Nursery Reveal

Well at long last its finally here, the big nursery reveal.  Almost 6 months of work and we are finally done. When we started thinking of how we wanted to decorate Jaedon's room it was not an easy task, I am a VERY girly person.  I love pink, frills and sparkles, all of which are the farthest extreme from boy that you could get.  We are not really sporty people, we are not into puppy dogs, cars, trucks, jungles or noah's ark.  What we do like are Owls, Antiques, Books and Music, sounds like and old person, I know so making it childlike was going to be a challenge.

Here were our list of challenges and desires:
1. Wall color - I am not a fan of white walls, but we live in an apartment so painting was out of the question. We also knew we wanted scriptures on his walls as well.
2. Theme - Neutral with lots of Owls, Books and Scrabble touches (Patrick LOVES reading).
3. Multipurpose - We wanted his nursery to be something that could grow with him for at least 5 years, with lots of multipurpose furniture.
4. Functional - Lots of storage, labels, hooks, shelving and everything on the changing table within reach.
5. Educational - Lots of educational toy, words, colors, books and pictures.
6. Fun! - We didn't want to loose the childlike nature of a nursery.  


So how did we do, we'll let you decide.  Enjoy the pictures and narratives from Jaedon's Nursery (sorry for the light variation, we took picture a various times of the day):

BEFORE:  YIKES!
 Jaedon was supervising the decorating at 2 weeks old :-).

BEFORE: What a mess!

AFTER: Welcome to Jaedon's Room!
The curtains I made from inexpensive fabric.  The rod and clips we already owned.
Total cost $10

Mommy and Baby Owl greet you as you enter Jae's room.
Purchased from Etsy for $7.

Changing central.
The bathroom is to the right, SO convenient!

Shelving above his changing dresser.
All we need within reach of us and out of reach of Jaedon.
Shelf purchased from IKEA $5
Small boxes also IKEA $2

IKEA Storage.
$1.99 for the bar, $.99 each for the baskets
$5 total!

Dresser Storage.
Made these boxes using foam core, duck tape and contact paper.
3 Boxes 19" deep for $14 total!

Etsy Pic "J is for Jaedon"!

Probably my favorite thing in Jaedon's room.
Purchased from Etsy

Lots of storage thanks to our good friends at IKEA.
We had this shelf on hand.  We decided to paint the frame and dye the bags.
Total Cost $3.00

OWLS!!!
Scripture - Psalm 1:1-3

The scripture I freehanded on the wall using sidewalk chalk. It comes off by simply using an eraser and water, leaves zero marks!  
Total cost $0, had everything on hand.

There she is, the 9.5 foot tree!
Made the tree from scrap material and attached it to the wall with starch SO EASY!!!
The leaves were free paint chips from the hardware store.

Total Cost $3.00 for the starch

Crib Wall. 

Rock-a-bye baby in our Rockin' Chair as we call it.
The chair and ottoman were $25 at a yard sale and I recovered them myself.

Jaedon's crib that converts to a toddler bed and day bed!
Due to adoption regulations we cannot have anything in the crib including bumper pads, so we used a bright colored sheet.  I made a no sew crib skirt out of leftover fabric from his curtains and velcro.

Total cost $2.50 for velcro

Love the large storage drawer below his crib.
Storage for blankets and sheets.

Couldn't find an Owl Mobile under $70, so I made these guys and hung them over the crib.
Owls made from felt, old buttons, polyfill (thanks mom!) and left over fabric for the wings.
Grand total for 10 owls = $3!

Letters above his closet door. Took hours to make but SO FUN!
Total cost for 3 letter with decoration $5.

Anyone wanna play scrabble?

Personalized scrabble board hanging over his table, made by auntie keke!

Book slings I made using left over fabric and a tutorial online.
Purchased 2 sets of curtain rod holders and 2 dowel rods, had the hardware store cut them in half for me.
Grand total for 2 slings $11!

Table courtesy of IKEA ($9.99)

Mod Podged wrapping paper over the seat and table top to add more color.
Had modge podge and wrapping paper on hand = Total $0!

Super glue and Mod Podge to keep letters in place.

Nothing like your own personal scrabble letters.
Made these letters using scrapbook paper, mod podge and free wood tiles from the hardware store.
Grand total scrabble letters $1.25!

Scrabble letters are to small and dangerous, so we made BIG ones!

FINALLY! The chair we were waiting on.
Chair came from Pottery Barn, made the pillows with leftover fabric.
Chair on sale = $79
Pillows = $0

Absolutely Love this chair!

Jaedon's own reading corner under his "Tree"

The wall across from his crib, lots of storage to grow with him.

Over his 2 week picture, that says it all :-)

Love these lamps!
Lamps purchased from Target on sale for $8 each!
Green frames were also target, on sale for $1.50 each.
Pictures printed at home for $0!

Jaedon't own personal sound system, ipod speakers we had on hand.

Books!

Had to throw a little curious in there for daddy!

We wanted a few vintage toys and found this little guy at a consignment sale for $4!

Sturdy wooden boxed purchased on sale for $6 each.
Chalkboard labels from Etsy, 12 came free with another item I purchased.

More boxes thanks to IKEA.
$6 each.

We spray painted the Ozarka Waterbottle boxes with chalkboard paint, they were a perfect fit.
4 boxes cost a grand total of $10!

Reading Bench
Purchased the bench at a consignment sale ($8) & the cushion I made with leftover foam.

LOVE THIS!
Thanks to Ms. Rachel Carpenter for the beautiful picture!
The hooks we got at Joann's for $.99 each, $3 total.

Thanks for visiting, come again soon!

So how did we do?  I will blog about the cost breakdown later, you will be shocked at how little we spent.  If you would like information or tutorials on how we made alot of the stuff in his room, send me a message or facebook me.  Scroll to older posts for more info on how we did the rocking chair and the dresser boxes.

Happy Doodling,

hj

One Rockin' Chair!

Every nursery needs that perfect rocking chair and ours is no exception.  Over the course of a few weeks we tested out a few different rocking chairs and fell IN LOVE with this one from Pottery Barn Kids.  It is like sitting on a cloud! I could just imagine rocking Jaedon to sleep..or myself...until I saw the $700 price tag...OUCH!  I guess comfort comes with a price.

Since $700 was about $650 out of budget we kept looking and eventually happened on this one at a yard sale.  The chair was in great condition, very comfortable, no smells, stains or animal hair.  It had one owner who used it for 6 months and was selling because she was moving out of state.  I tried it out and was amazed how cushioned it was and how gentle the glide was.  The ottoman was an added bonus and in perfect condition.  So I asked for the price fully expecting she would want $75, to my amazement she was only asking $25 for both pieces!!!  WHAT A DEAL!

After moving the chair into the nursery, washing all the cushions and parts, and putting it to good use we decided it was time to repurpose our Rocking Chair.  In no time our chair went from this:

To this!  I am not one to use patterns so it took a little time to piece everything together, but I am SO happy with the results.  

I loved the fabric so much we used it to make:

Book Slings

An Owl Pillow

and as the wings on all the owls in the room.

The fabric fits the theme of his room so well.  So thats how we made one ugly chair into one  Rockin' Chair!  Have you repurposed something lately that is Rockin', if so please leave me a comment.

Happy Doodling!
hj