nursery and big boy room before and afters

now that i finished the baby's blanket and crib skirt and z's blanket, i am officially done with their rooms.  so i thought it would be fun to check out some before and after pics of the nursery and z's big boy room.  first, for z's room, we were going to kick him out of his crib and use it in the nursery, so we wanted to transition him into a bed.  initially i thought we would do a floor bed, and then i thought we could do a toddler bed, but when i started thinking about A) our budget and B) what is the most efficient option.  so we decided to get a twin bed and forgo the frame for now, and just put the mattress on the floor like the montessori style floor bed i was thinking of initially.  that way, when he is a little older, we can just buy a twin bed frame and he can sleep in the twin bed for a long time, rather than buying a toddler bed and then having to upgrade again.  we had an expedit 1x5 shelf in the corner of his room and i envisioned lying that on its side.  that way it would be more like a cubby, we'd be able to store his toys in the cubbies and we would be able to utilize the top like a benchtop to use as a coloring surface or to put toys on top of or whatever, it can evolve to suit his needs as he grows.  that's basically what i wanted to do with his room---make it so that it will grow with him.  so i chose a more "mature" color palette of blues and greens---i wanted to paint a wall of navy blue stripes and a few kelly green stripes for accent.  i also had my eye on the leaf canopy from ikea, and i knew that i wanted to make a little reading corner for z.  so it all just kind of came together to make a reading corner using the leaf canopy with some pillows/cushions underneath and his books nearby.  i went back and forth on what color to paint the rest of the room.  of course, my mind goes to gray.  and i'm sure it would have looked great, but if i did that, then everything in the house will be gray eventually.  and i didn't want to paint the room a dark color because it's a pretty small room and doesn't get a ton of natural light.  so after lots of internal debate, hahaha, i decided to just paint it white.  i was concerned that the white walls, trim, doors and everything would be too blah.  but then i went onto pinterest and checked out other white walled rooms.  i was reassured that if i layered in enough things with color, that it would be fine.  i considered painting the inside of z's closet or the closet doors to inject some color into the room but i didn't want to have to repaint at some point.  anyway, we picked up some curtains at ikea, i colored in some parts with fabric marker, i printed some "free" art printables and framed them, made some name art, framed some family pictures, found a fun map of the US.  we had some problems with painting the stripes on the wall as i talked about in a previous post, so i just painted a large stripe and two smaller green ones and called it good.  we added am ikea 1x4 shelf in his closet and added some lower rods so that we could hang some clothes down closer to his level and he will be able to reach them and pick things out when he is more able to dress himself.  oh and then i found a simple lamp to put on top of his dresser.  once everything was in there, i decided the white on the walls was a good choice.  so the room is versatile enough to grow with him without having to change too much.

z's new blanket

i love this fabric!

the lamp makes this area look finished

before and after of z's nursery/big boy room

for the nursery, i also wanted it to be simple enough that it wouldn't be too nursery-ish when the baby got older.  i wanted it to be calming but also a little fun, whimsical.  and i didn't want it to be pink or purple or something that would get annoying or too gender specific.  i had a general idea of what kinds of decor and color scheme i wanted to use, but again was stuck on the wall color.  i was thinking of a nice, calming light blue/aqua-ish color, but i got a bunch of samples and didn't like any of them.  i finally just settled on gray, and while in line at lowe's paint department i remembered i loved a color by benjamin moore called moonshine.  so with a leap of faith, without testing it out, i had lowe's color match it for me.  when i first started to cut in with the paint, i was a little nervous because it was reading like a greenish khaki and i didn't really like it.  i was hoping that once the entire room was painted without the influence of the bright blue that the walls were, that the gray would look better.  and once the second coat was up, it looked great.  and now that everything is in the room, the gray wall color looks exactly like what i wanted.  i'm excited because that will probably be the color that i choose for a lot of the rest of the house.  anyway, we reused z's old crib, the rocking chair that was in his room, the small 2 drawer dresser and got a new dresser and rug.  the decor easily fell into place for her room, i had some things that i wanted to use of sentimental value, picked up a few things and made a few things.  we did the same thing to her closet that we did in z's room.  so even though hubs will tell it differently, we made over both of the rooms without spending a fortune.  i think we spent the most money on the stupid paint.  anyway, i'm so glad these rooms are done and we won't have to do anything to them again for awhile.  i just had this obsession to finish both of the rooms before baby comes because i figured after she comes, i won't have time or want to, and then i would always regret not doing them.

crib skirt and blanket that i made

i heart the crib skirt fabric!

simple baby blanket

more bird art

pinwheel art

second pinwheel art

before and after of office/nursery

other side

the front room is pretty much done for now, there is still a lot of things i want to do in the front room, but it will have to be done a little at a time and as we save up again.  but at least all of the junk is out of it, so it's clean again.  but in my head i'm planning the next things i want to do in that room as well as all the rest of the house, hahahaha.  but that will have to be it for now.  

the other side of the front room, which was a complete disaster while we were working on everything.  it is a little cluttered with those rocking chairs, and needs art and i'm going to make some toddler/baby play areas, but for now it's staying like this, and at least it's cleaned up!