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!

How to paint furniture

Yes, I have been bitten by the painting bug lately.  I just told you about how I painted an antique.  Very soon I will be posting about how I painted my kitchen countertops!  But for today, I will be showing you how I painted our entryway furniture.  Here is what we're starting with!

I thought the messiness added to the "before." :)

We use this area for lots of things.  The top 2 baskets belong to Adam and I.  They house the things we need as we are walking out the door.  Obviously some other things got thrown in there as well.  The baskets on the second row belong to Heidi and the bills.  Heidi's basket has her harness, leash, bathing wipes (scented wipes for when she needs to freshen up but not a bath), and grocery bags for when we pick up her poop on walks.  Yes, we are polite neighbors.  The bills' basket has....bills.  AND....an organized binder where I keep track of our bank and credit card statements.  They are organized by month.  So at least that's organized!  The bottom basket houses newspapers that I have not cut the coupons out of yet.  I hope to start couponing soon!  Anyway, sorry for the "SQUIRREL!" moment.

Once again, I used my favorite primer that requires NO SANDING, NO MATTER WHAT. I love it.

This piece of furniture was difficult to paint because the sides of it have lots of different angles.

Here's what we're working with.

 I also had to paint the top of the underside of the shelves because when you sit on the couch in the living room, you can see that part.  I felt like Michaelangelo.  After 2 coats of primer, it looked like this!

So much brighter!

Then it was time for the top coat.  I used my trusty Rustoleum Painter's Touch paint that I also used on my antique table.  I used 1 coat on the whole piece and about 3 coats on the very top just so it would be nice and wipeable.

After letting the furniture dry completely in the garage for several days....ok, a week because I got distracted...it was finally time to bring it inside!  I cleaned out all of the baskets and put back in what we actually needed when we headed out the door.  Are you ready for this?

I love it!!!  It really brightens up the entry area, and it looks so beachy with the natural wood and white two tone look!

Details!  The picture was made on our honeymoon at dinner.  The basket is for putting our keys as we come in the door.  And the shell is not sentimental.  Just adds to the beachy look!

I think this has been my favorite project so far.  I really didn't like this piece of furniture before and was thinking about replacing it.  But a coat of paint was all it needed!  I love it!  Before and After?

What do you think?  Is there anything you are jumping to slap some paint on?

How to Paint an Antique

Going into this project, I was VERY nervous.  Like terrified.  I almost cried over it.  Almost. I had been wanting to spruce up this piece of furniture ever since we inherited it from Adam's grandfather.  It is a lyre table.  I didn't know it was called that, but my mom told me.  It has a beautiful marble top with wooden legs and details.  It was a gorgeous piece all by itself, but I am just not into the two tone look.  Adam reassured me that is was ok to redo this piece.  He said his grandfather would want it to be used.

After much coercing, I decided I could do it.  But I was so afraid I was going to ruin it, so I made sure to do my homework first.  I read tons of reviews on how to paint furniture. What kept coming up in my searches was this primer by Zinsser. 



Thanks, Home Depot!

  This primer claimed to cover all surfaces-metal, wood, laminate, plastic, etc. WITHOUT NEEDING SANDING.  It doesn't matter if the wood is sealed or has a coating or not.  I'll take it.  I hate sanding.  It sounds wicked boring.  So I grabbed a gallon of this from my local Home Depot.  I also picked up my top coat of paint that I had seen on a few tutorials.


I believe I picked up a gloss finish.  Either would be fine.

 So I got to work and started painting.  I used even strokes and a light hand.  I made sure not to use too much paint on the brush, otherwise the paint would get globby and drippy.  I also made sure not to have to little paint on the brush, otherwise it would look streaky.  After a 2 coats of primer, it looked like this.



Much brighter!

  After the 2 coats of primer, the surface was completely covered.  I only used 1 coat of paint over that since I didn't need any more coverage and just needed a little bit of a glossier finish.  I'm not sure where this table will end up, but for now I have it in the kitchen to display decorations.  We love it!  It looks more modern, but still very unique.

A little bit of detail...



Adam LOVES globes, which is fine with me!  I'm liking them too!



What do you think?  Do you dare to paint an antique?