Hey! It’s Not a Baby Post!

Yeah, I know. My sweet little DIY blog has turned into the “Look at my Baby!” blog but so what?! He’s the reason we did our whole renovation in the first place. The reason we turned this house into a home.

But back to a little home improvement project…

Our second floor bathroom has had this little cubby behind the shower. It was always intended to have shelves but since we were gutting our whole first floor, a couple of shelves were low priority and needless to say, fell by the wayside.

Until that is, Momma realized we needed to make space for baby in our bathroom too.

Eli’s baby bathtub fits great on the countertop next to our bathroom sink. His head-to-toe wash and wash cloths and bath toys and lotion and that little ducky cup that rinses all the soap off his head… were ALL living in that cubby.

So Gramps worked his magic and installed some shelves!

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What a difference a couple boards can make. I really think it gives the space dimension and purpose. vscocam-photo-1

And with a couple of bins, everything is perfectly corralled and looks so neat and pretty!
vscocam-photo-2So there you go. A home improvement – not entirely about baby – blog post. Go me.

Nursery Reveal

Our little man finally has a beautiful room to call his own. And we (finally!) after one year of living in our house with that bedroom door closed, have a bright beautiful room to light up our second floor hallway!

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The room is just as how I imagined it.

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The neutral tones are so calming and sweet. Did you notice the faux brick on the back wall? It’s one of my favorite parts to the room. Such a big impact for such a small amount of effort. This is simply brick paneling from Lowes painted white. I love it!

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Then there’s all the woodland touches. I couldn’t be happier with the collage over the dresser.

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Remember the wood slice wall art I made?

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We filled this little lamp with river rocks and couldn’t resist leaving these little knit booties on display!

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The bunny mobile over the crib is so delicate and whimsical, it’s like a piece of art.

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His little library is starting to take shape. These woodland board books are beautiful. I hope the little guy likes them as much as momma does.

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And this adorable fox from our nephew Zeke watches over the nursery.

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Little man is sure to be a stylish gentleman with an organized closet like this!

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Completing this room is a huge step toward welcoming our little kiddo into our home. If only he knew what it once looked like!

Before After

Dream Big Little One

Our woodland nursery will feature a collage of art in various forms above the dresser. I’ve been having way too much fun collecting and crafting the pieces for it. Though I’d like to save most for the big reveal next month, for now I’ll share this one project for our collage wall.

Taking inspiration from Kristen Honeycutt’s adorable space she created for her two boys, Parker and Max (see all the pics here), I sat down to create my own log slice wall quote.

One log slice, Martha Stewart’s stick on stencils, a picture hanger, pencil, and Sharpie paint pen was all purchased at Michael’s for less than $30.

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The stencils came in both large and small fonts so I positioned those and lightly sketched some cursive for variety.

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There are a lot of different Sharpie paint pens but the ones that specifically say “good for wood” were perfect and didn’t bleed through the stencil at all.

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And remember to fasten a picture hanger with small thin nails as to not splinter the log slice.

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About $30 and 30 minutes was all it took to create some big inspiration for a tiny person!

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Woodland Nursery

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Yes! It’s time for the long anticipated (at least for me) nursery design posts!

It’s not like I’ve needed this long to prepare… oh please! I’ve had my nursery design picked out since the biological clock started ticking. In fact, I think it’s absolutely hilarious when people tell us that we need to find out the sex of the baby so we’ll know what to paint the nursery. As if my color palette could ever include blue or pink. Bah! Those who know me know- if it ain’t a neutral, it ain’t going on my walls!

So now that I’ve offended all of you with your baby blue and pastel pink nurseries, let’s jump right into my ideas for our little peanut’s pad.

The theme (as you’ve probably concluded from the title of this post) is woodland and the color palette is whites, creams, grays, and tans. Everything really stemmed off of this IKEA crib and dresser that I’m in love with. It’s more of a grey-brown than it looks like in the photo below.

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And it happens to match this IKEA dresser that will give us tons of storage and serve as a changing station. Does anyone buy changing tables anymore?

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The last large piece of furniture will be this upholstered rocker with ottoman.

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In terms of the room itself, the bedroom on the second floor was in bad shape. Similar to the master bedroom, we’ve pulled up the shag carpet, pulled down the drop ceiling, and plastered a new ceiling with can lighting and a ceiling fan. Other than that, my hard-working Dad has been patching and sanding the walls to the point where he’s practically plastered new walls! We’ll be putting bead-board in the closet to freshen it up and on one small exterior wall, we’re doing something really special. I’ll leave you in suspense on that… but I can assure you no tacky murals!

The walls will be the same Benjamin Moore Soft Chamois color that we used in the master bathroom. And fresh white trim will frame the windows and doors and brighten the baseboards and crown molding.

Now for the real fun- accessories! Again, neutrals, neutrals, neutrals with lots of faux bois and rustic touches. Woodland creatures like foxes, owls, deer, and bunnies will be the real childlike touches along with the wooden toys and books that will surely fill the room over time! Here’s an idea of the woodland decor…

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Tree Stubs

Faux Bois

Wall Art

Look, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a baby’s room that didn’t make me coo with motherly admiration. So no matter blue or pink, green or yellow, or decked out in the chicest of ivories, it’s the tenant that really steals the show. So yes little one, your mummy’s a design snob but she’s going to love you more than anything and can’t wait to show you your woodland nursery!

Smell That?

That’s the smell of progress, my friend. And maybe a little tree pollen. Any one else feeling the allergies? Ick!

But back to the progress… even during Fourth of July week, we got ourselves a new fence! Gone is the nasty red, falling down back fence. It’s been replaced with a lovely fresh, white, and most importantly- sturdy fence!

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It now matches our fence on the right side of the yard and makes such an impact when you walk into our yard from the driveway (despite the big gaping pool pit).

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I especially love the view from inside the house looking out our french doors. It’s so much cleaner to see the white from our kitchen and sun porch. I excitedly anticipate that view getting better and better with every bit of progress we make on this yard!