Our Baby's Nursery

We had our little man, Levi, last July. Just like any first time mama, I put tons and tons of thought into creating a cozy little space for our newborn. I wanted it to be absolutely perfect for him. We did not know until he was born that he was a boy, so we went with a neutral green and brown color scheme. We painted the walls a neutral color - Shoreline Haze by Valspar and laid down new beige carpeting.

We were blessed to receive a gently used crib and glider from our friends, the Smiths. It just so happened that the glider and ottoman were upholstered in a light green fabric that matched the curtain panels I had for the space perfectly.

My parents got us the crib bedding from Babies R Us, Kids Line Bunny Meadows. I also have other crib sheets that I swap out as needed that are plain green, yellow or polka dotted.

 

I looked into changing tables and dressers and decided that I just wanted to purchase a dresser and put a changing mat on top of it that way the dresser could be used when the he grew up in a big boy room and it would also eliminate the amount of furniture in the space. I scoured Craigslist for a few months and finally found a great 6 drawer dresser for only $20! Sure beats an $800 Pottery Barn one...haha! So I brought it home and refinished it out in our carport in the heat of the summer when I was 8 months pregnant. Click over here for the detailed story on how I turned this dresser:

Into this:

We keep cloth diapers and disposable diapers in the top two drawers of the dresser and Levi's clothes in the bottom 4 drawers. We repurposed a stainless steel trash can for a diaper pail. We have a waterproof drawstring cloth diaper bag on one side of the can and a regular trash bag on the other side for disposables. Smell is not an issue since the trash can seals up well.

I also "shopped our house" and decided to use our Pier One bookshelf (that was a wedding gift from years before) for toy storage. And I gathered up plastic drawer containers that we already had for extra bedding, diapers, wipes, toiletries and other miscellany. I have found that the drawers really help organize the small baby belongings well. I orginally had a lot of this stuff stacked in boxes but then I would have to take out an entire piles of boxes to get to something on the bottom and that was very inconvenient.

I printed labels for the drawers for easy identification. This really helps Daddy and anyone else watching Levi to find things. And it helps me remember where things belong as well.

I really like having all of Levi's toys on the bookshelf inside the closet. This way we can easily close the door on the toys and have a clutter-free looking bedroom. This is especially nice right now while our house is on the market.

If we ever have another baby I may re-upholster the glider and ottoman. It has now been through 2 baby boys, one of which I know for a face was a big spitter. I found this tutorial and I am sure I could do it (maybe with a little help from my sister-in-law...hope that's ok with you Margy...LOL) Re-upholstering the glider/ottoman would open up a whole new world of fabric options! Wow! Just check out these 2 custom designs here.

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As with everything else, Levi's nursery is a work in progress. As he grows and changes, his needs do as well and as a result, the room has been re-arranged and re-organized at least a handful of times over the past 14 months. For example, when he was first born, we went through 1 bib and burp cloth per hour. So we had an entire dresser drawer dedicated to these items. Nowadays, he doesn't really need those but his pants and shirts take up a lot more space, etc. So, my original plan was to somehow label the drawers so others could find things but now 1 year later I realize that would have been an exercise in futility since the drawer contents are always changing.

We still do not have any artwork up on the walls and now that we're attempting to sell our house, we figure we might as well not bother. Fewer nail holes for the future owners to patch, right? But my original idea was to hang a mirror over the dresser/changing table. I also have Levi's birth certificate framed and would like to hang that.

Also, the week Levi was born, my sister and I did a little DIY art while he was napping. My inspiration was this photo I found on Curbly.

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We took 2 - 12" x 12" x 1" pieces of styrofoam, cut them down to 10" squares with a bread knife and then covered them with scrapbook paper (cutting 1" squares out of the corners and wrapping the paper over the sides). We glued it to the styrofoam and used thumbtacks to hold the sides in place while it dried. It worked well.  It was my idea to create a gallery wall with possibly the mirror, the DIY art, and photos of my sweet little newborn baby, but...yeah...life happened...and the gallery wall, well, didn't.

Still, all regrets aside, at least I can rest easy knowing it does not look like this anymore...Behold: the before picture...complete with dark wood/ white painted trim - a two tone effect, dark green disgustingly dirty carpet, and Victoria's Secret box pink striped walls.

So, thanks for stopping by and checking out our nursery. Hope you enjoyed it. I am linking this up to the Roomspiration Blog Hop today on a la mode. Check out tons of other cute nurseries over there.