We're Switching Rooms!

Sooo.... just this week I completely finished the nursery!!!  All that is left to be done is setting up the new crib.  That's all!!!  Newborn clothes are washed and put away, closet has been reorganized to fit clothes for 2 babies, and all of the burp cloths, bibs, and other necessities are neatly organized and in place.

I also had the glider rocker, all the toys, bookshelves, everything moved into the playroom.  I was getting it set up and had started looking at decorating and layout ideas.  It was looking cute.

But......I am me.  And I like to reorganize and reconfigure things all the time.  It's what I do.

Ask my husband.

So.....at 29 weeks pregnant (tomorrow), we are redoing all of it.  Hahahaha.

Poor hubby.

While both the nursery and the playroom have the same amount of square feet, the current playroom just makes more sense as a nursery.  Let me explain why.  Yes, I listed reasons because this is what I had to do to convince my husband to switch the rooms. :) 

Why the Current Playroom Would Be Better Suited as a Nursery

1. There are 3 useable corners in the playroom as opposed to the 2 useable corners in the nursery.  In the current playroom, the closet and the door to the hallway are sharing a corner.  So there is more useable wall space in the rest of the room.  In the nursery, the closet is in one corner of the room, and the door to the hallway is in another corner.  So in the current nursery, there is less continuous wall space than in the playroom.  In other words, there is very little wall space for 2 cribs without blocking a window or having the cribs in an "L" shape right up against each other.  I don't want them in an "L" shape, because I don't want August messing with Baby in the middle of the night. :)

2. The location of the current nursery in relation to the front porch.  The current nursery has a window that looks out onto the front porch.  This has always worried me ever since August was a newborn.  If someone were going to break in, they would likely go through a window...an easy to get to window like the one on the front porch.....or at least that's what happens in my mommy mind.  I am constantly waking up in the night thinking I hear someone in there on the baby monitor.  The window of the current playroom is well off the ground and doesn't share the front porch.  Also, once the boys are a little older, I don't want going out the window at night to be any sort of temptation. :)

3. Water pipes.  The water pipes run through the walls of the current nursery.  Anytime I run the washer, August always at least stirs if he doesn't wake up completely.  The water running is very loud in there.  So I usually limit laundry to the times he is awake, which obviously is not very convenient.  You would have thought he would have gotten used to the water by now, but the older he got, the more it woke him up.

4. Location of the current nursery in relation to the living room/front door.  The nursery is currently in the room closest to the entry way/living room.  This means anytime we have people over or the door bell rings, it wakes August up.  The current playroom is further away from the front of the house, so there will be less noise back there so they will sleep better.

Those are my reasons, and I'm sticking to them. :)

I have already completely switched the contents of both closets!  Once Adam gave me the go ahead, I was a woman on a mission.  If it weren't for August being in bed, I would be in there right now switching the furniture....but then I would probably go into labor, so maybe that's a bad idea. 



Previous playroom (New nursery) Closet BEFORE....yep, this closet is our vice.  It's the only hoarding place I have allowed in the house.  It contains a few craft items, high school/college memorabilia, lots of Marine uniforms and gear, back packs and purses, and a few special occasion dresses that I am hoping and praying to fit into again.



Previous playroom (New nursery) Closet AFTER......Baby stuff!!!!  Ignore the crooked hanging shelf.  Will be fixed soon.

Here is what the (ex) playroom looks like after all the junk was cleaned out and we moved in the glider rocker, book shelf and toys.  The toys are still in laundry baskets waiting to be put away.  If you want to see where we started with this room (aka- if you want to see my junky room), click HERE.

 

 

The (ex) nursery looks the same as it always has except there is a blank spot next to the window where the glider rocker used to be. 


So that's a little update for you!  We have plans tomorrow night, so we will be switching all of the furniture between the rooms Friday night, if all goes as planned.  I'm sooooo excited!!!! :)  Thank you, Adam!!!  LOOOOOVE YOOOOU! :)

You're Gonna....Cloth Diaper???

Never say never.  It couldn't be more true.  "I will NEVER cloth diaper."  I have said it a million times.  I have never had an interest in cloth diapering at all.  Never even wanted to try.  I already struggle with trying to keep up with the laundry demand, so I have always known that I am not the best candidate for cloth diapering.

However.

It kills me every time I have to buy a package of diapers or wipes.  They are so expensive, just to be used for a couple hours and then thrown away.  Then when I go to throw away a diaper genie liner full of diapers, I am thinking about how much I paid for those diapers, how much I paid for those diaper genie liners, and how much space all these diapers are going to take up in our city trash can (which reminds me that these diapers have to go somewhere, so I can only picture a landfill filled with diapers from all the babies in the county...let alone the world).  So I have been contemplating cloth diapering for a few months now.  I'll read a blog or two about it or look up how other mothers cloth diaper on youtube. 

I only know of two other people in "real life" who cloth diaper, but there are tons of mommies on the internet that have done it with success.  People choose cloth diapering for many reasons, but for me, it all came down to the money.

I decided to break it down.  Here is what it is costing us (approximately) to diaper August in disposables.

Disposable Diapering

 

*Prices will vary.  I did this based on the lowest regular brand price I can find (which is typically Luv's) in whatever grocery store I'm in, which is how I usually buy diapers.  No sales or coupons. I'm a last minute diaper purchaser kind of person. 

 

1. ) Luv's size 3 diapers at Walmart: 124 count. $20.00.  Since we do about 6 diaper changes a day, this pack would last us about 20 days.  So if there are 365 days in a year, if you divide that by the number of days it takes me to use a pack (20), that would mean I would need 18.25 packs a year.  However, since I can't buy 1/4 of a pack, I would need to buy 19 packs of diapers a year.  So at 20 dollars a pack, I would end up spending $380/year on diapers.

 2.) Parent's Choice wipes at Walmart: 700 count for $12.00.  This is TMI, but most days, August poops 1-2 times a day.  We'll call it 2.  Obviously the rest of the time, it is just pee.  So, if I use about 4 wipes on poopy diapers (14 wipes if you are my husband....just sayin!), and 1 wipe for pee pee diapers, that would total about 12 wipes a day if I change 6 diapers a day.  So that means that we would go through this pack of wipes in about 58 days, or 2 months.  So this would calculate (6 purchases a year times $12 per purchase) to about  $72/year on disposable wipes.

 

3.) Diaper Genie Pail Liners: We got a diaper genie as baby shower gift.  It's great, and we enjoy it, however, the disposable pail liners for those things are quite expensive.  If we were to buy a roll in the store (they are blue and sold in rolls), it would last us about a month and costs $10. So, if you buy in stores, it $120/year just for the liners.  However, I have been buying them off of Amazon since there is a better deal for them on there.  They come in a 3 pack off of Amazon, which lasts us about 3 months.  They cost about $20 for a 3 pack.  So I need to purchase these about 4 times a year, so (20 x 4) would come out to be about $80/year on disposable diaper genie liners off of Amazon.

So, in total, for disposable diapering, I spend about $45 a month or $532/year.  This total is not including the additional diapers (more than 6 a day) that are used for newborns.  It also does not include the cost of a diaper genie (add $30). From birth to potty training, (about 3 years) this would be end up costing about $1,600 to diaper with disposables.

 

Cloth Diapering

 

*Prices will vary.  There are many different brands in cloth diapering, as well as many different methods of cloth diapering.  These prices are based on the brands I have chosen and the lifestyle I prefer.

 

1.) Sunbaby cloth diapers: $144 for a set of 24.  I have chosen the brand Sunbaby for our cloth diapers.  They are comparable to popular cloth diaper brands such as Fuzzibunz and BumGenius.  However, a brand new Fuzzibunz or BumGenius diaper will cost anywhere from $25-$35 per diaper, where as Sunbaby diapers end up being $6.50 per diaper.  Sunbaby diapers are adjustable and are made to fit from birth to potty training.  They do this by having stretchy elastic and adjustable snaps.  There are snaps around the waist to loosen or tighten, snaps to adjust the rise (how long the diaper is), and snaps to adjust the leg hole size (for skinny newborns or chunky toddlers).  Since the diapers are made to last for as long as your baby is in diapers, $144 is all that is needed to diaper the baby from birth to potty training (about 3 years).  You can choose whether or not you want 1 or 2 inserts with the diaper (you stuff the inserts into a pocket in the diaper), and you can also choose the material you want the insert to be made of.  Different materials have different benefits.  I chose 2 microfiber inserts per diaper.  August is always double stuffed since he's a heavy wetter. 

A few of the prints

 2.) Cloth wipes: The cost for me on cloth wipes is $0.  I simply cut up August's receiving blankets (we got a TON from baby showers....don't worry I saved the special ones that I remember using in the hospital) into squares and then with the help of cousin Sarah, sewed the squares to make a 2-ply wipe.  I ended up making about 50 wipes.  The wipes will be thrown into the wash with the cloth diapers. 

 

3.) Wipe "wetter": The cost for me is $0.  I will be using my peri-bottle that I got from the hospital when I had August.  You just need something to wet the wipe.  Some people use a spray bottle or even a wipe warmer with water in it.  You can ever wet a wipe under the sink on your way to the changing table.  Whatever works!  Some people add in baby wash or baby wash and tea tree oil into their water, but I have heard water works just fine.

 

 

4.) Reusable Pail liners: In cloth diapering, it is easiest to use reusable pail liners.  They work just like a garbage bag except that they are reusable.  You just throw it in the wash along with the cloth diapers and wipes.  I purchased 2 reusable pail liners on Amazon for (Kissa's pail liners) for $14.95 each, or about $30. ***UPDATE: Unfortunately, I do not recommend this product.  One of my Kissa's pail liners ripped at the seams in the wash after about 2 washes.  The other one is not leaving my pail dry.  It is "sweating" and not holding in moisture.  I have since purchased a liner from Planet Wise, and it is working out great!  The Planet Wise liners are a lot more substantial.  They seem to be made with a thicker fabric, and there aren't any exposed seams that could rip in the wash.  The Planet Wise liners run just a couple dollars more than the Kissa's liners.

 

 

5.) Diaper Pail: Most people may already have a trash can on hand, but I didn't since I use a diaper genie for disposables.  So I had to go to Walmart and purchase one.  I paid $0 for mine since I used a giftcard.  I'm not going to include this in my costs, since that's basically a gift, just like the diaper genie.  If you get a step one, it will cost you about $13.

 

6.) Wet bags: You need a wet bag to put your dirty cloth diapers in while you are out and about.  You probably technically need 2 so that you can have one to take out if one is in the dirty laundry, but I only have 1 for now.  The cost for the one I purchased is about $17.00 (Planetwise brand off of Amazon in size medium), so if I buy 2, the cost will be $34.00.

 

 

 

7.) Cloth diaper safe detergent: There are many cloth diaper detergents out there, however, I have heard great things about Tide detergent (powdered).  I know that there are perfumes and dyes in it, and I personally am allergic to those things in detergent.  We will see how August reacts to it.  However, with cloth diapering, you give your diapers at least one, preferably 2, extra rinses in the wash cycle to make sure there isn't any build up (which will cause repelling).  So there shouldn't be any detergent left on them.  If I have issues, I will try the free and clear version before moving to cloth diaper specific detergents that I would have to order online.  Tide is $7.99 at BI-LO this week.  It's hard for me to say how much we will buy over the course of a year.  I make my own laundry detergent for our clothes, so the Tide will be for diapers only.   I will use about 1/2 of the smallest load size on the scoop since cloth diapers actually need very little detergent.  Maybe I'll repurchase it 3 times a year?  I'll estimate it to be $24.00/year.

 

8.) Dryer balls (optional): You don't really need these, but I found that my microfiber inserts that came with my cloth diapers tended to stick together in the wash since you can't use dryer sheets with the inserts (they cause repelling since the non static stuff will build up in the diapers).  I paid about $5 for a pack of 2 from Walmart.

 

 

9.) Cloth Diaper Safe Rash Cream: Cloth diapers require a diaper rash cream that is cloth diaper safe.  Typical diaper rash creams will build up in the lining of the diapers which will cause the diapers to repel liquid instead of soak it up.  I have chosen CJ's butter diaper rash cream.  There are different options out there, but I chose CJ's because I have friends who use it, and I also read that it is basically a do-everything ointment.  Many people use it in place of Vaseline and Neosporin.  It is also well known for clearing up diaper rash in one application.  The cost for the CJ's Butter is about $14/8oz. off of Amazon.  This tub is pretty large, and since August very rarely gets diaper rash (he has had maybe 3 his whole life), I bet we won't need to repurchase this.

 

10.) Water Bill: Of course you have to pay for the water to wash all these diapers.  I haven't been cloth diapering for a full month yet, but I have heard from many mommy bloggers that their water bill was increased by about $5/month or an increase of $60/year.

 

 

So, in total for cloth diapering, I will spend about $309 in the first year, and $84 (for detergent and water) each year after that.  So from birth to potty training (about 3 years) I will spend a total of about $477 to diaper with cloth.

 

 

So, if you do the math, I will save (1,600-477) $1,123 by cloth diapering.....our first child!

 

Here is where it gets really crazy, we are pregnant!  Ok, that's kind of old news and not that crazy.  BUT.....to diaper our 2nd child, I can buy 12 diapers with 2 inserts per diaper for....$78.  I wouldn't need to buy 24 diapers because I don't actually go through 24 diapers without washing them.  36 diapers (18 diapers per child) would be a perfect number for doing laundry every 2-3 days.  So here are the cloth diapering comparisons for diapering 2 kids from birth potty training.  Note: The water cost will not change because I have plenty of room in the wash for another set of cloth diapers.

 

Birth to Potty Training with 2 Kids Cloth Diapering Cost Comparison

 

Disposables: $3,200

 

Cloth: $555

 

 

Savings of (3,200 - 555) = $2,645!

 

As you can see, the money saved continues to increase with each child.  However, you don't have to buy new diapers with each child.  Usually, you will have one leaving diapers as one enters.  However, our kids will be 15-16 months apart, so they will be in diapers at the same time, hence the need for a second set of diapers.

I hope this cost comparison was helpful for you if you are considering cloth diapering!  So far, I have been cloth diapering for about two months now.  I will give an update on that in another post.  Thanks for reading!

Pictured: White Sunbaby Cloth Diaper

 



Nesting/Planning Has Begun!

I have been going through MAJOR purge and organize mode in this house lately.  Nesting has hit full strength for sure! I am realizing that our little house (not so little compared to some...I think it's just under 1100 square feet.) is about to get even cozier.  With 3 people (soon to be 4!!  Ahhh!), 2 LARGE dogs, a tank of fish, tons of baby gear, and more clothes than any of us need, breathing room is tight.  We also have furniture that is way too big for this house, but most of it was found at yard sales or are hand-me-downs, and for that we are thankful.

A couple nights ago, Adam and I went through all of our clothes.  (I cornered him, bless his heart.)  Everything.  I won't say we have a small closet.  It's not a walk in, but it is fairly spacious.  We also have our own dressers.  He has a tall chest of drawers set (anyone else call this "chester drawers" for years and not know it was wrong?).

I have a regular dresser with the mirror attached. 

Both provide a lot of storage.  In addition to that storage, I also have tubs of clothes I keep in the garage.  I have a storage tub for fall/winter clothing, spring/summer clothing, and maternity clothing.  I have waaaay more clothes than I actually wear.  I realize I wear the same things over and over again, and none of the other clothing even gets used.  So I decided to get rid of everything that is not a favorite.  And let me tell you, it feels GREAT!  We were able to fit all of our "not nice enough to bother hanging it up clothing" into my dresser.  We will be getting rid of his "chester" drawers!  Woo hoo!  I loooooove getting rid of things!  It's kind of weird.  I will still need tubs in the garage for my non-maternity clothing.  But I am so glad to have gotten rid of so much!  We have a large bookcase in our living room, and we will be moving it to the bedroom where his "chester drawers" used to be.  I am happy with that because the bookshelf looks really awkward where it is in our living room.  (We have a weird layout in here.)  I also don't like it being in the living room because it isn't bolted to the wall, and it could topple on a little one.  So yay!  Having the bookcase out of the living room will give us a spot to put the pack n play (or baby swing in a few months) since right it kind of floats awkwardly in the room, and we are always pushing it out of the way.

Speaking of purge mode, we are also purging a ton of furniture we have been holding onto.  It was furniture we had in our guest room/office/elliptical room/craft room/it turned into a junk room.  Since most of our family lives just a few minutes away, we haven't had a guest in the almost 3 years we have been here.  So it really wasn't necessary.  So we are getting rid of everything in there except for the elliptical.  My brother and his fiancé are getting married at the beginning of August, so we are giving them our extra furniture: couch with a pull out bed, coffee table, filing cabinet, desk, a pair of chairs, and our chest of drawers.  We will be turning that room into a play room since Baby #2 is a boy!  I will also keep the elliptical in there so I can exercise while they play.  We aren't going to go crazy and make this a Pinterest-worthy play room by any means.  I plan to keep things very simple, no to very low budget (I already have about everything I need), child friendly, easy to clean up (aka not a ton of toys), and good for August and the new baby.  I am excited to give them a place to play together.

Now, the reason for the playroom and not a nursery is because August and his brother will be sharing a room.  Ahhhhh!  I know, it is kind of scary just saying it.  However, this is the way that things have been done forever, right?  I think this is a recent (past 60 years or so), American, thing where everyone has to have their own room.  I want the boys (I LOVE saying "the boys") to be close, and I think sharing a room will bring them closer together.  I'm sure it will be an adjustment, and things might get thick for a while, but they can do it!  I also like this option because since they are so close in age, they will both still be in diapers, so I don't see the point in having 2 changing tables, 2 nurseries with the same things in them, etc.  I think I have already decided where the crib will go. 

This is what you see when you walk in the nursery.

I believe we will put the new baby's crib here.  It is directly across from August's crib.  We will either have to get shorter curtains or do something because I know the curtains can be a hazard.  The glider rocker will either go in our room for the first few weeks or it will go in the corner next to the boys' closet.



This is August's crib.

This is the view if you were standing in front of the dresser/changing table.  That door goes to the closet.  Don't mind the diaper genie and tubs in the floor.  Since we switched to cloth diapers (post on that soon, I promise!!), we haven't been using the diaper genie.  The tubs are out because I am bringing out the 18 month/24 month clothing.....say what?!

This is the "junk room."  All of the furniture will be going to my bro, and then the room will be ready for me to get my hands on!

Another view from the doorway.

So that's the happenings around here as far as planning/preparations go.  I am so excited to start planning for this baby.  This is one of my favorite parts about being pregnant!  I loooove to change things around, and I love anticipating the baby's arrival.  I am over the moon excited!!!  :) 

Nursery Tour

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of the nursery!  I finished it (for the most part) last week over spring break, but I have been busy every night since then.  I would have been busy with church tonight, but my feet and legs are so swollen that I can barely walk.  It feels like my feet might explode when I walk on them.  It's pretty nasty.  They have been swollen off and on for the past few weeks, but they have been really bad for the past 24 hours.  Not sure what's up with that.  I called my doctor's office, and they told me to keep my feet up and drink water.  So, here I sit.  But at least you get to see pictures of the nursery now, right? :)

When I first started planning the nursery, I knew I wanted to do a vintage theme.  I found lots of cute ideas on Pinterest, and started collecting bits and pieces that I wanted to incorporate.  The nursery never really came together until I found some artwork that I LOVED.  It turned the room into a "vintage beach" kind of feel, and I love love love it!  It's so relaxing in there, and I find myself just sitting in there and reading or daydreaming of life with our little baby.  I'm so excited to share it with you!

The lighting in these pictures is not completely accurate.  The walls are actually a gray color, but I took these pictures with my cell phone and adjusted the settings so you would be able to see everything since the light coming in from the window was so bright.  So if you are liking this paint color and want to know what it is, it's actually not this color at all. :)  It's a light gray.  Alright, here we go!

This is the view from the hallway.  All of our bedrooms come off of one hallway.

My nannie purchased this glider rocker and foot stool for us.  It is the only new piece of furniture we have for the whole room.  It is AMAZING.  Seriously, best seat in the whole house.  We love it.  I'm sure I will spend lots of hours here nursing.  The table holds an old style clock from when I was little, and a book I will probably enjoy while nursing.  It's the "What to Expect the First Year" book (from the What to Expect When Expecting people).  It was a gift from Adam after we found out we were expecting. :)  The quilt was made by a dear friend (Susie!).  It has gray fabric with vintage looking flags on this side and a patchwork of different vintage looking fabrics on the other side.  I love it!!!  It will be a great background for all of the cute baby pictures. :)

 

This is the art that is hanging above the rocker.  My mom got it for us at Homegoods.  I believe it was about $24.99.  She got it recently, so they still have them if you are interested.  They also have one that says "peace."  It would be cute for a Christmas decoration if nothing else.

This is the dresser that we repainted, found HERE.  We also changed out the hardware.  It was my childhood dresser.  The basket came from a local shop in town, and I spray painted it oil rubbed bronze.  It was blue.  The changing pad and neutral cover are from Target. 

The artwork (which I am in LOVE with) is from Homegoods. It really set the tone for the whole nursery. If you can find some artwork that you really like, it is really easy to base the rest of the room around it. Once I found these pictures, I finished everything else within a week or so.

The wire basket holds diaper supplies.  I have pictured this from the beginning.  This basket actually has a memory to it because I was with my mother in law when I got it.  It was one of the last things we did together.  I drove her in my car for the first time that night.....and accidentally ran 2 red lights.  She never knew I was such a rebel. :) I was very newly pregnant then (I had known for 1 day), and I hadn't told anyone besides Adam yet. 

This crib is from one of Adam's cousins (thanks Maggie!).  It was originally a wood tone, and we painted it the same color white as the dresser.  It's a very solid crib.  I bought the crib skirt for $3.00 from a consignment sale when I was only a few weeks pregnant.  It is brown striped, so I knew it would work for a boy or a girl.  The crib sheet was a baby shower gift from our Target registry.  For now I am not using a bumper.  I haven't found any that I like, and they say that bumpers are a smothering hazard.  They really don't need a bumper until they are strong enough to hurt their head on the crib bars.

I got this wooden paddle from the same local shop that I got the wire basket from.  It used to be hanging in our kitchen, but I always knew it would look cute in a nursery.  The banner hanging from it is made out of the same fabric as the quilt on the back of the glider rocker.  It was a decoration also made by Susie that was hanging at my baby shower.  I love all of the different patterns.  The fabric looks very vintage.

These cutsie things will be removed once the baby is in the crib, but for now they just look so cute!  The pillow is from Target, and it was a wedding registry gift a couple years ago.  I recently bought the elephant at Homegoods.  It will be the baby's first stuffed animal. :)  Adam affectionately named him "Olliephant", so we will call him "Ollie" for short. :)

This bookshelf is a work in progress.  We got a TON of children's books at our baby shower.  (It was vintage book themed.)  I LOVE children's books!  Everything else is just little knick-knacks that will eventually have to find a new home when he starts collecting toys and things.  The bottom shelf and the baskets in the floor next to it have baby shower gifts that I haven't put away yet.  To give you some perspective, the door to the hallway is to the left, and the dresser is directly across from the bookshelf.  The crib is to the left of where I am standing.

This little corner will probably evolve as time goes on.  Right now it holds a chair (1 of 2) that came from my parents' house.  I have been meaning to get it recovered, but haven't gotten around to it.  I figured if I was in there nursing or something, it might be nice to have a place for someone to sit in there with me.  Another friend who helped out with the shower (Summer!) gave me a vintage poster that will probably be framed and hung above this chair.  One day this little corner will probably hold a small wooden table with a couple small wooden chairs for little boy to color and build things on.  (It is already in the garage!)  The door leads to his little closet.  I bought the hooks at Homegoods (goodness, are you seeing a trend here?)  I wanted something to hold his diaper bag and any of his little jackets.  The diaper bag was a registry gift from Target (thanks Becky and Pascal!).

This is his packed out closet!  The top shelf holds all of his diapers and wipes. 

I bought this hanging shelf from......Homegoods.  It was only $12.99 which is a lot cheaper than the ones from Walmart that we have hanging in our closet.  I love this thing.  It gives us way more useable storage, and it just takes a second to hang.  (It has a thick velcro strap at the top to hold it onto the wire shelf.)  I filled the shelf with receiving blankets, crib pads, changing pad covers, crib sheets, bath towels, and blankets.  His little bathtub is sitting just to the left of the shelf.  Simba (Lion King, duh) is currently bathing in it.

These are some of his "church" clothes.  They are newborn to 3 months.  All of his other sizes of clothes are in storage tubs in our garage.  His onesies, sleepers, and pajamas are stored in the drawers of the dresser.  Most of his clothes came from my friend Abby who passed them on from her boys.  So she will get most of the credit for his cute attire! :)

This little girl refused to be left out of the tour.  I had to retake just about every picture because she would get in front of the camera.  Heidi is modeling on the new rug we got from Target.  I had been trying so hard to find a striped rug that I liked (that was cheap), and I finally found this one.  It was only $41.00, and it is a 5x7.  Pretty good if you ask me.

I hope you enjoyed the tour!  We are so excited about the nursery, but we are more excited about the little boy who will be in it!  If you have any questions about where I got anything or how we did something, feel free to ask.  Have a wonderful evening! :)

Our Dresser Was Featured!

Our dresser redo for our son's nursery, found HERE, was featured on the Power of Paint blog!  Check out the feature HERE. 

You might remember when our countertops were also featured on the Power of Paint.  Click HERE for the countertop feature, or go HERE to see how we dabbed in a little countertop paint and transformed our kitchen! 

If you haven't already checked out the Power of Paint blog, you should!  There are lots of great "how to" projects on there all using the power of paint.  Thanks for reading!

Nursery Dresser Redo!

I have definitely been freaking out that we don't have much done as far as the nursery goes.  Well, over the weekend, we started chipping away at our to do list.  We finally finished the dresser, and I can't wait to share it with you! 

We actually did a good bit of dresser shopping in the beginning.  I was stalking Craigslist everyday, and I had looked at dressers on several different websites.  One day, my mom sent me a picture of a dresser from a local furniture store that I absolutely fell in love with.  It was exactly what I was looking for.  Adam and I went down to the store to check it out.  It was GORGEOUS!  Only one problem.....

Hubby for size/scale :)

Did you catch the problem?  Yeah.......$635....on sale!!!!!!  Ahhhhh!!!  So, so sad.  They actually ended up giving me a better deal since I was so interested, but I couldn't do it.  I couldn't spend that much on a dresser.  It just didn't make sense to spend that much on nursery furniture.  So sadly, we had to part ways. 

However, I had my childhood dresser at my parents' house, and they told me that I could have it.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it!

I wanted to transform it to make it look like the long lost dresser of my dreams. 

My honey bun and I headed to Home Depot to check out their stock of dresser pulls.  We looked at some that reminded us of our lost love.  Ok, it was my long lost love.  Adam didn't care much either way.  He just didn't want to fork out $635.  Can't blame him!

We ended up choosing the smaller silver pulls.  I was stuck between the silver pulls and the darker oil rubbed bronze ones, but Adam like the silver ones better, so silver it was!  We bought 7 of them for the 7 drawers.  (Note:  We ended up taking 4 of them back since they didn't fit the holes on the bigger drawers.  If you don't want to have to fit your hardware to match the old holes, then fill in the holes with wood filler and sand it before you begin painting.  Lucky for us, we took the 4 small silver pulls back and exchanged them for the 4 bigger silver pulls.  They fit perfectly!)

I used paint I had from some leftover projects found HERE and HERE.  This is the primer I used:



I like this primer because it acts as a bonding/sealing agent.  You don't have to do any sanding at all....which is priceless in my eyes.  You just need 1 coat.  It doesn't have to be opaque.



This is the paint I used.  2 coats.

So once we got home and got busy, we pulled all of the drawers out, removed all of the hardware and got busy.  Adam mostly painted the frame, and I mostly painted the drawer fronts.  I didn't paint the sides or insides of the drawers.  Didn't want to worry about the inside getting scuffed up.  No worries, I wore my mask!

Primer!

Passing the time in between coats. :)

We let the primer dry for an hour before starting with the paint.  We waited about 3-4 hours in between paint coats. 

We actually didn't get the dresser moved in that same day.  Life got busy, and a week later, it finally got moved from our garage to the nursery.  Are you ready for the final product?  Here it is!!!!!!!

I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!!!  I love it!!!! 

Here is the cost breakdown:

Primer- left over from a previous project $0

Paint- left over from a previous project $0

Brushes- left over from a previous project $0

Dresser- free from my parents

Hardware- About $35 including tax

Total Cost.........$35.00!

That's a savings of $600 since we didn't go with our first love.  Sweet! 

What do you think?  I can't wait to get it filled with clothes and diaper changing supplies!  Thanks for reading!