Tag Archives: nursery

Feb1

Kenley’s Toddler Room

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Kendra G.

Psst. I’m guest posting with Amanda today about our cloth diaper experience,
head on over to Without A Doubt to check it out!

***

It was hard for me not to write nursery in this title,
but at the same time, it also feels weird considering this room a nursery since she wasn’t a tiny baby here.
It’s about to get a lot more grown up too when her crib is replaced with a toddler bed.

Here is a quick peek of what it looked like the day we closed on the house.

Greg quickly got in there to paint the entire room before we were set to move the next day.

This room is considerably bigger than her previous room,
so we were so very thankful to receive some hand-me-down furniture, that turned out to be perfect.
We also added a few more decor pieces on the walls since there is a lot more wall space.
You can revisit the source list here which gives you a good rundown of what we already had,
and I will note the new stuff that we added.

To give you a frame of reference, Kenley’s room is off the kitchen.
Immediately to the right of her doorway are the stairs going up (and child gate).
The third bedroom (now junk room, eventual second nursery), is immediately to the left, sharing a wall.

I am in love with the paint color. It is Pea Pod by Valspar from Lowe’s.
We did the faux wainscotting ourselves and the bunting flags were re-purposed
from Kenley’s first birthday party with fabric from her weekly photo project,
so I am very happy to use them again.

Almost the entire downstairs is tile, including the bedrooms,
so an area rug was a must. Her rug is from Urban Outfitters and it’s perfect.

I added the RIBBA shadowbox to our RIBBA collection,
and framed Kenley’s personalized onesie, bloomers, and flip flops.
It worked out perfectly that they are pink and green.

The little giraffe was a birthday gift from Misha, so adorable.

There are still a couple things that I would like to do:

We still have the little white Umbra flowers that haven’t made it to the walls yet.

New curtains would be awesome. The old ones aren’t long enough
due to the height of the window and ceilings, but I haven’t even looked for new ones.

The door handle to her room was broken, so we have already replaced it with a brushed nickel handle,
but the bathroom door and the closet door are still the lovely shiny brass.
Slowly, we’ll be changing over all of the door handles in the house, so those are on the list.

I would imagine we will be making the move to the toddler bed within the next couple of months.
I already have the bed picked out, and I think it will go where the crib is now, but we’ll see.

Her closet is insanely large for a toddler. I envision her loving it as a teen,
but I would like to put a little reading nook in there and make it all cozy.
It also could use some serious organization. I’ll spare you the photos for now.

We will also frame her bathroom mirror and get a new light fixture,
but I don’t think we will paint it. I’ll leave that to her to do when she’s older.

I was very sad to leave behind Kenley’s first nursery.
We put so much love and thought into that room to make it perfect for her.
I remember sitting in that room in the final days before her arrival,
wondering what it would be like with her there in my arms.
That room will always hold a special place in my heart,
but I love this room and I love that she is going to grow up here.

I am anxious to see how it will evolve for many, many years.

Jan29

DIY faux wainscoting

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Kendra G.

Standard

We’ve been in the new house for two months now and I’m finally ready to share a project!
When we moved in, the house was a complete blank slate, which was nice,
but also very intimidating. Our first priority was Kenley’s room,
because we wanted her to feel comfortable and help the transition.

This is how it looked the day we closed on the house.

We knew we wanted to do this room very similar to her old room,
but with the chair rail already there, we weren’t sure how to go about it.
I really love wainscoting, but that would have required us to take off the chair rail,
and the base board, and it was going to be a pretty penny, not to mention, time consuming.
We didn’t have energy to tackle that project, in the midst of moving & running after a one year old.

Instead, I came across this tutorial from The Idea Room and thought we could definitely pull it off.

We purchased the 5/8 x 1-1/4 x 8 edging at Lowe’s and went with the poplar & red oak finish because it was cheaper.
We were planning on painting it the same color as the wall, so it didn’t matter either way.

We liked how the boxes looked in the tutorial we found and decided to stick with their dimensions.
The boxes have 4 inches all the way around them; from the chair rail, the base board, the wall, and the next box.
Once we knew how much space, we measured each wall to determine how many boxes we will need.

I’m a visual learner, so I had to draw it out to get the gist of what we were doing.
Don’t look too closely, I’m sure there are some mistakes; and yes, I had to write out what 31 minus 8 was…
measure twice and cut once, right?

Once we started cutting the 8 foot long pieces of edging,
we realized we probably could have done it more efficiently,
to get the most out of each piece, but we didn’t so we just kept going.

As Greg was cutting the pieces, and Kenley was napping,
I thought it would be a good idea to start spray painting each piece.
At this point, Greg had already painted Kenley’s room white below the chair rail,
so my big idea was to just spray paint each piece and put them on the white wall.
That didn’t last very long.
I quickly became annoyed and decided to paint them once they were on the wall,
with actual paint and a paintbrush. It was so much easier.

Once they were all cut and half of them were painted, Greg started nailing them to the wall with a nail gun.
After he was done, I started painting them. Just for good measure, we did two coats of paint the whole way around.
We left it “almost done” for a while, so let’s fast forward through the holidays…
Once we came back to it, Greg caulked any of the open spaces around the wood and the nail holes.
It probably would have been best if we reversed the process and caulked before we painted,
but we started this project on Thanksgiving, the day after we moved in, so we really didn’t think about it.

Overall, I love how it looks!
It’s so much better than just a plain white wall below the chair rail.

Feb10

DIY Ribbon Wreath

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Kendra G.

Standard

I was drawn to this pin by the pink and green (obviously) and have been eyeing for a while.
When it came time to actually commit to doing a Pinterest project, I searched for the original link.
I could not find it anywhere, so I really didn’t know where to begin with this.

Updated: The original link is from Etsy!

[via Etsy]

I decided to wing it.
I started by getting one spool of ribbon in six different patterns.
Plus a wire wreath.
I got all of this at JoAnn’s.

I cut the ribbon in strips about 5-6 inches long.
The thicker ribbon needed to be a little longer to tie easier.
Then, I just tied the ribbon onto the wreath.

Those six spools of ribbon got me, oh…this far.

So, I went out and got some more ribbon.
Of course, they were out of some of the patterns I had already purchased, but I made do.

I got back to work, cutting, and tying.
I quickly learned that I could spread the ribbon out a little more than I had done initially.
So I ended up moving some of the ribbon from the first go around.

The thicker ribbon does take up more room, which is nice.
I had a couple spools left over, so I ended up using about 20 spools. Yikes!
I probably could have still spread it out even more in order to use less.

I already had a white “K” but I thought it’d be fun to spice it up a bit.

I spaced the tape out the width of a ruler, but you could do the stripes however you’d like.
I had the grand idea of doing chevron stripes, but that was a battle I knew I couldn’t win.
So straight stripes won out.

The pink spray paint is from Lowe’s.
And I’m already on the hunt for more things to spray paint. I love the color!

I hung the finished “K” with dental floss after Target didn’t have fishing line.
It worked perfectly!

This whole project took me about two weeks.
I would sit and tie ribbon whenever I had some free time.
However, it was not as cheap as I would have liked.
I would recommend stocking up on ribbon in advance that you find on sale
and/or use lots of coupons!

I did look on Etsy for similar wreaths and they were more than what I spent, even before shipping.
In my eyes, that’s a win!

Overall, I’m very pleased with how it turned out!

Jan26

Kenley’s Brave Green Room

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Kendra G.

Standard

A huge thanks to Apartment Therapy for featuring Kenley’s room today!

Head over and check it out!

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/kenleys-brave-green-room-my-room-164944

Sep24

Nursery Sources

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Kendra G.

Standard

We have gotten some questions about some items in the nursery, so here they are!

Green stripes – Wall Pops purchased on Zulily

Paint – Olympic, custom matched to the stripes at Lowe’s

Crib – Delta Venetian Sleigh Lifetime Convertible Crib from Babies R Us

Crib skirt & sheet – Homemade

Shelf - RIBBA from IKEA

Rawr print – Etsy

Hot pink vase – Somrig from IKEA

Side table - Re-purposed, sanded & painted white

Glider & Ottoman - Bella Ivy from Babies R Us

Pillow – Target (on clearance)

Curtains – Xhilaration Ruffled White Window Panel from Target

Keep Calm poster – Etsy

Changing Table/Dresser – Expedit from IKEA

Changing table pad & cover – Babies R Us

Lamps – TJ Maxx

Wall flower decor – Umbra purchased at a boutique

Laundry hamper – TJ Maxx, painted white

DIY Crayon “K” – Homemade, RIBBA shadow box frame from IKEA

Bookshelves – BEKVAM spice racks, painted white, from IKEA

There you have it! Enjoy!

Sep18

Holy Sheet!

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Kendra G.

Standard

Let me just start by saying that I’m still a little in shock that I can even write
a blog post about making crib sheets… with a sewing machine…

A few months ago I begged my mom to bring down the sewing machine
that my grandma had given her when she got a new one.
Why? I have no idea, this pregnancy has made me more ambitious I guess.
Well, because she is so awesome, she packed the box in her suitcase and brought it down.
(Thanks mom!)

But, let’s be serious…It sat in our office for a good while
and I didn’t even attempt to touch it.
Until a few weeks ago.
My crafty friend Sally kept telling me how easy it was to make crib sheets.
My thought… of course it is, for someone who has touched a sewing machine before!

Well, I bit the bullet and ordered the most adorable fabric you’ve ever seen
off of Etsy with the back up plan to just bribe Sally to make a sheet for me.

Once the fabric came in I figured it wasn’t a good idea to do a trial run with the good fabric,
knowing that I would botch it up and be upset that I ruined it.
So, I stopped by JoAnn’s and got yet another cute fabric for a whole $5.
If I ruined this one, I’d only be out 5 bucks. That’s fine.

Much to my surprise, I actually created something that resembled a sheet
AND it fit the mattress.

I started out by following this tutorial by Dana Made It.
I had my supplies: 2 yards of fabric and 40 inches of elastic
I cut out my 8″x8″ squares on the four corners and sewed them together creating the pockets.

At this point, I switched over to this YouTube video about sewing elastic.
I took 10″ of elastic and sewed it directly onto the inside of the pocket,
just as she did in the video.

The inside and underneath is by no means as pretty as the first tutorial,
but who is going to look at the underside of the mattress and/or sheet?

Here is the final product!

I realize I should have taken pictures of the entire process,
but of course I didn’t think about it until after I was already done.

The fabric is Alexander Henry 2D Zoo in Holly!

Grandma, aren’t you proud!?

Sep12

DIY Crayon Letter

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Kendra G.

Standard

Thanks to Pinterest, I found a fun project for Greg and I!
It’s so easy too!

I found the tutorial here
and modified it ever so slightly.

The first one we made was for baby Lucas in New York
and we were so happy with how it turned out.

The shadowbox is from IKEA (Ribba, of course)
Crayons were purchased at Target
The rest we already had… cardstock, sharpie, hot glue gun, exacto knife.
We actually used one of our kitchen knives because it was bigger and easier to use.

It’s so simple, pick out a font that you like and print it out very large.
You can trace it onto the cardstock, but we just used the point of a mechanical pencil
without the lead out and traced around it so you could see the indention on the cardstock.
We lined up all the cut crayons to make sure they fit, then glued them on!
Lastly, write the name with a sharpie and frame it!

Believe me, if we can do it, you can do it!

Thanks to the Trendy Treehouse for the tutorial!

Aug22

Transforming the EXPEDIT

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Kendra G.

Standard

First of all, thank you all so much for the comments
and kind words about the nursery.
We are so happy with how it turned out!

***

Our first project in the nursery was the EXPEDIT!

I mentioned here that this was one of my visions and inspirations
for the nursery, but I cannot take any credit for it.
Of course, I’m not crafty enough to think of this myself,
so thanks to Pinterest, I found this blog.
Genius!

This…

turned into this…

with a little help from…

Updated links:
DRONA Box
EXPEDIT Insert with 1 Drawer – No longer available
EXPEDIT Insert with 2 Drawers

and…

Updated link:
CAPITA Leg – 6″

These little guys are located in the kitchen section, by the way,
which is a whole different story in itself.

The added bonus were the light pink knobs from Lowe’s for 96 cents!

Now that we have made this into a dresser,
we are planning to put the changing table pad on top,
which I’m glad we planned on doing, because I don’t think
another piece of furniture could fit in that room if we tried!