Category: design

You’ve already seen a general nursery reveal here, but some of my favorite parts of the space are the little details. The personal touches that make it special. The room may not be perfect, but consider me smitten.

First, a reminder of the nursery as a whole…

Nifty, eh? Like I said — smitten! Now, here’s a look at some of the specifics that make my heart go pitter pat.

The “LOVE” over the crib is simply those papier maché (had to write it in the proper French format; hope to make Mrs. Turner proud!) letters that are available at any craft store. I hemmed and hawed over whether or not to paint them — white? Bright orange? Plum, if Hadley had been a girl? When all was said and done, I just wanted the space DONE, so I figured I could always paint them if the urge struck. It hasn’t. I love them au naturel. Oh, and they’re being held up with the hubby’s packing tape. Use whatchya got! (And, yes, I have to occasionally “press” them back up, but they’re nothing that will crush the bambino in his sleep, so we’re not worried.)

Time to get artsy fartsy! Aside from the “LOVE” ‘installment’ above, we made a bit of a collage wall o’ stuff. Here’s the general gist of the thing…

(The picture on the bottom left is of Dave as a baby. I’m trying to track one down of me. Few and far between, my friends.) And here are some close-ups…

This is a lovely print that one of Dave’s co-workers had made for us when the little guy was born. How. Cool. Is. That?!

And, of course we want the buddy to learn his “brothers'” names, so what better way than to throw some pictures on the wall? It doesn’t hurt that they’re right above the mirror (which he stares longingly into before trying to pull off the wall. Must take after his mama.)

Yes, you can see me in the reflection. I don’t care! My mom sang this to me when I was a baby, so it had to be included in the room. (I’ve tried to sing it but can’t get through without tears.) I took my inspiration from a print I saw online, changed the colors a bit, painted the frame, and voila!

Speaking of stealing, er borrowing art ideas from the internet, I downloaded a cool font and created this piece, too. Another thrift store frame and some cutting (you can tell that it’s a bit small; I need to find a larger mat or something, but it’s no hurry. Oh, and notice the yellow letters…

Here’s a different angle. You can see the pattern on the curtains (which I made (!) using this tutorial), along with a McCoy pottery teapot (I think my mother bought it for me; the fact that my maiden name is “McCoy” is not lost on me) and a couple of cheap (cheep!), cute ceramic birds (another craft store find) that help fancy up the place.

Here’s another online print that we LOVE. Sure, the owls are cute, but we prefer the irreverent Beatles quote (er, variation of a Beatles quote). It’s our favorite song and we want our son to hold that meaning dearly.

I wish this artwork worked better lately… It still makes me laugh a bit, though. And ya gotta love dafont.com for getting juuuust the right font. (Run your virus scanner afterwards, though; ya never know.)

This art started life as a sweet baby shower card from a friend of ours. Strangely enough, giraffes have become the little man’s “animal,” but the colors and design just screamed “I need to be seen every single day!” Oh, and then there are a couple of antique blue glass bottles that I’ve had around forever, plus a basket for his toiletries. (This is high up, by the way.)

Speaking of high-up glass, here’s a place for us to keep some of our smaller toys, like blocks, an awesome organic wood teether (another owl) and the special musical turtle from Aunt Tara and Uncle Dan from their trip to Italy. I just love all of it!…which means, keep your glass-hating comments to yourself. 😉

 

And, last but not least, we have our rocking chair. It doesn’t get a ton of use (he’d rather be held standing up), but it came from my mother’s childhood home; God only knows how old it is. It’s got the best dark patina and helps make the place a tad more “serious,” playing off all the bright colors and modern prints.

So, these are just a few of my favorite details in the little man’s room. I’m hoping to do a bit of a source list/price breakdown of everything. Most of the items are hand-me-downs (or a gift, like the crib and the Ikea shelves), but I figure that’ll wrap up the nursery over-sharing.