A few weeks ago, Kellie and I were talking about how quickly Alana is growing and changing and fading from a baby into a toddler. Somehow we got to talking about her nursery and how, now that Alana is almost two, it was starting to feel a little too babyish for her.
I loved the nursery and felt like we got so much good use out of it, but still just felt like I was ready for change — especially since we took her bedding out of her crib a few months ago because she was using it to hoist herself up and out of her crib, landing violently on the floor!
This is the comforter and crib bumper that I used from birth until this makeover
Here is an overview of the room before the makeover (after the bedding had been taken out). Once the bedding was gone, I didn’t feel like I had anything holding the theme/colors together anymore and it felt too bare, or too monochrome, or something along those lines!
The adorable heart-shaped pillows my mom made for Alana when she was a newborn! And I am so glad that Rich and I bought this crib and matching changing table – I love them!
The too-large-for-the-small-room-it-was-in hutch that I was using for books and storage:
The amazing pillows that my mom made for me…and a wonderful glider from my in-laws!
Some cute pink shelves with pink decor:
And a sweet little hammock for some animals that my mom also made
As SOON as we started talking about a makeover, and being the creative genius that she is, Kellie whipped up a quick “mood board” for Alana’s new room to get my input. I loved it so much that it became the springboard for a whole new look, and I wanted to blog the room makeover now that it’s completely done!!!
Here is the mood board (but I don’t think this image does justice to the wonderful wall color):
The plan was to paint the wall a wonderful Sherwin-Williams tiffany blue color (called “Tidewater”) and use bright pink, orange as accent colors.
I began by hopping online at QuiltHome to purchase half-yards of these 7 wonderful Amy Butler fabrics to use for our projects! I love how well they all coordinate even though they are from several different fabric lines that Amy has released over the past couple of years.
And knowing I just had to have some of her amazing giclee art prints for the walls, I hopped onto Bernadette’s sugarloop store on Etsy and snatched several crazy cute prints in the colors that I needed (they all happened to be birds)! Bernadette was incredible to work with, and blew me away with her kindness, efficiency, and quality of design! And she’s extra cool because she lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Check her out and order some amazing prints for yourself or someone you love! Or, if you live here in Chattanooga, head to Sophies (one of my absolute favorite stores of all time!) at 401 North Market and get one already matted and framed!
While I waited for the fabric and prints to arrive, Kellie and I painted the room and could not have been happier with the result. The color is so cheery without being overbearing, distracting, too kid-like, or too gender specific.
I received my fabrics and my sugarloop giclee prints the day before we left for our summer vacation in Fort Lauderdale. Kellie stopped by to say goodbye and asked if she could keep the fabric while I was away…she said she might have a chance to work on a valance for the new room. I agreed, having no idea what she was about to do for me!
When we returned from our trip, Kellie came over and snuck into the house while I was downstairs doing laundry. When I came back up, I found her arranging not just a valance, but a comforter, a pillow, AND the bird mobile that she’d included in the mood board. I freaked out. It all looked amazing and I’d gone from zero to almost-done in two seconds flat.
After shreiking and jumping around the room for ten minutes I calmed down enough to help Kellie get the valance hung and the bird mobile mounted in the ceiling. The room already looked amazing, and I hadn’t even hung the prints or the shelves!
Here is the comforter:
And the valance, complete with a little bird perched up top:
And the adorable elephant pillow:
The other side, equally cute, and with wonderful orange buttons!
And the bird mobile with real sticks from Kellie’s yardExtra thanks to Jason, too, for helping to engineer this project!
Um, seriously? Look how perfect these little guys are! Kellie says the birds were easy, but I can guarantee that they would not have been “easy” for meCould not love them more!
Then it was time to get the giclee art prints matted and framed. I chose white matting and white frames and I LOVE the way they turned out. Here are the wonderful sugarloop prints above the crib:
The individual prints:
And the shelves after I finished painting them! I loved these shelves before, but I love them even more in white!
Special thanks to Amber and Nick for hanging them for me!Love you guys! And notice the awesome Ugly Dolls. Couldn’t resist when I saw them at our new Learning Express toy store.
Some shelf detail shots:
Another sugarloop print, this one Lotus Birds!
A chunky wooden “A” that I bought and painted…
From my mom to Alana…so cute!
LOVE this elephant I found at Sophies!
And a wonderful little rocking chair that I also bought at Sophies
And in place of the large hutch/bookshelf, I decided to use this (much smaller) cherry wood bookshelf that my dad built for me during my freshman year of college (that I’d been using downstairs to store my scrapbooking supplies). I don’t know why I didn’t think to use it in the nursery before, but it is the PERFECT solution for the small space, and it happens to match the crib, changing table, and glider perfectly!!! I love it when a plan comes together
Some handmade pom pom flowers with yarn, ribbon, and felt that Kellie made, in a cute triangle vase that my mom got for Alana!
Um, yes, another sugarloop print (for above the bookshelf). I’m obsessed. This one is Cranes in Orange and I love it!
And here are a few overall shots of the new room:
We even put up a new adorable white fan using a Lowe’s gift card from my awesome in-laws!!!
Yay! Thanks for coming along for the recap of the makeover! And thank you Kellie for everything you did and helped with – we love it all!
Now, to try to call it a ROOM rather than a NURSERY…that will be a challenge and I don’t know if I’m ready for it!
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