnancy. (I still have 2 appts to go, so we will see if that number increases slightly)

The little owls on the end of the shelves are from Schoolhouse Earth at Deep Creek Lake. We got them when we went over Labor Day. And they were on clearance!

My Mom's handywork....

I got the paper lanterns online for about a $1 a piece. I saw this idea on another blog but they had all the lanterns clumped together. I thought the hanging line worked better in our space.

Moving on to the dresser wall...

The biggest savings I had were the lamps from Lowes. I got the tall standing lamp, the small one on the white table and a third matching lamp that is out in the family room now for a grand total of $30! They were the shelf models that were on sale. I had to haggle my way down to $10 a lamp since they were trying to charge me $30 per lamp. But I knew I was in the right!! Anyway, isn't that a ridiculoulsy cheap price for a set of 3 lamps!!?

This is a mirror we had in one of our old townhouses. It just needed to be painted to match the dresser color.

The changing pad cover that my Mom made. Right now it is more for show than practical use! We haven't figured out how to secure it safely to the dresser yet.

This is a plant stand I found at Ikea but it's a perfect resting spot for our wipe warmer and picture frame. I plan on putting baby pics in the frame, for now some of the shower cards will have to do!

Ok, so here is the story behind the dresser. I knew early on that I wanted an original distressed piece with some sort of bright color involved. I did a lot of online searches but everything was overpriced or the seller didn't follow through with me. So I started looking at goodwill stores and ended up finding this at the Annapolis Lutheran Mission store on West St. It was originally covered in thick ivory paint and listed as $25! So I bought it and decided to do all the work on my own. I must say I didn't think through the part about doing all the work while being pregnant. Apparently the use of stripping chemicals, major sanding and staining can be quite hazardous to a growing fetus. So enter my father-in-law!....He completely stripped the orginal paint to what you see below. I believe there is a small story about him setting the dresser on fire accidently, but most of that story was kept secret from me. So I was left with an antique mahogany dresser and now all I needed was a new color.

After some more online research, I found some furniture distressing video tutorials which were very helpful. They recommended the use of Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint which I got in a blue color called "Provence". After 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint, I sanded around the knobs and on the edges of the dresser. Anywhere that would typically get a lot of wear and tear. So some parts show the white primer and some areas are sanded further to show the orginal mahogany color. I stained the top of the dresser and then waxed the whole thing. Dave had to help resand some of the dresser drawers because they kept sticking. But now it's perfect! It was a project I somewhat enjoyed but can't say I would do again. It was just a LOT of work and I only did half of it!

The owl knobs are handpainted from a store on etsy! I literally searched "owl dresser knobs" and boom... there is someone out there who paints them! I think they are the perfect finishing touch and I like how silly and childlike they are!

Moving onto the closet wall...

My Dad stepped up to create this built-in unit for us. He designed the whole thing around a small narrow dresser that Joe and I really wanted to include in the room. The dresser is an Iskow hand me down from his grandmother I believe. It was something I painted and updated a few years ago and seemed like it would go really well with our design. So my Mom and I primed and painted all the shelves and then Dad installed them.

And here is the finished product!...

The dresser is full of all the sleepers and onesies but the rods are bare of clothes still. We don't have any real outfits yet since we don't know the gender. But if our baby is like us at all, it will prefer jammies anyway!

So now the crib wall...

The crib and mattress are from Wal-Mart and came as a really good deal when purchased together. Thank you to my parents for gifting us with these two things! And by sheer coincidence, the name of the crib happens to be the very same name we have picked out for a girl!

This is a close up of the quilt that my Mom made as a surprise for us at the shower. She saved some of the owl fabric and went back to the store without me to get all the matching colors. She has done a ton of sewing in her lifetime but this is her first quilt and I think it's amazing! I think we will have lots of fun tummy time on it!

This is the start of my owl painting. After my experience at Sips 'N Strokes in Nashville http://joeandjamieiskow.blogspot.com/2011/07/im-not-bashfulim-from-nashville.html

I knew I could come up with a unique piece of art on my own. The canvas itself was cheap but the paint and brushes were not. But at least I own all of the supplies now for more art fun with the baby!

The finished piece... A Momma, Daddy and baby owl!

Hah, ok this was the most frustrating part of the room. We knew we wanted to incorporate something pertaining to music. Joe picked out two lyrics that were meaningful to us.. one by Jack Johnson and one by Ben Harper. It took 4 tries to get these frames right.

Round 1: Handwritten lyrics in charcoal with natural ferns from Alpine lake painted and lying flat alongside the lyrics. Result: cheap and crappy.

Round 2: Had the lyrics printed at zazzle.com and covered the matting in fabric. One frame was blue and yellow and one frame was orange and green. Result: cheap and crappy.

Round 3: What you see in the first pic below. I covered the orginal fabric idea in more fabric! This time I mixed it up with strips of different colors and patterns. I actually really liked this until Joe nicely pointed out that it looked a bit like "African Art". Which I immediately saw as soon as he pointed it out. Result: cheap, crappy and ethnically way off base.

Round 4: The finished product below. I got rid of all the crazy colors and just went with the owl fabric. So much better! Result: still cheap but not so crappy!

This one says "Your voice is your own, I can't protect it. You 'll have to sing a verse no one has ever known. Don't be afraid cause no one ever sings alone."-JJ

This one says " All that I can give you is forever yours to keep. Wake up everyday with a dream and happyever after in your eyes". -BH

And finally, the crib mobile. I ordered the actual mobile for $10 off of ebay. I removed the jungle animals that were originally on it and sewed these cute little owls to replace them. Just a couple cuts of fabric, glue and some stitching! This fabric matches the fabric strips my Mom used on the quilt.

So that's it folks! Thanks for hanging in there for a redonkulous long post. I have been very excited to share this room with everyone that had a hand in it. Now I am anxious to fill it with the one thing it is missing! At night, I go and rock in the recliner and look around the room still amazed that we are expecting a baby in 18 days. It goes so fast and now the time is painfully dragging by. We are anxious to know the gender and to see what our baby looks like!