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!

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!

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!

Crib Creations!

Since we decided not to do the traditional themed nursery, but rather to do a modern, brightly colored nursery, we hadn't been able to find any crib bedding that would work the way we wanted it to. Most crib bedding is themed and/or consists of softer, more pastel colors... not at all what we are looking for. The only bedding that we thought could possibly work we saw online at Ikea. Unfortunately, it was part of last years collection and is no longer available in the stores or online.

So, after many disappointing and frustrating searches online and in stores I decided that I would try to make my own crib bedding. I stumbled across this great "decorative tapestry" at Target and thought that it would be just perfect!

So, I decided to use the fabric tapestry to make a duvet cover and pillow case for the crib comforter and pillow that we had previously purchased at Ikea.

I attached snaps to both the duvet cover and pillow case so that Bailey couldn't get tangled in them. Here's a picture of the completed duvet... I think it turned out just fab!

I thought that I would try to make bumper pads out of the remaining tapestry fabric. I wasn't quite sure how to do this, but I was able to find a couple websites that gave me a good idea of how to get started. Once I got going it was pretty easy to figure out!

Here is the completed bumper pad... another fabulous creation! I think all of the colors really look great up against the bright green nursery walls!

Here's a shot of all three completed items... the bumper pads, pillow, and duvet. The plan is to use solid colored fitted sheets (courtesy of Ikea) with these items as a contrast. I'm still debating whether or not to make a dust ruffle.

What a fun way to spend a weekend! It truly is amazing what a little creativity and a sewing machine can do!

The Crib is Here!

Today, Bailey's crib arrived! So, Craig decided to go ahead and put it together tonight. I was under strict instuctions NOT to help! Craig wanted to do it all himself! He was however, very closely supervised by Sydney throughout the entire process.

All in all, it took about 45-50 minutes from start to finish... not bad considering some of the distractions he had to put up with (Sydney trying to "help" and me constantly snapping pictures). I think the crib looks simply beautiful... job well done Craig! More to come...

Nursery Re-do Part I

So Craig and I are trying to get a jump start on the nursery. We're not necessarily going with a particular "theme" per se... instead we decided to just do a variety of bright, funky colors . We thought that we would start with the paint. We decided to pick a brighter, more fun shade of green called Honeydew... this paint is definitely a big change from the old paint color!

Here's a reminder of what the bedroom paint looked like before... a darker, olive green.

Craig looked a littler nervous about the new color at first...

...but in the end he LOVED it!

I think we're off to a good start! More nursery re-do to come! Next post... the crib! Can't wait until it's delivered!