Friday, July 27, 2012

The Nursery: Phase 2


After seeing what the walls looked like (you can see pictures here), I decided that I didn't want to add too much to take away from the incredible paint job by Robin Oas! So instead of adding some color, I tried to keep most things white so they would stand out, but not too much.

Before the painting ever began, I ordered 3 sets of decals to go in the room that I fell in love with online. The first was a growing tree but instead of actual measurements, it had the size of Dr. Seuss characters. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out and it's one of Kelly's favorite additions to the room.


The second decal I ordered was a combination of quotes from the Dr. Seuss book: All the Places You'll Go. I saw it on a wall, looked up the measurements and thought it would look brilliant, fresh and fun on the door to the nursery. It took the longest to install, but it is one of my favorite things in the room. I think it looks amazing!!!


The third decal I ordered were actually hand painted wall paper images of "Thing 1" & "Thing 2". After all of the room was painted, they didn't really go anymore where I wanted to put them. So I decided to put them on the doors to the bottom of the book case and I think it works perfectly! They are cute, playful, and add a small pop of color to the white wood. We got the bookcase at a mission garage sale, sanded it down and painted it ultra white. I bought new hardware at Anthropologie and the books are an assortment of sizes that we found at Half Price Books.


The dresser in the room was part of a furniture set that my grandparents bought for their 10 year wedding anniversary and gave us when we moved into this house. It is amazingly elegant and I thought that it would make a wonderful showcase piece in the nursery. So with the help of Kelly's aunt & uncle we sanded it down and painted it ultra white. I took the original drawer hardware and painted it fun colors. I found the door hardware at Nadeau and think it adds the whimsical touch it needed!




Lastly, the glider was a loan from my parents to use for now, the amazing black & white rug we got from Rug Gallery in Dallas, we got the crib off Craigslist, and the cute bedding online at Seuss Land. Also, I bought the white lamp from Ikea and then used markers to color in different colored circles all over it. It was a fun, cheap project!




I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how it all turned out!!!
Here's a recap of the paint, in case you didn't see them before the furniture:

Don't you love our artist Robin?!?!
Here's her FB page in case you are interested in her painting something for you (walls, canvases, etc.)






 
I cannot imagine changing anything and cannot wait to put all of the other little things and necessities in here that will make it a real baby room when we can have a shower after the baby comes home. Thank you so much to all of you that have helped! Future baby Carson is definitely loved by many!!! :)

Saturday, July 21, 2012

The Nursery: Phase 1 (Painting)

Most moms start the process of planning their nursery when they start telling people they are pregnant. There is a since of a safe timeline. With adoption it could be a phone call in 24 hours upon approval or you could wait up to 2 years. So how do you decide when to start preparing the nursery? This, my friends, was something I was torn about. I didn't want to prepare this grand room and then stare at its cuteness for 2 years! So I decided I wanted to wait until we were matched to begin playing with this room even if that meant doing it after the baby came.

Unbeknown to us, God had the perfect plan in store. Before I could even figure out my paint colors, we were matched and the baby was due in a little over 2 months! Definitely enough time to decorate!

So off I was to pick the perfect theme. You see, we wanted something gender neutral because even though we know the sex of the baby (and yes, we are still keeping it a secret from all of you!), we also know that we have to prepare ourselves for the birth mother to choose to parent OR for the birth father to come forward and for us to have to walk away from this baby. However, I wanted bright colors! Bright colors make me happy and I wanted this baby to be in an environment that stimulated it's mind but was very playful and not babyish. So after agonizing over ideas I have had for the past few years I decided on a Dr. Seuss theme. I looked online at all kinds of bedding and finally found one that had the bright, neutral colors I was going for. After finding the bedding, the rest of the room could now fall in place!

Before you look at all of the pictures, here is the info to our wonderfully talented friend that painted our nursery: Robin Oas Designs. If you are looking for help painting a nursery, canvas or anything in between she does it all and I would highly recommend her!

A few days before we got started, Kelly painted the walls blue for the sky so we would have a blue canvas to paint on top of. Then Robin came over and we painted the hills and clouds on day 1. Here are pictures of how that day progressed:









While day 1 of painting was fun, day 2 was even better!
I enlisted 3 fabulously artistic and fun girls from our youth group (Katie, Lindsey, & Bethany), one of their brave mom's (Beth) and then of course our incredible artist Robin to help. The following shows the progress as we went along. The entire thing went up in 3 hours and I am still blown away!


























Day 3 consisted of Robin going over some colors to make them brighter and me just watching in awe:







Stay tuned for the next post (Phase 2) in which I'll show you all of the furniture in the room, decals on the door/wall/book case and the other finishing touches we made! Hopefully there will also be a baby in this room in a little over a month!