The Nursery!!

So many of you for so long have been asking me to post the nursery pics...well here they are! Better late than never right? I don't want to say that the room is "done" because there are a few more finishing touches that need to get done, but for the most part it is complete!

Lets start with the before pics. It was a small guest room with light celery green walls. Believe it or not we had a queen size bed in this room!

We decided to do a complete overhaul and replace the fixtures, touch up the dry wall, replace the carpet, and re paint. Here we are (well Kay and our house helper) trying to decide on which gray to use.

And the afters! View from the entry door:

The crib:

View of the wall on your right when you walk in:

Dresser/changer combo with a cute vintage lamp I found at a antique shop:

The built in wall shelving (the lights still need to be replaced with white fixtures):

The pink chandelier, that I love!!:

I still need to hang all the wall art, and the 2 white shelves I bought for her room. The picture of the little girl is titled "A Little Bit Independent" and was in my room as a little girl, so it is very special. I am going to re finish and paint the frame white and the pink mirror is another antique find:

I also need to hang curtains in her room. I found these at Target which match the room perfectly, but they only had 1 panel in stock in the store, so I will have to order them. And I plan on adding another wall decal of her name.

And in case anyone is curious...

Crib & Dresser: Munire Essex Collection

Bedding: Dwell Studio Blossom Garden

Tree Decal: Neu Tree Wall Decal Sticker (purchased from modernwallgraphics.com)

Paint: Behr's Graceful Gray in 1/2 the color concentration. The original Graceful Gray was too dark, but it was the perfect hue so they lightened it by half and it was perfect!

Glider & Ottoman (even though you cant really see it in any of the pictures): Chanderic by Shermag in pink and white (purchased from csnbaby.com)

Hope you like it!

MAJOR Check!

I ordered the baby furniture today!!

This had really begun to stress me out because I was planning on ordering from JC Penny's which only takes a week or 2 to come in, but really started second guessing the style. It just seemed a little too bulky for the size of the room. Most baby furniture lines take anywhere from 9-18 weeks to come in depending on the brand. So I started to panic, thinking I should have ordered this a few weeks ago. Well today I got really really lucky and found out that the USA Baby near my house had a Munire collection in the finish we wanted in stock at their warehouse! So we bought it! It will be in a week or two. So here it is, the Munire Essex collection. We ordered it in white. I ended up buying the crib, and the combo dresser minus the hutch (we don't have room for the hutch, although I would love to have it). It will double as the changing table as well. Oh I am so happy I don't have to worry about this anymore.

Meanwhile, back at home today we found that the nursery needed much more prep work than originally planned. Along the wall with no window I found out that there was no electrical outlet, and that was just not going to work. So we had to install one today, but ah...its never easy around here. The wall right behind the drywall is cement to it had to be chiseled out enough to fit the outlet box. Not an easy job. They went ahead and pulled up the carpet and had a lot sanding, etc. to do. So this is what I came home to.

Needless to say, its not going to get painted today..but it is a work in progress!! And that's good enough for me : )

Who Knew?

There were so many different shades of grey! I walked into Home Depot with a very good idea of the color I wanted, but was overwhelmed by how many other colors of grey I liked for the nursery. I walked out with 4 samples, got home at painted away. Well they were all MUCH darker once they were on the wall. These are all pretty light looking colors, so I was shocked that they turned out so dark. Thank god for samples right? The four colors on the top are the original samples I brought home, and I really liked the last 2, but they were still too dark. So I went back to Home Depot this morning and they made the same colors for me but with 1/2 the concentration (the 2 shades on the bottom are the colors as the ones above, only lighter). The one I like best is the bottom left.

And here are the 2 lighter versions I narrowed it down to, but larger.

Ultimately I think I will go with the one on the left (Behr's Graceful Grey UL260-10). It has a more earthy undertone, where the other one has more of a blue/cool undertone. So I think it will match the bedding/decor better. Our house helper is coming over on Saturday to prep the walls and get started on the painting. I'm so excited!! I'll post pics when it's all done!

A Blank Canvas

Well here it is...the empty guest room that will soon become a nursery for OUR BABY. I still cant believe this is really happening until something major happens, like a u/s or like cleaning out the room that will be the nursery! So surreal that a baby, our baby, will be sleeping in this room. So the guest room is currently a light celery green color including the ceiling (it matched the room decor that was in there). I am going to buy some paint samples today and we plan to start painting this weekend! Then we will install new carpet, and baseboards! So here is the view of the awkward room from standing in the doorway (much narrower than I previously estimated at only 7 3/4 feet wide but 15 1/2 feet long):

A view from standing in the corner of the opposite wall. Facing the closet door, the door on the left, and the entry door on the right.

A view of the wall to the right when you walk in, huge window and built in shelves.

With the room being such an awkward shape, I still don't know where the furniture will be placed etc. I have found a few helpful sites like this one and this one that allow you to input the measurements of your room and add furniture to see what the layout will look like, so that has been helpful. Ultimately though I don't think we will know until we have all the furniture in there. But we are on our way...off to get paint samples now : )

Nursery Ideas!!

So this is my inspiration picture. I love it! Love the grey, love the pink, love the vintage feel, and LOVE the chandelier!!

Here is the bedding I ordered..It is Dwell Studio Blossom Garden, and the moment I saw it I knew it was "the one"! I ended up getting it 50.00 off, so I jumped at the deal.

A close up of the pattern

I plan on painting the room a very soft grey color like the one pictured below. With accents of pale baby pink and white throughout the room.

I would also love to put a tree on one of the walls like this one. Love that look and think it will go very well with my bedding/decor ideas.

So now that you have seen my ideas, I need your help! The nursery is very long and narrow..like 9x 11 or so (this is just a guess I could be way off). Anyways, its a very awkward small room. I am trying to decided if I should go with white furniture now instead of the espresso color that I was originally going to get? Do you think the dark furniture would just make it look smaller? Should I go all white to keep it bright? Or dark to contrast? What do you think?

Because Babies Need Stuff

I have started looking more seriously into baby gear and so far this is what I have come up with. I still need to test drive and look some of these items in person, but these are things I like so far!

Lets start with strollers:

The Bumbleride Indie stroller. There is a infant seat adaptor bar so I can buy just about any infant seat I chose and it will work with this stroller:

The Peg Perego Switch. I love this one because as shown in the pic below the handles are reversible, so baby can face you or away from you! Love that! check out the link for other uses.

Now onto bedding!

Here are a few boy options that I like. I have noticed that I don't like a lot of the kiddie looking prints, rather more modern or simple ones.

This one is from Pottery Barn:

Love the look of this one from Restoration Hardware, the whole look here really makes it:

This bedding and look is so adorable and soothing, including the crib (its one of my favs):

Girl options:

I really like this set, I have seen it in person and it is SO beautiful and unique! The swirls are velvet and it is really rich looking:

And this one...very feminine and again very plush looking:

Finally, this one from Restoration Hardware (love the satin!):

Lastly, here are some cribs I like, again just really started looking. I have not decided on anything yet, but I do know that the crib will be a dark espresso finish as the ones pictured below.

Not sure who makes this one:

The Tribeca collection by Bedford:

The Munire Newport collection:

The Bonavita Cabana collection:

So I would love some feedback from you all! Especially if any of you have any experience with any of these items/brands!!