Kids Mirror Gallery Wall

As you know, Craig and I have been gradually working on transitioning Bailey’s nursery to a shared room for her and her soon-to-arrive brother.  The first step in this process was the addition of a newly painted twin-sized bed.  After moving in the bed and rearranging the rest of the furniture in the room we were left with this.

A giant, blank wall over the dresser/changing area and Bailey’s new big-girl bed. 

At first the thought of filling this space was completely overwhelming.  Whatever we chose to do would have to be large enough to fill the wall while still being bold and fun enough to feel right in a kids room.  Not to mention we didn’t want it to cost a fortune.

So, I began racking my brain.  I kept thinking that I wanted something fun and colorful.  I considered doing a wall of books (as seen here), a frame collage (as seen here), an art gallery wall (as seen here), or a wall of old board games (as seen here).  But none of those ideas really felt right.

Then I remembered the pile of thrifted mirrors I had been collecting over the last several months in hopes of creating a mirror gallery wall somewhere in the house similar to this…

…or this.

And I thought that this could be the perfect solution to the giant-green-monster-of-a-wall in Bailey’s room!

So, I covered the mirrors with newspaper and laid them out in the yard (with a block of scrap wood under each one) so that they could be sprayed with a coat or two of primer.

After they were all primed it was time to divide them by their desired colors and let Craig begin painting. 

I carefully removed the newspaper and used a razor to scrape any random paint splatters off of the mirrors.

Then came the fun difficult part… deciding how to arrange the mirrors on the wall.  For this I relied on the giant stack of magazines in our recycle bin.  I cut and taped together sheets of paper to represent the approximate size and shape of each mirror.  Then I played around with the arrangement by taping them to the wall, stepping back to take a look, and adjusting things as needed.

Once I settled on an arrangement I was happy with I began adding the mirrors.

In the end we were left with this…

I just love the way the mirrors fill the giant void that had previously been on that wall!  Not to mention how they help to bounce the light around the room! 

Not too bad for $25 worth of thrifted and yard-saled mirrors and some already-owned spray paint!  Now… it’s time to get down to business and get the rest of the room pulled together!  This baby is going to be here before we know it!

A Real “Big-Girl” Bed!

I failed to mention during my big potty training post, that during that same time we also managed to transition Bailey to a “big-girl” (toddler) bed. I was more than thrilled by this given our last, failed attempt back in June.  We hadn’t really planned to tackle this hurdle while potty training, but long story short, the side of the crib was removed, the mesh bed rail was reinstalled, and Bailey has never once climbed out in the middle of the night!  Occasionally she’ll wake up to go to the potty, but she patiently waits for either Craig or I to get up and take her before climbing out of the bed. I’m not sure what made the difference this time, but it worked and that’s all that matters!

So, in preparation for our little guy’s arrival in less than 2months (holy moley… where have the first 2 trimesters gone?!?) we swapped out Bailey’s old, crib-turned-big-girl bed for a real, big-girl bed!

We got this twin sized bed from my parents.  It is the bed that was used by two of my sisters, which makes it that much more special for Bailey.  The headboard was in good shape, but was a little discolored after being packed away in storage for 15+ years.  Thankfully that’s nothing a little primer and paint won’t fix!

 

The first step was to sand it down and rough up the finish to help the primer take a better hold.

Then we used a tack cloth to wipe it down and remove all of the dust.

Next, we propped the headboard up so Craig could get busy priming (while I supervised from a safe distance).

Even with just the primer it already looked 100% better.  Once all of the primer dried Craig gave it another light sanding to smooth out a couple of minor spots and then he began to apply the coats paint.

After the third and presumably final coat of paint was applied we went inside to let it dry.  When we went back out to check on it we were shocked to find a headboard that looked like this…

Apparently the gentle breeze outside turned into a small gust at some point, which caused the still-drying headboard to blow over into the grass.  Talk about frustrating! 

So, we propped it back up and left it to dry completely before cleaning the grass off and sanding yet again.  After this, we were ready to apply the final coat of paint… for the second time!  This time we were extra careful to prop it up in a way that would prevent it from tipping over if it became breezy.

Once the paint was dried we were finally ready to move everything into Bailey’s room and assemble the bed.  We had to leave about 6 inches of space between the wall and the bed to allow for the curtains to be opened.  So, we placed Bailey’s guard rail on that side to prevent her from rolling out and becoming wedged between the wall and the bed. 

We made the bed up with a set of sheets we had lying around and threw one of Bailey’s quilts on top.  These linens probably won’t be in the room for good (not sure her future brother will approve of all of the pink), but they’ll certainly do the job while we figure out what we want long term for the room.

And based on the look on Bailey’s face, I’d say she definitely approves of her new, real big-girl bed! 

Change in (Floor) Plans

As mentioned before, we’ve been working on transitioning Bailey’s old nursery into a shared room for her and her soon-to-arrive brother.  Our original plan was to create a floor plan similar to this:

Unfortunately, after the furniture was moved around we discovered that this floor plan wouldn’t work as well as we had hoped.  The main problem was that the dresser/changing table (which is a fairly frequent destination in the room) felt cramped and closed-in in the back corner.  Not to mention the fact that the book case and hamper (which we had planned to move into the closet) were greatly missed in the room.  So it was time to come up with a Plan B.

After a little bit of rearranging, our final floor plan ended up looking like this: 

Some of the elements in the room stayed the same, but a lot of things changed.  So far the floor plan seems to work much better for us!  And Bailey couldn’t be more excited about it!

Nursery-Turned-Shared-Bedroom

Craig and I are in the process of turning Bailey’s current nursery into a shared bedroom for her and her future brother. 

I’m sure some of you out there are thinking we’re totally crazy for doing this, but let me explain our thinking a bit.  First, kids share rooms all of the time.  My sister and I shared a room for years when we were little, so we figure until our kids get older sharing a room won’t be too big of an issue.  Second, we live in a 3-bedroom house and all of our family and a lot of our friends live out-of-state.  So, when we have people come to visit (which happens every couple of months and a few times a year at the holidays) we need a place for them to stay.  Even with our current guest bedroom available we’ve still had occasions where family and friends end up on couches, air mattresses, or at hotels.  So, keeping our guest bedroom free is a must! 

Now, as fun as it is to play around with planning a new space… converting Bailey’s current bedroom into a shared bedroom has presented us with a few different challenges: 

1. Fitting all of the necessities into a room that’s roughly 150 square feet
2. Working around the room’s architectural challenges features (the windows, the wall of closets, and the door)
3. Creating a space that works for both a toddler and an infant
4. Creating a space that will fit both a boy and a girl

Here’s a drawing of what Bailey’s room currently looks like…

…and here’s our plan for the shared bedroom.

You’ll notice a few big differences in the shared space.  Primarily, we plan to add a twin-sized bed for Bailey, so that the crib will be freed up for our new little guy when he arrives.  The second major furniture change is the addition of a smaller dresser in place of the humongous dresser that’s currently in the room.  We don’t really expect the down-sized drawer space to be a problem given the entire wall of closets in the room and the vacant dresser in the guest room that can be used for extra clothing storage.  You probably also noticed that the hamper and book case are missing from the drawing.  We don’t plan on eliminating these items entirely.  We just plan to tuck them away in one of the closets (probably the closet that’s closest to the rocker). 

So, that’s the plan for the nursery-turned-shared-bedroom.  As we all know, things don’t always work out according to plan… but we’re pretty sure that this room design will address the first couple of challenges on our list above.  Now, the last couple of challenges on the list we’re praying Pinterest and Google can help us figure out!

New Carpets and Master Bedroom Redo Part I

At long last we have replaced our old, nasty, stained, mint green carpets in all of the bedrooms!!! I have been wanting to rip out the old carpets since the day I first saw the house and I can not tell you how excited I was to FINALLY tackle this project!

First we ripped out the old carpets in the guest room, nursery, and master bedroom...

... under close supervision from Sydney of course.
Next we removed all of the old padding...

... again with some help from Sydney!

Then came the installation which we decided was best left up to the professionals. We are so happy with the results! DEFINITELY a HUGE improvement over the old stuff!

Our new and improved guest room!

Bailey's beautifully carpeted nursery!

We decided that while we had the old carpets pulled up in the master bedroom that we would FINALLY paint and make a few other improvements! I can't believe I've lived in this house for over 2 years and we haven't so much as painted in our bedroom.

So we tackled the messy job of patching , sanding, and painting the walls and ceiling...
...then Craig installed a new ceiling fan to replace the old ugly light that had been there before.

We still have several things to do before the master bedroom is complete--crown molding, closets, curtains, bedding, etc. but I think we're off to a decent start. I can't wait for it to be finished!

We're Still At It...

Craig and I spent yet another weekend working on and finishing up various projects in the nursery.

Project #1--Craig finished installing cubbies in one of the closets. He also installed a lower closet rod in that same closet. Last, but certainly not least, he installed lights in both of the nursery closets. I think he did a great job and now we're ready to store the numerous baby items that we will be needing!

Project #2--A few months ago we found a great rocker at the local Goodwill for only $30. It was in perfect condition... no scratches on the wood and no tears or stains on the cushions. Even though the cushions were in good shape I was a little bored by their beige color. I suggested to Craig and I sew slip covers for them... he agreed and suggested that I use a turquoise colored fabric. I think it turned out great... definitely a pop of color and a HUGE improvement of the old cushion color!

Project #3--We found a really cute, handmade mobile at a neat little shop in Gatlinburg last month. We finally got around to hanging it above the crib.

Project #4--I had a little yellow night light that I bought a few years ago that I thought would work well in the nursery. Unfortunately, I didn't really care for the plain white shade on it. So, I decided to jazz it up a little bit with different colored ribbons. All it took was 20 minutes and a glue gun. The end result is definitely more fun and the plain lamp shade it had before!