Nursery Reveal! (finally!)

I know I've been MIA for a while, quite a while actually. We've been really busy around here getting last minute things done in preparation for the baby. We are 38 weeks this week and ready to meet our baby boy! :)

We really wanted to go for a vintage style nursery and also wanted to be as thrifty as possible. So, without further ado, here is a little tour of our finished nursery.

Our lovely crib with the bedding that I made. Also the changing table that we refinished. There is a little half table right next to the changing table that we bought at a local antique store that was already white and distressed so we didn't have to do anything to it. The rug (which I LOVE) is from Ikea and was only around $20, awesome deal!

This chandelier is hanging over the changing table. I got it from a garage sale for $8. It was really ugly, but a little Krylon blue spray paint fixed it right up :)

Here is the crib mobile that I made. I got the idea off of pinterest. I used scrapbook paper, paper doilies and an embroidery hoop to make it. It was really easy and I like the vintage look it has.

This bookcase came from Ikea too, only $39.99 I believe. We needed the bookcase to be pretty narrow (which is kind of hard to find on a budget) since it's tucked in the corner and our rocking chair will also be in that area once the baby moves from the bassinet in our room to his crib. I like that we have plenty of room to increase his book collection :)

Oh, and a side note, I got the curtains from Walmart on clearance. I kind of wanted to put them in our dining room too :)

Here is our refinished dresser. I bought the mirror from a thrift store last winter. The frame is plastic and it was this ugly gold color, so I sprayed it down with oil rubbed bronze spray paint to match the hardware on the dresser. I like the ornate details on it, even if it is plastic :) We also have these really cute block letters that we picked up at Hobby Lobby (50% off of course!) that spell out his name for the top of the dresser. I took them down before taking the picture because his name is a surprise! :-)

These are little animal cut-outs that I made from left over fabric from the crib bedding. I got the idea from a website somewhere (sorry I don't remember where). They are kind of hard to see, I wish I would have made them bigger. The top one is a bunny, the middle is a kitty and the bottom is a monkey. 

This is another project I got off of pinterest :) I used vintage blue and green buttons to make a scripted "R". I used fabric glue to glue them on and my wonderful hubby stretched the canvas on a frame that he made.

That's pretty much it! It's a cozy room, but I think our little monkey will like it. :-)

Crib Bedding!

I just recently finished the crib bedding set for our little bundle of joy due in November! I decided to make my own after looking around in some stores and not really seeing anything that I really liked.
Since I'm going for a more vintage look in the nursery, I didn't want a super bright, in your face type of bedding. I wanted more of a natural, and calming colors type bedding set. So this is what I came up with:

I wasn't really planning on making the bedding gender neutral, but when I saw the fabric for the baby quilt, I fell in love! So basically, that was the first fabric I bought and then matched everything else around that.

All of my fabrics came from Jo-Ann's and I'm happy to say that I used a coupon for every single cut of fabric that I needed. You can always find coupons online that you can print off. I do have to mention that I didn't buy all the fabric in one trip (obviously) since I wanted to use coupons on everything. But it worked out nice since I only worked on one part at a time anyway.

I followed tutorials that I found online for everything except the crib skirt, which I just kind of made up. I may write up a tutorial for the skirt in the near future...it was really really easy!

The baby quilt was my first experience with machine quilting, or any quilting in general. It wasn't too bad, though the back of the quilt is a little...well, not so pretty looking, but it's just the back right? :-) Oh, I also want to mention that I didn't sew all the little squares together for the top-I found the fabric just like that at Jo-Ann's! Isn't it adorable? It is soooo soft and cozy! :)

In case any of you are thinking about making a crib set, here are links to the tutorials that I (kind of) followed for my set:

Baby quilt: Diary of a Quilter There is a list of tutorials that take you through the entire quilting process from piecing together to quilting to binding. This is a great resource for a beginner quilter like myself :)

Crib bumpers: Sew Dang Cute Crafts I didn't follow this exactly since I used one fabric instead of individual squares, but overall it's the same concept.

Crib sheets: luvinthemommyhood Seriously, this is SO easy. If you need crib sheets you should really make your own, you will be surprised at how simple it is, and how quick, especially if you own a serger. :)

Crib skirt: I made this up on my own. :-) Tutorial coming soon!

The nursery is coming along well so far! I've now been working on some diy decorations :-)

Craigslist Changing Table

Onto the next part of the nursery reveal...the changing table!

I found this cool changing table on Craigslist a few months back:

Well, it didn't look so nice, but I knew it had potential. We really liked the vintage-y feel that it had. So I took off the hardware and doors and got to work sanding it down. 

As far as refinishing it, we did pretty much the exact same thing as we did for the Dresser Update.  

Unfortunately, the whole thing smelled really weird. Almost like a slight smokey or musty or something nasty. Of course, we didn't notice the smell until we had it in the car on the way home (the people had it sitting outside for us to look at when we got there).

So after we primed it all, I could still smell the weird smell, which we determined must have been coming from the inside. So, we ended up using A LOT of Kilz spray paint and went ahead and sprayed the entire thing, including the inside and the back. Thankfully, that totally took care of the problem! No more nasty smells! :)

And here is our finished product:

I spray painted the hardware the same oil rubbed bronze to match the dresser.

We did add a little wooden scroll work thing to help with the vintage feel we are going for. We just used wood glue to glue it on before we did all the painting.

It looks like it was always there :-)

I am so happy with how this turned out! Our little nursery is starting to come together!

My husband and I got some maternity pictures done this past weekend and then turned out AMAZING! If anyone is looking for a great photographer in the Davenport, Iowa area, I highly recommend Erica Jessop Photography. She is great! 

Or if you are in the Northern Illinois area, you can contact me :-)

Dresser Update

Here is the first "sneak peak" if you will, at the projects that my husband and I have been diligently working on for the nursery. I know I could wait and do a nursery reveal when everything is complete, but where is the fun in that? :) So I've decided to post about things as I get them done.

So, here is the dresser that we started out with:

I had already taken most of the hardware off; I tend to forget to take pictures before I start because I just get so excited, haha :)

This old dresser came from my parent's (for free, bonus!) and is actually the same dresser I used during college. We originally got it from an auction and the finish was kind of...well weird. Someone had tried to do a faux wood grain finish, and it was interesting looking to say the least, this picture doesn't do it justice. Needless to say, it was ready for an update!

I didn't take any pictures of the process, but we did the basic furniture refinishing steps that you can find on pretty much anyone's blog these days.

First, I sanded it a bit, then sprayed it down with Kilz primer-I think we did 2 coats to cover it well. Since we chose a white crib, we decided to go with white furniture to match. We sprayed it with Krylon white, in a semi-gloss finish. I think it took at least 2 coats, we may have done 3 though. 

After that was thoroughly dry, I went to work on some glazing. This is the first time I've ever glazed and I'm SO glad I did it! We LOVE how it turned out! And glazing is actually super easy-especially since you can just wipe it off if you don't like how it looks (as long as it hasn't dried obviously). The glaze gave it just the right amount of antique look that I wanted :)

I also sealed it with 3 coats of a water based poly, just to help protect it from scratches and such.

I spray painted the brass colored hardware with an oil rubbed bronze paint (after doing a coat of Kilz, though I'm not sure if that was necessary or not, I wanted to be on the safe side!)

I seriously love it! It is going along well with our vintage inspired nursery :-)

It is amazing what some paint and glaze can do for furniture! We were a little intimidated to spray paint such a big piece of furniture, but it really turned out good! (Just be prepared to need a lot of spray paint!)
This dresser (and some other furniture for the nursery that I will be posting about in the near future) are really our first experiences with painting furniture, so if we can do it, then I know you can too! :)