the nursery

Although I haven't posted on here in forever and I am impossibly behind with my baking for Tuesdays with Dorie, I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of the finally completed nursery. Pete and I have been working on getting this room just perfect for the past six months. I think we are finally done. (Actually, Pete has a couple of shelves he still needs to build but they are not necessary.)

Our nursery used to be our guest bedroom. We only have a three bedroom condo and one of the rooms is an office that we really didn't want to give up. So we decided to make a nursery/guestroom combo room. We got rid of the full bed that took up way too much room in there and bought a great daybed from Ikea that trundles out into a king bed when we have more than one person visiting. Plus it has three giant drawers for even more storage. I love storage. Just getting rid of the full bed gave us so much more room. We bought some wall mounted lights that we put on each end of the day bed so as not to waste space with floor lamps. We also were able to recycle the mirror that used to be above the dresser.

I have a dresser and desk that belonged to my great-grandmother. Pete and I decided to try not to go crazy with spending money for the nursery. So we decided to refinish (Pete did all the work) the desk and use it as a changing table. Pete did a wonderful job on the desk and installed a shelf underneath it so we could put baskets there for some more storage. We splurged a bit and bought some cute drawer pulls from Anthropologie for the drawer on the changing table and for the drawers on the daybed. We also decided to move the dresser into the closet to give us more room. Pete and his grandpa made the airplane together when Pete was a kid and we thought it would be cute if we hung it from the ceiling. Pete had the idea to add some clouds for a mobile over the changing table. A family friend crocheted the little clouds for us and we got ourselves a super inexpensive but meaningful mobile.

We bought our crib when we were about six months pregnant. Pete put it together while I was at work. It has a drawer underneath for storage which is nice. We went back and forth with bedding. I didn't really want a theme room and I couldn't find a crib skirt that I liked. I ended up making my own using an idea I found on this blog. It was one of my first sewing projects and although not perfect I think it turned out nice and was so much cheaper than any of the crazy overpriced crib bedding I found. The crocheted blanket on the crib was made for our little guy by my sister. She taught herself how to crochet just to make him a baby blanket. So special.

Pete and I have been enamored with wall decals and really wanted to get one for the nursery. It took us awhile to find one we really wanted but once we found this tree we thought it was perfect. It adds just the right amount of whimsy to the room and makes me smile when I see it. We got our glider from a friend of Pete's for $60 which you can't beat. It is super comfortable and all it needed was a little pillow for back support that I made. (My second sewing project was making pillow covers for the day bed.) We reused a little table that used to hold a tv in the guest room as a side table. Now we have a place I can put a drink down or a book when we are snuggling with the little one. It also is the perfect table to display the adorable blocks Lucas' (yup that's his name) godmother got him. Aren't they just adorable. We got the curtains on sale at pottery barn kids and I don't think I could have made them cheaper. Plus it saved me a sewing project.

Above our closet was a large empty space. I'm not sure what you would store up there besides dust bunnies. I've always wanted to put shelving up there and finally convinced Pete and my dad to build some. It made the useless empty space useable and gave us a place to store (although slightly inconvenient) books. My grandma is a potter and growing up she always made us the most awesome clay figurines. I asked her if she would make some for the little guy and she went all out. She made him over 22 animals consisting of a hippo, lion, zebra, giraffe, walrus, penguin and many more. Now the little one has his own special figurines from his great-grandma.

So that is our nursery. Now we just need our little guy to make his grand debut. Today is our official estimated due date and I have my fingers crossed that he'll come. Here's to hoping that little Lucas makes his entrance very soon.

Here is me at 39 weeks pregnant. Come on baby.