The Nursery!

This post is long overdue (well, all of them are, sorry about that, I'm trying to catch up!). One of my favorite things about preparing for the birth of my child was the decorating of the nursery. I wanted it to be soothing and fun and beautiful and creative, and something the Cupcake would enjoy as long as we live in this house (and hopefully the elements can transfer easily to another location if we ever end up moving).

I didn't want to use pink--don't get me wrong, I LOVE dressing Izzy in pink--little girl clothes are just TOO adorable--but there are so many fun colors out there in the universe that I wanted to do something a little different.

The room itself was painted in a color called Taupe Tone from Sherwin Williams--we saw this color at a friend's house and loved how soothing it is, and we actually painted the room the fall before we found out we were pregnant. Since Aaron and I do such amazing painting work (and since we were SICK TO DEATH of painting all the rooms in this house) we decided to keep the color if we could.

Next step: fabrics! I have watched my fair share of episodes of Trading Spaces, and my favorite designers always pick one thing to base a room around, whether it is a piece of art or a fabric or an accent of some sort. At this great fabric store in Springfield, my mom and I found a line of fabrics from a company called Premier Fabric--it's hard to find one of their prints I DON'T love! I previously blogged about my fabric selections (purchased on fabric.com) here--I chose prints with a lot of orange, brown, robin egg blue, and sage.

My mom put these fabrics together to create AMAZING curtains, crib bumpers, and a crib skirt, plus a cute hanging organizer and sheets to match! It all turned out BEAUTIFUL, and Izzy loves to look at the curtain fabric when we are in her room. We purchased the crib from cribs.com--free shipping! The crib was selected in a color that would match the dresser and shelf (more on those items in a minute).



Gorgeous custom linens!

 The dresser/changing table (previously mentioned in this post) looks beautiful in the room! Thanks again to my mom, dad, and brother-in-law Cameron for the refinishing of this piece and the custom changing table topper (it comes off to turn this into a regular dresser).



Dreser with monkey decals above (Izzy loves to smile at the monkeys)

 My parents also finished a bookcase in the same color as the dresser, and we have it loaded up with toys, books, and stuffed animals (lots of monkeys and other friends).

Our friends Amy and Dave Stevens gave us the monkey wall art and decals, and Izzy loves looking at them.

I got this mirrored shelf with metal hooks from a co-worker who was selling it on our internal classified ads. Notice the cupcak themed stuffed toys, hats, and little tiny cupcake trinket box on the shelf.

The room also includes a rocking chair I bought years ago at an estate sale that has sage green cushions--it looks just perfect in Izzy's room. On the back of the chair is a little quilt made with some quilt squares I found at JoAnn's and pieced together, and my mom added the orange and brown minky fabric and quilted it together. Behind the chair is a fun lamp from Target that you can't really see in this picture--it has five bendy arms with different colored shades on the ends.



Such a cozy seat

The room turned out better than I could have hoped! It's officially my favorite room in the house--especially when we get Izzy ready for bed and read her books in the chair, sing her a few songs and put her to bed. She must like it--she falls asleep almost immediately after you lay her down in bed and she stays asleep 8 to 10 hours every night. We have a video monitor my mom found at a garage sale for $15 and we can look in on her without even getting out of bed. I look forward to seeing her grow and learn to play in her very own room.