Nursery Prep

I wanted to share all the work we did to get the nursery ready for our little guy.  I am proud of how it turned out.  I originally wanted to make the nursery yellow and grey with a slight lamb theme.  We even had grey paint and bedding picked out.  At our 13 weeks ultrasound, we found out that we were having a baby BOY.  The first thing Matt said when we walked out of our OB's office was that we have to change the theme to "dinosaurs or something", because of what Matt said I started researching cute baby boy nursery ideas that day.  I did consider dinosaurs, but I couldn't find any cute dinosaur bedding or decorations.  I then thought about something Matt might like.  Matt likes technology, so I thought robots would be perfect!  I couldn't find any robot crib bedding or specific nursery decorations, but I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to be creative.  First things first I found the bedding.

The bedding didn't have robots but had gears and a grid on the top.  I felt that it fit the theme and I liked the colors. (this picture was stolen from the site I got the bedding from)

Next was picking a paint color.  I didn't want to do baby boy blue, so I thought lets do green.  After the bedding arrived, we matched the paint color to the green gears.  The green is on the lime side but not too bright.

Lime Ricky was it!

Here is the first coat of the green.

We painted early on in the pregnancy, because we wanted to have the paint on the walls before we got new carpet.  Our carpet was most likely the cheap stuff that was in the house when it was built in 1999.  The previous owners allowed their boxer to use the bathroom on it in what is now the nursery.  The carpet was also so matted down it didn't have individual carpet fibers anymore.  Anytime a spill happened it was impossible to get it out.  Matt and I agreed that we didn't want our baby boy to be crawling around on the yucky carpet.  We did some shopping around and found that Lowes had just what we wanted at a great price with a sale on installation.  

I didn't take a picture before.  Wish I had so you could see how gross it was.  I was so happy to see it go!

Here is the finished product.  The lowes installation crew was amazing and professional.

While Matt was gone on a business trip during most of November and December, I got some pillows done for the nursery day bed.  

Here are the fabrics I found at JoAnn fabrics.  Love it!

Here are two of them all done.  You'll see all of them a little later.

For Christmas Matt's parents got us our baby's crib.  I couldn't wait to get it home and put together.

Dexter was very helpful.

It took us about 20 minutes to put it together.  I love how simple it is and it goes well with the antiques in the room.

The fan in the room had light wood blades and didn't work, so it needed and update.  The previous owner wasn't very handy and tried to install a remote for the fan.  Needless to say the remote didn't work.  We took the remote box down and turned the blades over to the dark wood side.  The fan now works and looks so much better.  The only bummer is that the fan isn't hooked up to a light switch, so we have to pull the chain to turn the light on and adjust the fan speed.  To fix this issue we got a cheap floor lamp that is plugged into the outlet controlled by the light switch.

Matt reattaching the blades after turning them over.

All done! Looks great, huh?  The dark wood matches the furniture in the room.

Thanks to Matt being so handy I could make a cornice board for over the curtains.  This also gave me a chance to add more robot accents.  Matt build the wood part and I cover it with batting and fabric.  The fabric pattern went the wrong way for the cornice board so I had to cut it in strips, line it up, and sew it back together.  That was the hardest part.

I stapled the batting and fabric on the cornice board while Matt was at work.  Here's the finished product.

Matt had to put L-brackets on the cornice board in order to hang it.  We should have put them on before I put the fabric on.

Here is Matt hanging the new curtain rod.

Here's Matt finishing up hanging the cornice board.

At my second baby shower thrown by my mother and sister in law, we were given Matt's childhood wooden train.  We wanted to put it in a special spot that everyone could see it.  We felt that it would be perfect on the top of the cornice board.  Matt built a top to the cornice board out of  plywood that the train looked great on.

Here's the finished project with the curtains hung.  The curtains were from my room at my parents house when I was in college.  They work nicely in the room.  Doesn't that highlight the train?  When the baby gets here and we know his name for sure, we are going to get him a train car with the first letter of his name too.

No matter what the theme was I knew I wanted to have a 3D alphabet.  I found a ton of pictures of them on pinterest and adored the idea.  I bought about half the letters and Matt made the rest of them with his bandsaw he got for Christmas.  For the letters Matt made I found pictures using google of the letters in various fonts we needed and printed them out in various sizes.  I had Matt make three different thicknesses of wood by gluing plywood together, so that the letters would not only be various sizes and fonts but thicknesses as well.  I then traced the letters on the wood.  He cut them out and sanded them.  I then painted them. 

Here are some of the letters I bought before they were painted.

Here are all the letters painted.  Matt made the letters G-R minus M.  Matt's letters turned out better.  I wish he had done all of them.  The letters I bought had a coating on them making them hard to paint.

Here is the finished product.  We used 3M tape for all the letters and monkey hooks as well for the heavier letters with holes in the back for hanging.  We banged on the wall and even pulled on some of the letters and they aren't going anywhere.  BTW that is the cheap lamp I was talking about.  Doesn't look bad and does the trick. The hat hanging off of it is baby boy's first official cubs hat, of course.

Here is another shot.

We got our pack n play at our second baby shower from Matt's Aunt and Matt's cousin.  We love it!   It will be great for the first few weeks when he sleeps in our room.  It will also be great for trips to the lake house.(can't wait)

Here it is all set up in our bedroom ready to go.  

At our first shower thrown by my best friend, Kim, we got our stroller from my 3 best friends and our carseat from my parents.  We love them!  They are the Chicco keyfit magic stroller and carseat.

Of course here is a picture of the stroller with the carseat locked in.

For Christmas this year Matt and I decided to get each other things for the baby.  Matt got me these cute robot prints from etsy.  I love them!  I got cheap frames from Walmart and painted them with the blue paint I used for the letters.

This picture shows how they are hung over the crib.

The other picture was so blurry, so I wanted to share a picture that showed the cute robots better.  They are yellow, blue, and red like the letters.

This is an antique cabinet Matt's grandma gave us when we first were married.  It had thick green paint on the inside, so we striped it and restained it.  I really like it.  We decided to use this instead of a dresser.  On the shelves we put blankets, bedding, and burp clothes.  The bottom shelves are the baby's toys.

On top on the far left is the camera Matt set up so we can monitor the baby.  The jars were made by Matt's grandma and cousin.  They have wood blocks from the family antique shop in them that say ROBOTS, CUBS, BEARS, AND DRUMMOND.  They filled each jar with items that related to each word.  They are so special to me.

Here is a close up.  Blurry, but you get a better idea.  From this picture you can see the yellow and orange antique inspired robot Matt and I got.  It is made from tin.  The middle robot was painted by my cousin and gifted to us at the first shower.  The robot on the right was given to us by my parents. The small white thing in front of the far right robot is R2D2.  The small gold thing next to R2D2 is C3PO.  Matt insisted on them being in the room.

This is a hamper between the crib and cabinet that was given to us at the first baby shower by my cousins.  It is from 31 and has robots on the brim.  We were actually given 3 of them.  I plan on using one in the loft after the little guy arrives. I filled it with his stuffed animals.  He has so many already!

Here is the crib with the bedding and his sleep sheep.  I have been obsessed with the sleep sheep since we first got pregnant.  We will be hanging the sleep sheep from the wall as to avoid the SIDS risk.  For those of you who don't know the sleep sheep plays various soothing sounds including the sounds of the womb.

Here is the daybed all done.  I made all the pillows.  The blanket at the end was made by a dear friend.  The other fleece blanket was made by my sister in law and is covered in robots.  The comforter was a steal for $17 at walmart.  We already had the blue sheets.

We hung this banner made by my other sister in law that was originally hung at the second baby shower above the closet.  It fills up that space perfectly and goes well in the room.

Here is the changing table.  It is actually a dry sink.  It was given to us by my sister in law who got it from my husband's grandmother.  She then gave it to us.  I love that it is an antique and has been in the family.  Matt screwed the changing table pad on the top.  On the left is our diaper pail and stock pile of diapers.  To the right is a little table I found at my Granny's  with a wipe warmer, dinosaur,  lamp made from an old animal cracker tin also from my Granny's, and a baseball that was signed by everyone at our second baby shower.

Here you can see all the storage underneath.  There are diapers, tons of wipes, butt creams of various types,  and hand sanitizer.  It works out great!

Here is our glider.  It was actually originally in Matt's great grandparent's house.  It had green fabric on it with ladybugs on it.  That didn't really go with our theme, so I asked Matt's grandmother if she could recover the cushions with a neutral tan.  She picked out the fabric.  It has texture on one side and smooth on the other.  I like the textured side best, but it is nice to have options so I can flip the cushions if I want a little change.  She did a great job and we are so thankful for her hard work!  The blanket is a really nice one from pottery barn that was a Christmas gift.  I plan on using it for myself during the late night feedings.

Here's a better shot of the side table.  When I found it it had already been striped and sanded, so I just had to stain it.

Here is his swing, boppy, and bouncy seat all thanks to my aunt who handed them down to us after her twin boys out grew them.  They will be moving out to the loft once the little guy arrives.  They are very nice and we are lucky to have them.

This is in the closet.  We put shelves in there.  This shelf we used baskets to organize his pants and shorts by size.  Also we have a container for bibs, hats, and socks.

He has so many clothes!  We were handed down clothes from my aunt and some from Matt's uncle who had a baby boy this January 1st.  We were also gifted a lot of really cute stuff, and his mama may not have been able to resist some baby clothes shopping.  We hung all of his clothes and organized them by size and function.  For example all the 0-3 months are together with onesies first, then one piece outfits, sleepers, and last jackets and sweaters.  I hope the closet stays this organized.  We'll see.

Here is a shelf that was built by my grandfather and used in their living room when my mother was growing up.  It was used in my closet for storage when I was little until I moved out.  Now it is in my baby's room.  Here is a shot of all the books he got at my first shower.  We asked guests to bring books instead of cards.  We got a lot of books and can't wait to read to him every night!

 Here is just another shot of the closet.  We have extra clothes in the woven baskets.  The diaper box has the bottles that were given to us from my aunt.  I am hoping to breast feed, so I don't have them out and ready yet.  I hope not to use a bottle for a couple weeks after he's born.  They will come in handy when I do go back to work and also when I want a break from midnight feedings.

I know this was the longest blog post ever!  Thanks for hanging in there!  We are so excited to be having this little boy join our family!  I have enjoyed preparing for him and am ready for his arrival.  I hope he likes it and that we have everything he needs.

We love you baby Drummond!