Ava's Nursery Reveal!

Well, I am finally getting around to posting about our nursery (at 38 1/2 wks pregnant!)  It's finally finished and ready for our little girl!  Get ready for lots of pictures ;)

(view from the door)

My hubby did a great job on the paneled wall behind the crib.  It turned out just as pretty as I imagined!

(view from the closet.)  There is my old dresser we refinished for the room!

You may have also noticed that my vintage mirror isn't in the room....   I hung it and it just didn't 'fit' in the space, I wasn't happy with it.  I decided to hang this round one that I had gotten at a consignment sale and I think it goes better with the room.  I love my little DIY mirror but if I don't think something looks right in a room, it literally eats at me till I 'fix' it!  Anyway, it is now back up on my mantel....I'm not in love with it there either:-/  Ok, back to the nursery!  Here is another view of the room.  It bugs me that the balloon shade looks so sheer in these pics, I wish you could tell how pretty it is in person!

Love the little dollhouse.  My hubby refurbished a funky table/cart we got at a thrift store for it to sit on.  Turned out so cute!

My hubby also made these great bookshelves!  I decided they also make great shelves for displaying photos!

Another thing we did was get rid of the popcorn ceiling and Jeff re-surfaced it with a trowel and texture paint.  Turned out beautiful!  We painted it a light beige color that I lost the name of :-/  And installed crown (of course!)

I replaced the wooden knobs on the closet doors with these pink glass ones for more of a vinatey, girly look.

The tiffany lamp was mine from my room when I was young.  Works perfect in here!  And you probably recognize my DIY blocks ;)

The tea saucers are all thrift store finds.  It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be to find them and my mom helped me gather a small collection.

My dream crib.  It was a gift from my grandmother and it's my favorite part of the room.

I also love her beautiful bedding. 

I envisioned having little flower vases above the crib but didn't want to use glass (for obvious reasons) but had a difficult time finding anything!  I ended up with these plastic bottles from Hobby Lobby and I think they work ok.

Sweet little chandelier

Gotta have throw pillows!  I had the worst time finding a rug for this room.  I'm not 100% thrilled with this shag number but it works for now.  It's actually 2 smaller rugs that I put together.  I actually wanted to make it twice the size but I got them at a discount store and there weren't any more so I had to work with two.

I hope you have enjoyed this little 'tour' of our baby room.  It was a labor of love and I look forward to enjoying it with her.

Ok, I will post product details as best I can with this crazy mommy/preggo brain I have going on!

Details:

Paint color: Valspar Pink Air (eggshell)

Crib: Bratt Decor Venetian Iron Crib from Pottery Barn Kids

Rocker:  I ordered it from WalMart.com when I was pregnant with Hayden 3 years ago.  I'm not sure if they still carry it, I was unable to find it.

Bedding:  Little House by Annette Tatum in Pool Rose Khaki.  The set has been discontinued, I found it on ebay.

Chandelier:  Home Depot (not sure if they still carry it, I snagged it on clearance for $50!)

Balloon Shade: Target

Doll House: Hobby Lobby (again, I think that style was discontinued.  We got the store display for a steal at $37!!!) 

 

p.s. I'm linking up to:

 Funky Junk Interior's Sat Night Special "Picture Perfect" link party!

Fingerprints on the Fridge

French Country Cottage

At the Picket Fence

Somewhat Simple

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Antique Dresser Re-Do

I finally finished the dresser for Ava's room!

I already had this beautiful antique dresser (my mom found it at an antique shop and refinished it for my room when I was in the 4th grade and I've had it ever since.)

Problem was, it was painted an ugly brown since I decided at one point to paint it :-/  You can also see in this lovely cell phone 'before' pic that the paint was chipping off where my hubby put his feet up and played video games on it in the spare bedroom....

(I already removed the hardware when I took this pic. also...ignore all the construction chaos all around it!)

I love how it turned out because the finish matches her crib almost perfectly!  My hubby did most of the painting since I'm pregnant and try to avoid that stuff and I distressed it.  I didn't want it to be heavily distressed but I wanted to rough the edges up a little so that it matched her crib better and gave it a bit of a vintage look. 

I was so excited to find this awesome metal hardware at Hob Lob and got them 1/2 off for $2 each!  I painted and distressed them.

I also got some lovely glass knobs for the top two drawers.

I hope Ava gets lots of use out of this old dresser just like I did!

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

DIY Wooden Nursery Blocks

When I was pregnant with Hayden and decorating his nursery, I ordered some cute little handmade custom blocks from Etsy.  Well, this time around I am not working and don't have the extra funds to spend almost $30 on 6 little blocks!  I decided to make my own and I did with a $5 piece of wood, Mod Podge and 1/2 off scrapbook paper from Hob Lob :)  They are not perfect, but that's ok.  I wanted them to look a little 'rustic' or 'shabby' whatever you want to call it.

Here's how I made them.  We got a 1.5 in x 1.5 in piece of wood.  I wanted 2 inch blocks but they only had this size and one that was too big.  Anyway, my wonderful hubby cut 10 1.5 inch blocks from the wood.  I couldn't have done it without him since that part required some chop saw action!  Let me just say I couldn't do a LOT of my projects without my hubby's help, he is the best :)

So, I then had the daunting task of sanding all these because I wanted to round out the edges a bit.  This probably would have been easier with a sanding block but I had like a sanding sponge type thing that was not really cutting it :-/  Anyway, after I got all the rough edges smoothed out, I went around them with a wood stain pen and 'stained' all the edges.

It doesn't have to be perfect, just enough to cover what will show in-between the pieces of paper.

I had pre-cut all my pieces of scrapbook paper to fit and had them separated. 

Then I just Mod Podged them onto the blocks one at a time. (I used matte finish because I didn't want a shiny finish.)

I put the mod podge on the block then laid the paper on top but you could coat the back of the paper and put it on the block, I just wanted to get the least amount of sticky glue on my fingers as possible.....  I think either way you get messy :p

After covering the blocks in paper, I covered each block with a coat of mod podge.

I covered the 5 sides at one time and left one side (the bottom) uncoated until they dried, then finished coating them.

Here's the finished product :)

I love this little ducky block :)

They can be changed to whatever pattern combo I like.  I put the same 6 patterns on each block so if I want, I can have all the blocks matching or mix it up!

They are now sitting atop her dresser.  You'll be seeing them again in the nursery reveal hopefully coming soon!  I am still finishing up decorating in there.  I have yet to find an affordable accent rug (that coordinates with the room) and I'm getting a little frustrated!  I can't wait to show it to you all :)  My hubby worked so hard in there!

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Old Window Turned Vintage Mirror

Ever since I got that old window you have been seeing on my mantel lately, I have envisioned turning it into an antique looking mirror for Ava's vintage inspired nursery.  Well, today I did just that!  It was a pretty easy project and I am happy with the outcome!  Can't wait to hang it in her nursery.

This is what I started off with.  My $10 vintage window.

Here's how I transformed the glass panels into old looking mirrors. 

First, I got me a can of this stuff :)

This stuff isn't cheap ($11.99 for a 6oz can) but I used a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby so that made it just over $7. 

I found this tutorial on how to apply and 'distress' the mirror finish.

I applied several thin coats of the paint to the back of the window. 

It's pretty easy to apply and dries quickly.  It's also pretty forgiving if you don't apply it perfectly evenly :)

At this point it was looking like a mirror!  I could have just left it like this and it would have been a cute mirror but since her room has a vintagey feel to it, I wanted to add some age to it :)

I started 'distressing' the mirror finish by following instructions found here.

It said to use a 50/50 water/vinegar mixture to spray on the paint and rub some of it off.  I use a homemade water vinegar solution to clean my countertops with (though its not 50/50) so I used that. 

 I would suggest working a small area at a time but I sprayed the whole thing and went back with a cloth and removed bits of the paint.

I just tried to keep it random but there was some that came off a little more than what I wanted!  It was ok though.

I got some of this stuff to apply to the spots where I scraped off the mirror finish to give it more of an antique look.

It's a gold leaf type finish.  I got a bronze color because I didn't want it to look yellow.  The package says to brush it on but I think it worked better to dab it on with a sponge.  I covered all the bare spots and let it dry. 

The finished product :)

Looks like a vintage mirror to me!

I can't wait to hang it above her dresser in the nursery!

P.S. Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all have a wonderful year!

(I am linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before & After Party!)

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!