Ready & waiting for Baby P!

We finally finished our nursery after many months of reorganizing, painting, and DIY projects! We are thrilled with the result but more so thrilled that it is complete – phew! Check out my earlier post on the things that inspired our design, I think we came pretty close. Here are some photos and links to what is what. Enjoy!

Crib – Babyletto
A special thank you to Brett's parents for this important piece of our nursery.  This crib is fabulous, it doesn’t take up too much space and the drawer at the bottom is a wonderful help for storage. We went with a crib which converts to a 'day' bed rather then a double bed mostly because of space issues as well as the look of the frame.  This was a perfect choice!
 
Bedding – A wonderful friend of my mother’s made this bedding for me and I couldn’t be happier. The fabric is Dena Designs and I ordered it off of Etsy here. This fabric is awesome, I love the simplicity and freshness of the design and it washes up great!  I'm so glad I came across this fabric designer online!

Mobile – Hand made by me using driftwood we picked up on our recent trip to the California coast and these sweet owls purchased off of Etsy here. I had every intention of making these owls myself however my belly won the battle on this one and finishing this project by any means possible became my main task so when I found these online for a great price I couldn’t resist. I should have started this DIY a little earlier in the game but am happy with the end result nevertheless.

Dresser – Awesome find off of craigslist. Good as new with a little updating of the handles.
We are getting a box made for the change pad to keep it in place and give it a bit more height but how awesome is a dresser with 9 drawers!

Crates – We got a fabulous deal on these antique crates and are using them for books. We put pads on the bottom but at some point might add small wheels so they can be pulled out for easier access.  I love this random accessory in the nursery as it is a touch of our personality (we frequent antique stores regularly) pulled into the overall design of the room.  A little piece of us, so to say.

Chair – A special thank you to Ikea.
I have to say finding a chair was my biggest tribulation in this nursery project. I searched high and low for a rocker or glider with a more modern design but may I just say bluntly - the really nice ones are wildly overpriced and I just couldn't justify spending so much money on a single seat. I have heard if you rock your baby to sleep they will expect to always be rocked so in the end I decided cozy comfort and price would win this battle. This chair is incredibly comfortable so I think we made a good choice plus we can use it in another room later in life.  I am still looking for a pouffe or small footstool.  This may be a project I take on after baby P. arrives with leftover fabric from the bedding.  

Tree Stump Table – I love the end result with this one.  Check out my earlier post on this DIY project.

Bench – Martha Stewart at Home Depot.
This little bench is so great and fits into the room perfectly. It is nice to have an extra seat and of course more storage doesn’t hurt anyone as well. I like the fact our baby can grow into this and pull out toys themselves or we can always move it somewhere else for another use. Multiple options with this one which is right up my alley! I ironed on the fabric animal shapes for a touch of added whimsy.

Terrarium –West Elm
I have become slightly obsessed with terrarium making recently mostly because of the many terrarium containers selling at one of my favourite stores, West Elm, which I just happened to have a gift certificate for.  I will most likely post on this again later as I have had so much fun putting a few of these together and think they make adorable gifts.

Pots, trash can, diaper bin – We got these at Ikea and Zellers. The large and small trash cans came together for $14.99 so we are using the large one for our dirty cloth diapers. We attached the pots to the wall with Velcro and added chalk board stickers to all. A chalk pen really helps the labels stay on. An easy project to help organize a messy space!

Accessories –  We have picked up many small items along the way since deciding on a theme for the nursery.  Some of our favourites are listed below which make the room more personalized - it's very 'us'. 


Owl - Pier One (so cute).  My mum bought this for us very early on in our pregnancy and I have imagined it sitting on a shelf in the babies room for months now.  It fits in perfectly.

Nikki McClure 'Collect Raindrops' Book - One of my favourite artists!  Brett bought me this book last Christmas and I can't think of a better place for Nikki's wonderful illustrations to be.  She also has a baby book called 'The First 1000 Days' which we bought and wonderful childrens storybooks my favourite of which is  'All in a Day'.  You can purchase these online or at Chapters.  If you live near the Beaches in Toronto you can also find many of her books at Ella Minnow on Queen St. E. (This store is so sweet!)

Zuny Moose/Deer Bookends (actually paper weights) - We found these cute little guys at Chapters over the Christmas holidays.

We are so excited for baby P. to arrive - any day now! - and with the nursery finally complete we are even more ready to meet our little one! 

Blurb.com

Today is day one of being off on maternity leave and I am trying to check off a few 'to do' items before this baby of mine makes an appearance or I can't move around much longer.  Number one on my list - organize our pictures from our California trip back in November.  I decided to try out Blurb.com an online photo book software as I read it is more cost efficient and since we had so many photos I knew we'd be adding a few pages to a standard book.  I have used Shutterfly, the regular apple photobook software and MyPublisher and I found Blurb really easy and a good bit cheaper as well.  There are great text options to use with Blurb which we didn't use this time around but my creative juices are flowing with future uses for this great feature.  Looking forward to receiving our book in the mail soon.

So day one - success, one thing off the list!  Check out our finished photobook below, it may take a few minutes to load.

CAL-I-FORN-I-A by November 2011 - Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Cambria,
Pacific Coastal Hwy, Monterey, San Francisco | Make Your Own Book

Stumped

Quite a while ago I was out shopping and came across this cute ceramic owl. I fell in love with it and had to have it, thinking to myself this would be so cute one day in our nursery. It sat on my vanity for a good long time before making its move into our almost completed nursery. So when my husband and I found out we were expecting and my brain started to envision the space it seemed natural to go with a more rustic, outdoorsy feel – organic and fresh so to say. (See my inspiration post to get a feel for the whole room.) When we were at the cottage over the summer I noticed a stack of tree stumps my father-in-law had started when he had to cut down a birch tree. I immediately thought to myself one of those stumps would make a really neat side table in the babies room and rather then spend the money on a store bought stump I figured I must be able to come up with something myself... and so my project began!

Tree Stump Table – how to:

Pick a stump, any stump – Whether you have access to trees which have been cut down or can solicit someone to help you locate a suitable stump you’ll obviously want your stump to be fairly flat so it sits properly.

Sand off initial dirt and other gunk found outdoors.

Place in direct sunlight to dry out.

Once all moisture appears to be gone bring inside to dry out as well.

Depending on the type of wood you use you may either choose to remove the bark completely or sand the first few layers down. Since we choice a birch tree I wanted to sand the initial layers off so not to lose the “birchy” finish.
 
We choice to white wash the whole log so as to give it a more whitey/grey look rather than golden brown look. We simply watered down white paint and layered until we achieved the look we wanted.

We were going to cover the stump with an epoxy which you pour over a surface and it provides a thick shiny layer but in the end we decided to go a more natural route and simply seal the service with a high gloss stain. The result is a glossy and finished but still very natural look.

Some may choose to have their table sit flush on the floor but we wanted a little height and therefore added small legs which can be found at Ikea. These are great if your stump or floor are a little crooked as you can adjust the height on various legs to allow the table to sit straight.

All in all a simple project with a terrific outcome. Happy DIYing!