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

The Nursery Diaries: Chapter 4

This chapter is all about the paint color. As I shared in the first chapter, I knew I wanted a deep, dark green color on the walls. But boy, that color is HARD!! And I wasn't 100% sure exactly what type of green. Did I want emerald? Or Army? Or something that read as almost black?

So I bought a TON of paint samples and put them up on the wall.

These four pictured above were my favorites.. there were even more samples than this! The trouble I had was... and I'm sorry this is gross... I didn't want to be changing his diaper and have the wall color be the same as what was in his diaper. I know - interior designer mom problems! So the warm-toned greens were out ;)

The color I finally decided on was Benjamin Moore Chimichurri.

Of course, I am always drawn to the most expensive thing available.. and this paint could only be mixed in Aura paint. Matt wasn't too happy about that ;) HOWEVER - after we painted the room, we realized it was worth splurging on the best paint. We only needed one gallon, and we didn't even need primer! I highly recommend it!

I knew we needed both the walls and the trim/ceiling painted, so we decided to do the walls ourselves and hire my painter to do the trim and ceiling. It ended up saving a lot of money and it really wasn't too bad painting ourselves since the room is so small. 

And here is the current state of the room with the freshly painted walls & trim (and the crib installed!)

The color is exactly what I was envisioning, and it really changes with the light (which I love). During the day, when we get warm light the room is pretty green. When the light moves past the front of the house, the walls feel a bit more green/gray. At night, it's very dark and cozy... that means he'll sleep through the night right??? ;) 

This picture below most accurately depicts the color:

I'm really excited that we are getting pretty close to being done... now for all the "fun" stuff like fabric and art! I have ordered the crib sheets and the crib skirt and roman shades are being made. I've also started looking into art.. but other than that I'm really at a loss with fabrics. So I'll share those details as soon as I figure them out! ;)

As I mentioned in my first post about the nursery, I really love nurseries that appeal to an adult aesthetic, but have fun & youthful details. So now that I have the masculine "base" that I was going for.. now is the time to bring in the "cute" stuff. For example, I've ordered two of these little Pehr bins:

I love these colors... I'm planning on pulling them into the room.

On a side note.. I can't believe my due date is in 59 days!! The nursery may or may not be finished by his arrival.

The Nursery Diaries: Chapter 3

In case you missed my previous chapters, here are the links: Chapter 1, Chapter 2. This chapter is all about furniture. I recently posted this picture (for the rockaRoo giveaway!) on Instagram and had some inquires about the dresser.. and I'm here to tell you about it!

I know you shouldn't love inanimate things like furniture, but I'm sorry, I LOVE this piece of furniture. I came across it at Slate Interiors right before Thanksgiving and snapped this pic:

You can't read the tag in the picture, but it says HOLD. I was so bummed.... but I took a picture anyway and told the girls at Slate to let me know if it's still available. We then went to Texas for Thanksgiving, and I couldn't stop thinking about this dresser. I figured, if it's available after our trip then it's meant to be and I had to get it!

Sure enough... it was still available!!

I honestly thought this was a vintage piece, but I was so happy to find out that it's a somewhat new piece from Vanguard and has soft closing drawers. You know the kind that they use in kitchens? We plan on keeping diaper changing materials in the top drawer, so that soft closing feature will really come in handy. (Note: I tried searching for the chest on the Vanguard site, but I don't think they make it anymore. Also, I can tell the dressers have been hand painted.. I have no idea what color they originally were.)

This piece was both a splurge and a steal. It was a steal at $600 for a Vanguard piece, but $600 was a lot for me to spend on a dresser for the nursery. But it was so, so, so worth it... this is a piece that will not only grow with our little guy, but I could even use it anywhere in any future homes if needed.

This brings up a point I want to make... JUST SAY NO to "kid" and "nursery" furniture. There is no reason to buy something specifically designed for babies and kids.. (unless of course it's the crib.. will get to that below). Buy something YOU love and that is good quality and you'll have it forever!

(And here is some more unsolicited advice... if you are on a very tight budget, buy something old/vintage and paint it!)

Here is the dresser in the nursery:

Please excuse the messy room shot!

This room is TEENY TINY... and the dresser (along with the changing pad that will be on top of it) has to be in front of the window. I know, some moms would NEVER do this. Honestly - I'm never going to have the window open and the baby unattended, so I'm not worried about it.

Moving on to the next major piece of furniture in a nursery.. the crib! It's funny, I spent WAY less on the crib then I did on the dresser. That large box in the picture above is the crib... and this is the crib I chose:

Jenny Lind Crib in Ebony

Classic, simple, inexpensive. I know I just got done preaching that you should buy high quality, non-babyish furniture for nurseries... but when it comes to buying pieces that HAVE to be baby related (like cribs) - keep it simple and budget friendly. During the holiday sales, we paid around $175 for this crib, and it will easily last us through more than one baby and more than one nursery design. There are so many nurseries that feature this crib, and rightfully so! It goes with EVERYTHING!

You may also have noticed the small black bookshelf in the corner of the picture above... Erin (who owns Isabella) gave this piece to me and it's so perfect for the space! I'll be using it to hold fun things like stuffed animals and my husband's vintage cars and some not so fun things like the humidifier and sound machine.

For the past couple weeks, we've been tackling paint colors... that's next up on the Nursery Diaries! I finally was able to find the perfect shade of dark green, but it took a million samples. Here is a picture with some samples up on the wall, and a better shot of my beloved dresser!

ps- If you are getting sick of my baby & nursery related posts, stop by Isabella Studio where I'm blogging about an awesome new product we've been loving and I'm also posting an amazing home tour this week!

The Nursery Diaries: Chapter 2

Hi!! I hope everyone had an awesome Holiday break! We spent our Christmas in sunny Southern California with my husband's family and it was amazing. It felt like a little summer vacation in December - it was 75-80 degrees the entire time! We even enjoyed some beach time in Laguna Beach, one of my favorite places in the entire world.

It did feel awesome to have a little glimpse of summer temporarily, but honestly when we lived there I really missed winters and the coziness that comes with them. When we got home, it was also nice to put the fire on and curl up on the sofa with our animals :)

The weekend before heading out to California for Christmas, we took a quick weekend trip to Charleston. It was actually an anniversary trip scheduled in September, but I was too sick to go during my rough first tri, so we postponed. Here is a bump picture before we headed out to dinner. I'll have to do another post on that little trip... Charleston is another one of my favorite places!

Now.. on to the nursery! This is titled "Chapter 2" after all :) The very, very first purchase for the nursery was our glider. I actually bought it over two years ago. Crate & Barrel was having a huge Clearance sale to move out a lot of their floor models, and this glider was around $500. Knowing we had plans for a baby someday, I couldn't pass up the deal and bought it.

Crate & Barrel Hathaway Glider

What sold me on this glider was the slipcover. I don't have much hands on experience with newborns, but I had visions of projectile spit up and I loved the idea that I can just throw the slipcover in the washer and dryer. I also feel like the style isn't too "boy" or too "girl", and it isn't too "baby" either.

For years, this glider sat in the "baby's room" as we called it just like this:

It had terrible 90's wallpaper and was used as an ironing room. We only just recently (right before I got pregnant) took down the wallpaper.

The second purchase for the nursery was the rug. It was a rather "large" purchase.. not in price, but in size. At that point, I really didn't have a plan for the design of the nursery. I knew I wanted dark walls and a masculine vibe.

I was browsing rugs on Overstock and came across this rug:

Safavieh Navy & Beige Indoor/Outdoor Rug

Let me back up a bit and explain the layout in this baby's room... it's teeny tiny. And it's a very odd shape. It has a little "nook" area (you can see it behind the glider in the picture above) and the usable space in the room is a square. I'm not usually a fan of oval or square rugs, but in this case a square rug was the best option. So I was really happy to find some square rug options on Overstock that were very budget friendly. (I'll be honest - I didn't want to spend too much on the rug or other items that were space-specific because the truth is, we want to move closer into town soon and I'm not sure a square rug will fit in our next space as well.)

I purchased this rug for around $150 including tax and shipping (It's currently on sale for $135!!). And it's Indoor/Outdoor which is another plus (remember my visions of projective vomit??). And it's actually really, really soft! Overall, it was a great purchase!

Also pictured above is a little vintage lucite stool that I bought before I was pregnant. It will eventually be upholstered and used as a foot stool, like this:

I have no idea what fabric I'll be using.... there is so much more to do!

The Nursery Diaries: Chapter 1

Many years ago (in 2010 to be exact), I loved a little series on one of my favorite blogs called The Nursery Diaries. It was written by Erika Powell as she decorated her nursery for her first daughter. She no longer blogs, and now has a second daughter, but I still adore the series three years later and have been going back and reading her old posts as I decorate my own nursery.

So I thought it would be fun to do my own "Nursery Diaries" (although it won't be nearly as great as her original!) Even though I wasn't pregnant at the time, I loved reading how her design unfolded and the thoughts behind the space.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we found out a couple weeks ago we were having a boy! And I was so thrilled. I was always hoping for a son.. there isn't really a concrete reason as to why, but I just always pictured my life with a son in it.

We closed our eyes during the gender parts of the anatomy ultrasound, and had the nurse write down what the gender was. Then we took the envelope to a bakery next door and they filled two cupcakes with blue or pink. Later that evening, Matt and I opened the cupcakes together... it was such a great experience! We video taped it and will charish that moment forever.

Once I found out we are having a son, the wheels immediately started turning for the nursery. I've been gathering inspiration pictures, and knew I wanted to do something dark and masculine.

 

I soon learned is HARD finding examples of nurseries that aren't "baby-ish". My favorite types of nurseries are eclectic and whimsical but are still spaces an adult can enjoy. That's one reason why I loved Erika's nursery so much... it was playful and eclectic but not juvenile.

Erika's Nursery

 Here are some of my other favorite nurseries that all have that same playful-yet-works-for-adults-too vibe:

Julian's Nursery - LeSueur Interiors

Ory's Nursery - Courtney Loop

Ashley Putman's Son's Nursery

So that's the beginning stages of our son's nursery! We have purchased a couple "big ticket" items and I can't wait to share them with you! Stay tuned :)