Nella's Nursery

I know there have been a post or two with pictures of Nella's nursery but I've never gone to extreme detail about it, or shown it completely done in all it's glory. I may have gone into detail about how much I absolutely I adore it and it's true. It's so relaxing but yet fun at the same time. I love to sit in there with her, weather she's playing or we're rocking together or having a midnight feeding. I look forward to all the bed time stories being read in there and all the imagination and creativity that will take place in there. I look forward to it being her nursery and becoming her room.

We're going on three months here of Nella really living in her nursery and it has lived up to all my expectations. It's totally functional for what it needs to be not only for her but for me as well. It will allow for her to grow in there by just making a few small changes, and it also allows for another sibling of the opposite gender to stake their claim in the room as well. (And no I am not pregnant, do I look like I'm crazy!) That's why I went with a neutral color. I am a planner and if by some chance we are still here when we have another child (which we won't even be thinking about until Nella is at least potty trained) I wanted them to be able to share the room and not have it be too girly if the next one is a boy. So I went with the color gray. It's perfect, it's calming, soothing and I absolutely love it. We added a little color with accents of yellow, pink and a little blue.

Her room is pretty small so I had to be really smart about how I arranged her furniture and what actually made it into the room. I didn't want to look cluttered. I hate clutter, I like everything to have a place. I like clean lines, I like everything to have a sort of flow to it. You know, same color, same shapes, things like that. Also there are only two sets of plugs in her room so I had to be careful of what went where so that I could actually turn her lamp on, have her monitor on, etc.

I started with her changing table. I found it on the side of the road and told my husband to go pick it up for me. So I took it, sanded it down and painted it white. I already knew I wanted all her furniture to be white. It was the perfect changing table, it had plenty of storage and wasn't to bulky. I bought some baskets for the shelves which is perfect for all her stuff. (Diapers, bibs, burp cloths, lotion, butt cream, yeah baby's have a lot of stuff)

The transformation of her changing table (sorry it's so small)

All done and holding all of her things.

There was a lot of wall space above her changing table and I wanted to fill it without it becoming too overwhelming. I went with two simple white floating shelves that I got from Target for just ten bucks a piece. I definitely wanted some art work in her room so I went on the Internet and found pieces that I liked and printed them out and framed them. Most of them are quotes that I like that and I hope will inspire her some day. All my frames were under five bucks. It's nice to start a room with more than enough time to finish, that way you can wait for some good bargains. You can really search for the best price. Like that gem of a mirror, it was on sale at Target for just twenty bucks! The yellow color was perfect, I just couldn't pass it up!

 This is all her artwork above her changing table. The owl painting was painted by my cousin Kylie for Miss Nella. It goes perfect in her room and we love it!

For her dresser I re-did Scottie's dresser. I simply sanded it down and painted it white. For a pop of color I spray painted the knobs yellow. It turned out lovely! Plenty of storage for all of her clothes, and big enough on top to hold a lamp, a jar of her pacifiers, a small clock and a few pictures. Above that I put a simple canvas picture of melted crayons (got that idea from Pinterest). I made it myself and it came out pretty cool. (Looking at this dresser makes me think it's a little cluttered on top, but we'll work on that!)

Next we'll move onto her closet. We were fortunate enough to already have quite a bit of shelving in her closet. That gave me space to put baskets to hold more of her stuff. On the top shelf there are baskets holding extra diapers, her blankets, and my breast pump. The side shelves hold her changing table covers, her boppy covers, her fitted sheets for her crib, baby carriers and wipes. I also put a set of cubes in there to hold all of her bigger clothes that aren't quite ready to be moved into her dresser yet. And of course we hung all her "fancy clothes" and coats/snowsuits.

 Her closet and all of her storage.

 The top shelf with her baskets.

 Side shelf with more baskets.

Next we'll move onto her crib. Nothing exciting here just your standard crib, white of course. Clean, simple lines, nothing to fancy. I like simple. To maximize storage I put a shelf under her crib to put all her really big clothes in (12 months and up). I got a skirt for her crib so once you put the shelf back in place under her crib you can't see it anymore.

 A shot of her crib.

 Under the bed storage.

 Hidden neatly away.

For her toys I wanted a lot of storage because I know over time she's going to accumulate a lot of toys. (She has lots of family who like to spoil her!) I got the cubes again only a little bigger than what was in her closet. I got fabric storage bins to hold her smaller toys and the empty cubes are for her books and puzzles. I wanted an easy system for her so that when she gets bigger and starts to pick up her own messes it's easy for her to put them away. She also got an adorable toy box from her baby shower which is nice enough on top so she can sit on it if she wants to when she gets bigger.

Her cubes for all her toys and books. 

Her adorable little toy box.

I tried to maximize every inch of her room. So even in the corners we have storage. The corner next to her crib holds a big basket for her stuffed animals, and the corner next to her changing table I put her hamper.

 Stuffed animal bin.

 Hamper.

Some easy things I did to save some money was for her curtain I used a shower curtain. I really wanted chevron and the only curtains I could find were really expensive and weren't really what I was looking for. I finally found this gem of a shower curtain at JC Penny. The trick with shower curtains is of course it has to be fabric, then you just fold the top over and sew a straight line and boom. Slide it onto your curtain rod and you have an awesome curtain that costs you at least half the price of a normal curtain. Also with a shower curtain they are usually twice the size (width wise) of a normal curtain so you only have to buy one. Another way to save some money was instead of getting a glider or a rocking chair we took Scotties old recliner (that rocks too) got a slip cover and boom! It's like a new chair! (You can see it in the pictures above.) I also took an old lamp (that's pictured on top of her dresser) and painted over with special paint made to go over glass or ceramic (it's Martha Stewart paint, you can find it at Micheal's). As you can see I picked yellow, and loved the way it turned out!

I chose simple but nice artwork for her room, a lot of them are quotes and there are some special pieces in there as well. Like her owl painting from Kylie, her "guest book" from her baby shower, some words of wisdom from her god-mother, and a special quote from one of my favorite kids books.

 My favorite quote. "I'll love you forever, I'll love you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." Love, love, love, and it hangs right above her crib!

All the guests from her baby shower! Love this! Thank you Florie!

"Wishes for Baby" from her God-Momma :)

So all in all that is her nursery. I love it and I think she does too. With a little hard work and lots of patience it all came together. With lots of diy projects, re-using and amazing gifts from our amazing family and friends her room is everything I wanted it to be. 

Nella playing in her room that she loves!

Here's a quick overview of her nursery. I just love it so much and I hope she loves it just as much and will play and create as she gets bigger.

Oh and here's the newest addition to her nursery. One of the sweetest Christmas gifts from Aunt Amanda. I hung it on her door, and it just too cute!

I guess my main goals for her nursery were to have it be a calm, relaxing place for her to go to but still fun at the same time. I also wanted to maximize storage as much as I could because she has a pretty small room.

I am a bargain junkie (if you can't tell). I hate when people have to spend a bunch of money on me and being pregnant I was no different. I know most people get a baby shower which means tons of stuff but I didn't want people to have to spend a fortune on us so I went to work. We got the changing table for free (Curb find!), re-purposed Scottie's dresser, and got some hand me downs from my sister, Michelle and the Mountains. We got an awesome swing, a couple of bouncy seats and an awesome high chair from craigslist. With a little love everything was as good as new. The high chair was one of my favorites, it's wooden so it will last for awhile. I got this for just fifty bucks (they can be up $129 brand new!) I just made some new covers for it and it was like brand new!

 The original cover- a little grubby

 The new one!

 And I made a couple more to have when the others are getting washed, because I'm sure they'll be getting dirty!

So all that was left on the registry was all the little things, there were some pricey toys, and the diaper bag I wanted was a tad on the high side but it wasn't as bad now that we got a lot of this stuff for free! I also got a lot of things neutral so I could use them again if and when we have our second child. I got her stroller and car seat in green, and her crib is white so those can be used again. All in all if you take the time you can make an awesome nursery without having to spend a fortune.