Nursery Reveal

I will soon have a progress post of our work on the master bedroom remodel to share with you all - it's slowly but surely coming along (baby steps ;o). Although we are making remarkable strides lately and my father (and Bryan) swears it will be done by the time Owen arrives, I am not holding my breath. I am sure that it will be done soon, but probably not within the next month.

Luckily - as I've reported in previous posts - we have gotten most of the work done in the nursery (which is still currently acting as our bedroom until the remodel is finished). I am so glad that we did get so much done, especially now that is looks as though the remodel may be taking longer than originally planned... I cannot imagine painting and finishing a nursery this pregnant or with a newborn.

I've given you guys some "sneak peeks" of the nursery progress and even shared our original design plans with you... although we're not quite ready for an official reveal just yet, I'm also not sure when we will ever be. So in the mean time I did want to share some pictures with you guys :o)

Note: please excuse the tight angled shots and our bed poking into some of them - unfortunately our bed does take up a majority of the room and so it's difficult to get good pictures with such a complicated setup.

 The quote plaque hung on his nursery door.
It's from Winnie the Pooh, and it reads:
"sometimes the smallest things, take up the most room in your heart"

 The piece de resistance - the accent wall - LoVe how this turned out!

Also seen on the left is the changing table with Winnie the Pooh art prints hung over top.

 A better shot of the Winnie the Pooh art prints, hung over the changing table.

Below are some shots of his full drawers in the changing table...

First aid and grooming kits, diapers and wipes.

Organizer with socks, booties, binkies, hats and mittens, swaddle and receiving blankets.

Hooded bath towels, washcloths, burpies and bibs.

The other side of the room...

  Dresser with his name hung above and glider with paper lanterns hung above.
(the dresser is currently housing our clothes lol but all of Owen's pants, various other layette
and bigger sized clothes will eventually go in there instead)

 And of course the infamous baby closet!
(you can see all of his pants, various other layette and bigger sized clothes
sitting on top of the shelves, waiting for their space in the dresser lol)

There are obviously a lot of things still missing from this nursery (most obviously the crib lol), most of which are currently being housed in our other spare bedroom slash home office. But they are all larger items (pack 'n play, bassinet, bouncer, jumperoo, swing, stroller(s), etc.) that really have no place else to go until our remodel is complete. So there they will sit, until that day comes (hopefully very soon ;o).

This month or next!!!

Whoa - I cannot believe I am saying that...

Owen could possibly be here this month, and will definitely be here next month!!!!

Where has the time gone? July felt like it flew by!

In light of this realization, I have definitely been bitten by the nesting bug! All I want to do is spend time preparing for his arrival - this pretty much reinforces the fact, that I am now officially useless at work (sorry guys!) lol

We went camping with friends this past weekend, which was nice and relaxing - our best friends are also expecting their first due in November and so there was an ample amount of baby talk. But overall it was just nice to have no schedule and/or commitments for the entire weekend. Saturday was gorgeous and us ladies spent the afternoon sunbathing in the water = HeAvEn!

But needless to say, after a nice relaxing weekend... when we arrived home on Sunday afternoon, I was in full force nesting mode! And despite being dirty, exhausted and having a TON of laundry to do (all of which I remedied as soon as we walked in the door) I did manage to get Owen's closet completely organized!

(apologies for the SUPER crappy iPhone picture quality)

We still have another shower coming up in a couple of weeks, so I can't officially declare anything "finished" until after that. Plus, we'll still have to go shopping to pick up the remaining items on our registry as well. But I feel like we're in good shape and pretty much ready for him to be here!

Nursery Sneak Peek 2

We taped off the grid for the accent wall in Owen's nursery last night :o)

I'm so excited to start painting - I just want to see what it looks like all nice and finished!!!

The taping took a little while to do (which we were anticipating), in order to get all of the math/measurements correct and the tape lines as straight as possible. Hopefully we did a good job, but it looks good so far!

Saturday should be paint day and then we can take the tape off on Sunday!!!!

So stay tuned for the BIG reveal... of the paint job at least ;o)

Nursery Sneak Peek

I've had "The Plan" for Owen's nursery for some time now and have just been itching to get started on it.

As most of you know, we have been waiting to finish our second floor master bedroom remodel and for us to move up there before starting anything in the nursery - primarily because we're still living in what will be the nursery lol

Well time was going by slowly and we were making progress on the remodel, but now it seems as though time is starting to speed up and I am going into panic mode :o) My nesting instincts are kicking in hardcore and I am just dying to get his nursery put together! I know that he wont even sleep in there for the first few months, so I actually have more time than I realize... but I just want to do something and plug into my creative outlet so badly lol Plus, I am soooooooooo tired of all the boxes of nursery furniture laying around my house! Between the slow accumulation of supplies and gear for Owen AND the remodel, I want my house back in order in the worst way!

So a couple of weeks ago, we finally went out and purchased the paint samples for the nursery. I figured at the very least I could put some discrete swatches on the wall and see what they were going to look like.

Well... we bought the paint and completely skipped the swatches stage lol

This weekend my amazingly wonderful BFF came over to help me all out paint the nursery :o)

If you'll recall - this is what we're going for...

I knew it was going to take a few sessions, because the first layer of paint would have to dry completely before we would tape off the grid to start working on the multi-color squares. And so that's what we did...

Just a small preview of what's to come ;o)

We painted three walls a very bright yellow (what a change from the light blue that we've had in there for so long) and the fourth wall all white, which is where the grid and multi-color squares will eventually go!!!!

The valance that you see here, is the pattern for his bed set and the inspiration for the room.

The paper lanterns will eventually be hung from the ceiling in the right corner of this picture, over the glider.

And of course our bed, which is taking up most of the room right now, will be moved out of there.

I am sooooooooo excited to continue working on this project - tonight we are hoping to get some of the other pieces of furniture put together and hopefully into the room. Since we are still technically living in there, daily functioning has become somewhat of a challenge without our own furniture. So the plan right now is to assemble some of Owen's furniture and use that until we can get upstairs.

Until then and as we make progress, I will continue to entice you guys with small tidbits like this one here and there ;o) But nothing too major until the entire room is complete and cleared out of all of our own belongings.

Stay tuned...

The Plan

I have been itching to start working on Owen's nursery - it's killing me that we have to wait until our remodel is complete, before we can move our things out of the room and start working on it for Owen! I'm so impatient lol

In an attempt to ease my nursery and nesting itch, I've been slowly planning what we will do to the room once it officially becomes available. You'll recall from my previous Inspiration post, that I have a bunch of ideas already in mind. So I put them together in a (amateur) visualization, just so that we could get a better idea of what it would look like all put together.

the left side of the room, with accent wall

the right side of the room, by the closet and doorway

My apologies for my poor computer skills (I am sure there is a better program and way to have done this), but computer guru/CAD drawer/architect/engineer I am not lol So this is the best that I could come up with.

But I think it really helps to visualize what the room will look like.

We were having a difficult time deciding on colors, and these pictures really helped us put that debate to rest.

The room is currently a light baby blue color and once we found out that we were having a boy, the thought of keeping that blue on the walls crossed our minds. But if you'll recall from my other posts, I have always wanted a gender neutral nursery. My lifelong plan has always been to have a gender neutral nursery that all of our children could use - once the baby grows up s/he would move into their own big kid room and get to help decorate that space, while the new baby would take over the nursery. Logically and financially, this just always made the most sense to us and I am determined to stick with it at this point.

And now that I can see and visualize what the nursery will look like, I think it's a perfect balance of gender neutral that all of our children will get to enjoy for years to come :o)

Disney

I don't know if it's because we have a little one on the way, or what. But lately I have been obsessed with all things Disney! I've always been a fan of the Disney classics and collected the videos over the years. We're now currently in the process of collecting the BluRay editions, as they are released.

Regardless, I would like Disney to be a big part of out little one's childhood years. We've already begun with the Winnie the Pooh elements in the nursery, and I have been searching for ways to take it even further.

Another design element that I really like for children, is fantasy - I feel like every child should grow up with a limitless imagination. My own favorite things as a child, were based on this concept of fantasy and adventure - I would like to pass that along to my child now.

While pondering this concept, I came across this artist and his beautiful pieces of artwork:

This is a series done by Thomas Kinkade, and I just think that he does a fabulous job of capturing the fantasy and magic of Disney. The colors and composition are just so imaginative and whimsical - I love them!

I only wish that he had done even more of the classic Disney films and characters...

I would love to put these up in a playroom at some point. After we finish our master bedroom remodel, I would like to finish part of our basement and make room for a permanent play area and theater room where these pieces might be displayed. I think they would fit perfectly in a space such as that.

Pooh Prints

Last week the Winnie the Pooh art prints that we ordered for the nursery arrived in the mail - they're perfect! Exactly what we were looking for! The colors in the prints are just so vibrant, and they really match the colors of the bedding set that we picked out.

So today we went out in search of frames, with which to display these art pieces. The nursery furniture that we ordered is an espresso color, and we knew that it would be difficult to find an exact match for our frames. So instead of obsessing, we did the best that we could. We got lucky and were able to find some very inexpensive frames at Walmart that, although aren't an exact match, are close enough to look great with the wood of the rest of the pieces in the room. So, here's the finished product(s)...

Sorry for the poor quality picture - this was taken with a cell phone.

But don't they look great?! We couldn't be more thrilled with how they turned out!

All together, each framed print only cost $10!!! Already assembled sets cost upwards of $100 for something very similar. I was glad that we were able to do this for so cheap, and honestly I think they look great (if I do say so myself ;o)! And of course, they're exactly what we wanted for the room :o)

Inspiration

I have slowly been collecting ideas and inspiration for our nursery - unfortunately, we cannot actually put any of these plans into practice until we get the upstairs remodel finished lol So in the meantime, the ideas and inspiration continue to pile up and so this seems like a good place to compile them :o)

If you'll recall from a few posts back, we've already purchased our nursery furniture. We decided to go with a nice dark wood, and will add pops of color throughout the room to brighten things up.

We've also already purchased our nursery bedding set, and have gone with a multi-colored gender neutral ensemble. We're hoping to get a lot of use out of our nursery gear, and use it for any future children (of any gender) as well. So this is the set that we purchased:

For the wall color, we've decided to go with a nice and bright gender neutral yellow. Green with another option, but we already have green in the office across the hall and so I wanted something different.

Something else we would like to do is an accent wall, to go behind the crib. We've finally decided on a multi-colored square accent wall, which will be painted to match the colors of the nursery bed set.

And finally, I wanted there to be some sort of running, consistent theme throughout the room. As a child, my favorite character was always Winnie the Pooh :o) Now, I've searched high and low for tasteful Pooh themed nurseries and most of them were just too tacky for my taste. As a result, I've decided to just add some subtle Pooh accents to the nursery theme and decor that we've already decided on.

So far, I've registered for Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals, blankets, toys, etc.

We also recently purchased these beautiful and colorful art prints to hang on the wall:

I just love the colors - they go really well with the colors in the nursery bed set, as well as the colors of the squares that we will be painting on the accent wall! Plus, they're super cute and so it's a win-win situation :o)

We've also thrown around the idea of adding a vinyl wall decal somewhere in the room, featuring a quote from Winnie the Pooh. But that idea has yet to be formally accepted and/or decided on at this point.

Another touch we are considering, is attaching multi-colored paper lanterns to the ceiling above the rocker.

This pictures makes the concept look a little too busy, with two clusters of lanterns. Ours will only be one single cluster over the rocking chair, so I think it will have a different effect. We're hoping that it will carry the colors across the length of the room - the accent wall, nursery bedding, and Pooh art prints will be on the left side of the room, while these paper lanterns would be on the right side.

I also like this clock, but I'm not sure if it's a little too modern contemporary for the room.

Soooooooo... what do you guys think???

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions???

Furniture

Given our history with regards to pregnancy, I continue to find myself a "little gun" shy this time around. I know, I know... I've been reassured numerous times by medical professionals that things are in fact progressing well and that our chances of losing this little one are less than 5% now that we're this far along and have a strong heartbeat. But I still cannot seem to get myself out of this nervous state and from what I've heard, that is in fact very normal for being pregnant after a loss.

No less, as we reach the end of the first trimester and begin our venture into the second trimester - I am trying to reassure myself and get more excited about the fact that we will be having a baby in 6 months.

Along with that, comes the first baby related purchases. Again, given our history I swore that I would wait as long as humanly possible before buying anything for baby (even if that meant shopping after s/he arrives lol). The thought of buying something, tragedy striking again, and then having to look at said purchase afterward is simply too much to fathom.

BUT... we recently came across a deal that we simply could not pass up. I don't know how many of you have been furniture shopping recently, let alone baby furniture shopping, but that stuff is expensive! And most of it isn't even made from real wood anymore! So we've slowly been browsing the larger baby related items, getting a feel for what we like and don't like. Most of the furniture sets that have caught our eye, come in at well over $1,000 - yes, you heard right... that's one thousand dollars for baby furniture! Regardless, my mother has graciously offered to buy a furniture set for her future grandchild and I simply could not bring myself to give her a price tag of that magnitude.

So I had been doing some looking on the JCPenny website (they're currently clearing out all of their last year's stock to make room for this year's new models) and enjoyed seeing a lot of their beautiful sets on sale. Still a little gun shy and not ready to commit, I was merely window shopping. Until yesterday, that is... a lovely mom-to-bed on one of The Bump message boards that I frequent, posted a promo code for 15% off at JCPennys. On a whim I took the code to the website and plugged it in to see what (if anything) it could do for us and much to my surprise it presented us with an amazing opportunity. One of the sets that we had our eye on, that was already on sale/clearance, allowed us to use to 15% off promo code AND would do free site-to-store shipping!!! We ended up snagging a beautiful 4-piece set (convertible crib, dresser, changer, toy chest) for only $863!!!

How great of a deal is that?!

We couldn't be more thrilled (and neither could my mom and her checkbook lol). Even despite my weariness of too soon baby purchases, I am so happy about this deal. We still need to finish the upstairs remodel before we can actually begin work on the nursery (since we are currently occupying the baby's future bedroom), and so the furniture will remain in pieces in the boxes until this summer - which made this whole idea a lot easier to swallow - but we simply couldn't pass up a deal like that.

So, without further ado... I present to you, our nursery furniture!

 

The set is the Hartford Collection in Coffee from JCPenny, and we snagged all 4 pieces for only $863!!!

Not too bad, if I do say so myself ;o)

The website says that in-stock items usually arrive at the store within 4-7 business days, and so we're expecting a call sometime next week for us to come and pickup the furniture from the store. After that it will simply sit in storage until we're ready to start working on the nursery.

First official baby purchase - check!

T-minus 29 weeks and counting!