Crosby’s Nautical Nursery

Posted in House Tour by Kendra G.

I know I shared our nautical nursery (here and here) before Crosby was born when we didn’t know if this would turn into a girl nursery or a boy nursery, so I wanted to share the room since it’s been Crosby’s room. Since he is already almost 18 months old, I figured I had better do it quickly because before I know it, we’ll be transitioning to a toddler room.

We have added a few new touches to his room over the past year and a half. One of the first things I did was order a couple masculine crib sheets. I made his first sheet (grey and white sea stars), but I was in no position to be making any additional crib sheets seeing how I had a newborn and a newly two year old running around. I went with an anchor sheet and a whale sheet from Pottery Barn Kids and was more than happy with the two of them. I also had my eye on a new changing table cover and got the blue whale changing pad cover from Land of Nod. I have to say I love this pad. I really wish I would have gotten one with Kenley. They are thick, comfy, and really great quality.

One of the projects we knew we were going to tackle was painting the oars that we received as a baby shower gift. Greg had sanded them down before he put them on the wall, knowing that we would eventually paint them to match the room. We painted close to the designs of the oars from Pottery Barn Kids and I am so happy with how they turned out.

Greg made three different shelves for the wall from the scrap wood we had from our kitchen island. They are great for decor, as well as our camera for the monitor. The jar of shells were collected from Crosby’s first trip to the ocean, so they are sentimental and we, of course, made him DIY crayon letter “C” to add some more color to the room.

nautical nursery

His bookshelf is now full of books about trucks, airplanes, and cars; and we also added a nautical looking laundry hamper. At first I was overwhelmed by the fact that the dresser was really small and the closet, while big, was not helpful. I ended up finding a hanging sweater organizer folded up in another closet that I had used at our old house (similar to this) and I put it in his closet. You would have thought I hit the lottery. It has worked so well for storing shoes, sheets, towels, the next size up clothes, etc. I also added a nautical looking lamp I found online from Target. I love that the Edison bulb doesn’t put off much light, so it’s perfect for reading book at night. I can’t forget to mention our favorite sound machine either.

This room quickly turned from a gender neutral nursery to Crosby’s nursery and I love the little touches we added to make it his. I am definitely sticking with a nautical theme when we transition to a toddler room and will probably add more red and navy to the grey. I have some ideas, which I’m sure I’ll be sharing with you in no time.

8Oct2013

Nursery Nitty Gritty

Posted in Baby G by Kendra G.

First, thank you so much for the sweet comments on the nursery!
I’m hoping this post will answer some of the questions we’ve gotten,
but if not, leave a comment and I’ll answer anything else.

I haven’t shared any before pictures of this room, so I thought now would be a good time.
This is when we moved into the house.

Once we moved in, the room became the junk room.

Overall, I am so impressed on how this nursery came together.
Gender neutral and nautical both tend to be a little bit more boyish,
which is why it looks more like a baby boy’s room than a baby girl’s, but that’s okay for now
and I don’t think a baby girl will mind too much until we get some more girly pieces in there.
The room is so cozy and warm, quite the opposite of Kenley’s bold and bright room,
which is what we were going for.
I thought two bright colored rooms right next to each other might be a little much.

Now onto the details. We found the fan on Craigslist for only $75! It was an absolute steal,
especially once we realized that it retails for $259 (which is a little absurd, in my opinion).
This was one of the first purchases we made for the room because we couldn’t pass it up.

We’re using Kenley’s crib from Babies ‘R Us (bite marks and all), which has since been discontinued.

The curtains were somewhat of a splurge and are from West Elm, but I absolutely love them!
Even after I had to exchange them for the right color (plaster vs. slate – what horrible names
for two closely colored curtains). Plaster is the current color, the slate was way too dark.
They were also the most nautical looking curtains I have found. Did I mention I love them?
The curtain rod and ends are from IKEA.

We got the oars as a shower gift (what a great gift right?) and I think they totally complete the room.
I wasn’t sure what would go over the crib until we received them and I immediately knew.
I have some ideas for them once we know what colors we’ll be adding to the room.

The light is ALÄNG from IKEA and the boat wheel is from Hobby Lobby.

The Threshold Criss Cross Fleece Rug (Gray) from Target was another one of those purchases I couldn’t pass up.
I had been eyeing it since it looks (to me) like a fishing net, but I hadn’t committed to it yet (why are rugs so expensive?).
During a trip to Target, I spotted it on sale and knew that my RedCard would save me an additional 5%, so I got it.
For your frame of reference, this is the 5×7 size.

I ended up making this sheet myself with the Emily Herrick – Going Coastal – Sea Star in Gray fabric,
but I have to admit, it wasn’t my best work. I got super lazy in measuring the length and it is not as snug
as I would have liked, but it definitely works.

We found the boat bookshelf off Craigslist as well and Greg sanded and painted it.

Two other Craigslist purchases were the DIY ombre dresser and the three nautical pictures. The glider
is from Kenley’s room (also from Babies ‘R Us and now discontinued). The cute diaper caddy was a shower gift.

We purchased the nautical map from a marina in Anna Maria Island, so it’s a legit nautical map.
After mulling over very large and expensive frames for the map, Greg decided to make his own out of molding.
It looks awesome.

My plan is to either add navy or light pink to this very grey room.
I unintentionally purchased the PBK Key West fitted crib sheet as I was randomly
passing through the store and saw it laying out. It was the very.last.one. known to man,
and as you can see it’s no longer available online, so I couldn’t pass it up.
If G2 is a girl, awesome, I will just get the matching crib skirt with a gift card I have.
If G2 is a boy, I will exchange it for the PBK Jackson crib sheet and get the skirt.
Other pink or navy blue trinkets will be added over time to make this room the baby’s own.

Thanks for letting me share this fun project. Now let’s put a baby in there!

3Oct2013

A Nursery for G2 // Photo Tour

Posted in Baby G, House Tour by Kendra G.

A more detailed post on projects & sources to come!

27Aug2013

DIY ombre dresser

Posted in Projects Around the House by Kendra G.

I am finally here to post about some nursery progress.
Let’s talk furniture.
We didn’t buy the full matching set of furniture for Kenley’s nursery
and decided to piece different items together. That worked out well,
so we figured we do the same with this nursery.
Obviously, the crib and glider would be moved to the new room,
but we needed a dresser/changing table since Kenley would be keeping hers.

I had my eyes set on the Hemnes dresser at IKEA and even saw one in the As Is section
for $100 off. But, I left defeated since we had taken my car that day, and not the truck.
We were worried about how big it would look in the room and
I knew it was probably more than we wanted to spend on a dresser,
so we got to work searching Craigslist for something.
This is the beauty we found…

We paid $75 for this piece of crap-o-la, but it was on our side of town,
so there was minimal travel / pick up time to get there and I’m all about convenience.

As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to do ombre.
I found some inspiration on Pinterest, here and here, and of course,
on everyone’s favorite, Young House Love here and here.
I figured it shouldn’t be too hard, especially since we already had some paint lying around.

I’m not going to lie. Getting to the painting part was not an easy project.
God bless Greg’s heart. He worked so hard stripping and sanding this crappy dresser.
Not to mention, the multiple fights that revolved around this project.
But… once we got to the painting part, it was sure fun!

Spoiler alert: The color palette in the nursery is gray right now. Lots of shades of gray.
As is the dresser.

We painted the dresser itself white, then each row of drawers a different color.
We had already chosen the wall color for the nursery,
so we used the coordinating colors on that palette.
We purchased the small cans of the colors needed.
We tend to use Valspar from Lowe’s for all of our painting needs, but I’m sure you can get
the colors in whatever brand of paint you prefer.
Top: Comet Dust
Middle: Notre Dame
Bottom: Granite Dust

Second spoiler alert: the nursery theme is nautical.
Prior to painting, Greg filled in the holes for the handles with wood putty
so we could paint over them and start fresh. He made new holes once we got in our new pulls.
We used six inch boat cleats for the handles and starfish knobs.

The total cost of the project was $117
Dresser – $75
Paint – $25
Handles (4 @ $1.54 each) – $6.16
Knobs (4 @ $2.50 each) – $10

I am thrilled with the amount of money we spent on the project,
but the real cost came in the time & labor it took to get it done.
It’s going to be a long time before we decide to refinish another piece of furniture.

Even though there was a time that I wanted to abandon this project and leave the dresser at the curb,
I could not be more obsessed with it now. It’s the perfect piece for the nursery,
and Greg did such a great job on it. I am loving ombre right now and so glad we went with it!

More nursery progress to come!

1Feb2013

Kenley’s Toddler Room

Posted in House Tour 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.

29Jan2013

DIY faux wainscoting

Posted in Projects Around the House by Kendra G.

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.

10Feb2012

DIY Ribbon Wreath

Posted in Projects Around the House by Kendra G.

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!

26Jan2012

Kenley’s Brave Green Room

Posted in Random by Kendra G.

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

24Sep2011

Nursery Sources

Posted in Baby G by Kendra G.

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!

18Sep2011

Holy Sheet!

Posted in Baby G by Kendra G.

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!