the nursery

Eliza's nursery went through a lot of phases in my mind before it finally settled into what it ultimately became. And the truth is that I never actually really knew what it would look like until it was done. Isn't that how it is though? :)

My original ideas were to make a more vintage pink, baby girl, lace and damask type of nursery. However, if anyone knows me, you would know I am kind of the opposite of all those things. I love all of them, but when it boils down to my actual style, it's anything but that ;) I had the hardest time picking out fabric for the crib because I had these different ideas in my head of what I thought I wanted.

Ultimately, after going to the store several times and just not being able to settle on anything I thought to myself why don't I just pick what catches my eye and what I really am drawn to. So I did just that. And I couldn't be happier. Once I came to this decision, it literally took me about 10 minutes to find the right fabric :) It was meant to be!

Above all, beyond the little details of the decorating, I wanted the room to be light and airy. Originally in this room there had been a lighter multi colored berber carpet. We removed a lot of the carpeting from the house to reveal beautiful hardwood floors that needed to be redone. That was a huge project that we were able to finish in December.

Because the floors were a dark stain, I wanted the walls to be lighter, but not white. After several attempts at the right beige, we finally found one that didn't look too pink or purple. I wanted the color to remain neutral as we have only two bedrooms in our house and when a second little bebe comes along they will be sharing a room. So if it is a boy, I didn't want him to be inhabiting a pink room and I wanted to get as much painting out of the way now as possible ;) I am super happy with how it turned out, the color is beautiful and totally neutral. It will be so easy to change up the decorating scheme.

The dresser is the first thing we completed for the room. I got the dresser from a friend who was throwing it out. I could tell it was in fantastic shape, but it was really dirty and was in serious need of refinishing. So I asked her if I could have it and we brought it home to sand and paint. We replaced the handles (which btw was the most expensive part at $36) and we had a brand new white dresser. I still love it. It is so much better than anything I could have bought, especially for that price.

Another thing I knew I wanted from the beginning was a white crib that did not have a headboard on one side. One night Steve and i were talking about which crib we would get (it was before we had really even looked at all) and I said I wanted a white crib that the 2 sides were the same and the 2 ends were the same. So he began a search on amazon for such a crib and came up with something like this. hehehe :) it kinda looked like an orphanage crib to me! But anyways I found the perfect one, and it was a really reasonable cost too. It's the Graco Sarah convertible crib. I didn't really care too much about the convertible aspect of it, but it might be nice in a few years when we're done using a crib :) *sniff sniff* that will be a sad day

The E above the crib was something that took me quite a while to figure out how to do. I had wanted to put just the one initial up there but didn't know how to do it. I ended up using the same fabric from the crib and came up with this. I was really happy with it in the end.

I searched and searched for a mobile that was cute and matched her nursery but couldn't find anything... let alone a reasonable price. I was pretty much just going to go without because there aren't any rules after all that you have to have a mobile or anything. But my friend Carrie had the perfect mobile that she let me borrow and we used it for several months! It's now back at Carrie's house with their new baby William :)

I had been searching for a deal on a cube shelf like this but every time it would be on sale or something I would just think nah, I can wait. I'll get it next time or whatever. Anyways, it didn't change the fact that I still wanted shelves, I just wasn't happy with those. Then, at Thanksgiving time we went to Maryland to spend the holiday with family down there and lo and behold Ikea had a black friday sale (but the sale was actually on sunday, they had different sales friday, saturday and sunday) on their cube shelving units. Normally $40 and they were on sale for $20. Ridiculous!!! We bought 4 of them. Two brown/black and two white. The two darker wood ones are downstairs in the living room... and the other day I found the perfect zebra print baskets to put in them! :) Now I need to find some for these white shelves...

Before Eliza was born, I had this idea of how I wanted pictures all around the room at about eye level. Imagine white square frames at the same height all the way around, kind of like a border. However, I couldn't find that kind of frame for any less than $15 and wanting to buy about 10 of them just wasn't happening!

So I just held off but did decide to get these plain white accent shelves from Christmas Tree store. I decided having these would be perfect because then I could mix and match and move things around whenever I wanted. I could change the whole look and feel just by rearranging or changing what was on them.

Then, after Eliza was born, I found these frames at Christmas Tree store as well and they were just perfect for the room so I bought them right away and put her newborn pictures in them :)

The Willow Tree figurine in the above picture was given to me when Eliza was born from Steve. It's so perfect and absolutely precious. Those newborn days are a time in my life I will try hard not to ever forget because they were so short and so so special. The one in the picture two above was a Christmas gift from my mom and dad. Absolutely perfect :)

All of Eliza's friends waited patiently on the shelves for her arrival :) She plays with all of them now and they are all about the house, but they stayed put so nicely for quite awhile :)

This bird was another Christmas Tree find. I had to dig to find one that wasn't demolished, but it was a perfect accent. Her crib set has birds in it and I love how sweet and airy the birds are in her room.

These dried rose buds were from a bouquet of flowers after Eliza was born :)

And these flowers on the left were bought just a couple days before she was born when my mom and I went to hobby lobby so that I could walk around and try to get her out!

The butterfly kiss plaque was a gift from my aunt and just so cute. "With a butterfly kiss and a ladybug hug sleep tight little, like a bug in a rug." Adorable ;)

This baby quilt was a gift from a sweet friend who I call Aunt Mary. We met her during our summer vacations in Maine as a kid and she has remembered me all these years. She made me a beautiful quilt for my wedding and then one for Eliza :)

The white afghan quilt in the lower picture is so extremely special to me. My Grandma made it for me years ago well before I was married or anything. She made it for my first baby and gave it to my Mom to save for me. She has since passed away, so it's just so unbelievably special to have this from her. It was like she was here all along... since I truly always thought she would be around to see me have a baby.

This kangaroo was one of the decorations at our shower and she sits on top of the white shelves. She was jumping off the shelf pretty regularly until I had a talk with her and let her know that it was really unacceptable and that she was setting a bad example for the baby. She has been so good since then and not done too much jumping around ;)

Also on the lower left picture, in the middle is Lamb Chop. It was her first favorite toy. I remember her being around 1 month or even a little younger and just staring at her with fascination. She would give her first teeny tiny smiles to Lamb Chop and they are still great friends :)

Steve's family has an affinity for bears that I have grown to love over these past couple years. They all just love their bears! So we knew from the beginning that we had to get Eliza a very special bear, since we also knew there would be many bears coming her way ;)

So at Thanksgiving time we followed through on our plan to go to Build-A-Bear and get her her very own special bear. We named her Coconut and put 2 hearts inside of her. One from Mommy and one from Daddy :)

Getting to decorate her nursery was so much fun for me! I loved being able to pick everything out and working on it until it was just the way I wanted it :) And I am looking forward to when Eliza is old enough to pick out her favorite things and we can make a room that is all her own again!