Home Tour: Boy nursery reveal

Hear that? It’s a huge sigh of relief (and exhaustion) escaping my mouth. Our nursery if finally complete! And at 38 and a half weeks along, I’d say we finished just in time. Although Lincoln will probably sleep in our room for a little while when we first return from the hospital and therefore won’t need his nursery to be move-in-ready, I know I’ll lack the energy and motivation to finish once I have a newborn at home. So let’s take a little tour, shall we?

There’s no overlying theme to the room; I tend to focus more on a color palette. In this case, I found my bedding first (Skip Hop Mod Dot collection) and went from there. I ended up mixing the collection with other pieces so I wouldn’t have to pay $200 for the entire set. Other things I subtly incorporated into the room were an industrial/vintage look, airplanes, maps and clouds. The wall color is “sunken pool” by Martha Stewart Living (MSL126).

Speaking of my bedding; I am absolutely in love with it! I opted for the Skip Hop Complete Sheet, which features the main print of the collection on the side of the sheet. Then I chopped off the bottoms of the curtains I bought at Target to create the gathered crib skirt, because I couldn’t find one I liked. I am so happy with how it turned out! A little secret – it only has three sides; I didn’t have enough fabric to complete the back side facing the wall, but you’d never know that if I didn’t tell you, right?

I found some coordinating fabric to create the clouds on the wall behind the crib (more on that here). The mobile was a lot of fun to create too, although it took me forever to figure out how to properly fold them! I used a map of California to fashion the paper airplanes, and hung them from some puffy clouds that I sewed.

Speaking of doing it yourself… I think this nursery if full of more DIY projects than I’ve ever attempted before. Here’s a list of some of the things we made ourselves:

1. Refinished red dresser
2. Faux Anthropologie zinc letter for the wall
3. Rocking chair pillows
4. Bed skirt
5. Wall shelves
6. “READ” decoupage letters
7. Artwork
8. Crate footstool staining
9. Crate toy box refashioning
10.  Starched fabric wall clouds
11. Airplane mobile

I think that’s it… of course, the sewing was all up to me, while my husband handled most of the woodworking. Most of the furniture is re-used from my daughter’s nursery (she now has a big-girl room). Only the dresser is new, which we actually bought for $25 on Craiglist and refinished ourselves (see the transformation here).

The dresser top houses a vintage globe that I got at the flea market for only $8 because it is dented on one side (which just faces the wall), and a vintage airplane that one of my girlfriends got me.

Because I’m crazy organized, I also labeled the inside of each drawer and created some chalkboard signs using chalkboard labels, cardboard, and hemp cord. What can I say? I heart organization.

Above the dresser are shelves that my husband built and painted using this tutorial. I also used an old Golden Book that I had to decoupage some vintage-looking book pages onto these brown paper mache letters from JoAnn’s.

On the opposite side of the room is the rocking chair and changing table. I made the 3D pompom pillow with Lincoln’s initial (inspired by one I found on Kojo Designs), the rectangle pillow, and the cushion for the crate footstool using leftover fabric from the wall clouds. Speaking of the footstool, I purchased the crate at JoAnn’s with a 50% off coupon, making it around $6, and my husband used this tutorial to stain it. It makes for a very cozy place for my feet to rest while breastfeeding.

The 7-Up crate was something we found at the flea market for $10, and the Mr. added some casters to the bottom so it rolls. It holds all of my little man’s fun toys.

The changing station cover is from the Mod Dot collection again. To the right of the station is a basket I hung on a bar from Ikea with changing supplies. I decided to hang it because I used to have all this sitting on top of the hamper in my daughter’s nursery and as soon as she was big enough, she was constantly getting into it. Hopefully this will keep it out of arm’s reach and help me avoid the “baby powder all over the room” scenario.

I created all the artwork above the changing station copying ones I found online that I liked (cause I’m cheap like that), and added the onesie with Lincoln’s initials and the faux zinc letter I created (more on how I arranged and hung the items). I also had the Mr. hang some hooks on the wall to hold all of Linc’s ittie bittie hats.

All-in-all, I am really happy with the room, even though it varies quite a bit from my original mood board. It’s funny how you change your mind as the project progresses.

Thanks for joining me on my tour and indulging me in all my explanations!

Linked to: I Heart Naptime, Tip Junkie