Master Bedroom/Nursery Combo

Better late than never, right?  :)

Plus, little guy is actually starting to get on a napping schedule, so I was able to take a few photos yesterday.  Did I say a few photos?  There might be more than a few.

Here is where we started.

It actually wasn't a bad color.  However, it was a very relaxing, almost dreary color, and I need all the help I can get to wake up in the morning.   The carpet was in good shape, as was the ceiling fan.

 The room had a large, beautiful window, but not so beautiful window treatments.

 The double doors lead into the bathroom.

Here we go!

We painted the bedroom door black, just like the rest of the doors in the house.

For those of you who are new around here, we decided to do our nursery in our master bedroom because all of the secondary bedrooms are upstairs.  I didn't feel comfortable with having Liam so far away, nor did I feel like climbing the stairs numerous times in the middle of the night.

After the baby moves upstairs with his brothers, we'll do some rearranging again.  We might leave the bed where it is, or we might move it in front of the window.  That placement would actually give us room for some decent nightstands.  We're sort of smooshed as is.

The framed fabric wall was a DIY project that you can read about Here.

I also made the Euro Pillows on the bed, link Here.

Ignore the ugly fan and cord where it is plugged in.  We've all been trained to sleep with a little white noise, and Liam is no exception.  You have to do what you have to do when there are blog photos to take! ha!

The lamp I picked up at Marshall's Homegoods.  I couldn't resist the coral shape.

I'm thinking about painting the black base white, what do you think?

We replaced the two miniblinds on the windows with one large shade.   I then hung Ikea Vivan curtains on each side of the window.  Finding a rod to cover that span of space would have been difficult and expensive.  There are actually four panels total, for a little fullness.

The rug is a Pottery Barn Kids outlet find.

I painted the diaper changing table red, which I think adds a nice pop of color.  You can read about that project Here

The changing cover came from Target.  I used baskets that we already had to hold diapers and burp cloths.  I purchased two large tin containers from the paint section at Lowes, that hold blankets and pjs.

The chair was my first major slipcovering project.  You can read about that post Here.

I made the art for the side wall, details Here.

The mobile and baby bedding were also a DIY projects.

Mobile post Here.

Baby bedding post Here.

Painted circles on wall, Here.

As you can see, the room isn't completely done.  The bathroom doors are still off white, and have brass handles, but until we have the time and funds to tackle the bathroom, they'll probably stay that way.

There you have it.  Not the most conventional of spaces, but sometimes you just have to do what works for your family.  At this stage in life, this is what works.

Thanks for stopping by!

:)  Courtney

Dropcloth Slipcover.

Here she is!

And here she was:

The chair was made in a slipcover style, NOT an actual slipcover.  And, it had seen better days.   The ottoman is actually slip covered, and I plan on redoing that too.

On an easiness scale of 1-10, 10 being simplest, I rate this a 6.   It was actually pretty easy, it was just time consuming.   I went without any special cording or piping, as I just wanted to see if I could get the thing made at all, even in a simple form.  :)

It took two drop cloths to complete this project, which at around $15 each, cost $30.

Someone who is more skilled than I might be able to get by with only one, but I had to make a few extra cuts and had quite a few scraps.

My process was simple, and I really just figured it out as I went.  I'm sure a google search on dropcloth slipcover tutorial would come up with something for those of you who would want a step by step.

I did take a few photos along the way though, and here they are.

The easiest way to describe my method was to pin all of the pieces together, then just slip it off and take it over to the sewing machine.

Photo courtesy of my five year old.  haha.

Once sewn and trimmed up, it looked something like this.

I continued piece by piece until I had the whole thing sewn together, just inside out.

Then, I flipped it to show the right side.

At this point I still needed to finish off the bottom hem, so I pinned until it was level all the way around, and then double sewed a hem.

For the cushion, I created flaps, somewhat like a box and ties to hold it all together. 

And here it is in the Nursery Nook.

With the ottoman, that I haven't quite decided what to do with yet, haha.

-Courtney

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Diaper Changing Table Makeover!

Once upon a time, there was a Diaper Changing Table. 

This table was lovingly given to us by one of my old co-workers, when I was pregnant with my 5 year old son.  

When we moved last year, we sold off two full sets of nursery furniture, EXCLUDING this table.  For some reason, we kept it.  Then, when we moved, we stored it in my in-law's barn.  Then, when we moved from our temporary apt. to our current house, it lived in our storage building for a bit.   It finally came to a landing spot in our garage.   This is an interesting tale because this whole time of keeping the changing table, and moving it not once, but 3 times, we weren't pregnant, nor were we planning to get pregnant ever again. 

So, when we discovered earlier this Spring, -Hey, we're having another baby!- the only thing we had for a baby- at all- was this changing table.   No carseats were kept.  No clothing was kept.   No cribs, no blankets.   Just this dirty ol' changing table.  LOL.

And this is what it looked like:

It was so dirty, in fact, that I actually took it out to the waterhose and gave it a bath.

Whew.  Much better.

After taking a little liquid de-glosser to it, I painted it a lovely red, put a mocha glaze atop (which really doesn't show up..grr), and finished with a wax paste.

Next up- accessorizing the newly painted changing table!

See you then!  - Courtney

Blanket to Burp Cloth

I haven't posted the past 2 days because I've been busy completing projects and eating us through house and home. 

I'm right at 32 weeks, 4 days, and I've managed to only gain 13 lbs so far.  However, that is probably going to change with the way I've been eating everything in sight.

Seriously.  Someone come and lock my fridge.

I'm sure I had a point to this post...  Oh, yeah..  I've been turning flannel receiving blankets into these:

Flannel Burp Cloths! 

They're not the prettiest things in the world.  I've seen prettier ones backed with minky, but I'm a simple gal, so simple burp cloths it is. 

WARNING:  Sewing 101 here, haha.

I simply made a cardboard template of the size I wanted, traced it multiple times onto each blanket and cut out.  I pinned two of them, pretty sides together, and stitched around the edge.

Cutting off the corners allows it to lay smoothly once stitched.

About 3 inches were left unsewn, to allow flipping to right side out.

Then the open area was stitched closed.

Since I plan on washing these often, and I didn't want to have to worry about them always laying correctly at the seams, I decided to do a zigzag stitch, about a 1/2 inch in, all the way around the edges.

It's a cute little way of making sure the burp cloths always lay flat, and don't become messed up in the wash.

That's it!  Four small flannel blankets provided me with enough fabric for 10, double sided (extra absorbent) burp cloths.

-Courtney

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