Baby Boy Nursery

This post is long overdue considering my baby boy is now 8 1/2 months old!! 

When the time came to find out what we were having, I was so excited that it was a boy! Part of my excitement came from getting to do this nursery. This nursery is a little makeshift with pieces coming from all over the place, but I absolutely love it. 

When you walk in the door: 

From the other corner of the room:

This wall is probably my favorite!

The banners were made by a friend and were put up at my baby shower. I was so excited to keep them because I knew they would add such a cute decoration for his room!

The crib was bought at a yard sale for $25!!! Talk about a steal. We actually got it before I was even pregnant, but we knew we were going to start a family soon enough and we just couldn't pass it up.

This chair is the same as the chair I re-upholstered, but it was not re-upholstered, so I threw together a quick (and not-so-pretty) cover for it to match his room. But hey, it matches!

The pillow was a small pillow from a thrift shop - probably about 50 cents. I made a quick cover and it matches great!

The lamp was re-done to match his room and it's a perfect fit. 

The small side table used to be a little chess table that my husband has had for a long time. The top broke, so my grandpa helped me build a new top for it. I painted it white and it sits so well next to the chair!

Ideally, I wanted to have wooden letters painted white for his name. I did not have the means to make them and didn't want to spend the money on them, so I decided to use what I had. These letters are made of stiff plastic mesh that I cut to the letters. I then picked the fabric to match the room and cut it a little wider on all sides than the mesh. Each side was then folded over to the back and hot glued down. I used ribbon hot-glued in a loop at the top to allow me to hang them. 

I LOVE how these curtains turned out! They are made from a twin flat sheet cut in half and hemmed. I then measured the sheet and cut and sewed on the navy blue to have 3 stripes of each.  

These shelves were made by my mom and are so perfect for all of his books!

I finally got these pictures up just a month or two ago. They make the perfect finishing touch to his room. Left to right: newborn, christmas/favorite picture, 6 months.

From left to right in this picture: 

The two baskets are for dirty laundry, one for colors and one for whites.

The dresser was given to us by my parents. We painted it white and bought the wooden knobs and painted those blue. 

We got the changing pad from my sister-in-law and it fits perfectly on the dresser. I made the changing pad cover by using the actual changing pad as a "pattern". I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out!

The nightstand was also given to us. We took the old handle off and got a knew wooden one and painted it so it matched the dresser. It is so functional. The extra diapers and wipes go in the cupboard below. The small basket in the opening holds the burp cloths, and the top basket holds the current diapers, wipes, lotion, thermometer, etc. 

That completes the room tour! I hope you love it as much as I do!

~K.A.N.

Chair Re-upholstery

This is a project that I have wanted to do for a very long time. I actually finished it several weeks ago, but it was such a huge project with so many pictures that it took me a while to get it all organized in order to blog about it. 

When my husband and I got married, we got two chairs from my family. These chairs were bought new by my grandma, so they have been in my family for some time. And they are rather old.

This is the chair before. It was a light blue velvety fabric and very worn. I have actually tried several times to get rid of the chairs because I just didn't like the look of them, but my husband loves how comfortable they are, so he won and we've kept them. 

When I was deciding on the nursery colors and furniture I realized that one of these chairs would be perfect for in there and decided to do my first re-upholstery project. 

We went to Joann Fabrics and picked out the fabric for the chair. Originally, I wanted a navy blue to go with the nursery, but we couldn't find any fabric we liked in that color, so we went with a gray instead. It would be a great neutral color, just in case we wanted to change it to a different room someday. 

The first thing to do was take pictures from every angle of the chair, especially the little details. This is important so that they can be referenced later. Here are a few of those pictures. 

Next, the original fabric had to come off. This was probably my least favorite part. It took much longer than I thought it was going to!! I used a flat head screw driver and pliers and lots of help from my wonderful husband. I also took pictures as each piece came off. I was careful enough taking things apart that all of the tack strip and foam was able to be reused. 

First to come off was the skirt, then the back:

Next, the sides and piping. This piping went up one side, around the back, and down the other side. 

The front of the arms then came off. I took a lot of pictures of this because of the way the piping laid. 

I then took the front pillow off. When this piece came off, I realized this project was going to be much more work than I expected. It was several pieces all sewn together and came off in one chunk. This piece was taken completely apart and the individual pieces were used as a pattern for the new piece. 

The last pieces to come off were the arms and front. 

This left me with a chair that was completely naked. 

As I said above, all the foam, stuffing, tack strips, and cardboard were in good enough condition to be reused. I vacuumed all parts of the chair and pieces of foam, then fabreezed it all to get it nice and fresh. 

The pieces taken off were used as pattern pieces for the new fabric. With the new pieces, I worked backwards from how I took everything off to put the chair back together. 

1. Front

2. Arms

3. Front cushion - cover buttons were used for the new buttons

4. Sides

5. Back

6. Skirt

7. Seat Cushion 

This was my first re-upholstery project as well as my first time using cover buttons and first time making piping. I love love love how this chair turned out and expect it to be used for a very long time. 

We also decided that we love this chair so much it will be going in the living room rather than the nursery!

The last thing I learned from this project was to never again try re-upholstery 8 months pregnant. It was not only difficult working around my belly, but my emotions. Even so, I'm very happy with the chair and love showing it off when people come to visit!

~K.A.N.