Nursery Decor {Handmade Update}

I am totally sucking at sharing all the projects we have been tackling around the house. Sometimes it's hard, because it seems like the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, except its more like, if you give a wife a paint brush...she will paint the wall and if you let her paint the walls, she will probably want to paint the trim a fresh white, and if she paints the trim, then she will probably want nice white chair rail. Anyhow, all that is to say, its all in progress right now! And this time around we are hoping to stay in this house for a while so I am trying this thing called patience, where I wait for the exact right pieces to come along and take my time pulling it all together.

With all of that said, I have done some tweaking to the nursery that I thought I would share. Remember how the nursery looked back in the spring when we brought little miss home? If not you can check it out here, here and here. Now, if you were paying close attention to those posts (and you probably weren't!) you will notice that there is a wall missing. It's not just because I am a bad blogger, I left that wall between little miss's closet and door out because while I had a cute coat hook and art print hanging there, it was just sort of blah. You can see it in its full blah-ness here:

And since I sit in the glider staring at that wall every time I nurse or read to or rock little miss, I have had lots of time to contemplate what to do with that space. Our ceilings are vaulted which is awesome, but it seemed like the space was just vast and overwhelming. But I wanted to do something that wouldn't look crazy on a wall with two doors and that would add a touch of whimsy. I thought about bunting, since it's so popular right now. Like these here:

Via

Via

Via

And while I love the bunting, I am not great at sewing just yet. Plus there is the problem of finding fabric. I have been hunting for fabric to sew a curtain panel for the little miss's room for months now with no luck of finding something that coordinates with her colors. So the idea of finding a half dozen coordinating fabric seemed over-whelming and not really how I wanted to spend my time...or money...which brings me to my solution.

Remember when I whipped up that red garland for the mantel for Christmas? Well, it got me thinking and after a few more days and nights rocking in the glider and staring at the big blank wall, I decided that I wanted to make a three dimensional floral felt garland in a gradient sort of color scheme that would fit in with the existing nursery colors but also pull in some colors that could help it transition as the little miss grows up.

I tapped into my existing felt stash and cut the flowers out in as many colors as possible that would coordinate and then hand-sewed them up with coordinating thread.

Then I lined up the flowers so that they graduated from one color family to the next like a rainbow. Then I strung them onto a really long string and affixed each one so they wouldn't slide or move or cluster while I hung them or over time. I really wanted to make sure they were well made and sturdy so they would last.

I hung it by tapping four small nails into the wall as close as I could get them to the ceiling. I then draped the garland over each nail, wrapping the string around the nail once or twice. And luckily when I draped it on the wall the colors fell just right to compliment the art already hung on the wall.

The stats go a little something like this. There are 33 different colors and a total of 66 flowers. The garland measures roughly 40 feet long because I wanted enough to create that drapey effect on the tall wall area above the doors. It took me about two weeks to pull the whole thing together, but it was well worth it.

I think it adds something to the wall that already had the print and hooks without making the room feel too crowded or overdone. And the cost to me was just the time of sewing all the little flowers together and stringing them. So a pretty cost effective project that added a lot of pop!

Now every time I sit in there to play or feed or rock little miss I can look up at my creation, my little crafty labor of love. And the little miss seems to like it too--she likes to look it up at it and smile and point. And she paid it the highest compliment when she first saw it and started bouncing up and down and smiling!

P.S. Did you see the little blue dress hang up on her hook? It was mine that I had my nine month baby pictures taken in when I was a baby and I have big plans to get some photos of the little miss in it this spring--I can't wait!

Nursery Art Work Update

Since we are already on a nursery kick this week I thought I would share a little update.  When I did the nursery reveal I shared that my plan for little miss's two art walls over her bed and dresser was to slowly add art and pictures, taking the art upward since the room has some height to it.

Well I already added a few things to the wall over her dresser and changing area.  Remember it looked like this before:

Well two weeks ago Nicole at Making it Lovely posted a free download of a print for her daughter's nursery and it seem just perfect to add to our little collection. Plus it was right in my price range--FREE!  If you are interested in adding this cute print to your collection you can find it here. 

So I printed it off, went to Target and got a frame and finally framed our family's first holiday portrait together in another frame I already had around.  Then I sort of played around with the layout and this is what I came up with:

Cute, huh?  And for those of you that like the straight on view to get a sense of lay out:

I really like the new lay out and I think it holds the wall better with a few more items and a little more height added.  

DIY Nursery Mobile How-To

For this week's Tuesday Crafties I shared the mobile I made for the little miss's room.  Now I thought I would share how I made it so you could make your own!

To make your own you'll need:

the inside hoop of a needle point hoop

half a skien of yarn

various colors of felt 

embroidery thread 

craft glue (I like FabriTac)

a sharp pair of scissors 

and stuffing (not pictured)

To start I took the hoop and placed a thin dot of glue on the inside lip to tack my yarn down.  Then I wrapped the entire hoop in the purple yarn I had chosen.  When you have made it all the way around, secure the finishing end with another dot of glue and let dry.  To keep from holding the loose end down while it dries I used a small plastic clothes pin to hold it securely until it was done. 

Next, while the glue is drying cut your mobile shapes out of the colored felt.  I chose birds and free handed the first one and then used it as the template for the rest.  You could easily do circles or flowers or another kind of animal for yours.  Cut out two identical shapes for each color. 

Here are my bird bodies and wings above.  After you cut out your shapes, choose your thread.  At first I thought about doing contrasting colors for the stitching but then decided to go tone on tone. I also chose dark brown and dark blue thread to do the eyes.  First I used a double French knot stitch to make the eyes on each body.  Next I glued the beak on to the inside sides of one of the bodies.  Then I stitched up the body, making sure that I stuffed the stuffing in before finally closing it up.  After that I put a little stitch around the wings and glued them on as well.  This step takes the longest because of the all the hand stitching, even though I consider myself pretty quick.  To save time you could sew them on a machine, I just like the folksy sort of look of the hand stitching and thought it contributed to the overall look I was trying to accomplish.  

I tried to do them in as many colors and I could and to try to balance light and dark, bright and muted colors.  I think they turned out so cute!

I set the cute birds aside and returned to my yarn hoop to create the hanging apparatus.  To make the hanging part I took the same yarn I used to wrap the hoop and measured out nine pieces of yarn roughly five yards long each.  (I chose a really long length because we have high ceilings and I wanted a little extra to drape when I hung it)  I divided the yarn into groups of three, and folded them in half, so I had six strings.  I then tied them to the hoop 1/3 of the way around.

With each set of six strings I divided them into threes and braided the yarn about 12 inches.  I did this for each set. I used a chip clip to hold the braid and keep it from unraveling while I braided the next. When I had them all braided, I gathered them together and held the whole thing up so I could make sure the hoop was level.  Once I had it level I tied all the yarn into one big knot.  

Then I took the large group of yarn and redivided it into thirds and braided the rest of the two and a half yards or so.  When I only had about 9 inches of yarn left I tied the whole thing off and trimmed the yarn evenly to create a tassel at the end.  

To affix the birds to the mobile frame I first strategized to stagger the birds so that they would alternate light and dark, bright and muted and not place two that were similar in color too close to each other.  I also sewed together ten birds so i decided to hang two sets of three and two sets of two to create a staggered look as well.  I then took a quilting needle (read needle with an eye large enough to get yarn through) and used it to thread the yarn through the center of the birds.  I tied the yarn off under the last bird and then tied the top of the strand of birds to the hoop.  

Ta-da! Here is the final project.  

Pretty cute huh?  I thought about adding a few strands of tinier birds through out but for now this is perfect!  And the nice thing about it is it's soft so in the night if bump my head on it it doesn't hurt and it also doesn't set off a bunch of noise and lights like some mobiles! 

If you try this project I would love to see how you adapt it and make it your own!  If you don't want to give it a try but want one, shoot me a message and I can make you one.

Tuesday Crafties

You may have noticed that the little miss didn't have a mobile in her room when I did the nursery reveal.  I had a few on Etsy that I liked, but wanted to add to the very personal touches in the room.  While I was home a few weeks ago I had the chance to look through our family albums and was reminded of all the special things my mom made for us and for our house to give it a special and loved touch. So I decided to make a mobile myself using stuff I already had in my craft closet.  

Here is the final result:

I tried to play of the birds in her linens but make it something all its own.  And I really like how it turned out. 

Want to learn how to make your own either for your nursery or as a baby gift for a friend?  Come back tomorrow for a step by step how-to!

Adelaide's Nursery Reveal, Part Two

Today we are continuing with our little miss's nursery reveal.  If you haven't gotten the chance check out the before and what we did with her sleeping area.  Today I want to show you her changing and play area.  First up her changing area.  

We decided after reading reviews and feedback to not go with a traditional changing table.  Why spend money on a piece of furniture you only use for about 6 months?  Instead we opted for a dresser with a changing pad on top--when she gets big enough we will remove the pad and ta-da a regular dresser!  I think this is pretty common practice now a days so we are not design geniuses or anything.

For the art work I wanted to work with the same concept as over the crib.  I wanted to support handmade artist and purchase prints that reflect our family's values.  I also wanted to create a collection that could be added to and there is definitely space on the wall to add more art work.  Both prints are from Sugar Fresh and you can find these prints and more in Sugar Fresh's esty shop. I love everything in this shop, so you can plan to see more things pop up in the little miss's room from there.  Since the ceilings are so tall in here I am hoping to build the art collage on the wall upward to really take advantage of the height.  

Our lamps all came from Target and go with the clean, simple, modern look and were really affordable.  Truth be told I struggle with lighting anyways. I am not very good at picking out lamps and they are so pricey for a very basic feature, but I know they can finish off the room. Sigh!

The owl is actually one of a pair of book ends (you can spot the other one a few pictures down) that I found when I was out shopping with my aunt last fall in Dallas.   I was at the end of my first trimester and found these little guys in Coldwater Creek of all places!  My aunt was really worried that the owls would scare the baby but I bought them anyways and I think they are cute!  You may remember them from another post because for a while I used them in our dining room at our old house while we were for little miss to arrive.  

For the big wall we wanted to create a book wall, because reading was so important to me as a child and we want her to grow up learning to love books.  Plus it was a really inexpensive way to decorate a huge wall, since most of the book were either my childhood books or gifts from a few amazing friends.  We purchased the picture ledges from Ikea.  They were really easy to level and mount compared to shelves I have bought from other stores.  

A couple of special things about this area.  The bookcase you see there to house toys and books and such is a bookcase we already owned. It was one of those hand-me-down pieces that T had in his apartments in college, that he brought into our marriage.  It moved with us from each house and with each move we would have the same conversation, "do we really want this ugly thing?  It doesn't go with our house at all...but its solid wood and they just don't make them like that any more..."  I wanted a shelf area for toys that was low enough I could set a glass of water on it while rocking our little miss to sleep and so when we moved yet again into this house and were having that same conversation about the bookshelf I had an "ah, ha!"  Why not have T paint it white to go in the nursery?  We already had the white paint left over from another project and with just 10 minutes each night after work a few nights in a row T put a couple of coats of paint on it and ta-da!  The total cost for her perfect little bookshelf/side table is free!  Got to love it!

Also, if you remember I had been debating whether or not to purchase the large letter A from Antropologie.  Well I finally decided to take the plunge.  I was explaining to a friend of mine how I wanted it but it was pricey and she said, "Well, its really hip and modern and neutral and since your daughter's initial will be the same her whole life, its a piece you can incorporate into each of her rooms as she grows."  Sold.  In fact, under that logic it made more sense to buy that than the bedding :)

The other special piece is the Raggedy Ann doll that a dear friend of mine hand made as a gift for our little miss.  She had heard me share once that my childhood room was decorated in Raggedy Ann that my mother sewed together and so wanted to make my little girl a doll that connected her childhood to mine.  Is that so thoughtful?

She loves laying on the floor of her room and staring at her wall of books.  She as even smiled at them a couple of times and I am just going to pretend that its not gas and that she really likes the room we created for her!  

Want to see the whole room? I'll be back next week with a final post so you can see the layout and a few other details!   

Adelaide's Nursery Reveal, Part One

I am really pleased with how the nursery turned out.  As I already shared I wanted a room that was light and airy, that was a peaceful place I would want to hang out in those first few months and that she would want to spend time in and retreat to sleep and be calm.  I am really please with how it turned out and will only have a few plans to tweak it as she grows and her little personality starts to show.  First is her sleeping area:

I wanted a sort of collection of art work for over her bed and changing table that reflected our family values and that I could add pieces to as she grew and as I found the right pieces in our travels and adventures (and etsy trolling).  I am really pleased with how it turned out for now.

Clockwise starting on the far left: Love Spoken Here print found here, hand stitched Some See Weeds Others See Wishes done by yours truly, and Alphabet Print found here.  I am hoping to add a few more prints and a few photos of our family there as well.  

Our bedding as I already shared I found via Dwell Studios but pick up via a online store that had it discounted.  The sheets were a bit of a pleasant surprise. They were supposed to be a small polka dot but instead they all came in this modern floral print.  I would have sent them back except I liked the mistake better than what I thought I was getting!  I really like that its not traditional pink and that its not a pink explosion.  Its sweet and subtle and modern.*

Want to see what we did with her changing/play area?  Stay tuned!  

*And before I go down as the worst mom ever...yes, that's a bumper.  Yes, I know that they are now deemed a safety hazard.  I put it in crib while the nursery was set up and until she actually sleeps in her bed.  Once she starts sleeping in her bed and/or starts moving in her sleep it will be removed.  But until then I am going to enjoy the way it looks and check the ties regularly for security.  

Adelaide's Nursery Reveal, Before

As you may remember from these posts here, here and here we had already begun pulling together our nursery in Indianapolis, before we got the news that we were Texas bound.

So we packed up the nursery our little girl would never see but was none the less planned in love and brought it to Texas, where we added, tweaked and made it the perfect place.  All in less that a month too!

First, the before.  I have yet to post all the "before" pictures of our house.  I figured as we tackled each project I would post them along side the "afters" or more realistically the "in progress" pictures.  But let's just say this.  The house we bought was well cared for, loved and decorated--just not in our style.  But you know I love a good home project especially anything that involves a fresh coat of paint.

So the little girl's room like most of the rest of the house was painted yellow.  Event he vaulted ceiling was painted yellow.  You can see it here:

Since we closed on our new house and moved when I was 36 weeks pregnant my family rallied and came to help us unpack and paint--they were amazing! We tackled the nursery and the master bedroom (more on that later) as our top priorities.  My brother and his fiance painted the nursery and did an amazing job.  I chose Behr's Chocolate Froth for her walls because its a nice light, airy neutral with a pink tint and it has this fabulous way of changing colors in different lights.  The ceiling we brought back to a standard ceiling white, which really lifted the height of the room and brought more light in, since you can see, there is just the one, small, south facing window.  For fun, here are my two painters for the nursery:

So her room was yellow, dark and just didn't feel like "our" house.  Want to see what we did?  Stay tuned!

Nursery Decor, Part 3

Next up for our nursery decor post is the art work and accessories.  A few of these pieces are not yet here and up on the walls yet, but they should be here any day now and I can't wait! 

First up is this adorable print from Tuesday Mourning's etsy shop.  She has so many adorable prints I could see in our little girl's room but like the rest of the art in our house we liked this one because it reflects our family's commitments and love for one another--what better things to surround our little one with!
 

Next up is the ABC Animal Print from Fancy Print's etsy shop. 

And our third little etsy find is from Sugar Fresh's shop.  This shop's prints are so bright and fun I could see them popping up in future rooms. 

One item I have contimplated purchasing is this giant letter initial from Anthropologie:

The only problem is that like most lovely things from Anthropologie the letter is sort of highway robbery!  However, when I was telling a friend of mine about this crazy expensive letter for the nursery she said, "well look on the bright side, you kiddos name is not changing.  You can just incorporate the letter into everyone of thier rooms you design."  Good point.  Let's see if T and our bank account appreciate that argument. 

Finally, our lighting fixture.  We went with the smaller MASKROS lighting fixture from Ikea.  And I will just go ahead and say I LOVE it.  It helps tie the nursery in with the rest of the house, adds some softness to a room that has dark, heavy wood furniture and adds a bit of girliness to the tan walls. It creates that boyancy and playfulness.   

We had an electrician come in and install it (since I made a promise to T and my mother that I wouldn't do electrical work while pregnant) along with some new fixtures in our living room and library. 

Now as soon as I can get these prints in and up on the wall I will do some picture of all this decorating pulled together. 

Nursery Decor, Part 2

After picking out furniture (or really at the same time!) we moved on to bedding. Since the furniture was dark and I was still worried about accomplishing a light and airy feeling I thought bedding was one of the ways I could accomplish that. Now, I know there are two schools of thought on nursery bedding--that it's a baby's room and should look babyish or that it should look more adult. Because of our style and the fact that each room is connected to the next or can be seen from at least two other rooms in our old historic home, we decide to keep the nursery in step with the over all design asthetic of the house. Plus, I am not a fan of princes and princesses or the jungle theme that seems to be on like all the baby bedding. Nor do I really like things that are over the top pink or blue--remember I wanted gender neutral to start?


So I searched high and low for modern bedding that was affordable and looked like us and like it belonged in out home.  And this is what we found:

I found it at the Dwell Studio's website.  But let's be honest, baby bedding is a rip off.  First off, they don't care--they are just babies--really its me that cares.  Plus they are going to probably poop and pee and puke on it far more than they are going to appreciate the design asthetic or thread count.  So it doesn't make a ton of sense to pay tons of money for it, plus I am of the firm opinion that you should never pay full price for much of anything, especially since the dawn of the internet.  So I searched around and found it discounted at ModernNursery.com by about twenty percent or so. Plus they were doing free shipping and no tax, which made the pricey designer bedding make more sense (or at least to this hormonal, design loving mama). 

I like that it's light so adds some levity to the heavy dark furniture we picked.  I like that its got some pink but its got some purple--girly but not over the top.  And I like that there's chocolate and tan in it to pick up on and neutralize it a bit. 

Next up...accesories and art work!

Nursery Decor, Part 1

We have been pulling together the nursery as of late.  Its not finished, but it is coming along nicely.  I thought I would share about it in a series of posts just for fun and to document the process so when little bit #2 comes along we can look back and laugh at our new parent selves. 

We decided that we would put little bit in the middle bedroom of our house, which was serving as our guest bedroom.  It worked the best logistically, because its close to our room and its not right off the main living space.  Also, the walls were painted a nice, light tan, something that I thought we could keep with either gender depending on which way our color palete went. 

Orginally I wanted gender neutral--grey, yellow and white and modern.  But there have been plenty of set backs in that plan.  First off there are only a hand full of modern baby cribs and they are pretty costly, especially for what you are getting (often not even made of solid wood).  Second of all, there is really not a lot fo options for modern baby bedding that is gender neutral.  I would have LOVED to have swen my own bedding together, since I am a pretty good seamstress and love sewing, however, working 50+ hours a week and keeping a household up doesn't leave much time for such a large craft project.  After I sort of did my research and figured out what my options were and after I had drug T to like every baby furniture place in a tri-state area (seriously, this man deserves a medal) we decided on our furniture. 

We went with the espresso finished furniture.  Why?  Well, I orignally wanted white because its so clean and buoyant and woudl add a sense of lightness in our nursery, which sits on the north side of the house and doesn't get much light.  However, as much as I tried I couldn't picture a child much past 2 or 3 years old in white furniture especially since my vision was clean!  We decided that the espresso would be much more forgiving of smudges etc and be able to transition along with the little bit.  We also decided to do one of the "lifestyle" beds that transitions from crib to fullsized bed.  We like the set and think its classic.  So our little bit can use it in the nursery and then grow along with it or if we decide its just not their style it would transition nicely into a guest bedroom set.  The set we picked out besides be asthetically pleasing, got really high safety ratings and customer service ratings and met our basic quality criteria for major furniture purchases. 

We purchased our furniture from a furniture store that was recomended to us by friends.  They were willing to negotiate (I left that part to T my super sales expert) and they delivered and assembled.  And I have to say, even though our store threw in the delivery and assembly at no cost--totally worth it!  Their delivery men were on time, neat, clean and professional and had the furniture ready to go in no time at all.  Totally worth it!

And as far as what we actually purchased it was great--solid wood, well constucted and it totally didn't break the bank at all!