Jonah's Nursery

With only 4 weeks left until my due date, I've decided it's high time I reveal this nursery I've been working on.

His room is filled browns and blues, birds and trees, and lots of love! I wanted a room where serenity and relaxation take center stage. But I also wanted it to be functional, along with reflecting the old-time style Jeff (husband) and I love.

Upon moving into our house here at Fort Campbell, we were told that while we indeed were allowed to paint, we would have to paint it back to white before they start renovating our house. Renovations are scheduled to start this fall, so we decided against painting until after that. With that said, the nursery is not as... "warm" as I would have liked it to be. But I'm still happy with the way it's turned out.

Before Jack was born, I made him a plaque with his name and zoo animals on it. It's one thing I've held onto through all our moves. So Jeff and I decided Jonah definitely needed one too. I found all the materials for this at Hobby Lobby (with the help of aunt Erin!). I just love the font of the letters, it's quite adorable. I used acrylic paints, an aqua, a chocolate brown, and a cream (for the letters and also to white wash the aqua background). The owl and tree I bought already painted because I was feeling lazy they were on sale. Add some wall hangers on the back and your done.

This shelf was one I inherited from my mom's house. She didn't want it anymore, and FREE is my favorite. That way, if my plan doesn't work and I mess it up while I'm fixing it up.. I'm not out anything. Somehow that helps me cope with the many craftfails I've experienced. This shelf got a coat of the same aqua paint I used for the name plaque, and very light streaks of cream to soften it up a bit. The hooks were removed, painted with the chocolate bown, and re-attached with some wood glue.

The brown chick you see, I found at a flea market in Washington (it's legs are made of newspaper! How cool is that?).  It's little nest came from the thrift store. The birdhouse, my wonderful mother painted. And the two ceramic birdies on the other side were painted by someone (whom I can't remember at the moment) in my husband's family years ago.

Oh glider! Oh, how I have missed you this past year. Glider is one of the unfortunate pieces of my furniture I had to leave behind when I moved back to Washington last year. I'm so happy to have it back, and he is happy to be in his new home I believe. Joined with a wicker side table that came from Goodwill for $10, and a corkboard to hang all of Jonah's pictures, "Congrats on Baby" cards, and other fun paper trinkets. The corkboard obviously got a paint job too. The owls were super simple to add. I chose a picture of an owl (who's sillouette I liked), blew it up to the sizes I wanted, printed them off, and cut out the middles to leave the stencils for me to use.

This awesome antique dresser also came (FREE) from my mom's house. They bought my little sister a new bedroom suite a few months ago, and this thing was just going to go to the trash! Remembering that it already had the crackle paint look that I loved (and used on Jonah's rocking chair you can see here), I begged her to save it for me! It is old, but it still has a few more years left I believe. Lots of bleach wipes to make it safe to hold Jonah's clothes, and some new knobs from Lowe's give it new life.

Jonah's closet and a super cool shelf (from Hobby Lobby's clearance sale) competely the room.

The holder thingy on the door is for diapers (and whatever else it ends up being a good place for). It will eventually get some brown and aqua owls stenciled on as well.

I love this shelf. Well, I love the things on it.. but I love the shelf too. The deer are another pair that came from Jeff's family. The two candles and the ceramic bird are from TJ Maxx. And let me tell you, that white candle... I'm not sure what the scent is... But it's amazing. And it fills the whole room with it's.. self?

And see that lamp? Yeah... I made that! Well, sorta. You see, I orignially bought a lamp (I know I know, crazyness) It was adorable, but it didn't survive the move :( The only thing we could salvage is the aqua blue, paisley lamp shade. Now I needed a lamp... wait... I had a lamp! I had bought a lamp from Goodwill over a year ago that I liked the design of. Only problem, it was BRASS. YUCK! So, chocolate brown paint to the rescue, and waaa-laaa. New problem, the lamp was too short for the lamp shade. It ended up looking very 70's.

Brainstorming took a couple days but I finally came up with this..

And folks.. behold the ONLY craft project I've ever tried that turned out almost exactly like I wanted it to...

I measuring the bottom of the lamp, a perfect 5 inches. Off to TJ Maxx to find a vase. What do you know... they have one thats exactly 5 inches in diameter... score!

A fake flower and stones I already had add in the "nature" and "serene" feel I wanted. A little gorilla glue to hold it together and done!

Here's the part that makes me say "almost like I wanted". You can barely see it in the picture but the little brown base below the vase wasn't in my original plan. After it was finished, it wasn't really looking quite finished to me. It looked like I made it, and I didn't want that. It needed a brown base. Sitting in my kitchen I searched and searched and searched for something flat, round, and about 5 in across. Plate? no, it would look to much like a plate. Wooden Drink Coaster? no, my coasters are only 4 in.

Citronella candle lid? YES!

What are the odds that the lid to the citronella candle

(like this one)

would fit perfectly on the bottom of my lamp?

Lesson learned... Try everything, you never know what might work.

Painted with a coat of brown paint, I attached the upside-down lid to the bottom of my lamp with gorilla glue. Now it was done, really finished.

Last but not least the birdhouse I made a while ago, and the owl pitcher I found at a flea market (see blogpost here), along with a picture frame, find a spot on the second shelf.

So, what do you think? What does your baby's nursery look like? Did you blog about it? post a link! I'd love to see them :)

Being the perfectionist that I am, I almost always have something else I'd like to do or something I wish I would have done. But I can honestly say I'm truly happy with Jonah's nursery. I cannot wait to bring him home :)