Hey everyone! Well, I'm dusting off my keyboard and putting my blogging sweatpants back on, finally! I'm back & I'm really excited to show you one of the latest projects we've been working on, I've had to keep ALL clues of it totally quiet since it was to be a SURPRISE nursery makeover for our good friends, Sarah & Shaun. This is their first baby, and my friend Danielle and I decided our gift would be a nursery make-over! Don't worry, we did tons of detective work beforehand to be absolutely SURE they didn't already have something planned, and with the help of Shaun being our inside guy, we were able to successfully pull it off. We did this room, top to bottom, in ONE DAY you guys... That was the craziest day I've had in a long time, and let me just say, I slept VERY well that night. So originally we were going to do kind of a bohemian safari feel for the nursery... but luckily before we bought too much, Shaun told us that they were starting to pick out sheets & accessories that were more woodland, so we swapped gears...If you want to see what other ideas we had in mind, check out the
Pinterest page devoted to this room.
OK enough intro, let me show you the room! This will be a picture heavy post, you've been warned. I know this is out of order, but I'll show the finished project first:
Do you love those animals?! I do! Danielle and I made those, well sort of - we used
these wall decals from Amazon, but didn't want them just floating on the wall... So we painted up some canvases I had lyin' around, I'll have a whole post about it later. Having these done before hand was a huge help!
Curtains are IKEA (sadly I can't find a link, they might be gone!), as is the plant hanger - and the amazing blanket was made by Ralph's Grandma Lorraine, so sweet! And what a great match....
Sarah's mom refinished that rocker in all new fabric - what a pro! It came out amazing and matched the room perfectly. We made the chandelier above it from ripped strips of fabric. I like that it gives a nice soft light, and is literally soft... It was so easy, I'll post a full how-to on that as well.
This bookshelf was Ikea also, it's the
Kallax Unit with some simple accessories.
The doors are part of the available accessories, that magically they don't have AGAIN! Well, they do, just not in green. Come to think of it, we did this nursery in July or so.... which is right when Ikea goes through it's big annual change... it's making sense now... I SHOULD have built this beforehand, it definitely ate a good hour of the day.
This rug was from there too, it's NEW and called
Lattjo..Ikea really pulled through for us:
Now that I've learned I can't get those curtains anymore, I'm kicking for myself for not buying myself a pair! Haha.... Ikea loves to do that to us, don't they? I love the green leaves! Here's a close up:
This cabinet was built in already. Really useful for all the baby supplies they are going to be stashing. All we really did to incorporate it into the room was paint the wall around it, and add a curtain in matching colors. It sits on an inexpensive tension rod, so we were able to have that completely made before the big day & just popped it in. I had wanted to install all new cabinet hardware, but there are 19 handles on that beast, and this is a rental so....we chose to spread the budget around other ways.
Clearly, photographing small spaces is rough (for me at least!), so for a better idea, take a look at this video - side note, I had JUST gotten out of that chair that is rocking itself....no ghosts up in here:
And the before shots, just did a little four corner action....
Danielle caught me bloggin'.....
Sarah & Shaun had collected a lot of baby furniture already, and with that ceiling being wood as well, it came together really nicely! Especially for their woodland theme... plus, not having to paint a ceiling & trim was a MAJOR time saver. There were grand dreams of painting furniture at one time, but when you learn you have ONE day to do it, projects hit the chopping block REAL fast. Before I forget, the paint names we used are:
- Behr: Healing Aloe (S400-3) - paint & primer in one, eggshell.
- Behr: Moth Grey (N200-1U) - paint & primer in one, eggshell.
I started writing down codes for our paint that we buy. You know why? The labels ALWAYS fade off that can, and news flash - Behr likes to change color names. For the same color! But the code is supposed to be the same so, learn from me.
The paint is still a little wet in these photos, but it gives you an idea of the color:
Yea.... the shiny & the streaky... it was half wet here, it definitely looked better shortly after!
Quick side note - so if you've noticed there's only tape around the light fixture, you're right - we didn't use ANY tape! Just had the help of this
Shurline edger tool that you can get online or in most hardware stores. Just be sure not to overload it with paint, you can get drips that way. If it's your first time, play around on some test areas to get the hang of it.
Accessory wise we were pretty proud of ourselves. We scoured thrift shops, discount stores, and clearance racks for things that would work well in the room, or that we could easily make-over. Danielle was super excited to get them stocked up on baby books, she found tons at the thrift shop & scoured through them to find the like-new ones:
Bambi of course was in there... I wasn't sure if we were going to dissect the Bambi book to use as some sort of wall artwork - but once we were in the room we realized we had less space than we thought, and of course wanted to give THEM room to customize the place & grow into it. With a project this fun it was REALLY hard not to go overboard.
With the thrift shopping we really were just looking for foundation items, things to give us the headstart so we could tailor/redo/repair to go with our look. But as luck would have it, a gold lamp & a ceramic animal were found on our FIRST visit.... score!
The shade was destroyed, but I recognized the lamps label to be that of Target, so I knew any standard drum from them would fit, and it did:
This cute little baby bird light caught my eye right away, and it luckily worked! It was lime green with a gold trim, and it took me a good 2 or 3 days to realize it MIGHT actually be an Easter Peep? (Worst candy ever)..... Whatever, cute night light if you ask me.
Baskets are always useful, token white vase, naturally...
So I know I've mentioned IKEA a lot and I SWEAR I'm not sponsored by them or anything (I mean, I wouldn't say no.... call me Ikea! hehe....) but they had SO many cute stuffed animals for kids! Some of these are even puppets... so if you find yourself needing a haul of plus woodland baby animals, plan that visit.
Ok one last, funny thing, from our shopping trip.. so I'm going around the thrift shop, and I don't know if I was hungry or what, but we went to the frames area... You know, to see if A) we score on some perfect wall art or B) we at least get some cheap frames to do our own thing with... and this raccoon just stared into my soul...
Danielle humored me for a minute, then distracted me, but I kept going back... "Are you sure?" I'd ask, and she finally had to break it down for me, telling me it's very different than the rest of the room's style - which it was. So I agreed, then naturally rushed back to get it while I was being rung up. Well I did everything in my power to make it cuter, painted the frame black, tried to get the picture OUT of it that was glued in, just to clean it up a bit.... but that raccoon didn't want to budge. I stuck to my guns, brought it with us as a "just in-case" there's a lonely corner...
Meanwhile, Danielle was planning to re-purpose a picture frame they already had, that had 5 or 6 photo spots in it. When we got there and she wanted to put it together, the frame was GONE. Turns out, they got rid of it LITERALLY the day before we did this - so guess who came to the rescue? You know it - raccoon frame! Ah..... I just love when that happens....
The rest of it all came together naturally, luckily they already had a few light cord sets with paper ball lanterns on them, which are simple & give a really warm light to the room. We had taken inventory and measured the room MONTHS beforehand, and I'm so happy that it wall worked out in the end, and that we were actually ABLE to pull it off in. one. day. Great work Danielle!
As for their reactions? Speechless! Shaun already knew we were doing it but hadn't seen a THING...Sarah knew nothing, though later said she suspected SOMETHING but nothing like this... they walked in the door, there were tears... hugs... and then soaking it all in. Lots of oo's & aa's... We should have gotten a video but we were too in the moment! They loved it, which was a huge relief for Danielle & I!
Congratulations Sarah & Shaun on your first baby, Miss Georgia Rae, who's due to arrive literally any day now. Thanks for letting us invade your space & let loose with our creative sides, it was fun!
And thank YOU dear reader for reading to the bottom of this post! You my friend, are something special.
Back with a few tutorial posts soon for some of the projects you see around this nursery.
Cheers!
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