the nursery

While I mull over office ideas, I thought I'd share what we've done so far in the nursery.  Fun, fun!  We are nearly finished, and now that she's sleeping in her crib most of the night (and for some naps), we should probably finish it up.  I figure this will post will help with the to dos.  First I'll let you in on what we had to start with: Oh that carpet is just so wonderful, isn't it?  Barf.

Immediately we tore out the carpet and the window treatments, scraped and textured the ceilings, got rid of the closet doors, installed new carpet, and put it new baseboards.  I quickly chose to paint with Benny Moore's Robin's Nest (color matched to Olympic Premium for the health factor).  I knew immediately which color to pick as I have seen it a few places and always adore how it looks.  I did adjust the color by having them lighten it up just a tad by mixing 50% white into the paint.  Since the room is somewhat small (100 sq ft), I didn't want it to look over saturated and I know BM paint has a tendency to do that.

Here is the color in all it's glam aqua glory:

Much better then the white, no?

I wish I'd taken more progress shots but I was pregnant and chasing a toddler so that will have to do.  We moved in the baby furniture (which we used for our first baby, got second hand) and then I went to town on a little wall art project.

Since I have no design talents, I decided to use inspiration from totally copy a mini version of YHL's frame collage.  I collected white frames from Ikea and Target over a few weeks (we are regulars) and when my maternity leave started, I finally had time to tackle my vision.  

My first step was to arrange the frames until I found a configuration I liked.  Then, I cut out rectangles that match the frame sizes so I could lay it out on the wall and also create guides for the hanging process.  I was ecstatic to finally have a use for a few of the milion Trader Joe's paper bags I have stacked in the panty.  Yes, I know you are supposed to reuse them, or better yet, bring the reusable bags purchased for that very reason but no, I malfunction every single time I shop and can't remember to bring the bags to save my life.  It's a problem.  So yes, I was thrilled about this bag cutting exercise.

Before I taped the paper to the wall, I marked the position of the hangar so once I had it up, all I'd have to do is insert a nail into the mark, hammer, and then tear down the paper, like so:

When I got the frames up, it didn't look too shabby...

To fill the frames, I thought it would be cute to use baby pictures so I scanned some pictures of us with our parents when we were babies and had them printed.  I included 2 of our maternity prints and made 2 prints in Photoshop, both inspired by something I saw on Pinterest (see, it really DOES motivate you!).  The last 2 frames were filled with a quick DIY craft.

I really like this fabric line so I ordered a bed sheet, pillow, and changing table cover to be made from a few of the designs (will post on that later).  I thought it would be cute to integrate those fabrics into the wall collage so I purchased some quilting squares from this seller on Etsy and in one of the frames, I just simply framed the quilt square and in the other, I cut hearts and taped them to a piece of the paper we used previously.  Easy peasy.

Once everything was put into their frames, it was finished!  And here is the after:

I likey.  Do you?  I love it when I actually complete a DIY project instead of sitting on Pinterest and pretending to be a DIYer.

More on the nursery coming up soon!!