...and baby makes three!

When the Mister and I got married, we had a three year plan.  In three years, we were going to get married, buy a house, and have a baby (in that order).  We got married in April 2009, and almost exactly a year and a half later we bought our house, in October 2010.  For those of you keeping score, that's two down, one to go, halfway through our three year plan!  So far, so good!  And  then... we found out I was pregnant, in January 2012! Hurray! (We modified the three year plan a little bit, from having a baby to being pregnant).

Baby K was due in September 2012.  As a first time mom, I wanted to get started on things WAY too early, and of course, the first thing I wanted to do was the nursery.  So as soon as we found out we were having a boy, I sprung into action, and dragged everyone else kicking and screaming along with me.

 

Baby K's first portrait! The photo that launched a 1,000 DIY projects and crafts.

The Casa has three bedrooms.  At the time, they were the master bedroom, the guest bedroom/storage room, and the Conservatory, which was the tiny third bedroom that housed all our books, DVDs, and Mister's collection of guitars and amps.  We debated moving the Conservatory into the larger room, and using the smaller room for the nursery.  We ended up making our decision based on lighting (the Conservatory gets CRAZY bright as soon as the sun rises, and we thought that would be a bad idea for a room where a small demon would need to keep sleeping). So we turned the guest bedroom into the nursery.

The problem there? The guest bedroom had previously been the bedroom of a 7 year old girl... who was obsessed with princesses.  Guess what that means!

Yep.  Pink.

So our first stop in the new nursery was picking out a new paint color for the walls.  Now, I'm not a traditionalist in any way.  Or at least I think I'm not.  So I wanted a color, ANY COLOR, other than blue.  Maybe a nice orange, some browns and greens... the possibilities were endless!  As it turns out...I like "traditional" better.  Guess what that means!

 

Yep.  Blue.

To be fair, it's a very dusky gray blue called Scottish Moor, which we both liked because it references Scotland (the Mister is very proud of his Scottish heritage, which is a bandwagon I was more than happy to jump on, especially after going to school there for a semester exchange program).  More on that later!

As you can tell, there were some other things that came along with the paint color.  When I decided I was going to go ahead and do blue, I had decided I wanted to do a blue and white nautical/ocean theme.  I love the ocean, especially after growing up on the coast of South Carolina.  I also have an obsession with chair rail (see the bathroom remodel).  When I decided that regular wainscoting was going to be way too expensive for our tiny budget, I decided to substitute it out for faux wood paneling done wainscoting style.  I personally like this look better.  Doesn't it remind you of an ocean-side beach house?

Much like with the master bathroom, we used the chair rail line to determine our paint line.  However, in this case, we left the Pepto pink under the chair rail line and covered it with the paneling.  To do this, we had to remove all of the baseboard (which I then repainted while four months pregnant, probably not a smart idea).  We put up the paneling, cut out the boxes for the outlets, and put the baseboard back on.  Then we capped the paneling with the chair rail.

All in all, the actual redo of this room was pretty easy.  Add a few finishing touches, and you've got yourself a baby boy nursery!  The nautical theme went as far as the colors and paneling, and then it just turned into boy/blue.

Dog poster prints on sale for $2 each at World Market.  Add cheap $5 frames and voila! Boy nursery artwork!

Scarf from the Scotland-USA friendly football match I attended while in Scotland.

Cameo by Baby K

The lanterns work for a soft light at night.

So.  Many.  TOYS.

Repurposed vanity, only change we made was new drawer pulls.

But do you know what I love ABSOLUTELY MOST about Baby K's nursery?  How many repurposed and handmade items there are, made by me or from friends and family.

Andrea, the artist, modeling her work.

Thanks, Pinterest, for the idea!

Repurposed from baby congrats card

Repurposed from baby shower gift bag

Also by me, also an idea from Pinterest.

     

Handmade by me!

     

Handmade by a friend's mom

Inside-outimal by Mrs. Wabi Sabi           

Made by me!

And remember how I said we ended up without a theme?  Well, you could almost say we ended up with a Scottish theme.  Along with the paint color and the scarf over the door, we also have this:

Giant sheep rug.

And this, from Etsy (also from a Pinterest idea!):

THOSE are the colors I wanted to do...

And the coup! An entire set of Scottish Highland Games implements, scaled down to Baby K size!  The Mister is an amateur Highland athlete, and this was a baby gift from one of his fellow athletes and his family.

And yet ANOTHER sheep.

So, that's the nursery!  The only thing I wish is that we had done more with the organization in the closet.  It is a hot mess!  There are baby  clothes everywhere!

A few notes:

@- Pinterest is AWESOME!  There are so many fantastic ideas for EVERYTHING.  My biggest board right now is for things I tagged while I was pregnant for pregnancy and awesome baby ideas.  I'm sure I'm going to have more than a few posts that are related to me trying something I found on Pinterest.

@- The last thing you want to do is believe that things only have one purpose.  The lanterns above our chair (Ikea Poang, btw, which we LOVE!) were originally wedding decorations.  We found them on sale $2 for a set of six, and they came with the colored ribbon we used to hang them.  Add a few AAA batteries, and you've got yourself nursery lighting!

@- Most of the time, you can make something chic and custom a LOT cheaper than you can buy it.  My friend Corinne (Mrs. Wabi Sabi) does a lot of sewing.  She not only made the Inside-outimal for Baby K, she also made me a set of custom blackout curtains using some fabric I found and a blackout curtain I found on sale.  You can see them on the bottom shelf of the changing table; I haven't gotten around to hanging them yet.  Anything is possible if you or a friend have some skill and a sewing machine! BTW - Mrs. Wabi Sabi sells her Inside-outimals on Etsy: WabiSabiSewing.  She also runs a website called Wabi Sabi Living where she puts up a great list of DIY projects for kids toys and sewing projects.

@- Speaking of Etsy, that's a great place to go if you're looking for custome, handmade items for cheaper than you can get them in the store.  My Scottie dog was custom made with his tartan to match the accent colors I was planning on using in the nursery.  Funny story behind that - she actually found ME on Pinterest after she saw a bunch of Scottie dog things I pinned for the future nursery.  A few messages back and forth later, and I had a custom Scottie dog pillow AND custom dinosaur car seat toys AND custom bird car seat toys for a baby shower!  Look around, you never know what you'll find!  You can find these items at her store on Etsy: PiffcatPillows

Can-Do and Mr. Can-Do had a baby.  Is he going to be Baby Can-Do?  I hope so!  It doesn't hurt to get them started early so it can be a habit that grows with them (:

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