Little Guy's Nursery

It's been awhile since I showed you a room in my house, hasn't it? There's two reasons for that. First, it's not a HUGE house, although it's a comfortable size, so there's a limit on rooms to share:) Second, we've lived in this house about three years during which we had our third child, which means I am still working on getting it the way I like it. Notice I said "I", not "we". That's because I am very blessed to have a hubby who doesn't care much about how it looks, as long as it's neat and tidy. I could paint a wall purple with pink stripes and he'd probably not even notice, but if all the toys were dumped out around the house and left for days on end, he'd get a twitch!

Since you've seen the family room, dining room before and in progress, master bedroom, and my oldest boy's room, it's time to let you peek on in just a little further. This is my little guy's old nursery and will be his bedroom when he and/or my middle boy decide they've had enough of sharing a room.

Nursery/Guest Room "After".





I love this room. I've sat in here many a morning with my coffee. Something about the color and the way the light comes in is so relaxing. When I was about 8 months pregnant I stripped it out and redid it for little guy, who was well on his way. I actually liked the color it was to begin with, but it didn't work with the bedding we'd selected.

Nursery/guest room "before".

In the past, I'd done all the decision making with the nurseries and decided this time to let the two older boys help me pick out some new crib bedding (you can already see what's coming, can't you?!)...then I nearly choked when they decided on...what else? CAMOUFLAGE! Seriously?! Can they not get enough of this stuff? This would be God's sense of humor with me. If I hate it, he'll make me have to deal with it. Always has. I know he was belly laughing as I stared in horror at the bedding they were holding in front of me! But, I try to always keep my word, and I'd said "You guys can help pick out the baby's bedding this time". After praying for God to hit the rewind button and hearing him say "NO WAY!", I picked it up and headed for the checkout counter.

It really wasn't that bad and grew on me quickly. It just wasn't what I'd imagined and took me a few minutes to come around to the idea it was actually workable. This was the set they picked out by Wendy Bellisimo:

"Blue Camo" by Wendy Bellisimo

My third pregnancy was such a blessing, but I was incredibly miserable physically. As I tried to pick out a  paint color I was having horrible headaches and apparently the pressure on my optic nerves was so intense that my vision was affected (which I didn't realize at the time). I painted the whole room... only to realize it wasn't the right shade (and got it on the sand colored carpet in the corner! I was convinced hubby was seeing things or messing with me until after I had little guy and saw it finally with clear eyes!). So, I fell back on my old stand-by...mix it myself. I had it matched and repainted the whole room AGAIN that same day.

The crib used to sit where the white dresser is now.

Next, I bought three or four extra matching camo crib sheets and five twin bed flat sheets. Patterns were drawn up on wrapping paper and window valences made and lined with the extra sheets. The remaining
four panels were the flat sheets on hospital tracks that could be closed to darken the room a little more if need be.

My box pleated window valences and panels made from sheets.

Next, I took four 12'x12' wrapped canvases and painted them in white with a khaki border. Next I glued ribbon on the line and buttons on the corners. Lastly, I took scraps of camo sheets left over from the windows and cut out wildlife images that were decoupaged onto the canvases. Wha-la! Nursery art that I didn't spend more than about $20 max on.

Custom wildlife art work made from sheet scraps, ribbon, paint and buttons.

The remaining camo scraps were turned into art work.

Last, but not least, I needed something over the bed, so I got on line and hunted for inspiration. This was a tiny woodworking pattern that I liked so I printed it out, then enlarged, and enlarged, and enlarged, and...you get the picture. Finally it was big enough to print and tape together. Then I cut it out with an Xacto knife, and traced it onto a heavy weight art paper, cut it out AGAIN and attached it to a fabric wrapped canvas with spray adhesive to keep the paper from bubbling. Done!

Although painted in a light aqua blue, it's not baby blue and is a very adult color. I deliberately tried to take it beyond the nursery stage so that it could stay as is for a number of years. It's really been a surprise how many people don't even notice that the fabric pattern is camo! I guess because it isn't being seen in a typical context, the pattern doesn't even register. Bingo. We (kids and I) both got what we wanted:)

Even though little guy is now sharing a room with his middle brother, he still calls this his room and loves it. Personally, I'm going to be sad when he want to repaint. I LOVE this room.It's currently the guest room
until Middle Guy decides he's had enough sharing and wants the room to himself (i.e.- is no longer scared of the dark!).

Linking up to:

 

I'm Obessessed!

I'm just on a roll. Like I said before, I get an idea in my head and I fixate on it. Too bad it can't be the second set of draperies I'm working on right now! Instead it's my dining room I can't quit thinking about.

My kitchen was supposed to be the target for a makeover this summer. I want to paint the cabinets in there so bad I can't stand it. But, for some reason, I have gotten fixed on making my dining room more "workable" for me. Maybe it's because I've spent so much time in there lately sewing. Guess it's a good time of year for that as it's only... +/- 100 degrees outside!

I digress. Remember me saying I was going to neutralize the walls? Now that I've decided on the fixture redo, I'm working on the walls. I just am not getting to excited about ANY color I've looked at to repaint. I want to lighten and neutralize, but no color seems to be getting me in a tizzy. So, I had another idea. I love wallpaper, but darn it all...could I pick a harder room to do? What about going with a good textural element like a tone-on-tone or grasscloth? If money were no object, I'd be placing an order right now for a creamy metallic neutral grasscloth from Phillip Jefferies.

via Phillip Jefferies
Ooh la la!

Phillip Jefferies Large Damask 5128
Me likey!

I'm thinking a damask in a similar pattern to what's on the existing curtains like above. What a great juxtaposition it would be with the modern vibe of my boys' artwork that I still plan to keep front and center. It just seems like that huge expanse of space over the wainscoting needs more than just paint, but something subtle. I want to be able to change out the colors and decor scheme if I get sick of one and I am constantly surrounded by color on projects, so thus the need for neutral. I'm guessing that unless one of you kind suppliers [who might] be reading this feel like donating a stencil or wallpaper for me to "sell" to my readers (fingers crossed!), I'm probably going to end up doing a linen like paint treatment or a pearlscent stencil treatment (that I create) over a cream to achieve the same effect. And, I really need to pull this transformation off fairly quick as I also have furniture to redo and sell and veggies to freeze/can at the same time. Figures:)

I also want to paint the ceiling a super pale, barely there aqua blue. I want to create the feeling of wide open sky where the imagination can take flight since this is where I want to have family dinners on an old rustic farm table and work on projects when we're not eating. Nothing makes my imagination go into overdrive than feeling like I'm on top of the world.

This beautiful color I love and I've used before, but I'd probably cut it in half when mixing to go even lighter (it's actually lighter than it looks on screen):



Glidden's Almost Aqua

Then, I'd put a fresh coat of white trim paint on the ceiling medallion. I pulled together a composite in Photoshop of this room redone to the best of my ability. Want to see? Yea, me too. I nearly had a breakdown last night when my lovely computer decided to corrupt the file I'd spent forever on to show you! It should have been a quick computer "makeover", but my Mac kept crashing on me so it took about two days off and on to make. Then it just decided to wipe it out the last time it crashed. UGH!!!!! So, I'm going manual with this one. I'm going to pull together an old fashion mock up of sorts...on paper. Then I'll scan it to share with you. I've got this image coming together in my head of where I'm going with this, like always, except this time I'm going to actually put it on paper so everyone else can see what I'm thinking (SCARY!).