The Nursery Reveal (A DIY Guide)

The Nursery Reveal DIY

After I was up five times Friday night to use the bathroom, Chris and I were wide awake at 5 a.m. on Saturday.  I sent him out in the dark 9-degree weather to get bacon and ice cream while I made waffles.  It was the first time I felt like a stereotypical pregnant woman, and it only took 9 months to get there!

Our nursery also took about nine months to finish but seeing how we started with down-to-the-studs walls, we’ll give ourselves a break.  And now our big nursery reveal is here!  Sit down and get comfortable because this could take a while…

Here is the view from the door:

The Nursery Reveal

And then the view of the opposite side of the room.

The Nursery Reveal-2

Do you love it? I do.

It is all the yellow and gray goodness that I had hoped for when I set out to design our nursery scheme back in August.  It is colorful and playful with lots to look at, yet also soothing and comfortable.

Chris and I have spent several hours over the past few weeks just sitting in the room and relaxing.  Let’s be honest, right now the room is mostly for us me anyway. Our little guy won’t care much about design for a few years, if ever, so for now it is a space where we can feel cozy hanging out, reading, playing, and feeding.

Shall we get into some of the details?

Our crib is centered on the back wall and framed by an on-clearance mirror that we originally scored at Lowe’s and then stole from the guest room (sorry, guests). Over on the right is a slim green floor lamp that I also found at Lowe’s.

The Nursery Reveal-3

Our larger-than-life mobile is made of some fun poms from PomLove on Etsy and some of the fantastic star lanterns that my sister Holly made for our wedding.

The Nursery Reveal-4

And looking down low, our crib is skirted with my DIY crib skirt made with some fun yellow print fabric.  (Update: I eventually made coordinating crib bumpers and a quilt.)

crib skirt

Over to the right we have our little reading nook.  Truth be told, the room is not exactly finished yet because we have a sweet rocking chair that Chris’ grandmother used and we haven’t quite finished touching it up yet.  But that gives me an excuse to do more nursery posts later, right?

But we do have our DIY book slings in place featuring some green dot fabric by Amy Butler.

Nursery book slings

And above that we have some DIY art made by me and my crafty friend Shyla.

diy art

Continuing on around the room we have our bright yellow changing table and dresser that truly makes the room for me.  I could not be more happy with how this beat-up Craigslist find turned into the perfect sun-shiny yellow piece for our room.

And, the numbered knobs (originally red and from Pottery Barn Kids) get rave reviews from all the people who have seen the room in person.

yellow dresser

Above the changing table we have two floating shelves that I found on deal at Lowe’s and a small hanging rack. They provide the perfect place for fun accessories and very necessary blankets, burp cloths and diapers. At least we hear those things are necessary. We know absolutely nothing at this point!

small hanging rack

And back to the sitting area we go….

If you look closely on the closet doors, you can see that we used knob numbers 7 and 8 left over from the dresser.  They got a coat of yellow paint and work perfectly as door pulls.

Overhead you’ll see the oversized linen drum fixture (from CB2) that I just love, love, love.  It’s on a dimmer, too, so we can have nap-time mood lighting.

sitting area

The sitting area is grounded by a simple area rug that I found on Overstock and the whole wall is framed by our fun and cute DIY cornices made with bright yellow elephant fabric.  They add such a pop of color near the ceiling and I just love them to pieces. What can I say, I am partial to my own work.

diy design

And then there is the chair.  The chair as in Frankie’s old chair (for those of you who were worried, our pup Frankie has adjusted well to sharing his chair and he still enjoys hanging out in it when he remembers where it is).

This chair used to be dingy and green until I slipcovered it.  I didn’t do a whole post on the chair covering process, mostly because I can’t really tell you how I did it.  It took a lot of patience and brain power and I think I need to take on a few more slipcovering projects before I do a tutorial.  If you look closely you can even see that I did piping on the cushion covers.  Do I get bonus points?

In the end, I was glad that we used this chair instead of buying a new one.  It is super comfortable and it’s making use of a perfectly good piece of furniture that didn’t fit well anywhere else in our house.

I also whipped up a coordinating pillow cover with leftover cornice fabric.  Definitely bonus points for that, right?

old chair

The chair is made even more comfortable with this quick DIY ottoman that I made with leftover fabric.  Love this little guy.

diy ottoman

I found the perfect side table at Overstock for about $30.  I love that it has a little drawer for stashing things away (you know, like nipple cream, which are two words that once upon a time I would never have imagined using in the same sentence, never mind next to each other.  So weird.).

Anyway, the table is perfect for a small stash of books, my little Goodwill white ceramic lamp topped with a green shade from Target, and a coaster for my feeding time sustenance.

diy table

And above the table we have my DIY embroidery hoop art featuring various fabrics and a yellow clock I found at Target.  I still need a battery for the clock otherwise it will perpetually be 10:12 in the nursery.

wall clock art

And I can’t round out this post without mentioning two of my favorite things in the room that have a ton of sentimental value.  First is this adorable growth chart that my sister made for us.  I know you want one of your own, but sorry, it was custom made for us.

growth chart

And second is the Ollie the Elephant doll.  My mom made this doll for me when I was a little girl and it was my original jumping off point for the whole nursery. Of course, the doll was originally named Ellie and wore a cute pink dress and apron, but my mom kindly whipped up a new little boy outfit and we did a quick name change!

elephant doll

And now we are all just waiting, especially Frankie who can’t quite understand what this room is for.  I guess he will find out soon enough!

frankie the dog

Before I get to the obligatory source list, I have to say that none of the projects I took on for this room were completely original.  Everything was either inspired by or copied from other rooms that I have seen and loved, most notably Graham’s Fabric Fabulous Nursery (oh, hello gray wall color, yellow cornices, embroidery hoop art and green accents!). 

So please, if you see something you like here in this little nursery of ours, copy away.

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