Baby room for a baby

This is the first time that I have had the inclination, motivation, and permission to decorate a baby room. When I was pregnant with Jay and also Rose, we were students or underemployed and renting temporary apartments. We used what little funds we did have to buy things like clothes and diapers for the baby, not paint and decorations. Needless to say, I have never decorated a “nursery” before. I’m not the decorating type anyways, so it never really bothered me.

This time around, we have had this empty, white third bedroom with a white crib in it for the past two and a half years. I thought, why not go out with a bang? Last baby, last (only) paint and decor job. Yes! Over the summer, I enlisted my husband in the cause to paint Amber’s walls (he actually volunteered to paint for me—probably out of fear that I’d end up in the hospital again if I got too nauseated from the fumes). I bought a gallon of muted asparagus-colored paint and he closed the door and painted the room. When I opened the door the next day to see the finished product, however, I was appalled to find that asparagus seems to be code for neon lime green! A few weeks later, the solution presented itself in the form of leftover paint from my parents’ lake house. They kindly gave us the perfect sage green paint of my dreams, and Jeff patiently repainted the walls. Whew!

Post-paint job, I slowly made and added bits and pieces of ideas gleaned from Pinterest and the vague image in my head until baby Amber’s room was looking quite decor-ific by my standards. So in celebration of the 35/35 mark (35 weeks down, 35 days to go) today, I’ll reveal The Room.

A quick word on the budget: one of the reasons I’m no decorator is all the best quality cute decor is waaaaay out of my price range—and it’s not worth it to me at this point. We still have important things like a new roof, fence, and garage door to save up for. I can’t go using up our savings on things like plush furniture and fancy curtains! So this room was painted, furnished, and decorated for less than $120. Triumph!

I used the panorama picture tool on my iPad to take a few funky pictures for the full effect:

If you’re curious, here’s the breakdown:

• Paint and supplies—$40 (that’s what we spent on the first batch, then my parents kindly donated the final paint)
• Crib—already had it, but it was free from Jeff’s parents when we had Jay (it’s been in the family for 50+ years)
• Branch above the crib—from our backyard
• Birdhouse on the branch—I made it out of cardboard, ha ha.
• Chair—a super comfy Lazy Boy rocker recliner, $30 from Goodwill (score!)
• Footstool by the chair—my Grama Brown made it.
• White nightstand: $13 from Goodwill, plus white paint/primer= $20 total.
• Big frame on the wall—$5. Leslie (Jeff’s mom) gave it to me a 2 years ago. I bought $5 of fabric and covered the frame’s canvas painting in the fabric and then hung ribbons across for clothes-pinning up pictures.
• Two white wall shelves—$10, including brackets and paint. I already had the wood.
• Dresser—we found it sitting next to the dumpster in our apartment’s parking lot back in College Place. Free!
• Wreath above changing table/dresser: $5. I actually bought the flowers and arranged them onto the wreath all by myself! I know it’s not much, but that was quite the achievement for me.
• Valence above window—$9—I made it! $5 for fabric and $4 for the curtain rod and brackets from Ikea.
• Anything else I put in the room, we already had.

Whew! I love to go in and sit in the comfy chair to rest/daydream. That chair was seriously a FIND. Its lumbar support is unequalled in all of our other furniture. And it wasn’t even stinky or dirty or anything! One word: GOODWILL. This room is my baby sanctuary.

5 weeks left!