Babe's Nursery

Our Peanut's Nursery!

Here's what we did:

1. Paint!  This was our very first painting project after we moved in.  I was so in love with this color that I nearly painted it in every other room of the house.  Since we were novice painters, it took us forever to complete, and we had a few learning experiences along the way.  (And since I was nearly 8 months pregnant, I ruined several shirts with "belly smears"). 

2. Furnish:  The only actual purchase we made was the glider in the corner.  "You neeeeed to have a glider in your nursery," is what I recall to be the most adamant suggestion from other parents.  My opinion? It's nice to have (especially when I was getting up during the night to nurse the babe), but definitely not a necessity.  Little J isn't a huge fan of being rocked, so maybe this piece of furniture will be more useful for future babes.  We'll see. 

The rest of the furniture was a combo of hand-me-downs and gifts.  My favorite piece by far is the changing table, which my parents snagged at Goodwill for $15.

A couple coats of yellow paint we had on-hand, three sheets of contact paper, two baskets and... voila!  The best part?  It has a drawer :)

3. Organize: If I were to offer my best piece of unsolicited advice for new parents setting up their nursery, it would be to have your nursery organized well.  Keep things simple by designating each drawer or basket for a specific thing (just onesies, just diapers, just footwear, etc.) so you know where everything is at a moment's notice.  I can't count how many times we have RE-organized, but it's totally worth it.

4. Decorate!! My favorite part, of course.  I had a vision (think Father of the Bride: Part II over-the-top nursery suite) of warm tones and whimsical decor.  Jared's vision was slightly different - think more ESPN... so I compromised by scaling back on the whimsy (and I'll admit, femininity) of my nursery plan.

I included some artwork from my childhood room, the cross stitch my mom made when I was born, and some original artwork that I made while I was pregnant with J.

See that chandelier?  Check out the tutorial here!

 5. Enjoy: This may be my favorite room in our house.  I love adding custom, personal touches in my decorating.

And here is Little J enjoying his room (and practicing his crawl stance):