tada! Baby's nursery is finally basically done (still a few pieces of art I'd like to hang, and maybe a rug...but the essentials are there!), and is awaiting her arrival (in a week!)
Hubby and I are so proud of it, as we put countless hours in there, toiling away, realising this vision of mine. :)
Here are some of Baby's friends waiting patiently for her arrival. Hubby insisted on getting her a Totoro, from one of his favorite Japanese directors--Miyazaki, who created "my neighbor Totoro".
I have to say, this may be one of the most daunting home improvement projects to date, since as early as January, we decided it would be a good idea to peel off the ancient wallpaper that had been painted over several times. Let's just say, I was 4-5 months preggers when we started the painful process of removing wallpaper with mere credit cards and some scrubbing sponge as our tools (We had bought wallpaper removal tools and those were pretty useless) We discovered not just 1, but 3 layers of wallpaper, some as old as the house (100 yrs old!), some plaster, and a layer of cardboard. On top of that, probably lead paint. Hubby decided to do most of the peeling himself in fear that the lead would be bad for Baby. So...we estimated over 100 man-hours just peeling wallpaper, and then scrubbing down the walls...and finally painting.
Needless to say, after the huge undertaking Baby's room remained bare for the next month and a half, until we gathered enough motivation to finally start furnishing and putting the finishing touches on it.
My vision had been to use the most neutral gray color for the wall and let yellow and cream be the dominant colors, folllowed by green and orange, and other vibrant colors. And it looks like we achieved it!
We both are very happy with how everything turned out, and how organic the process ended up being.
We had the idea to have our friends participate in making some fabric art for Baby--it was supposed to be in the form of a fabric book for Baby, but I thought framing them would be cool--unfortunately we couldn't frame all 14 of them, since we didn't know at the time we would really be framing them and some of the pieces ran all the way to the edge of the squares of fabric so there is no seam allowance for framing...so the rest will be made into a book, or something really cool. I made the bee w/flower, and Hubby made the little Japanese monster at the bottom. My hope is that Baby won't get scared when she sees him. haha.
The dresser was the last to arrive, and while the yellow wasn't what we expected from shopping online, it works fairly nicely with the decor. The rocking chair actually will be replaced in a couple of months, as I had wanted to cover the chair but got cold feet just thinking about it. I didn't think I could do a great job and just rather purchase something that's even more comfortable. I actually now like the pinky mauve color, but it's too late to take back the order...the new chair will be a taupe-beige micro-suede.
Finally, we're still looking at getting a round rug to echo the round motif in the room, but we know it'll get dirty over time, so that's still on hold...like I said, the room is ready for her, but if we do get more time, I'm sure to be putting a bit more artwork in there!
To fully appreciate all the effort that went into this room, here are some horrid "before" pictures of the process...
This was the Chinese red sewing room before the peel began...
