Nursery Progress

I have been totally MIA recently, but I promise I have been busy and have a ton to blog about.  I'm totally redesigning most of my house in my head and it should make for some pretty interesting posts   : /

I'm 2 days into week 36 and besides baby girl resting on my sciatica nerve which is almost unbearable...I'm doing great!  Last Monday I started having a little back pain and by Friday I was crawling around the house.  No lie.  C R A W L I N G.  Other than that itty bitty thang, I still feel pretty good   :) 

Baby,
You will be full term this Sunday...I'm just sayin'  ;)

You're loving mommy

I'm still plugging away on the nursery design which has proved to be the hardest room in my house.  It's tiny, only has one tiny window, brown carpet, and has to be hands down the cutest room in the house for the cutest occupant of the house.  Here's where I am:   

Here's the view from the door.  Daddy...in his panties.  BAHAHAHAHHAHAAHA.  Just kidding.  I still haven't decided what to cover that chair in.  If I was brave, it would be a pattern....but you know how I roll.  I'm sure it will be some sort of neutral, probably gray.  I think the elephant table will be receiving a fresh coat of white paint to match the armoire.  Note: I still have to repaint the frame of that chair to be the soft white of the armoire and not the primer white it is currently.  I need a new lamp or a new lampshade, but I'm digging a floor lamp in that location.  I'm keeping my eye out for a {cheap} replacement. 

I don't think I've blogged since we {and by "we", I mean "Drew" repainted the nursery .00001 shades lighter than it was before.  SO much better, right?  I scored that armoire off of craigslist for $75 and painted her up right.  It might be my favorite find to date. 

This is the crib that we got off of craigslist for $150!  A custom bedskirt and window treatment are coming soon....as soon as I make a decision on the fabric.  OH!  ps.  The reason we were hanging in the nursery tonight is beacuase we {again, just Drew} rearranged the furniture in the nursery in every possible configuration before returning it to exactly how it was when we started.  Reason #1,456,987 why I love my husband.  I have three vintage botanical prints that will go over the crib.

Closet doors.  I'm just going 'round the room so you can get a feel for the {tiny} space :) 

Remember this?  It was some sort of buffet piece and I picked it up at Salvation Army for $25.  Well, it's a hot mess.  I can't stand how junky it looks and am currently looking for a wee dresser to put in it's place.  I know...

Also hunting for vintage corbels to make into a shelf to go above the future dresser.  That piece will be repurposed somewhere else in the house; don't you worry!

Now back to the window treatments and bedskirt.

This color looks kind of whack in this pic, but this is really closer to the wall color...

I picked up a boat load of this antique lace at a thrift store that I'll put at the bottom of the window treatment which will look a little like:

This is Drew's attempt at humor.  Not funny.  He got one of my double chin zoomed in like 45x too while I was thinking....thinking of what?

This teeny tiny fuscia silk I have carried around in my purse for months.  Hmmmmmmmmmmm.  It would look super uuber cute with the lace, BUT....you know how I do with color!

Maybe it would be better than the neutral silk and spice it up a bit?  Or maybe I would hate it or get tired of it in 2 months...who knows?

Whatya think?  I know everyone will probably say the pink, but I'm just SO SKEERED.

The neutral option is on the right {that's how much the colors change in certain light...the top and bottom are the same fabric}, the pink on the top, and the lace.  The lace and whatever fabric I go with for the window treatment will be incorporated into the bedskirt as well.  Probably with a neutral sheet.

Also toying with covering the back of the armoire in that black and cream dot paper.  I've started to accessorize the inside, but still have a long way to go.

That's that.  My goal this week is to get set on the fabrics.  That will be quite a feat if it gets accomplished!

-jd

baby bedding

Light internet surfing while watching Dancing with the Stars...


You know I can't go wrong with  a GRAY crib sheet!  Find it here.

These rag quilts from etsy seller southerncharmquilts are too cute.  Worth browsing through the whole store...its all pretty darn sweet!


I LOVE the colors in this one from StarlitNestGifts, but it's almost four hundred dollars!  What the?

So far, it's looking like the new color scheme for Ms. Annie Rae's room is going to be gray {could you have guessed?}, pink {all shades}, turquoise, yellow and white.  Think modern country meets shabby chic....whatya think?

Wonder if that'll be easier to work with?  Seems like from my mini quilt obsession that I just started, it might be just as challanging.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Well, it's getting late and my computer is acting ghetto, so that's it for now.

-jd

R E D O

Where do I start?

So, back when I wrote this post I was all jazzed about my gray sophisticated nursery.  I wanted the nursery to flow with the rest of my house and look "designer".  I wasn't going to have the typical pink girl's nursery because how boring would that be?  Since I got the crib and painted, I've been at a hault.  I haven't been able to find anything {affordable} for the nursery that goes with the sophisticated neutral gray that I was going for.  Then I had the shower.  Home came TWO TRUCKLOADS of baby crap.  Guess what I learned?  99% of baby clothes, toys, stuffed animals, affordable nursery bedding, artwork, and anything else cute and baby related is PINK.  Can you say "REALITY CHECK?"  I have spent 2 weeks stressing out about how to hide all of the loud colors and pink.  Can I buy neutral bins to put it all in?  Where do I find neutral toys that she can have out?  What if she gets attached to a bright colored toy and it totally puts a kink in her beautiful room.  Where for the love of god, do I find neutral colored affordable cute shabby chic stuffed animals?  I have been searching for months...

As some of you know, my neighbor is pregnant with twin girls!  How exciting right?  I have been helping her decorate the rest of her house, so naturally, I am helping with the nursery.  The first advice I gave her was what I recently learned.  "Look.  Everything that's cute for baby girls is pink and loud colors.  Find bedding FIRST that you like and build the room around that.  Don't try to do something outside of the box, because it isn't practical".  As I've been thinking about her nursery, it has turned out cute {in my head} and WAY easier and cheaper to accomplish than the madness in my house. 

So, that brings me to today.  I'm at Babies R Us just doing the usual: browsing around totally overwhelmed trying to add the "last minute must haves" to my registry when I passed my 5th cute pink item that I thought would be perfectly suited for my neighbor's nursery {which I have designed to be pink, teal, taupe, and white} and I got that "feeling".  You know that feeling when you're not about to cry, you're not mad, but you realize that....YOU WANT TO TOTALLY START OVER AND REDESIGN YOUR NURSERY AT 32 WEEKS?!?!?

I dismissed it thinking "I can make what I have work.  Hide the loud stuff and continue on.  Pink can work with the paint color and gray/purple chair fabric.  It's too late in the game to switch concepts".  On the ride home, I thought about my sweet baby Annie sitting in her gray room, playing with her neutral colored toys {cannot find} that I searched for months for and probably paid 4x the amount of a regular baby toy so it would match her room.  I thought about her laying in her bed and looking up at her neutral artwork {that I still haven't found} and wishing she had some fun loud colored artwork and could pick up a toy at Wal Mart and play with it without giving me anxiety.  {Oh, the hard knock life of a designer and the stress we go through}. 

Then I started thinking, all I would have to do is repaint and call the upholsterer ASAP to put a hault on the chair until I could find a more suitable fabric.  I haven't been able to find bedding, art, accessories, NOTHING because of the current scheme which means...not alot to "redo".  

I had a mini panic attack at first thinking about it, but then I realized...finalizing the design will be WAY easier if I just go with the mass market colors and baby girl will probably thank me for not having to reside in a boring room where the only way you can tell a kid lives there is from the crib....

Could I work in some color with the current paint color and chair fabric?  Sure.  Would it be as cute as if I started fresh?  Hell no.  So fresh start, here we come...

The new inspiration will be bedding that I can find at a local Target, Babies R Us, and/or Buy Buy Baby mass market retailer.  It will be fabric that is fun and playful.  It will be more colorful {lets not get crazy though...this is still the queen of gray we're talking about here}.  It will have pink.  It will be FUN!

Stay Tuned!

-jd

paint, check. lighting, check.

After hemming and hawing over what shade of gray to paint the babe's room, I finally settled on a purple gray.  The choices were down to a gray pink, a gray purple and a gray gray.  hee hee.

I got my inspiration from the following pics:









These are from the nursery of one of the writers of one of my all time favorite blogs Material Girls.  I thought I wanted a purple gray color before I found these photos, but when I saw it paired with the white and gold accents, I knew it had to be...


I like how the chair on the right is almost the same shade as the wall color.  I stole that idea as well ;)  The white looks sophisticated against the gray and of course, you know I gotta squeeze an weensie bit of zebra in her room somehow...


This is my dream living room.  I don't know exactly what I'll take, if anything, from this photo, but it inspired the room in some way.

Today Drew and I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to clean and paint out the nursery.  It took us a couple of hours just to clear out the clutter.  The room had become {one of } the junk drawer of the house which collected golf clubs, random items to be sold on ebay, old electronics, papers to be filed and the random collection of baby items we've received to date. 

Here was the before in case you forgot:

This is the closet.  What's that gem in there being held together by one screw?  You know I get a little zealous on my dumpster dives and sometimes come home with pieces that really have no hope.  This is now by the side of the road if anyone else wants to try and make it a trash to treasure.  I just don't have the energy...


Lovely, eh?  That fan is one I've had forever and used to have to sleep with it on.  I've weened myself off of it, because it is completely heinous, but I kept it around in case I had a week moment.  It actually made it's way back into our bedroom somehow ;)  The sound of those rickety blades banging around is like music to my tired ears.  Lullaby. 


The nursery was also the perfect place for our vacuum.  We've since done a mini pre re-organization on our master closet so it has a permanent home. 

Whew.  So after we moved all of that jazz out, we got started painting.  I chose to go with Sherwin Williams Perfect Greige SW6073.  After we finished, Drew hung up my little light I found at Lowe's and here's the status as of today...


This is my favorite part.  I decided not to go with a chandelier like I originally wanted.  The ones in my dreams were no less than $2k and I just didn't want to scrimp on a tiny one, so I opted for this crystal flush mount.  It creates this sparkly pattern on the walls that I'm loving and won't compete if I decide to do a mobile. 


This is it with the lights off, so you can see the detail.  By by building standard boob fixture.  One down, three to go {master bedroom, guest room, and living room}. 


Yesterday on my all day shopping extravaganza in Orlando, I picked up this chair and ottoman I found on craigslist for $100!  How PERFECT!?  It's alot bigger than I thought, so I'll have to reconfigure my furniture arrangement, but for this chair...I would design my whole nursery around it.




I'm going to paint it {possibly white like the picture above} and recover it in this linen fabric:


tone on tone.


I spiffed up my free dresser with some Old English and once the drawer liners are in, I think this puppy is good to go.


That red piece is my other recent deal.  I picked it up for $25 at Salvation Army two weeks ago.  Oh...funny side note on that:

I'm checking out at Salvation Army and the middle aged man behind the counter goes "When are you due", "May 22nd"  "OH {eyes bugging out of his head staring at my belly}".  I just stare at him eyes half open like "what!?!?".  "You got a while to go", he says like I am going to need assistance being rolled out of the building.  "Yea, but I'm half way"  I say trying to smile and figure out where he's going with this.  "YOU'RE GOING TO BE HUGE" he says.  "Not in a bad way.  I mean, you look healthy and all, but that is one big baby in there".  I take a deep breath....my eyes dart back and forth and I can feel the sweat on my neck as I am trying to figure out if I can jam that pen he's writing with into his neck so he'll shut up.  I quickly wonder if I should say something like "you must not be married or have children" so he knows was a dumbass comment that was.  I decided against it.  I just narrow my eyes and flash the only smile I could muster up and mumble "what was my total".  The rest was a blur, but I made it out with a spiffy new red {possible} changing table and that man is still alive.

Anywaaaaaaaaaaaaays,

Still contemplating what to paint my new piece, but it was worth the complete mortification I had to endure. 


Here's the closet "after".  I took down the wire shelving determined to make better use of that space.  It now only houses some of my goodies that need painting or mending. 

What a day!  I am still on the hunt for a crib and even though I originally wanted bookcases to flank the crib, I just don't think it will work now with my almost 4' wide chair and ottoman...which just saves me more money, so I'm OK with that.  Stay tuned for more ;)

I have to paint most of the pieces I got a while back, come up with window treatments, find a crib, bedding, art, accessories and I'll be ready for this little baby to come home :) 

Enjoy the last remaining hours of freedom before Monday
-jd

just a wee bit more...

Since my first nursery purchases, it has been almost impossible not to keep designing the room for a little girl.  As I mentioned in this post, I made a few teeny purchases at an estate sale and I thought I would share them.

The first is the mirror leaning on the floor.  It was marked $10, but was half off, so I walked out paying just $5 {no tax!}.  It will fit perfectly on that wall although I'm not sure if that's where it will end up.  That rocking chair was given to me by my mom and I love it.  That little pillow was $1 from a thrift store {I bought that pre-pregnancy and was using it in my foyer}.

What is that piece of paper on the wall you ask?

A paint chip I'm playing around with.  It's a super light and neutral pink.  I'm going back and forth between a light pink or a gray. 

I started on the "pink kick" from this picture.  I love the pink with the tiny burlap touches on the chairs and the ticking on the bedding. 

Last, but not least:

These gems were only $1 each {50% off on the last day of the estate sale}.  They match, but are painted differently, so will need to be repainted.

That's it....for now ;) 

-jd

perfection...

I finally came across a nursery that I love.  I've been searching for inspiration pretty much since I found out I was pregnant and the pictures below are the first ones to really do it for me:

Thoughts:

1. This nursery is bigger than my living room, so obviously I can't really swing this exactly, but.....

2. I like all of the different fabric patterns

3. I'm wondering if I can recreate that drapery over the daybed in the pic over baby's crib...or incorporate something similar into the closet  design???

4. I like that there's alot of color in this room, but it's still "neutral"

LOVE!

-jd

nurseries

I vowed not to buy any more {besides a couple of things I just had to get} girl stuff for the nursery until we find out the sex, which by the way is now scheduled for January 5th!!!  I was at an estate sale and passed a mirror that would fit perfectly on a 42" wide wall in the nursery.  It was definitely feminine, so I kept a walkin'.  It was $10, so you know it was hard to pass up.  As I was looking at these little flowery plaque things for $2/ea deciding that I should certainly put them down until after the 5th, the lady that worked at the sale let me know that everything was 50% off.  So, the mirror and flower plaques were paid for and loaded up = $7.  Pics to come soon...

Anyways, I'm totally obsessed with nursery and baby stuff and it is torture trying to "just look".  A little light internet surfing for color inspiration and I found these...wanted to share:

I have been going back and forth on putting a twin bed in the nursery, but I decided against it :(  I do love the basket storage under the crib.


Is the the cutest bed skirt or whaaaaa?!?  I think they need another accent color besides yellow, but I love some elements of this room.  I really like doing something with the ceiling cause that's what the poor kid will be looking at a majority of the time.  Love the antique dresser as a changing table and that looks to be framed book pages which is def of my "things to get" list.

I wonder if Drew would be up for converting the closet into a little changing area like this complete with wall covering, art and lighting???  O.M.G.!  I LOVE IT.

I'm going to go draw up the closet plans now ;)

-jd



First baby purchases

This weekend I finally made my first purchase towards the nursery; can you believe I waited that long!?!?  Since the doc said at our 12 week appointment that this baby could be a girl....and I was in the right store at the right time..........and happened to stumble upon the cutest lamps I've ever seen.........I had to buy them.....right? 

I know you may not see what I see {these puppies with possibly gold shades flanking the crib on the top of  42" high bookcases}, but at $10 a piece, how could I go wrong? 

So, I guess I broke the seal with these.  I mean, I know I can't buy all sorts of girl stuff until the beginning of January when we find out for sure, but....................

when you see a clock like this for $4.99 that would look oh so cute in a bookcase.....

tee hee.  I measured and drew up plans for the furniture arrangement tonight.  I might just take a peek this Saturday at a few of my favs to see if I can find any furniture.  Gender neutral furniture ;)

Stay tuned,

-jd

T.G.I.F.

This was just purchased for our home collection.  We watched it last night as a family...the dream daughter loved it...and so did I.  Every princess needs this one in her collection.

-fd

Bibbidi Bobbidi BOO!

I am officially back from vacation!  The dream daughter brought us right back to reality with her very first slumber party!! That's right...a slumber party, with SEVEN four year olds!  I guess Disney is the happiest place on earth, it sent me back home with an excellent attitude to think I could handle those girls!  The girls did great considering they are all of FOUR and FIVE years old!  I have lots to post about everything that went on including the dream daughters fourth birthday party (because the week long celebration in Disney wasn't enough), some pictures from vacation, an awesome Halloween costume and a really cool custom illustration! Here are a few pics to hold you over!

-fd

A little glitter

The dream daughter is always begging to do an arts and crafts project.  This usually becomes a major clean up because she always needs glue, glitter, beads and buttons!  So when she found out that Aunt Jess was going to be in town for her 30th birthday, nothing was going to satisfy her until she had made Aunt Jess an arts and crafts project. 

 I decided on a frame but the dream daughter gets to decide on everything else including the picture.  First she painted the frame, then she glittered it [and my bedroom floor- not a good project to do on the carpet]

 followed by a few scrap booking stickers including Aunt Jess' favorite, an owl. 

 I think it turned out just beautiful and Aunt Jess was pretty excited about her new work of art!