It's Nursery Time!

Life has been crazy and beautiful.  I haven't been on the blog in a while because I've been busy BEING PREGNANT! My Husband and I could not be more excited to be expecting a little girl.  

Being pregnant has certainly given me a run for my money. I had a brutal first trimester, a hectic second trimester, and now that I'm 36 weeks I am simply exhausted.  That being said, the time we have spent working on the nursery has been absolutely blissful.  I thought I would share our nursery transformation!

We are so happy with the final product and love spending time in this room.  This room was a guest bedroom before the transformation.  The first thing we did was rip up the carpet!  I wanted something durable and easy to clean, but didn't want to spend a ton of money.  We decided to put down vinyl plank flooring that runs about $1.79/sq ft.  My husband and dad were able to have the floor put down in about a day.  The wall color was left over from the guest room.  We knew we didn't want an overly "girly" room and the wall colors helped keep the space neutral.  We also painted the all the wood trim white which helped to freshen the space. 

We found this Birch Tree Decal from LimeDecals on Etsy and HAD to have it.  The decal comes in several pieces and you can personalize the colors and placement of the branches, birds, and leaves. 

We got all new furniture for the room.  To help space out the cost of buying big pieces of furniture, we found it helpful to buy one piece per month, rather than go on a shopping spree and have to tackle a huge bill.

The Furniture:

Crib - Babies R Us

Dresser/changing table - Ikea

Bookshelf - Ikea

Chair - Barbos (custom made from a local Cape Cod furniture store)

Rug - Ikea

The bookshelf doubles as extra storage space with the use of these awesome baskets! 

 Add in a few personal touches and you have a whimsical shelf!

These adorable "Make Way for Ducklings" frames were a gift from Amy over at Creative Soul Spectrum.

We were also given this adorable handmade growth chart that matches our woodland/owl theme.

When it came to picking a changing table, I wanted to use a dresser that would be functional well past the diaper years.  We picked the Hemnes dresser from Ikea.  The height is perfect for diaper duty and the drawers have plenty of space for all the adorable essentials!

I found some great drawer dividers at Ikea that we perfect for separating onsies, socks, headbands, etc. 

Diapers and diaper essentials:

 Burp cloths, bibs, and misc items:

 The cutest little onsies and swaddle blankets (that will probably never be this organized again):

 Backup diapers, shoes, leggings, socks, headbands:

 Beautiful blankets:

The top of the dresser was dressed up with a changing pad, antique lamp, and a bird vase from Jonathan Adler.  

Baby girl is totally lucky and has her own walk-in closet where we are hanging little outfits and storing a stock pile of diapers and wipes. 

Transforming this room into a nursery has been so special.  My husband and I have had so much fun picking and placing each item.  We know that once she's here the neatness will be replaced with chaos, dirty diapers, and sleepless nights, but that's when the real fun starts. 

If I can offer one piece of advice, it would be to start working on your nursery early! You'll be amazed how quickly that baby bump gets in the way, and how easily you will become tired.  We started working on this room when I was around 20 weeks…and we are just about finished now that I'm 36 weeks! 

The countdown is on folks!!

Monogrammed Door Decor

Want to create a personalized letter for your front door? Or make a lovely wedding gift for a couple that will finally share a last initial?  The possibilities for this Yarn Wrapped Letter are endless!

You'll need:

Wooden letter - available at most craft stores
Yarn - I used two different rolls of complimentary colors, one solid, one striped
Acrylic paint that matches your color scheme
Hot Glue Gun
Tape
Decorative Do-Dads

 Before I started with the yarn I painted the letter in a light green just incase the yarn couldn't cover all the corners.  (You will note that for a quick paint job, I don't bother using a palette that I'll have to wash)

Take an end piece of yarn and tape it as close as possible to the edge of the letter. The tape will help hold the end in place until you have wrapped it.

If you will be alternating yarn rolls, you will want to wrap a section and stop. If you are only using one color you simply continue to wrap until the letter is covered. You may have to go back over some parts, especially if you have a funny shaped letter, like a G.

If you are alternating yarns, wrap a few sections of one color and then go back and wrap with the next yarn roll.

 The corners and curves can be tricky! For this curve I wrapped in a V pattern, alternating from side to side so that it almost made a braid.  Once a section was wrapped, I put a small dollop of hot glue to hold the yarn in place.
**HINT: If you plan to put your letter on a door that gets a lot of sun, take a piece of scotch tape and stick it over the drop of glue, this will prevent the glue from heating up and sticking to your door!

 Once you have your letter wrapped, get out your decorative pieces and start playing around with the placement. Remember that this will be hanging so try to keep the weight balanced so your letter isn't crooked. Once you have settled on an arrangement it is helpful to take a quick photo.  You will have to take the pieces off so that you can glue them down in the appropriate layers, so having a photo of the intended arrangement can be helpful!

Once your pieces are glued, tie a small bow around the top section of your letter so you can hang it from a hook. If you have a letter that does not have a centered top (Y, U, I, L) you might find that attaching a hook on the back of the letter is the easiest. 

Hope you love it!

M.