Trying to decide how to decorate my child's room was about as hard as naming her. I felt like it was going to define her personality even though she wasn't born yet. I wanted something classic yet fun. I didn't want anything pale and "relaxing". I wanted to be able to walk in and say "yep, it's a girl" yet I wasn't a fan of a ton of pink. But I wanted some pink. Super picky I know. That's why I don't suggest you wait until you are 6 months pregnant to start on your first child's nursery.
I finally decided on black and white with a"touch" of pink. But not baby pink- raspberry pink. Try explaining that to your husband. Once we agreed (aka I wore him down) it was time to go.
Let's just start with this- the nursery was our junk room and it was full of a little bit of everything, old high school yearbooks, suit jackets, video games, ALL of my shoes and more. The room is tiny, and kind of a hexagon shape. The previous owners used it as a study- there were at least 40 pictures and things hung on the wall and after they were taken off you could tell they smoked a pipe or something in there because the walls were yellow. There was also a 1970's boxy border around the top and all the baseboards and door were that ugly brown color. The previous owners showed no love to that room. Every other door and baseboards were painted white at some time so yeah- we had some major work to do.
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| Our fancy curtains |
More of our junk- two lamps that we weren't using anywhere, an old football helmet and pompoms, a broken tv and more Harry Potter and Twilight books than I'd like to admit (who am I kidding, I kept all those).
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| The awesome border. |
So needless to say this room needed some TLC. I take after my mother so I don't do anything easy and quick. We started cleaning the room out around Christmas. That took about a month. At this point it's late January and Kennedy is coming in April and I know"me" and I'm freaking out. We will never get it done I thought. Then one night after working a late event I came home to my husband sleeping on the couch and the light on in that room. I almost cried. My mom, his mom, brother, sister and himself cleaned the last of the junk out, and took off all the crappy border. They even bought some blinds and washed the walls. I don't even want to know how long it took them, but it looked- well- a little better.
Now it was time to paint. Geoff went out of town one weekend and let's be honest- we all know we get more work done when our husbands are gone so my mom and I jumped at the chance to paint. I went to the store with a very set mind. White walls, black trim. The pink accents would be in the bedding, rug and other things.
Wrong again- once we were at the store and I was looking at colors my mind started racing. With the help (ahem) from my mother, I walked out of the store with three colors. This is the picture I sent my husband:
Ok so the room needed some color. The one 3 part wall was just going to look too small so we ended up painting it a deep pink. I was scared to death my husband would hate it but he seemed ok. He was also 3 hours away and knew he would never make it back in time to stop me.
After three days of painting we finally got white walls and a pink backdrop for the crib. It was coming together. It somehow still took us another month and a half to paint all the baseboards black. That took some time and patience, something I didn't really have anymore come March, yes, March. I really know how to prolong things.
into this:
4 different fabrics makes a beautiful bed skirt and reversible bumpers. All you have to do is untie them and turn them around. It makes for many different ways to spice up the crib. Even though she doesn't have the bumpers on yet I absolutely love how they turned out. I love the whimsical patterns and I love that they don't match but more so coexist.
All that was left was a touch of "me" here and there. Since the room is small the crib fit snug in the indented wall, the changing table took up one wall, the windows took up the big wall and the closet was on the other bigger wall we had very limited space for anything else. I took a vertical shelf and simply turned it on its side to make it a long, short shelf that fits perfectly under the window. I bought pink contaniers to add some pop of color on that side of the room.
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| The little lamp? It's the unused one from before, a little paint and a new shade and boom- brand new. |
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| http://www.lunabazaar.com/paper-lanterns.aspx |
And I wanted some awesome pictures of her to fill up the giant pink wall so I waited until we got our amazing newborn pictures back from the wonderful eveeimages.com and hung them a bit off center right above her crib.
Just a few more tiny touches here and there:
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| A tiny picture of my sleeping beauty |
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| A bunny made by her Great-Grandma to match her room |
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| We took the original knobs off and got these at Hobby Lobby for a buck each |
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| A mirror right about her changing table so she can look at herself when we're finished with diaper changes. |
and voila!
A room fit for my little princess.
So it only took 5 months from start to finish, believe my when I say we hung the last shelf 12 hours before my water broke.
I really like the way it turned out. It is a long way from what it was and I think we did the most with the tiny space we had. Do I wish it was bigger? Of course. But we made it work. I should also mention though I don't have a picture, we took the closet door off and my talented mother made a beautiful curtain for it as well. Just one more way to make room (don't have to open and shut it) and add some pop and pizzazz.
And it's funny. Even though she wasn't born and we had no idea- her room does describe Little Miss. She's quirky and fun. She is bright and happy. But she's also classic, she's one of a kind. The room fits her perfectly.
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