The Nursery: Chapter 7 {hiding the junk}

If you remember from my first nursery post, our little guy's nursery is not a large room and it did not have a closet. Several months ago I showed you the DIY closet from the office side, well now I've finally hidden the mess from the nursery side.

Here was the before. {yikes! I know}

And here is the after

The ceiling track was $10 from Home Depot and the panels were $30 from Ikea. I added 1.5" navy blue grosgrain ribbon to the top and bottom. The shelf to the right was another DIY that I will post once I get it all nice and styled. AND I finally got my glider. I love it. It is the Rena Glider by Best Chair. I chose the Grade A Ecru fabric and had it organically stain treated. It's skirted so you cannot see the glider parts, which I love. The grand total was $540 and I think it's going to be worth every penny.

After looking at my draped wall I decided it still needed a little something.

So I purchased 3 yards of this Robert Kaufman fabric.

And I am going to add these guys via applique...

I photoshoped it first to make sure I would like it and I think I do. By the way, as of this past Friday, I am the proud owner of CS5...super excited!

So that's where I am today. Hope you had a nice weekend!

The Nursery: Chapter 6 {DIY art}

Last week I tackled some DIY art I had planned for the baby's nursery.  My very, very talented and creative friend Laura was the originator of this DIY. She posted pics of her baby's nursery on Facebook several months ago and I immediately emailed her to see if I could commission her to paint me the same painting she had hanging over her changing table. Laura is beyond a crafter like myself, she is an artist. One time after Mr. Sabbe and I had visited with she and her husband at their house, Mr. Sabbe made the comment "I think she might be better at this design on a budget stuff than you are." We almost divorced that day:)

When I found out that Laura's art was not a painting, but a manipulation of free online clip art paired with a bottle of decoupage, I decided I would give it a go. First I purchased a 24x36 canvas at our local art store for $8. Second, because I knew that the orange that I was trying to pull from in my rug would not come in an acrylic tube, and I am not a professional paint mixer, I matched the orange in the rug with a color in a paint deck. Then I took it to Home Depot and had them make one of the $3 sample paint jars in that color. Then I painted the canvas.

For the tricycle I took the same image Laura used into Illustrator and ran the live trace tool. Then I flipped it because I wanted my tricycle facing the opposite way on the canvas. I took the image to Kinkos and had them run a 20x30 black and white plot for around $3.50. HERE is the image if you are interested in giving this DIY a try.

I cut out the tricycle, covered the back in decoupage, and laid it on my dry canvas. Then I painted all around the edges of the image with more decoupage. You have to be pretty aggressive about smoothing out all of the bubbles during this stage. And because I wanted the tricycle to look as integrated as possible on the canvas, and the fact that decoupauge dries a little shiny, I then covered the entire canvas with a coat of gloss varnish (which I already had). And whaalaaa, DIY nursery art, for less than $20.

 See how well it goes with his rug.

I really like it. Our little guy does not have a window in his nursery, so I really wanted to do something bright. For a little girl I thought it would be cute to use the same image and have colorful ribbons, that looked like streamers, coming off the handle bars. Let me know if you give it a try!

The Nursery: Chapter 5 {crib sheets are easy}

Attention anyone who can turn on a sewing machine. You can sew your own crib sheets! This was such an easy project. I got the idea from this tutorial but then as usual, went rogue. A couple of weeks ago I found this Robert Kaufman fabric for 40% off at a local fabric store. I thought it be fun with the rug, so I bought several yards.

Step One: I laid the mattress over the fabric, left the full width and cut the top and bottom to match. Then I pinned the corners together and sewed. We went with a foam mattress, which is super light, and made this part of the project very easy.

Step Two: Once I had the fabric squared up on the mattress, I did a zig-zag stitch around the raw edges. I do not have a surger. I did this in lieu of folding a hem because the fabric is only 42" wide. I needed to maintain all the width possible or I would run the risk of it being too short on the sides.

Step Three: I cut four 10" pieces of elastic and pinned their center points on the four corners of the sheet. I sewed with a zig-zag stitch ,starting from the middle, and worked my way out in both directions. I stretched the elastic as I sewed, just like in this project. The result was a nice, fitted corner. And that is it!

The skirt was even easier. It still needs some tweaking. I will come back to that later. But the moral of the post: do not spend a billion dollars on cute crib sheets! If you can turn on your sewing machine, you can make your own crib sheets! And with all the fun fabric out there, the possibilities are endless!

Another Bonus: I like it so much, I'm no longer sad about going sans bumper.

 

The Nursery: Chapter 4

I am working on a nursery today for a new client, which is so exciting. But it of course got me thinking about the long list of things I need to do for my own nursery. So just a quick update.

Don't you love this kitchen?

So clean and fresh, with those amazing green pendants.

I think I'm going to DIY something similar for Baby Sabbe's room.

Orange because the rug from Chapter 3 had to go back. I ordered it, it arrived, I rolled it out, and it looked like constructions workers had walked all over it. It's also been a huge hassle to return. Do not buy that rug.

But it's already been replaced with this one. Cover your ears, but I'm usually not a big animal print lover and I know I have friends and clients who are laughing at me for buying this rug, because they know my opposition, but I love it. I never said never.

And here are a couple more things I am on the hunt for.

9 more weeks! tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock and I just took on two new projects! exciting times.

The Nursery: Chapter 3

I am a pretty decisive person, I really am. You have to be when you own your own design business. But I have been so indecisive when it comes to committing to design decisions for my little guy's nursery. I think it must be stemming from my nervousness about becoming a mother in general. Here is what I have committed to so far.

The paint color has been the paint color since we moved here this summer. It's Sherwin Williams, SW6211 Rainwashed. When we found out it was a boy, the first thing Mr. Sabbe said was "yessss, I do not have to paint the room." I'm not joking.

He did do a fabulous job of setting up the crib last week.

I am going to have to do the same drapery panel thing I did in the office. I may add some trim or ribbon around the entire perimeter on this side of the closet, we'll see.

I ordered the rug yesterday after emailing 8 different designer friends to confirm that I was making the right decision. What is my deal?

I have had my eye on the chair for a couple of weeks now. If you remember, I returned the Target glider after they sent the wrong color. I have a friend who has the Rena glider above. It's by Best Chair. She loves it and I loved the fact that you could choose from 300+ fabrics. I ordered it from a local store on Saturday with the "all natural" stain proof treatment, which will probably be best decision I will make for the entire nursery. With tax it came in right around $500. I was pretty boring with my fabric selection, but I figured this way I can use it for all the little Sabbe nurseries.

There are a million other things to consider. One big one is lighting. I have a floor lamp that I will probably stick in a baby proof corner. But I also like the idea of doing a couple of wall sconces instead, seems super baby proof. My sweet husband built the 9' tall shelf two weekends ago, it still needs to be painted, but I can't wait to put all of his cute stuff up there. Could you not stare at baby shoes for hours?

After reading this tutorial, I have decided to give a go at making my own crib sheets. I have already received a couple as shower gifts if that project goes totally awry. I am leaning towards something like this fabric, but I'm not 100% sure yet.

I will make a skirt out of the same fabric and we have decided to go sans bumper.

I may be aborting my wall graphic idea. I did a test sample in the corner and it was a little too busy. Although after seeing Britt's sharpie marker wall, I might have to give it another go. If you have not visited her blog, do not walk, run. It's awesome.

The only other thing I know is there will be bunting in some shape or form. There are some things I think I will always love.

That's it for today.

Nursery: Chapter 2 {Houston, We Have a Crib}

We registered for this one and then found this one for $100 less, total score. We love it.

The Nursery {Chapter 1}

How in the world am I almost 25 weeks pregnant! When I get back from the holidays I am going to crack down on this whole nesting thing. I have a list a mile long of things I would like to get done before we become a party of 3. If I shoot high, I'm sure to get at least half accomplished right? First up, clean the junk out of the future baby's room. For those who asked yesterday, here is a quick sketch I have showing how the one room works as two, plus some preliminary ideas for how I will layout the furniture in the baby's room.

And because I need to see everything 3-dimensional before I can commit,

I went ahead and built one of these.

So the room is windowless and pretty tiny, but I know city babies who sleep in walk in closets, so I'm not too concerned about that. We are attempting to cover the ugly plumbing pipe with custom bookshelves, and you've seen how we are separating one room from the other with curtain panels. The big goal with that is to give the humongous baby stroller a hiding spot when it's not in use.

As far as finishes go, I do not really have a direction yet.

Although I am pretty smitten with these Paper Boy wallpapers.

But these seem to be a little more for big boys, so I've been looking at other wall graphics.

Then there is always old faithful.

If I were having a girl, I would totally be DIYing this Dwell pattern out of contact paper,

minus some of the details.

 decisions, decisions.

On a sad note, my glider came last week. Wrong color! Bad Target, bad Hiatt Furniture. Not good for a future mama who is trying to check things off her list. I sent it back and am considering canceling the order all together and getting the Rena Chair by Best at a local store. That way I can custom order the fabric.

Lastly, can someone give me the 411 on crib bumpers? Aesthetically, I want one, but I have read enough about them to make me terrified of them. BUT everyone seems to have one. What's the deal?