The Nursery Chronicles

Our mountain paradise (we have trees and hills in our neighborhood so that means it is a mountain paradise) was not really decorated in my style when we saw it for the first time. 

When I decorate I usually like to scream COLORRRRR as much as possible all over my house. That is unless, of course, I am compromising with Scott who says that every room in our house does not need "Ikea Green" or bright yellow.

Below are photos of the previous owner's set up. This is the room that was to become our guest bedroom (later Cora's nursery). 

When we moved in we were on a major budget (you will learn this quickly about me and Scott... we are always on a major budget).
The guest bedroom (now the nursery) was not a top priority. So we painted it a grayish color, put up some curtains, made a headboard, threw all of our extra furniture in there and shut the door.

Until about 4 years ago I thought that having pictures framed was one of the most expensive things in the world. Luckily, I learned the "get custom matting, not custom framing" trick like I did here in the foyer. 
I also thought that headboards cost as much as a brand new car. The obvious solution to the $25,000 headboard dilemma was to paint my own on the wall.

Here is what our guest bedroom looked like after we moved in:

All of that random stuff you see in the background (including the out of place black and white table) are my decorating "extras." The wooden crate is somewhat of an anomaly. It may have lived on the wall like it is pictured for a week tops. There was a nail in the wall and a crate on the floor so I put them together. I wasn't a big fan of it but I guess I liked it enough to leave up there for a week and end up in a photo.

RANDOM, NOT RELATED TO THE TOPIC AT HAND, INTERRUPTION: 

I am staring at my video monitor as I write this post. Cora is trying to settle herself down for a nap. Things had been going so well in the nap department recently. But people do not lie when they say, "once you start getting the hang of the baby thing it changes." 

I have said this quite a few times already (here, here, here) but let me try it one more time... MY BABY WAS NOT BORN TO WIN THE GOLD MEDAL IN THE SLEEPING OLYMPICS. 

She is an amazing, little baby and I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have her in my life but a sleeper she is not.

OK back to the subject at hand which happens to be turning a guest bedroom into a nursery for my little sleepaholic.

I was very excited when I found out I was pregnant... for the obvious reasons. But I was also thrilled to be able to get my spazzy, little decorating fingers into that guest bedroom and get to work!

As of right now, the nursery is the only room in the house that is complete. It is so nice to have one room totally checked off my list!

Here are some photos of Cora's royal sleep dwelling!

There were a lot of steps to get this nursery where it is today. Don't you worry- I am going to go through every little step in some future blog posts for you.

Here is what you have to look forward to:

Step 1: Get rid of the old furniture and try out some more baby-centric duds for the room. Crib, bookshelf, and daybed.

Step 2: Convince my husband to do more painting than anyone would ever want to do in their whole life. Start the painting spree by painting over the headboard on the wall. Get a dresser/ changing table and refinish it.

Step 3: Get some more furniture. Start the decorating: Wire display for pictures.

Step 4: More decorating: Put up the book slings. Floating shelves.

Step 5: Decorations, Part 3: Hang art above the crib and all around the room

Step 6: Refinish side table and get a few more pieces of furniture

Step 7: Paint the chalkboard and mirror and hang them.

Step 8: Put up the curtains. Line the inside of the dresser with some of my extra fabric

Step 9: Paint the mailbox. Finishing touches.


I am so excited to share these with you!!!

I know there are some Saved By The Bell fans out there. Let's join together to sing Kelly, Lisa and Jessie's (aka the Hot Sundae) hit "I'm So Excited." You know you remember the episode where Jessie Spano starts taking prescription drugs in order to sleep and she gets a bit crazy.

The photo is from this article about the top 5 most outrageous SBTB episodes.

If you don't know it and you want to act like you were a hip 7th grader back in the early 90s you can check out the infamous clip here.