The Nursery Diaries: Cole's Finished Room!

Finally!! I finally got around to taking some pictures of Cole's nursery and I'm excited to share them with you :) We are very lucky that Cole has been sleeping in his room from week 1, so we spend a lot of time in this room. It's probably my favorite room in the house... mostly because my insane love of it's occupant, but I am really happy with how it turned out.

This room is very small and the usable area is pretty much a square. Because of this, I had to be creative with the floorplan. But luckily nurseries have small furniture, so it worked out. The glider is sort of "floating" in the room, but it works. Here is a full room shot:

One of my favorite pieces of furniture is the dresser that functions as a changing table. We spend a lot of time at this dresser ;)

Another favorite in this room are the custom roman shades. These roman shades were made by the talented ladies at Drawn Company (on Etsy). I wanted to save some money so instead of using my usual workroom here in Charlotte, I turned to Etsy. I was SO impressed by this Etsy shop... the workmanship was just as professional as if I had gone to my professional workroom! They have awesome pillows, too.. and I am going to host a giveaway from them soon!

Cole's room has this interesting little nook, which ended up being perfect for books and a toy chest. Even though he's only 6 weeks old, I love reading to him.. especially all the books that are new to me.  

 

This lucite stool below is one of the first things I bought for the nursery, but was the last thing finished. I could NOT decide on a fabric and looked at dozens of options. I finally settled on this greek key from Pindler & Pindler, and I love it!

While I worked on this room, I didn't really have a plan like I do with my interior design clients. I just started pulling colors and things that I liked, and then realized I had a room that was sort of a hodge podge. I knew a piece of artwork would tie everything together. So I went on Etsy (again) and commissioned the artist Pamela Munger to create an abstract using the colors found in the room. I didn't want it "matchy", but I did want it to tie everything together. I LOVE love love it. I let her do her thing, and I love what she came up with. It reminds me of all the Saturdays we spent at Laguna Beach when Matt and I lived in Orange County.

The painting is on a piece of paper instead of a canvas, and I had it floated in a frame. Honestly, the artwork and custom framing is one of the biggest splurges in the room, but it's something I'm going to have and love forever. I hope Cole loves it someday, too :)

I debated whether or not to do a crib bumper, and decided against it. I chose a classic Jenny Lind style crib and a natural linen crib skirt (custom made) that would work for the next kiddo, even if it's a girl. I love the subtle bit of orange in the crib sheet.

 

Last but not least, I have this sweet little bookshelf that Erin (owner of Isabella) gave me. It holds all the little pieces that are really sentimental to me, and I love seeing them when I sit in the glider while nursing him.  The first shelf holds toys and things from when Matt was a child, and the middle shelf holds all the little stuffed animals that have given to Cole by friends and family. There is even a stuffed animal that was Matt's as a child (the bunny on the far right) that my mother-in-law found on eBay! So sweet!

And here is our sweet little Coley Guacamole sleeping in his crib: 

SOURCES: 

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore "Chimichurri"

Rug: Overstock.com

Glider: Crate & Barrel

Throw: Isabella

Crib: Amazon.com

Crib Sheet: Land of Nod 

Crib Skirt: Custom via Global Weave

Roman Shades: Custom via Drawn Company on Etsy

Dresser: Vanguard

Lucite Footstool: Vintage, Fabric Pindler & Pindler

Toy Chest: IKEA

Toy Bins: PEHR

Introducing.. Coleman Dunn!

He's here! And OMG I am so completely and utterly in love. Cole arrived early Friday morning 4/25/14.

I always enjoyed reading birth stories of my favorite bloggers, so I thought I would share the condensed version of mine. It was such a hard, yet amazing experience.

At exactly 41 weeks (Thursday) my water broke around 2 pm and I started having contractions right away. This was exciting because I had no contractions or anything before that... We had just had an NST that morning and the tech even said I wasn't contracting. We even had set a date for an induction that morning!

I was really surprised that the contractions came on SO fast and hard. They went from about 30 sec and 10 minutes apart to 1 min and 1-3 minutes apart in 2 hours. I labored on the birthing ball during the time and Matt was at work finishing up some things. Once he got home we really were contemplating whether or not to go to the hospital - I had always planned to labor at home as long as possible. But the contractions were so long and close together and had been for at least an hour, so we left for the hospital around 5.

By the time we got there, I was shaking and could not talk or walk through the contractions and we were admitted immediately, I was 4 cm. I wanted to wait on the epidural, so I got into the birthing tub. It helped me relax in between contractions, but since they were so close together I didn't get much relief. I decided it was time to get the epidural at 7 pm.

They checked me immediately after getting the epidural and I was 7 cm! Woohoo! I was able to relax and get some rest and was complete at midnight.

The hardest part of everything was the pushing. They turned the epidural way down and I could feel everything for pushing.. It was intense and painful but I'm glad I could feel it all - because pushing took 4 hours!!!  It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. It's true what they say.. It was like running a marathon. But finally, he came into the world at 6:27 AM on Friday morning and it was the best moment of my life!! He was 8 lbs 6 oz.


Here are some pictures!

 

 

I'll post pictures of the nursery very soon! I still have a couple last minute things to do to it :) But for now, I'm spending every waking moment I can snuggling this little guy.. I'm so obsessed!

Our Home In Four Magazine

Yes, I'm alive! And things are great.. still no baby, but I have about two and a half weeks until my due date... it's coming so soon! We are so excited to meet our little guy :) The nursery is also coming along great, I can't wait to share it with you! It's 95% done.. I'm just waiting for the artwork to get back from the framers and my little bench to be upholstered. Crossing my fingers both of those are finished this week!

I wanted to share a great little magazine feature with you in a local magazine called FOUR. It's a really cool, artsy magazine but unfortunately this was their last issue :(

It was really fun having them come shoot our home and interview me though! It was very different than being featured in HGTV Magazine.. it was very laid back and the photographer shot our home as is (for the most part). I am glad she was able to capture some images of what our home looks like on a day to day basis!

 You can read the article and see the images better here!