Big Reveal: Baby Koo's Nursery!

We've been working, working and working some more on Baby K's nursery, and I'm excited to say that everything is finished and I can finally share the room with everyone!

When we first moved into our house last November, the room that we knew would be the nursery was, well, a little sad! As you can see from the picture below, it's a teeny tiny little room in the basement with low ceilings. It was just kind of "blah" and made me sad to think that this was going to be our baby's room. Fortunately, it has gone through quite the facelift over the past few months!

Here's the room from the same view as the picture above, but so much brighter and cheerier! (Note: all sources and links to patterns used are listed at the end of the post.)

At the back of the room you can see a circle shelf that we have the baby monitor set up on. I made super simple panel curtains for both of the windows.

We had paint tinted to match the turquoise fabric I'd used throughout the room. Steve painted an old shelf (once upon a time this shelf had been in my mom's childhood room!) and we put fun little odds and ends on it. Oh, you've probably noticed the question mark hiding something, right?

On closer inspection, you can see that it's our little family! For our wedding, we'd had our cake topper made by Goose Grease, and before the wedding we'd done a little photo shoot with our "mini mes" that we used for our table numbers. A couple of months ago Steve and I were looking at the pictures and I thought about how fun they were. But, obviously, we needed an updated version of our family! So I contacted Goose Grease about doing a custom family for us and I absolutely love how they turned out! Me, Steve, our pup Charlie and Baby K are all represented! Of course, you'll have to wait until after Baby K arrives to find out if they made us a little boy or a little girl!

I knew I wanted the dresser to be the focal point of the room, and love the custom dresser we had done by Mint Home (conveniently located in Chicago but don't worry, they can ship to you!). And, of course, it also doubles as our changing table.

Above the dresser we have a little collection of pictures and other things. The frame in the bottom right corner - currently displaying fabric - will hold Baby K's hospital bracelet, and we'll update the photos with other shots (probably newborn photos). Right now it's just photos of us!

To the right of the dresser it's all set up with things we'll need for diaper changing, including cloth wipes, wipe spray, lotion, etc. It's super convenient and right within arm's reach! Tucked away underneath is also our dirty diaper bin.

I made a few different crib sheets as well as the simple crib skirt. Sitting inside is a stuffed owl that I also made.

Because the nursery ceilings are so low, I was afraid we wouldn't be able to hang a mobile. But we were able to hang something high enough that should stay out of baby's reach! This mobile was a fun, easy and inexpensive project for me.



I love our little rocking nook with the pillow and Moroccan pouf made by me, and the books all within arm's reach. It was hard to find a tree decal that would fit for such a small wall - we love the one we finally chose and that it has a fun, modern feel to it. To the left of the rocker is a table that was here when we moved in. Steve painted it with turquoise paint (also used on the shelf) and it was like a brand new table!

Baby K received a lot of books at both of our showers! I love that we have a good start to our library. And, of course, the room would not be complete without a plush little camera (made by me) for Baby K!

So, there you have it: Baby K's fun, bright, turquoise, yellow and gray nursery! Even though there are things that I would change or wish I could do differently, I know that Baby K's nursery is absolutely perfect because Steve and I have put so much TLC into every little detail! There were plenty of things we could have purchased for the room, but it was much more special to us to DIY so many of the details.

Beyond sentimental reasons, DIY'ing also meant we were able to control the costs a bit. The rocker and the dresser were our big splurges. Projects like the mobile and the pouf cost absolutely nothing (as I already had the fabric) and other projects (like the crib sheets and the table and shelf) were relatively inexpensive - you only need 2 yards of fabric for each crib sheet and the table and shelf only needed two coats of paint each.

Now we're just excited to have Baby K arrive and start using the room!

Baby Monitor: Motorola Digital Baby Monitor
Beatles Print: Ex Libris Journals
Bird Mobile Pattern: Spool Sewing
Bookend: CB2 (already owned)
Camera Pattern: Pink Stitches Blog
Changing Area Items (shelf, containers for wipes): IKEA
Changing Pad: Summer Infant Contoured Changing Pad
Changing Pad Cover: Land of Nod
Clock: Decoylab
Cloud Decals: Monkey Threads
Crib: Baby Mod Modena from Wal-Mart
Crib Sheet Pattern: Bundles of Love
Crib Skirt Pattern: Young House Love Blog
Dresser: Mint Home
Fabric - Tulip Pattern (for pouf, curtains, etc): Jessica Jones "Tulip, Dusk" Fabric
Fabric - Crib Sheet: Lotta Jansdotter "Choma Golden Rod" (difficult to find anyone selling it)
Fabric - Miscellaneous: Odds and ends left from other projects
Lamp: Land of Nod
Moroccan Pouf Pattern: Bromeliad Living Blog
Picture Frames: IKEA
Rocker: West Elm
Stuffed Owl Pattern: Toad's Treasures Blog
Tree Decal: Wordy Bird Studios
Wall Paint: Leftover from painting the rest of our house (custom color)
Wall Shelf (for books): IKEA
Wall Shelf (for monitor): Land of Nod

A nursery...pouf!

I've been working on a lot of nursery projects lately. Awhile back, I had ordered a bunch of fabric samples and thought I'd chosen a favorite. And then, when we'd moved into the house and painted the walls, I lined up all of the swatches we had and Steve and I both immediately chose Jessica Jones' Tulip.

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It perfectly pulls together the colors we want: yellow, gray and blue and I would (personally) put a girl or a boy in the room with this fabric. Normally $16/yard, I found it around Christmas on sale for around $9/yard, so I quickly bought 6 yards so we'd have plenty on hand for curtains, crib skirt, etc.

One project I've had in mind, especially since we bought our rocker, was making a "pouf" to rest our feet on while sitting in the rocker. I had come across this tutorial and it seemed simple enough for me to tackle in an afternoon (and it was!).

I used the measurements the blogger provided to create my pattern. I opted to do the "small pouf" as it seemed like it would fit our space better. I taped a bunch of computer paper together to make the pattern, but in retrospect I realized wax paper or parchment paper would probably have been much easier.


I cut out 8 diamonds of fabric - 4 in the tulip fabric and 4 in a lightweight turquoise corduroy that I had leftover from another project (which happens to work perfectly in the nursery!).

Following the instructions, I sewed down one of the ends of each diamond about 3 inches (note: I messed up my very first one! The end you sew down is actually the top of the pouf, so I should have sewed the other end so the tulip was right side up...something to pay attention to depending on the pattern you're working with).


I then sewed together pairs of tulip and corduroy so that I had 4 pairs.


I think sewed together pairs so that I had 2 groups of 4 panels.


After that, I sewed together the 2 sets so that I had the complete pouf and flipped it inside out.

I had picked up this big box of stuffing and used almost all of it to stuff the pouf. The instructions also say you can use rags/fabric scraps as stuffing as well.


I stuffed my pouf nice and full, making sure I filled out the shape evenly and didn't have any lumpy sides.


I cut an 8-inch octagon out of the tulip fabric, finished the edges, and then hand sewed it onto the top of the pouf.

And...ta-da! The pouf works perfectly with the rocker.


I was able to kick back, put my feet up and relax after all of my hard work!


This was such a fun project that only took a few hours from start to finish and all-in-all only cost around $30 for fabric and stuffing (I probably way overpaid for stuffing since I purchased it on Amazon rather than going to the craft store).

Rocker Dilemma No More!

Awhile back, we were facing a nursery rocker dilemma. While completely a first world problem, I didn't want us spending hard earned money on something that we weren't 100% confident would be a good choice. If we couldn't find anything, I simply wouldn't have bought anything.

I had blogged about the Curtis Storm Rocker from CB2. Now, we love CB2 in our house. I'd estimated about 75% of our furniture is from there, and we have no regrets about a single purchase.

So, at $299.00 for this rocker, I thought it was a steal and couldn't wait to set my pregnant behind in this chair. Steve wasn't with me on that trip, but I didn't need a second opinion to know that this was not the chair for us. It felt a little flimsy and while not necessarily uncomfortable, it definitely wasn't what I'd called comfortable. Which, during a 3am feeding, I might enjoy a little comfort.

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After leaving CB2, I wandered over to West Elm. I was looking for holiday decorations at the time, but then I saw the Ryder Rocking Chair and I swooned. Then, I sat down in it and I fell in love. While not over-the-top plush, for a non-armchair style of rocker, this chair offers definite comfort.

Unfortunately, I glanced down at the price tag, saw $599.00, and fell a little out of love. Sigh.

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I've been stalking the Ryder Rocker on West Elm's web site for the past month, hoping against hope that I'd see it go on sale. No luck. But Steve and I started talking more seriously about what we wanted and what we were willing to spend, and seeing what was available in our budget ($300-ish), we both agreed that stretching the budget was what we needed to do.

So on Sunday, we headed on over to our local West Elm to pick up the very last rocker they had in stock! Using a 10% off coupon West Elm sent us last week (score!) and saving on shipping costs by picking it up ourselves (vs. ordering online) we ended up spending around $590.00 for our rocker.

And...here she is, fitting perfectly in our cozy little nursery. Love.

Check out my crib

I've been a bit of a delinquent blogger these days. I'm a few weeks behind on Baby K updates (who is now being referred to as "Peanut" as we're hoping a nickname will help us not reveal the gender accidentally!)...on Thursday I'm hoping to get a post done to recap the past few weeks and show off the rapidly growing bump!

Anyway, this post is all about the crib.

A year or so ago I started to become obsessed with looking at inspiration pictures of nurseries. And of course, I happened across the Oeuf Sparrow in grey. We're most definitely grey people (every wall in our condo was grey, and we have now painted 90% of our house the same), and so it would only make sense that we would one day buy a grey crib.

But the $700-ish price tag seemed like a lot. I know you can spend way more on a crib, but you can also spend way less. I (sadly) crossed the Sparrow off my "future baby purchases" list and moved on.

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A minimal, more modern white crib seemed like a better option for us. We'd have more options to consider at our price point. So I started looking at anything under $500.

I found the Babyletto Mercer, which seemed like a good fit for us. It's not oversized and just under $400. Reviews overall seemed good. But the two-tone just isn't our style.

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Babyletto also makes the Mercer with a drawer at the bottom. It is also around $400 and the reviews are good. The drawer would give us some extra storage, which is much needed. However, until recently I could only find it in the two-tone combo. Finally there's an all-white option!

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So, I thought this is the direction we'd end up going in. Affordable, good reviews, minimal, white.

And then, my crib finding world was rocked when I found the Baby Mod Modena in grey! Modern, minimal, grey and $200! And fabulous reviews!

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Sold exclusively at Wal-Mart (which, to be honest, is not my favorite store), I was skeptical but ended up being impressed the more I read about it. Great reviews - both on the site by parents and on a variety of blogs. I love the look of it and the price can't be beat. We'd finally found our crib! I was so excited to order it.

And then, we painted the nursery. Grey. And with such a small space, adding a big grey piece of furniture would be totally overwhelming. Not to mention the fact that it would be highly unlikely that the two shades of grey would match, and I'd have no way of knowing how they looked together until the crib arrived. Humph.

Sadly, I had to walk away from my perfectly designed and perfectly affordable grey crib that I thought I just had to have. But that didn't mean I had to walk away from the Modena completely. It also comes in navy, brown and...white!

So last Friday I ordered the Modena in white (and, as I had just signed up for Ebates, I earned $9.95 off of the purchase!). It shipped so quickly that it arrived on Monday and Steve put it together that night!

The crib search for our little Peanut is done and done and our nursery is slowly started to come together!

Nursery Rocker Dilemma

It's not easy to find a rocker for the nursery that works well for a small space and a small budget, and is a little on the modern side.

I had originally thought I would buy one of these Eames-style rockers. They're affordable, minimal and I see them cropping up all over the 'net. You can pick one up for around $100-$150 and in theory, they are great. I just worry about overall comfort and the fear of buying a chair neither one of us will want to sit in. And, since we'd have to order it online, there would be no test run to see if we liked it before buying.

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I know the IKEA Poang chair is popular as well. It comes in a variety of different fabrics and ranges from $69-$299, depending on the fabric you choose (the version below is $99). It's not 100% my style, but does fit overall with budget, size and comfort.

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Today when shopping for other furniture online at CB2, I came across the Curtis rocker. I like its simple, clean lines. At $299 it's on the high-end of my budget, but not outrageously expensive.

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For months there was absolutely no debate in my mind: we would get the Eames-style rocker and call it a day. But now that I'm beginning to have my doubts, it opens up a huge can of worms for me.

What other rockers are out there that work well for small spaces, are comfortable and are under $300? Please share!

A Room for Baby

When we first started thinking about starting our family, we assumed we would spend 1-2 years in our 2-bedroom condo. So, I've always had our second bedroom in mind when thinking about the nursery. With hardwood floors and plenty of sun, in for me this was the perfect space.

As you can tell, the room is even devoid of clutter, just waiting for a baby!


The door in the upper right hand corner leads out to a wonderful porch! I imagined being able to sit out there with the new baby and enjoy the nice weather.


Now, we're about to move into our new house (in a few short days!!), which is such a blessing I can't even wrap my mind around it! While small (we could have gotten a much bigger condo for the same price, but it's a house, people!), we will have three levels and the opportunity to spread out a bit.

The three bedrooms are even spread out, one on each floor.

The top floor (essentially the attic) is going to be the master bedroom. I don't think there's ever been any debate between us about this, as it wouldn't make a suitable nursery or home office. We anticipate it will get incredibly hot during the summer because it is the attic. Not an ideal place for baby. Or a lot of computer equipment. It's also the largest of the three bedrooms.


When I first saw the bedroom on the main floor, I thought maybe this could work for a nursery. I liked that it had a similar look/feel as the second bedroom in our condo, and there's even a little porch, too!

Unfortunately, we decided this would probably make a better home office for Steve than a nursery. It's directly off of the front door of the house, which means it wouldn't be a very quiet place for baby. And, because Steve meets with clients in our home, it's most convenient for him to have his office on the main level, near where he'll be having meetings.


This, of course, leads us to room number 3. It's downstairs in the basement, and is probably the exact opposite of what I've been thinking when I think of a nursery. No hardwood floors. No big sunny windows. It is, at the end of the day, a basement room.

We worry about it being too cold - we'll see how it is this winter, which will give us plenty of time to figure out any heating/cooling issues with the room before baby arrives.

On the upside, it's right next to a bathroom and really close to the laundry room (rumor has it, babies make a lot of dirty laundry!). And, when Steve is meeting with clients upstairs, baby and I can be downstairs making noise and not disturbing anyone!


So, our challenge is ahead of us: transforming this square, boring basement room into an adorable, inviting and fun space for our little one!

Nursery: All Starts With a Dresser

Two years ago when I had an extreme case of baby fever, I was reading ohdeedoh like crazy and told myself I would easily know how to design and pull together a gorgeous, modern, bright and cheerful nursery.

So it's not a surprise that in my second month of pregnancy, before we had uttered a word of the baby to anyone but our midwife's office, I had purchased a dresser for the nursery. I happened across an Etsy store called Mint Home, who refinish furniture with a bright, modern aesthetic. Oh, and did I mention they are located in Chicago? Meant to be.

I fell in love with their work. And with a dresser on their site. Knowing that with one-of-a-kind pieces you snooze, you lose, I contacted them about dimensions on the piece. Unfortunately, it just wouldn't work well as a changing table. But, they let me know, they love to do custom pieces. Just give them desired dimensions and a budget, and they would see what they'd find.

So I did just that. I mean, it could take months, right? Wrong. Within two days, they sent me a picture of a dresser they found that they thought would be perfect. It was less than inspiring - a drab old dresser. But I trusted their eye, and the piece would be within our budget and the dimensions were great. I gave the ok, and shared my goal of a mustard yellow dresser as a focal point for the nursery.

A couple of weeks later, the lovely ladies of Mint Home delivered this beautiful piece of furniture to our condo:

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Love! It's perfect in every way and ended up being cheaper than any dresser we might buy in a store (with the exception of a basic IKEA dresser).

But, after the fun of finding a dresser, I haven't been quite as sure of myself that I could create an amazing nursery...what I thought would be an easy task has easily become overwhelming.

The next project has been fabric! Who knew fabric could be so intimidating? We've been trying to do a grey, yellow and blue (turquoise? aqua?) color scheme. I've looked at three million different fabrics trying to figure out what shade of blue would work. I finally found an amazing Canadian fabric web site: Tonic Living. There are probably many similar sites in the U.S., but once I found this one I knew I was in a good place. All of the fabric is modern and fun, and there isn't too much on the site to make it overwhelming.

I ordered a bunch of samples and quickly settled on Jessica Jones' Frond. The yellow in real life isn't as gold as pictured, and background is a nice charcoal grey. But where's the blue, you ask? It was next to impossible for me to find a pattern that included a shade of blue that I loved. But...

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...I found this fabulous Robert Kaufman cotton in Glacier. While I'd thought I wanted more of an aqua or lighter blue, this fabric is a nice, rich color and works perfectly with the pattern. I like the idea of just pulling in little accents of this blue.

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Whew! Seeing it all start to come together (at least in my mind) has become a great relief. I wanted to get the big picture items figured out before I start deciding what little details we'll include in the room and what sewing projects I'll try and tackle.