Monday, March 21, 2011

Planning Jonah's room

Because we are moving to Fort Campbell soon, I can't set up Jonah's nursery (obviously) until we get there. I will have about a month to get everything ready for him once we get there. Which is plenty of time normally, but I also will  be unpacking and setting up in our new house during that time! Oy, makes me tired just thinking about it.

So to avoid as much stress as possible (and just because I'm an avid planner and a teensy bit OCD) I'm trying to make and aquire as much of the smaller items we'll need before we move. So that all I have to do when we get there is set it up!

You are probably going to think I'm crazy, but the theme I'm using is a vintage-y, natural, birds/owls one. With colors like light blue, navy blue, white, cream, and dark brown. And materials like wicker, branches, ceramics, cloth, and canvas. I saw a nursery done in this type of decor and I feel in love, I'm using it as inspiration. I promise it'll make since when it's all put together.

This weekend, I enlisted the help of my husband for another project. I love including him in my projects recently, he is a great help and I love creating things (especially for our children) with him. Thanks, babe!

I can't claim this idea.. but I can't for the life of me remember the blog I got it from. I'm about 75% positive is was Oh Dee Doh

Anyways, I love this idea because it's cheap and ends up looks very unique (and its perfect for Jonah's nursery!)

First you need a pre-made wooden birdhouse.. You know the ones you find at craft stores that are meant for your kids to paint? I found mine in the craft section at walmart for just under $5. Next, raid your local goodwill or thrift store for an old hardback children's book. This is important: make sure the hardback cover to your book is slighty bigger than the roof of your birdhouse when open. (This will make sense later)
I picked out this one because it's old and it has an owl on the cover so it will match Jonah's room. It was $1 at our Goodwill.

You also need Mod Podge, a foam brush or two, and scissors. And you might wanna cover the area with newspaper just to be safe.
(Sorry for the poor photo quality)

Next rip the pages out of the book, well don't "rip"... carefully remove is a better instruction.

I have to apolgize for not having any pictures of the main part of the process, both Jeff and I were covered in Mod Podge.
You are bascially going to pick the pages you want and cover the sides, and front and back of the birdhouse. Modpodge, and then apply the pages, and then modpoge on top of them to seal.
Here's a picture of it drying after we applied all the pages.
TIP: you can use a credit card or something like it to smooth out the air bubbles under the pages.
We used only the pages that had birds for this one but you can use pick and choose what pages you want to use and how to position them. It's all up to you. And we had some "wooden" showing at the bottom after covering all the sides, so we just cut strips from what pages we had leftover and used those to finish the bottom part.

I used a light blue paint to paint the roof edges before we added the book cover. Just so it will match Jonah's room better. Modpodge the whole roof and lay the book cover on top. (You may have to break the binding a bit). Let it dry and your done!

Here's our final product

I'm happy with it :)

We also found these at the Thurston County Flea Market this weekend
The white owl is actually a pitcher. But it'll be used to hold some sort of baby goodies.
(And yes we were starving afterwards, hence the KFC)


I can't wait to start setting up in a few months :)

2 comments:

  1. ADORABLE birdhouse! I really need to make more things with my hands. Every time I do it makes me happy. But, I always manage to find excused why I'm too tired, or too broke. :)

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  2. I'm jealous! Everything you do turns out cute! lol I hope we're stationed close to you when Stephen and I have a baby, you're definitely helping me with "it's" room! lol

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