week 38 + DIY nursery

June 19, 2012

week 38 + DIY nursery

Progress on the nursery has been tougher than I expected. At 38 weeks this space has proved to be challenging for more reasons than one. With limited space, large pieces of furniture and an overabundance of stuff, my time has been spent deciding what my necessities will be in the coming weeks and what I simply need to throw out. I have too much crap! The belly is progressively in the way making bending a bit tough but I feel like if I go into labor, the nursery is in working order, FINALLY!

So here we are, mid-June and I can't believe our baby girl is due in a few weeks. Kids are expensive and as I ventured onto various websites, I got a better grasp on the overwhelming world of "mommy blogs" and products for every moment of motherhood that I was unfamiliar with. Everything is new to me...products, cost and necessities for a nursery. My day job the past few months has been to hunt for things I loved and then DIY'd a bunch of things for the nursery (if at all possible). Making handmade items for her room was a fun way to make an original statement that was affordable and enjoyable while passing the time. This space has been the catch-all since moving in March but slowly purged items, donated others and organized the rest to make this office/storage/nursery predominantly a nursery that is pulling double duty as you will see in "after" photos. The white organizers are from Michael's which I acquired one at a time and assembled myself.

All in all, the nursery has been generously supplied thanks to our friends and family (from our baby registry) and the fun of this for me has been opening boxes that arrive randomly and trying to find ways to cut cost here and there. Aside from not buying any new clothes for nine months thankfully, I made DIY a daily event beginning with:

(a) Curb-diving a vintage wood changing table, sanding, painting and repurposing it for a bookcase/storage unit.

(b) Making a mobile for above the changing table that I wrapped with ribbon, hung owls with ribbon and hot glued felt pieces as leaves on the ribbon.

(c) I painted five small canvases with Kalea's initials using vintage buttons, ribbon and various inspiration found online.

(d) Lucking into finding a cool and comfy chair for the corner that was both affordable and fit the area perfectly on craigslist for $30 bucks...much better than $250 like most gliders/ottomans.