The Nursery

I started dreaming about our baby’s nursery before we ever even considered trying to get pregnant. When we decided to buy a house mid-pregnancy, one of the most challenging parts for me was not having an opportunity to spend months creating a perfect space for our baby.

We had planned for a long time to do a camping themed nursery, but in the chaos of moving it was proving too hard to pull together for a myriad of reasons. In the end, Catch and I agreed to do something shockingly feminine. I’m truly surprised where we ended up, but I absolutely adore the (mostly) finished product.

When we first moved in, the room was a mess. This is a 60 year old house in earthquake country. We live just over a mile from the epicenter of the Northridge Earthquake, so you know this house has seen some action and the walls tell the tale. (Coincidentally, we also live just a few blocks from the house where I grew up, so I know firsthand what this place probably looked like after that earthquake.) There were lots of cracks in the plaster that were improperly patched and had subsequently re-opened. Some of them were much worse than anticipated.

In case you need some “before” image refreshers:

Likewise, the closet and cabinets had been painted over so many times with so many layers of semi-gloss paint that I’m pretty sure another layer of paint on them would have caused them to collapse under their own weight.

The work on the nursery began the minute we moved in. Cracks were re-opened, properly patched and re-textured. Baseboards were removed and replaced. Electrical outlets and covers were replaced. We spent a solid two days just trying to remove the screws holding the closet and cabinet doors on so that the doors could be removed and sanded. They were covered with so much paint that it was a total nightmare.

What we thought was going to be a project turned out to be a PROJECT. Tears were shed. I’m not proud.

In the end, we have a room that I am honestly a little bit jealous of. It’s absolutely my favorite space in the entire house. We’re pretty sure Rolo thinks the nursery is actually his very own bedroom. If we can’t find him, chances are good that he’s sitting in there with his ball or taking a nap on the rug.

There are still a few projects in progress. We ordered a mobile from Etsy that hasn’t arrived yet, but will fill the space above the crib. My mom is making a valance for the window over the crib, so as soon as that’s done, we’ll hang it with a window shade. She’s not going to be sleeping in here for a while so I’m not worried about light at the moment. We also still need to re-hang the closet and cabinet doors, but we’re having some trouble finding hinges that will work. For now, the closet is all open, but it’s the least of our concerns!

Also, I swear the carpet is not as brown as it looks in these photos. My camera just really wanted to make the brown pop. Yuck. (I wish we could have replaced the carpet, but we did have it professionally cleaned.)

This is the view when you’re standing near the doorway…

This is my view from our glider…

The swing won’t be here permanently, but it was a good out-of-the-way spot for now.

The turquoise cart contains diapering supplies, and the diaper pail is hidden behind it out of reach of hound noses. A single week’s supply of cloth diapers from the diaper service completely fills one of the largest dresser drawers. Crazy!

The sketches in the larger frames were done by a good friend of ours. On the left is Rolo, busy thinking deep thoughts and solving the mysteries of the universe, and on the right is Twix, queen of the universe. The little lamp is an antique Hummel piece that was given to us by my grandmother at our baby shower.

Now you can see our missing closet doors… oh well–they’ll be finished eventually!

We bought the mirror hanging over the bookcase in Cabo San Lucas on our honeymoon. It was hanging in our hallway at our old place, but we didn’t have the right place for it in the new house and I was so happy when I realized it would work in the baby’s room!

(I swear the bookcase won’t be this empty for long!)

So there we have it. Not too bad for something we pulled together in four weeks! Now if only we could add the main component we’ve been working on for 40-ish weeks… I’d be a very happy camper!