the finished nursery

Right off the bat I feel the need to say I'm not super excited about these photos. I took them in the morning when the bright sunshine was reflecting off the 6 inches of snow outside both windows.

BUT I am super excited about our girl's completed nursery, which is just waiting for her arrival so we can all enjoy it together!

The funny space between the two gray frames on this gallery wall will hold a turquoise letter for baby's name. It's hidden in the closet until she actually arrives. My generous mom helped me arrange the entire wall AND kept her eyes closed so we could check the letter's fit without her seeing it. Thanks, Mom! :)

So many of the things in this room were given with love, saved from my childhood bedroom, or hand-made by friends or family members.

All the items were carefully chosen and the room already brings Joel and I such happiness. Sometimes I catch him in there, just looking around. More often he catches me in there, just rearranging the clothes. Again.

Also, here's a budget breakdown and list of where all the fun stuff in the nursery came from, if you're interested:
crib: wal-mart (gift from Grandma Alberts)
crib mattress: amazon (bought with $ from a friend)
dresser: found on the side of the road and re-finished/re-painted by us! The gray paint was left over from our bedroom. Free
curtains: similar from IKEA. $20
closet curtain: this set from IKEA. We only used one for the closet; the other is still available for use.  $10
elephant poster with frame:  IKEA, too. $20 total
white photo ledges: $20 for two
rocking chair: moved from our living room Free
off-white lamp on dresser: clearance at Marshalls $22
assorted wire and wicker baskets: Marshalls/TJMaxx clearance About $35 bucks total
pink "baby 'berts" banner: handmade by my friend Becca for our shower <3
gallery wall: (cross-stitch frame and Japanese girl in tree- from my childhood room; colorful landscape- made by Joel's Oma; curious George canvas- gift from my mom last year; colored paper in gray frame- wrapping paper I purchased at a boutique in Baltimore last year; kissing photo- taken on our first trip to Washington state together about 2 years ago) Free
clock: IKEA $15

More nursery progress!!

With two showers this past weekend and our crib's timely arrive on Saturday (thanks, Grandma!), our nursery is looking a lot more finished!

We didn't buy a crib mattress yet, and I haven't hemmed the off-white curtains for the windows or sheer lace panel for the closet, but the furniture is set up and organized. The baby clothes piles are growing, but I have a few drawers laid out by clothing size and there's a pile of stuff to wash first.

My next task, after the curtain hemming, is to nail everything onto the gallery wall. I'm having some trouble deciding how to lay things out in a way that best utilizes the already-existing holes... Ha.

Sometime in the future I'm excited to do a budget breakdown. Since we didn't repaint the room and the previous owners had already redone the closet and ceiling, this has been a fairly cheap room makeover. Not to mention that we have received SO many generous gifts.

P.S. Don't the little books look perfect on those shelves? <3

nursery progress

Oh, what's that you say? This doesn't look like progress? Whatever do you mean?!

Last weekend Joel and our friend Ben moved the guest room furniture out of the nursery and brought Baby 'Berts her dresser from the basement. Joel put a few clothes away in the closet and made piles of the other baby stuff we've gotten.

When I came home I made completely new piles, including one for the thrift store. :) I also hung up the closet curtain (which still needs to be hemmed...) and set out the things I plan to put on the gallery wall. Then I made a big stack of tiny clothes that need to be washed before they fill up her drawers.

The crib will go where the dresser is now. It's the only spot where the baby won't be directly in front of the air conditioning unit that goes in that window. The brown curtains are coming down and being replaced by lace sheers that I got from IKEA. We'll install black-out blinds behind the curtains for darkness during nap times.

Our ERGO carrier and diaper bag backpack are hanging on the coat hooks behind the door. The new clock is from IKEA... I like how modern it is; a nice balance to a lot of old stuff we'll hang to give the room some history. Since these photos were taken we actually received our infant car seat and a little napper, plus we put together the IKEA play gym. So her room actually looks a tiny bit more lived-in, even though it's not yet. How exciting!

nursery to-do

Welp, we have one last guest to host (hi, Mom!) before we turn our guest room into a nursery for Baby 'Berts! My friend Meg recently posted a tour of her son's nursery and I got all kinds of inspired! Check it out:

Last weekend Joel and his dad replaced the last two upstairs doors. Once those are stained and the molding has been put up, Joel will start tackling the huge task of painting the upstairs hallway which leads downstairs to our living and dining rooms. I think those things are on the to-do list before we actually set up the nursery, but I can start doing a few small things in the meantime.

Here's my current nursery to-do list:
1. Move the guest room furniture into the office (of course I won't actually be moving anything... ha!)
2. Choose fabric or curtains for the windows and the closet. I'm currently wondering if these shower curtains will fit; I think they'll be too wide.
3.  Pick good quality roll-up blinds that won't rip when we open/close them. Preferably black-out thickness.
4. Paint a few frames and lay out the gallery wall.
5. Decide on nursery furniture placement. This actually impacts the gallery wall, so maybe it should be #4.
6. Get the crib and set it up.
7. Install shelves for books at kid-height
8. Decide how best to keep the closet organized. It's a tall, narrow, shallow closet so we'll definitely need some props to help keep baby stuff tidy. 

9. Move stuff from bathroom cabinet into the new guest room closet; we'll most likely do our diaper changing set-up in the bathroom since we're using cloth and the toilet is right there.   

Tobuy:

2 roll-up blinds

2 sets of window curtains

Closet curtain

Crib

Shoe hanger (IKEA)

IKEA ribba shelves(for books)
More baskets and closet storage containers

P.S. Isn't this nursery gorgeous, too? I'm drooling! 

nursery daydreams

The guest room (soon to be nursery!!) is painted with my favorite color in our whole house. I love the way this room looks: sun from two windows at all times of the day; dark, clean-lined furniture; white bedding with handmade pillow covers; a decent-sized closet where I store all my gift wrapping stuff as well as games for visiting kids to play, etc.

BUT now that I've been brainstorming how to change it for our baby, I'm getting antsy to re-decorate! We'll be moving the guest bed and dresser to the next room and the office furniture will retire to the basement, which is newly painted and looks great.

I bought this gorgeous basket to hold some toys and stuffed animals on the nursery floor. I also found a beautiful off-white lamp on clearance at HomeGoods and plan to put it on top of the gray dresser I trash-picked and repainted last summer. The two middle shelves in the closet are starting to collect baby stuff we've received as gifts. It's driving me slightly crazy to have it all just hanging around in there...

In case you're interested, here's a link to my Pinterest board for nursery ideas. Other than a crib, we won't need to buy any new furniture... which means I can go nuts spending money on hand-made art, window coverings, and closet storage, right? ;)