Nursery Progress 7: the bedding

Call it nesting, call it a DIY drive. I felt like I needed to make something for this nursery. And decided it should be the bedding.

I followed these simple tutorials for crib sheets and changing pad covers using fabric ordered from fabric.com.

In hindsight, these were easy except for the threading of the elastic. Hello carpal tunnel! Could I have purchased these ready-made? Certainly. But I guess it wouldn't have that "mom made it for me" feel, right? I'm sure he'll be thinking about that right before he poops or pukes all over it.

If you're not the DIYer, lucky for you Target now carries crib sheets in just about every pattern I made:
Mini elephants
Gray chevron
Navy polkadot (I've seen in-store)

And, they're currently on sale for $9 a piece. Knowing this, would I still have given myself carpal tunnel to craft my own? I'd like to think so, but probably not. However, I wouldn't have coordinating changing pad covers, so there. And I won't remind myself that I could've easily fashioned the changing pad covers from the sheets...

The skirt is super simple. I feel guilty calling it a skirt at all. Since I only need it on one side of the crib (the ends being solid & the back up against the wall), I only hemmed a large rectangle of fabric. Then, I attached to the spring frame with binder clips. This makes it easy to adjust as the crib mattress height changes as bambino grows. I like a longer skirt, but Cricket likes to see the floor (aren't those storage bins sexy?), so it's short...for now. I could've used hem tape instead of the machine and this would've taken 10 minutes instead of the 15 it actually took.

I have grand plans to sew a coordinating teething rail once he gets here. But we'll see. I have the fabric, the polyfill, and everything else...it just takes initiative.

Nursery Progress 6: the dresser

Again, we are working with limited space so we need furniture to pull double duty. Our dresser will also function as the changing table.

To work with the crib's clean white lines, we were looking for something white with straight lines.

While I liked this one from West Elm, I struggled with the idea if spending that much dough in a white dresser that was going in a child's room. I mean, let's be practical.

After some antique shopping, I found a potential score. The height was dead-on perfect for minimizing any hunching over during diaper changes. The width & depth were just enough to hold a changing pad and fit in our space. (The top even had a ledge to keep the pad in place.) The drawers could open with a single hand when holding a babe on the table. The dresser could also be repurposed in another room in the future. And the price was about half of the retail option.

We had a friend refinish & lacquer it to match the crib, and it looks awesome! It took some time for the lacquer smell to diffuse enough so I could move the babe's stuff into it, so be sure to allow ample time if going a similar route.

The actual paint "color" is simply white primer. We determined it matched the crib best without being too yellow, pink, gray, blue, etc.

Nursery Progress 5: curtains

So this was easy peasy. I wanted navy striped drapes to frame the existing roman shades on the windows and to close off the doorless closet. These are really intended to be more decorative than functional since we already have the shades on the windows, and I imagine the closet will be open most of the time.

Enter, these navy striped sheet sets from Target. These are available in solid colors, but I chose the navy pinstripe. Cheaper than buying the fabric, and already hemmed.

I simply split each flat sheet lengthwise and opened up the folded top edge to create a rod pocket. I hemmed along the split edge and done.

By hanging the new rods high enough, I avoided any need to hem.

Now, I need to figure out something to do with the fitted sheets and pillow cases. Each set came in a matching drawstring bag, which I expect to use in the diaper bag for little toys or soiled clothes or something purposeful. We shall see. But the extra yardage from the fitted sheets could make for crib sheets or changing covers or something else down the line.

Getting there!

Nursery Progress 4: the crib

With the chair off at the upholsterer, we could focus on the crib.

Neither of us are tall and our room isn't large, so we wanted a smaller profile crib.

Unfortunately, most of the local stores only carry the larger, grand furniture which just wasn't a fit. We didn't want to break the bank, but didn't want to skimp on quality. It was tough to find cribs we liked that we could touch & feel vs just view online.

We were liking both the Babyletto and Baby Mod lines, both manufactured by Million Dollar Baby and similar except price points.

At New Baby Products, we were able to check out the Babyletto Hudson.

[my mom, aka "Gran," modeling the Babyletto Hudson in gray]

We decided to take a risk on the Baby Mod Modena based on the strong reviews and ordered it online knowing we could return it. Gotta love free shipping! The reviews all said it was easy to assemble, so we chanced it.

Cricket was concerned about it because, well, it was really inexpensive relative to the others. (And we ordered it from Walmart, which he automatically hates. I'm an Arkansas girl and grew up on Walmart vs. Target, so I'm pretty open-minded. He, on the other hand, would swear a Coca-Cola tasted much worse, had more preservatives, and was probably otherwise damaged if purchased at Wally World versus a gas station.) They also sell the line via Amazon, Overstock, and other retailers. The pick-up in-store was a pain, I'll admit. Maybe because it was so close to the holidays and people were setting up their layaway plans --  they use the same counter for pick-up & layaway. It would be easier if you could just take your printed receipt around back to pick it up, but I digress...

Mom, Coco and I put it together in a few minutes (J was distracted with his Lego fire truck). We kept it up a few weeks to make sure it was stable & secure. We weren't sure how we felt about the ends being closed vs. slatted, but once we got it into position in the room, it really didn't matter for our room's layout.

As a bonus, the model name is the Modena. My grandmother's name. She watched me a LOT as a tot, so it's like she's watching over our babe while he sleeps.

Winner!

Nursery Progress 3: the trophy wall

One of my fave parts of the nursery, and the original inspiration for the entire room as a modern, modified, safari.

These paper mâché animal heads from West Elm add whimsy to this fella's room without being too babyish. We bought the elephant & the hippo. I think the giraffe is a little weird looking - like something from "Avatar." And the rhino is BIG! The others were a bit too harsh with their spiky horns and all. I found the smaller metal ones at Hobby Lobby and painted them to match.

Quite a trophy wall for a tot, eh? When he dreams of wild safari adventures, he'll wake up feeling quite accomplished. Don't worry, no animals were harmed in the process.

Originally, I was planning on going with this rug from West Elm, too. But, again, a white rug in a baby's room had me concerned. I love the rug, but found this alternate from Rugs USA during their after-Christmas sale.  At first, I was hesitant about going with chevron. I like chevron, but we already have the infamous DIY chevron rug in the neighboring bedroom, and I didn't want to overdo it. But, my frugality won the fight. 70% off = awesome. It cost about $100, free shipping, no tax. Hard to beat, that.

After letting the rug off-gas on the porch for a few days, we moved it into place with a cushy pad underneath to give those little knobby knees plenty of cushion when crawling days arrive. As stated in the rug reviews, it sheds a good bit during the first several vacuum jobs, so we got those out of the way and it seems to be fine now.

Nursery Progress 2: the chair

Well, the clock is ticking and we're making some progress in the babe's room.

This chair was a Craigslist score for $35. Loved the lines and scale of the swivel rocker, but the worn gold velvet? Not so much.

A few yards of white cotton duck and a skilled upholsterer...

Voila!

Good times ahead...

Nursery Progress 1: the closet

With Thanksgiving around the corner, the future nursery was overwhelmed with baby stuff and my sister's sleeping space was quickly disappearing. We had to contain the clutter in time for her to have room for the blow-up bed.

We knew we'd need plenty of storage for all the stuff, and since the closet was formerly a built-in desk, we had some configuring to do. (I'm sure you're wondering...well, where are you going to work now? Why, thanks for your concern. Do not fret. A new desk was a big project for Cricket...which we've since installed and changed our mind about for space reasons and are in the midst of a replacement replacement desk project. Stay tuned for that reveal.)

After ripping out the desk stuff, we had to patch the wall. Which opened the door for painting the wall a fun color! Enter turquoise to brighten up the space. (Disregard the chaos...it WILL be contained!)

A closet kit from Home Depot plus a drawer kit and we're in good shape.We went with the shelf-track system so that we can easily adjust the shelves without tearing up the wall as the kid grows & needs different configurations. I'm sure we'll adjust the set-up once we know what stuff we have and get everything organized. For now, this works to at least hold all the generous goodies we're receiving as the baby bump grows!