For those of you that are curious about how Lively's nursery turned out, here you go! I am one day past my due date, and still anxiously awaiting her arrival. I have nested to the maximum capacity and needed something else to occupy my time and mind while I wait for her to decide to come meet the world, so I thought I'd share some pictures and explain some of the projects I did for her room.
Her room is a light pinkish/purple color. I decided right away that I wanted it to be very girly and a little shabby chic. The first of many projects that I worked on was her bedding. I sewed teacup/floral inspired crib bedding which included: a ruffled crib skirt, crib bumpers, crib sheet, and crib quilt. This project took me a few weeks to complete, but I saved at least $250 by making it myself. The cost was only about $150 (compared to the $400 I would have paid for custom bedding). I am really pleased with how it turned out.
Her dresser/changing table was my second project. I really wanted to redo an old vintage style dresser and put a changing pad on top to serve as a dual purpose piece in her room. I found this dresser on Craig's List for $50. It was a yucky yellow/gold color, so I just sanded and painted it a bright white. I love how it turned out.
I also did a little lamp redo. The blue teapot lamp on the dresser was a gem I found while thrift shopping with Brett. It started out all the wrong colors and didn't have a lamp shade, but it worked and I knew that a little paint and creativity could make it perfect for Lively's teacup/floral inspired nursery. I chose a robins egg blue color to paint the base of the lamp, and found an inexpensive plain lampshade that I covered with white/cream roses. It turned out cuter than I imagined and gives off just enough light when its night time in her room.
A little story about the antique rocker in the corner... This rocking chair was my grandmother's. Growing up, she was my only living grandmother, and we lived right down the street from her, so we were pretty close. I think I got a lot of my creativity and love for old/antique pieces from her. She died a couple weeks before I moved to Dallas for college, and when asked if there was anything I wanted from her house, I chose the rocking chair. I always thought it was beautiful, and being a girl who knew one day she would want to rock her babies in it, I thought it was the perfect piece to choose. I think its sweet that a little piece of my grandmother is in her room.
In the photo above, there are a lot of small projects I did to pull her room together: A silver platter I found at a thrift store with magnets on it to display photos, the "L is for Lively print was given to us from Brett's mother and I found the frame for it while thrifting, the bow holder frame I made from a frame I found thrifting that I painted and glued strips of ribbon to the back so I could clip the bows on them for easy access/display, the headband peg-shelf-thing was another gem I found while thrifting that we just painted bright white, and finally the shelving unit was mine that we found for $16 at Salvation Army that I used when Lively's nursery was my office/craft room, it used to be just the exposed wood and we painted it white to match the other furniture.
As an artist, I had to paint at least one painting for Lively. The lyrics I painted are from a song that ministered to my heart throughout my pregnancy, and the verse I wrote around the edges was the inspiration behind her name and the prayer we spoke over her from the beginning.
And finally, one of my favorite pieces from Lively's nursery, her mobile. This piece came from China. I purchased it when I was on a mission trip there in 2010. It originally was something you would hang over a doorway (like those beads they had in the 70s), but I remember thinking one day it would make the perfect mobile for a baby. I simple inserted a wooden hoop in the top of it to make it round and added ribbon to hang it from the ceiling. I love that it ended up going so well with the theme and colors we chose for her room.
Hopefully, my next post will be introducing our baby girl to the world and sharing our birth story. Not too much longer, Lively girl... We can't wait to meet you.
~Brandi
