More Nursery Updates!

Okay, this is probably going to be a long post, but I am SO excited to share all of the work we got done this weekend in the baby's room! I'm not going to lie, I have been putting off decorating Baby W's room and really been dreading it. I'm not great at decorating, but I always have these great visions of how I want something to look. Things never really work out how I have envisioned. Last weekend while we were hanging out, I spent quite a bit of time writing down things we needed to do/buy for the baby's room and looking up pictures online of ideas for the room. This week while I was out running errands, I spent a lot of time looking around for things to buy for the room. I have a habit of looking around for decorations but not buying them thinking something else better may come along. I didn't do that this week and I'm so glad I bought the few things I did! 

We had a couple big projects we were working on this weekend.

1. Making/painting bookshelves to hang.

2. Cleaning, organizing, and adding shelves to the closet.

3. Cleaning, folding, and organizing all the baby clothes {and baby gifts we've received}. 

Project #1 - Bookshelves

I found a couple different bookshelf ideas on pinterest that looked fairly easy to make. Kurt and I went to Lowe's on Friday night to buy the wood and paint for the bookshelves. This project was pretty cheap and I'm so glad we attempted it. We probably spent around $25 with all the materials and now we have plenty of room for the baby's books...we actually need more to add! :)

Lowe's cut the wood to the size we wanted for free so we didn't have to do anything but assemble them. Kurt borrowed the nail gun from his dad {and now wants one of his own!} and it made putting the shelves together a breeze. It took us no longer than 10 minutes to put all the shelves together before painting. 

We used three pieces of wood and nailed them into an L shape. Each shelf is 2 feet long and there is plenty of space to put a bunch of books on each one. 

This is what each shelf looked like before we sanded, primed, and painted. Pretty easy. After Kurt stapled them together and helped sand them, he went upstairs to work on the closet while I primed and painted the shelves. {I also managed to do 6 loads of laundry while we were doing all this work!} 

I didn't take any pictures of the bookshelves in the middle of painting because I was on a mission to get them finished as fast as possible...not to mention the paint that was on my hands that I didn't want on my camera! Thank God it was so warm on December 1st or I wouldn't have probably been able to do this project on my own. I think the paint fumes would have been a little much for me if we had to do it inside. Plus it was much easier to not have to clean up a mess inside!  

This picture was taken after one coat of primer and two coats of paint had been applied. Since I was out in the sun, the bookshelves look MUCH more yellow than they do inside and on the wall in the baby's room. I was a bit worried about the color when I was painting yesterday, but I really do love them in the room now that they're up. I'm guessing you're wondering what the yellow W is that is sitting on the cardboard as well. I found a project on pinterest that I did yesterday and I went ahead and quickly painted the W while I was painting the bookshelves. You'll see a picture of that project in a bit...

So here's the finished product...

What do you think? We love them! They were SO easy to make and really inexpensive. We plan to put the chair we bought next to the bookshelves so we can grab a book to read while we're sitting with the baby. Now we just need to buy some more books! 

If you look below the bookshelves, you'll see one of the things I bought this week while I was out and about. I wanted one place to put all the baby toys to keep them somewhat organized and accessible for when the baby is more mobile. I found this grey wicker basket at Home Goods this week for $20! I love how the grey matches the room and is big enough to fit a bunch of toys. Keep your fingers crossed that neither of our four legged children get into the basket and play with some of the toys! :) {We left the room open today while we were gone for 3 or 4 hours and everything was okay.}

Project #2 - Closet  

I didn't take a very good 'before' picture of the closet yesterday before Kurt starting working. I thought I had one, but not really. Here's a picture I took awhile ago before we even painted the room. You can kind of see what the closet looked like before... 

Anyway, the closet had only one shelf. The top of the shelf was FULL of our stuff that we had been throwing up there since we moved in. The half that you can't see in this picture has some of Kurt's clothes and shoes. We had already cleaned out some of the closet when this picture was taken, but I couldn't believe how much stuff we had stored in there when we took everything out yesterday...

Not too long ago, we spent a ton of time cleaning out this room and this is what it looked like yesterday when we took everything out of the closet {and before I was able to put all the baby gifts away...}! You literally couldn't move in the room! Where did we get all this crap?!?

So after we got the closet cleaned out, Kurt moved the one shelf that was in there up a foot or two. If you look closely in this picture, you can see the holes from where this shelf was originally hanging. 

 While we were at Lowe's, we bought another long shelf to add into the closet. We hung one of Kurt's shirts from the top shelf to make sure that he could still use some of the closet before hanging the second shelf. We also had an extra shelf in our garage that Kurt cut in half. The plan was to put two half shelves in the closet on the left side to have more room, but we ended up only hanging one. That way, we have quite a bit of space at the bottom of the closet to store baby things that we don't want out around the house. 

 Here are both sides of the closet. I wish I would have taken a picture before Kurt put the doors back on. Either way, we feel like we have a ton more space/storage and we were actually able to put a lot of our crap back on the top shelf! Kurt can still use the right side for a few of his things that can't fit in our closet and the left side has a bunch of room for baby things. We've put a lot of baby things in the closet that will probably be left out once the baby arrives, but it feels good to have them out of the way for now. Let's see how long we can keep the closet this organized...

Project #3 - Organize

I love organizing things. It makes me feel less stressed out. However, I wish I was better at keeping things organized. I was having a hard time starting this project. If you asked me to organize my clothes, I'd have an easy time doing it because I know how I like my things organized. I've never had to organize baby clothes before so it kinda stressed me out. I want to make sure I have things in places that make sense and are most accessible. I'm probably not making any sense, but it stressed me out. I made myself finally start getting things put away yesterday. Here's what I've decided on so far...

I didn't take a very close up picture, but next to the changing pad you can see another cute basket I bought from Home Goods. It's perfect. It has a little yellow in it and I think it's a perfect size for the changing table. I put some diapers, rash ointment, hand sanitizer, and a few other things we may need on a regular basis when changing Baby W. 

In the top three drawers, I tried to think of things we'd use a lot. In the left drawer, I started putting burp cloths, swaddling blankets, and Boppy pillow covers. In the middle we have lots of extra diapers and wipes. And in the right drawer, I put onesies.  

Underneath those drawers, I started putting outfits. In the left drawer, I put all the sleepers and in the right I started putting outfits. There are a few things that are hanging. We have tons of hangers and space in the closet that we can use when we need it.

What's so great is we have SO many more drawers for other things. I'm so happy we bought both dressers because I know we can use the storage for so many things. So I know things are pretty organized right now, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do once we have more outfits in a variety of sizes. How am I going to keep different size outfits organized...stress. 

While those were our main projects this weekend, I thought I'd show you a couple other things in the room. 

I'm not quite sure this is where all of these things are going to permanently live, but here are a few fun things we've gotten for the room...

From the left to the right:

-That is the W from the picture above with the bookshelves. This week, I bought a wooden W, one piece of scrapbook paper, and a picture frame {$12} from Michaels. I painted the W the same yellow as the bookshelves. When it was dry, I set it on the glass, cut the paper to fit in the frame and put it behind the W, and closed up the frame. It was a quick and cheap project! 

-The owl is something I bought from West Elm. I've been eyeing it and knew it would be a cute addition to the room. 

-Paddington Bear is SO cute. My mom bought that for the baby while they were in London this Fall. We need to keep him high up so Coop and Olive don't eat him. :)

-The frame on the right is from my aunt. That is not a picture of us...yet! It says on the top, "One Lucky Baby, One Happy Family." I can't wait to put a picture of us in it soon! 

Kurt and I are not huge stuffed animal people. However, while we were cleaning out the guest room this fall, we found three that we knew we wanted to keep for Baby W. They are currently waiting in the crib...until they need to find a new place until the baby is older. 

The dog on the left was a gift from Kurt to me one Christmas. He bought it for me because it kinda looks like Coop. The IU bear in the middle is Kurt's from when he was a baby! We absolutely love it and can't wait for our baby to have it. The bear on the right was a present that I bought Kurt when we first started dating. I'm not really sure why I thought it'd be good to buy him a stuffed animal, but Kurt kept that bear in his room all through college. 

On the front of the crib, we have this little sheep hanging. {Thanks Peck!} Not only is the sheep cute, he is a sound maker. Kurt and I sleep with our white noise app {crickets and water to be exact!} so we thought our baby would like some noise, too. 

If you look behind the lamb, you'll see the new bedding! The crib skirt is already on and the two sheets we bought are washed and folded on top of the mattress. I'm waiting to put one of the sheets on until we get a waterproof mattress cover. 

The latest addition to the room is above the crib and I absolutely love it. My friend Lauren lives in San Fran and obviously couldn't come to my shower today. She is so thoughtful and sent Mer some decorations for the shower today. We loved this little banner so much, we decided to hang it above the crib! It's so perfect. 

 I was kinda dreading having to buy more things to fill the wall space above the crib and now I don't have to worry. And, it will always remind me of how much fun I had at my shower today and Lauren! 

 It may not look like we got much done, but it feels like we did SO much yesterday. I'm actually starting to fall in love with this room and absolutely cannot wait to spend time with our baby in the room. We still have some things to do and do have quite a bit of things to find places for {see corner of the room in the next pictures}, but we're getting there! I'd like to also buy a fun mirror to put somewhere in the room. We have a few more projects we'd like to do, too. 

So what do you think? I think I'm ready for a baby to be in this room! :)

Nursery Updates...Finally!

We finally got around to picking paint and painting the baby's room as well as the guest bathroom upstairs {we've had that paint for months...}! I didn't like the paint colors in either of these rooms from the time we moved in, but we didn't feel like changing them because we rarely used either of these rooms. The guest bathroom has never been showered in and we've used the cabinet under the sink for extra storage. As you can see, the guest room was used for all of our junk that didn't fit anywhere else in our house. Kurt uses the closet for overflow because we can't quite fit everything in our closet {yes, we still need to clean out the closet}. We are still trying to find a spot for everything that was in the guest bathroom and bedroom...our house is too small! :) We're planning to add more shelving to the closet after we clean it out and before we get a bunch of baby stuff. That's a project for another weekend...!

Before we painted, the guest room was green. It wasn't horrible and actually looked okay with our furniture and duvet cover. I just didn't love it. Even though we aren't finding out the sex of Baby W, I've said from the beginning that I do not want to do everything in the traditional gender neutral green and yellow. The color could have worked for a boy or girl, but that green reminded me too much of that gender neutral green!

Here's what the room looked like before we painted after we moved out the furniture....this really was pretty clean compared to what it looked like before!!! 

I'm really indecisive when it comes to paint colors. I feel like I have a vision for how I want something to look and can never find the perfect paint color. It also seems like such a big decision that can't be changed if you don't like it, probably since it takes so long to paint a room. We definitely had been putting off buying paint for the baby's room until the last minute...right before the furniture needed to be picked up. The paint color we actually ended up using is called Beach Glass. I saw it on one of the blogs I read and thought it was a good mix of gray, green, and blue. All of the bedding in the room is going to be gray, but we couldn't paint the walls gray because that's what color our bedroom is. I think the color is really pretty. I would definitely use it again when we need to paint. However, it is a little more blue than I thought it was going to be. Oh well, the baby won't mind! :)

{It was difficult to get a picture of what the true color looks like. The color also looks different during different times of the day.}

Here's a before and after of the paint color. Again, it's hard to tell a huge difference, but we really can! I'm so much happier with the room color now. 

{That is one of the dressers that we bought. The changing pad cover is a bit darker gray than the bedding will be. We definitely need to find some things to hang on the wall!}

Here's what the other side of the room looks like. We finally found a furniture set-up we like. The room does look a lot smaller with furniture in it and we're a little worried about how the glider/ottoman is going to fit! I love the crib because of the curve in the front. I'm so short it's always difficult for me to reach in and grab babies from cribs, especially when the mattress is lowered down. The way this crib curves seems like it will be much easier for me to lean down to reach in. 

I'm really excited to get the bedding, glider, ottoman, and some decorations in the room. I know that won't be complete for awhile, but I'm feeling much better having a large part of the room complete. Next on the list is to work on the closet! We need to look around and find some accessories to put in the room, too. 

I thought you might like to see the before and after paint in the guest bathroom while we're talking about paint. The paint in their was definitely not going to stay. We both disliked the purple. We picked out the paint color and bought the paint months ago. We just never got around to painting. Kurt painted both of these rooms in one weekend...thanks, babe! The blue color is one I knew I already loved because it's the color in our half-bath downstairs. See what you think...

see for yourself

Um,  this is what a house looks like 3 weeks before a wedding....

Honestly, I'm positive you can't even see how much of a disaster our house currently is. These pictures don't do it justice. As I was taking these pictures, Kurt commented that, "This {the sh** you're looking at} is just the tip of the iceberg!" I couldn't have said it better, babe...

Only good news?!? Well, two things. We've gotten so much awesome stuff, from all my showers and people's wedding gifts. And, Kurt is starting to get really sick of all this crap around {as am I} and said he was going to do a major clean-up this weekend while I'm away. Wooo hooo! Look's like I'll be coming home to a clean{er} house! :)

Can't wait to relax and party with my friends all weekend!!!

tv stand {3...finally!}

I know, I know, I've been away forever. I was actually thinking of giving up blogging/reading blogs for Lent, but decided against it. So, that's why I haven't been posting lately. We've been taking a break from house stuff lately, so I really don't have many updates. Here are the pictures of the t.v. stand...finally!!

Remember how I told you that I started buying stuff instead of trying to find stuff that all fit together?!? Well...it worked! We are using almost every single thing we bought in the living room area! Check it out...

Warning -- although I wish {a lot} I would be good with photography, I'm really not! So, sorry. These pictures aren't very good....best shots I could get... :)

Very top right. My favorite part!

{Coral - Z Gallerie}

{Blue Vase - IKEA}

{Red Dish - Crate and Barrel}

 

Top Right Shelf

{Z Gallerie}

 

Middle Right Shelf

{things we found around the house}

Bottom Right

{Z Gallerie -- Sale!}

Very Top Left 

I know the picture is the wrong way...we had it in a different spot. We tried it vertically and liked it...we still need to find a picture to replace it...oops!

{Yellow Vase - Crate and Barrel}

 

Top Left Shelf

{Blue Vase - Crate and Barrel}

 

Middle Left Shelf...another favorite!

{Lantern thingy - Z Gallerie}

{Little Birdie - Crate and Barrel}

 

Bottom Left

{found around the house...my favorite book...Marley and Me!}

Can you tell we really liked the white look? I like it even more when you see it all together because the white really pops on the dark wood. I'm loving all the bright colors together...they're fun! Here's the whole thing...

 

flag

On Thanksgiving, my grandma gave Kurt and I a housewarming present -- an American flag. I was excited about this because a flag is something I would probably never spend my own money on, but I'd love to have one flying on our house. At that time, I had already started my Christmas list, which included an IU flag and flagpole. I was able to check the flagpole off the list, but still wanted the IU flag {badly}!! And, one of Kurt's brothers gave us an IU flag for Christmas!!! 

We finally got around to hanging it last weekend. We had a tough decision which flag to fly first. But, in the end, we decided to show our Alma-mater pride first. It was really quick to hang it and it's exciting that we already have two flags to alternate between. Check it out...

 

We marked where the holes needed to be and then drilled in those spots...

...then hammered the anchors in...

 

...Kurt used his big muscles to screw the holder-thingy in...

...I put the flag on the pole and screwed it into the holder, and voila!

 

...what it looks like now...

{p.s.- do you see how great the new blinds look upstairs in our bathroom??}

blinded by the light!

Immediately after we put up the blinds in the laundry room and kitchen, we knew what our project would be that next weekend! We were amazed by how great and different the windows looked by just adding/switching out the blinds. Moving in, we knew eventually we'd need new blinds at least upstairs if not the entire house. The decision to complete all the windows upstairs was quick and easy once we saw the other two windows. Bonus -- we loved that for a reasonable price we were able to get quality, expensive-looking blinds. Double bonus -- we would now be able to open and close our blinds, or even crack them to let just a little bit in...so luxurious! Without further-ado, here are before and afters of some of the upstairs windows....

 

Here's our bedroom. The blind on the right was too small for the window. If we ever tried to open it, the blind would pop out onto our heads and unravel...ugh!

One down, one to go...

Can you believe how much better it looks?!? Our room looks so open and airy! 

{Now if we could just find a stand to put our tv on...that space is awkward.}

Here's the guest room. Yes, the left blind was stuck like that....

With the new blinds, Coop can sit on the bed and look out the window...what he l.o.v.e.s. to do!

Also, we were finally able to fix the ceiling fan in the guest room. We had NO light in there since we moved in. We couldn't take down the fan because one of the screws was stripped. But we were finally able to use the light from the old ceiling fan and put it on this one. Thank God!!

  

Our giant window in our bathroom looks great with the new blinds...we love them!

And just to brag a little bit....I put all the blinds up on my own while Kurt and his dad worked on the laundry room project!!! {Kurt did help me lift the one for our bathroom....}  :)

color pop

I've recently changed my decorating mentality. Since we've moved into the house, we have spent hours running around the city, shopping, browsing magazines, etc. looking for things for our house. We never seemed to buy things because we {I} wasn't sure if it would fit, how it would look, if I'd like it.....

So, I told myself if I see something I like, I'm going to get it, try it out at home, and if we don't like it take it back! And, it's working!! We've added lots of new accessories to our tv stand that look great {and wouldn't have been anything I would typically throw together in my mind}. Here are some recent purchases we bought from Crate and Barrel.

{Glass Birdie - $7.00}

 

 {Lula Vase $9.00}

 

{Yoko Vase $8.00 -- we got blue one}

One of my favorite things about buying stuff I like when I see it.....we have a few extra things that we've stored away. We have them close by for whenever we'd like to switch things up a little bit! I'll be sure to show you the finished tv stand when we get it complete!!

Have a GREAT weekend!!