Nursery Reveal....4 months late and some news!

Hi, friends!  I really dropped the ball on the twins nursery post, considering it was finished back in May....
Well, here we are in mid-October and I have finally found a few minutes (gasp!) to copy and past these photos into a post.  (Mind you, as I type, Ward is putting stickers all over me and Thomas the Train is providing some nice background ambience...Thomas, you are failing me in the distraction department, FAILING ME!) 
Anyways, no time for flowery well-thought-out words.  Oh, wait. Babies crying. Hold on.

Now I'll attempt typing with a baby on my lap.  This is fun, right?

I knew when we found out we were having two more boys that I wanted the nursery to be bright, cheerful, and colorful.  I've seen many beautiful nurseries on pinterest with chic, expensive Oeuf cribs, and perfectly stenciled ceilings, and albeit stunning, I ain't got time (or money) for that.  I also wanted simple, easy, and affordable.  We cleared out our empty junk room guestroom and went to work.

Here's the before.  

My favorite thing was that awesome brass boob fixture. Trey really wanted it to stay. I'm serious.  He thought it was fine. But then I reminded him of the importance of a fan in a babies room and he was kind enough to oblige...   

And Here's the after:

I wanted to reuse as much from Ward's nursery as possible.  We did purchase two new Jenny Lind cribs as Ward's crib was discontinued and I couldn't find a second to match.  I never thought I would buy ebony cribs, but I love how they pick up on the color in the moroccan shag rug. (My biggest splurge, but I got the rug for 70% off!)

As I mentioned in previous posts, the ombre dresser was a craigslist find revamp and the paper plane mobiles and cloud art were both easy DIY projects.  I bought the giclee above the dresser from Etsy shop Kiki & Polly. I just love the image of the 3 boys (if only they had blond hair!).  The little mountain peaks were also an Etsy find, from Kinderboothen.

And the mobiles hang above map-printed sheets (such a good deal!)

Here's the before shot of the opposite wall:

And after:

You may have noticed that the Sharon Montrose twin bear photo is framed differently in these photos.  That's because it fell off the wall and broke between days of me taking photos!  

The sleeping fox pillow from Urban outfitters was in Ward's nursery previously and the G and B blocks were a sweet gift from friends that have their birth date information engraved.  The floor lamp behind Ward's old glider was a DIY lamp from an old column.

The bird painting was something I made previously for Ward's room, the two-seater bicycle is a small DIY sketch and the Amersand art is also a DIY printable.  The small squiggle drawing was one I received from work years ago.

This 1st Samuel print was also an Etsy find....I guess it's a theme here.  I actually MADE the polka dot & gray drapes in my giant pregnancy state.  The fabric I had picked up originally for Ward's nursery (a steal for $7/yd!), two years ago and never got around to using it until now.  

There you have it!  Here are a few more photos from our newborn session a couple months ago :)

  

Ahhh...finally it feels good to get this post done.  Especially because in the next couple days I have to PACK UP this room.  Why's that?  WE ARE MOVING!  AGAIN!  I've officially lost my mind.  More on that later...!

DIY Ombre Dresser

My, my.  It seems like all poor Trey does every weekend is pick things up I find on craigslist and paint them.  I know he is sick of it, but luckily we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as far as painting projects go.

When I was deciding how to layout the twins nursery, I wanted the cribs to be placed perpendicular to the wall to create some interest in the room (so it wasn't just a wall of cribs).  In order to separate the two crib spaces, I was scouring CL for a tall but narrow dresser that could fit in between the two.

I came across this antique white dresser, and even though it was more than I wanted to pay, the dimensions and shape were perfect for what I was looking for.  So, I once again sent Trey out to get it and gave him instructions on how I wanted it painted.  

I love the ombre dresser look for kids room and thought this would be a fun thing to try.  I selected a color strip from a Benjamin Moore paint deck and got the tiny sample sizes of each color to paint on each of the 5 drawers.  

For some (annoying) reason, sample sizes only come in flat or eggshell finishes, so we opted for the eggshell and then had to add a coat of satin poly on top.
There were quite a few blemishes on the actual piece that needed sanding/patching before painting (and we primed the entire piece too), but once everything was complete it now looks like this!  

In addition to our changing table, I know this extra storage is really going to come in handy!  I love how bright and cheerful it is :)  

Note: In case you can't read the swatch above, colors used are BM "clear skies", "old pickup blue", "seaside blue", "blue lagoon" and "venezuelan sea".  The rest of the piece was just painted plain white that we found in the garage!

Vintage Campaign Dresser

Y'all.  I am really excited about my latest Craigslist find....a vintage campaign dresser!  

(In my excited state I forgot to take a real before photo, but here is the image from the post...screen shot from my iphone)

I have ALWAYS wanted one of these.  I'm sure many of you have seen the numerous re-do's on pinterest.

When I saw the ad posted, I immediately replied as quickly as I could type, but was disappointed when the response was that a couple people were interested in the "set" before me.  The "set" being the dresser and a matching twin headboard (I had just inquired about the dresser).  

I don't need another twin headboard, but I figure I'm having three boys so eventually I'll be able to use it one day (after an upholstery makeover of course...another future project).

Anyways, the person selling had his number on the return email so I called him and said I would take the set, didn't need to see them first, and could pick up right away.  I wanted that dresser!

Trey went and picked it up for me that afternoon and he worked on it over the course of one week.  Unfortunately, the wood grain of the piece was a little too visible, so my dreams of a lacquered finish weren't going to work (the glossier the paint, the more imperfections show up!)  

Also, another disappointment was the hardware was not brass, instead it was a galvanized metal (bleh).  Although I prefer real brass, I figured we could spray paint the hardware to get the effect.

To make things a little on the tough side, the L-brackets were not screwed in and we didn't want to damage them by trying to remove, so Trey had to spray paint the hardware while on the dresser after taping it off.  

The drawer hardware was easier because it could be unscrewed.  The primer we used was  Rustoleum's metal primer to ensure the paint would stick with heavy, everyday use.  Then, we used Design Master's Gold Medal spray paint on top.

 

Then, Trey primed the rest of the dresser with a brush (I didn't want to risk getting drips if we spray painted.)

And for the color we debated between Benjamin Moore's Narragansett Green and Polo Blue.  Trey really wanted the deep navy polo and I was leaning towards the Narragansett.  

Guess who won?

(In case you can't tell, it was me) :)

I'm thrilled with how this turned out.  I especially love how the color of the dresser changes depending on the time of day.  When I was originally looking on CL for a dresser, it was for Ward's room (so I could move his changing table into the nursery). But I love the campaign so much I decided to move it into our bedroom, and Ward inherited our old wooden dresser.  If I can ever get to styling the dresser/mirror/lamp vignette I will include photos later :)

Now on to wrapping up the nursery...I have lots to share on it later!

The Unintentional Project- Craigslist Dining Chairs

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you are doing something that you shouldn't be?  And you know it?  But you don't care?  That's me.

Since we are expecting twins, I should be checking things off my list such as organizing the house, purging old baby things to make room for new, working on a nursery.  You know, normal stuff that pregnant people do.

Well, this is totally off base.  I found this great dining chair set on craigslist a few weeks ago and had to get it.  I drove over an hour to go pick up the chairs (but could only fit 6 in my car) and then had Trey drive back over the weekend and pick up the remaining chairs and table.  The problem?  

I already own dining chairs and a dining table. 

In my defense, I've never been too keen on my current chairs.  They, too, were a CL find.  I bought them for a great price and even had them reupholstered until I could afford something more my style one day.  I had been eyeing these chairs, but probably wouldn't bother buying them for another million years.

So, when I found these Widdicomb chairs for a steal I HAD TO HAVE THEM!  They may not look like much now, but I have big plans for these lovely ladies.

When I first saw the post on CL- I immediately remembered this image that reminded me of the chair style:

Via Alice Lane Home, Photo by Ashlee Raubach

Of course the chairs above are more elegant, fully upholstered, and painted (what looks like) metallic frames with nailhead trim.  I wouldn't go this route, but I like the idea that if one day I want to upholster the back I can change things up.
As for now, I love the cane backing and want to keep it, but am definitely thinking of painting the frames lighter and leaving the cane natural....possibly like in these examples (These are pretty traditional, so wouldn't go that far, but love the natural cane):

Via Hello Lovely Decor

Via Mustard Seed Interiors

I originally thought I would just sell the table and keep the chairs.  But I really love the table too, it has such delicate lines I don't know if I want to sell it yet.  For now, it's living in my garage until I can figure that out....hence the beautiful photos.

Who knows how long this project will actually take (since Trey will be the one painting and waxing, haha).  And it's really not a priority.....But I'll keep you posted when (and if) we ever finish!

PS- I have 8 upholstered chairs for sale now if anyone would like to take them off my hands ;)

Update: Chairs have been sold!  Did I mention I love CL?  Now I need to get started on the nursery...

Garage Sale Retro Dresser Makeover

Wow.  It's been Halloween since my last post.  Yeaaah...sorry about that.  But I have an excuse....

Actually, two excuses....

Actually, three excuses if you count my toddler too (this list could go on and on so I'll just stop there) :)
So the big news is we are expecting identical twin boys!  We have a long road ahead, but I am finally starting to feel like myself again and therefore can finally share this dresser project I did a couple months ago.  (Note: Once I found out we were expecting, Trey actually did most of the work...painting, polishing, sanding, etc.)  I just directed :)

I had been looking for a tall dresser for our bedroom for a long time when I stumbled upon this piece at a garage sale...(excuse the iphone photo!)

It's a little retro, which I thought could be a fun touch in our muted bedroom.  I loved the warmth of the wood, but it wasn't in the best shape.

I initially thought I would just sand off the top finish layer and re-stain but this gave me a lot more trouble than I had hoped.  We started sanding and discovered that veneers don't really sand down...hmmmm.  Then we started sanding EVERYTHING which was a huge mistake.

At first, it was looking slightly better, but the hardwood turned out to be yellow pine and it was SOOO yellow.  Here is a shot of the doors-  on the right the door is sanded and on the left is when I started adding the stain.  As you can see, the wood veneer is still showing the hardware mark and the frame was waaaay too yellowish for my taste.

YUCK.

I felt like I wanted to scrap the project at that point.  BUT THEN, I found this image on Pinterest....and it gave me some new inspiration on what to do.  

Via Cup Half Full

I loved the idea of insetting leather into the doors/drawers and painting the frame a slightly darker tone.  Because the hardware was real brass, I thought these light colors would really help the hardware stand out.  

So, I went a new direction and had Trey paint the frame Annie Sloan "Old Ochre" and bought some cream textured vinyl for the doors. I was looking for faux ostrich leather like in the photo, but again, was SO over this project at this point I just went with what they had at the fabric store.  Because I knew I would never be able to get the edges of the vinyl cut perfectly (and didn't want the edges to turn up over time), I found the smallest trim moulding I could find at Home Depot and had Trey cut the pieces for me using his miter saw to frame the door and drawers.  This trim pieces covered the edges making the drawer and doors look clean and tailored.  The moulding was attached at the edges using a brad nailer, and filled the holes with wood putty and then touched up with paint.


For the  hardware, I had my Dad cut off the backplates (which I thought looked dated) and Trey spent some time polishing with Brasso.

Instructions on the bottle say not to let it sit on the brass, but the tarnish was so intense we disregarded this and put all the pieces into a plastic bag with the Brasso and let is sit for a while before trying to polish...seemed to help.  I didn't want it to be shiny, there is still a bit of patina on it which I think looks great.

Sorry I don't have more progress shots, after the wood finish stripping fiasco, I was so tired of this I just wanted to get it out of my garage!  

But here is the piece all finished- I absolutely love how it turned out!   

And for fun here's a side by side before & after:

Ahhh...so much better.  I don't know how much time I'll be having over the next few months to do anymore big projects, but do know I have a new nursery (and big boy room) to plan!  Hopefully it won't be another 4 months before I post on that! :)