Friday 5: Functional Changes to the Nursery

I know you've all seen the nursery in the past, but here are some functional changes we've made since having the Lion.  Some things just work better this way:

1)  I suppose this isn't entirely a change, but I've never shown the inside of his closet.  Obviously, there are hanging clothes, below is his bookself.  The top shelf has shoes, hats, and curtains we haven't hung yet.  Second shelf is books.  Third shelf is actually wipe storage.  Weird, I know.  In front of that is the laundry basket, with the lingerie bag for socks, washcloths, and bibs on top.  You don't want to be losing those!  It's actually deep to the left, so there is a box of large-size clothing, a bag of his toys (need to find a better way to store those), and hooks with various bags.

2)  His crib has been moved to an interior wall.  It was too cold against the exterior wall of our house, as we have some of the poorest insulation known to man.

3)  His humidifier.  This one rocks.  It does not have a filter that we need to change every other week, and you can set it to a humidity level, so that it doesn't run continuously.

4)  His space heater.  Also, like the humidifier, this is great because it has a programmable thermostat so that it doesn't run continuously.  It is set to 73.  It also has a remote that I joke we should leave in the crib so that Robby can adjust it as he needs to.

5)  We keep a storage bin under the futon to put away things he outgrows until it fills, and then it gets labelled and moved up to the attic.  This is a very sad bin.  Currently it hold 6 MONTH clothing.  I just want to get some wear out of things.  Is that so wrong?

Finished Nursery

A dear friend, who unfortunately is not close enough to have come to see the nursery in person reminded me that I had never put up pictures of the final product.  So I just had to oblige.  Full confession?  I don't love it.  I should not have bought the valences that went along with our "theme" since we had largely thrown the theme out the window (hehe...sorry for the pun), and they were light blue.  Which just doesn't match.  Because I needed to try and work them in, my goal the past couple of weeks has been to add more light blue to the room so that it somehow looks like it was intentional. 

First up, the futon is absolutely still in the room, but not in the niche.  It just worked better to flip what we had originally intended.  And, for now, Chris is winning with a Penn State pillow in full view.

The most boring wall.  It has some pictures that I put together, and the closet door.  Woo!

No, I didn't hang blue squares on the wall.  But that's his name and you just don't get to see that yet.  Sorry.  Big tease.

The infamous niche.  It doesn't actually look this crowded in person, but the picture looks tight.  I'm pretty proud of the shelf on the right wall because it was all of $3 from Goodwill, and I painted it.  The hooks actually alternate in green and blue, but...you can't see it.  Use your imagination.

The pictures.  I bought a random selection of frames from Goodwill (Can you tell that Sara has influenced me with all her crafting?), painted them, and then printed out public domain illustrations from a bunch of old stories.  Matted some.  And hung them up.  I'm pretty pleased.  Here are a few, from Wizard of Oz, Tarzan, and Through the Looking Glass:

There's your quick tour through the Land of the Lion.  Can't wait to bring him home to it!

Completed Nursery Painting

What?  You couldn't tell what the finished product was going to look like from the pictures of tape?  I suppose I can't really blame you.  I did the initial coat, but then threw my back out, so Chris really has to get credit for finishing.  We love it!  It still needs a bit of touch-up work, but overall?  Pretty darn pleased with how it turned out.  Now on to details!

Nursery Part 1

So, we haven't gotten very far on the nursery yet, but we now have the first bit of furniture.  You should know that the room is VERY oddly shaped and what you're looking at is a little alcove section in the back of the room.

 

Yup, that's a futon!  I know, this is not seeming like much of a nursery post, right?  However, the idea is to have more guest space, a space for me to sleep on the 2nd floor initially, and just make that niche a "reading nook".  We do have a bookshelf for in there, too, but it's in a different location. 

We were so proud of ourselves!  We found this fantastic frame on Craigslist for $50, and it only has a couple scratches on the top.  The mattress was also a steal from Overstock.com.  If you've never heard me shout praises of Overstock before?  Then I have been severely remiss in my love declaration.  We have bought innumerable items, and always been more than happy with the quality, price, and $1 shipping.  Where else can you get this crazy heavy futon shipped to you for only $1! 

On that note, I beg my husband in particular to not ream me out for carrying said futon up a flight of stairs by myself.  It may have not been the smartest move, but...it happened.  Deal.  And...since he removed the doorknob from that door last night (in an effort to get the door to latch), the animals have discovered the futon and made themselves at home.  Doh.  In fact, I think I'm hearing the dog upstairs now.  I should check that.  Harper!