Nursery Update

The nursery is officially ready for our little mister...I realize he won't necessarily be utilizing the nursery for a while, but it's still fun to get everything put away and ready for his arrival. The closet on the otherhand is prepared for his 2nd birthday. I have promised Steve and those close to me that the shopping has ceased...it just took a while. Steve likes to say "so when we're living down by the river, in a tent because you've spent all of our money on our sons clothes, we'll just be thankful that he looks good, right?" At least I can say that I have a problem and I'm working to fix it.

I like to think the RC nautical flag stands for Rinabarger-Coffey, but it actually means Race Committee. The shadow box with the various letter R's are something we've been collecting from various antique stores.

I got the idea to make these adorable beeswax canvas signs from here. They're so simple! The quotes on each of the signs were taken from cards that I've give to Steve over the years and figured they were fitting for our boys room.

These bookshelves/collector's shelves can be found at Pottery Barn Kids and various other stores, but we didn't want to spend too much on them and wanted a specific color so we found plans on Ana White's site (LOVE this site for homemade projects) and built them ourselves. Very simple and cheap project. If any of you are interested in a specific dimension of shelf or color, Steve would be happy to build them for you at a reasonable price.

The shelf in this photo is just a piece of driftwood that we found out at Harstine Island. We collected about 8 pieces, brought them home, dried them out, cleaned them up and voilà we have a free shelf!

This was an Etsy find and I just had to have it - too darn perfect for the theme of the room. Ahhhh how I heart Etsy.

The bedding! After a few weeks of searching for a masculine/non-baby fabric (not easy to do), I finally found some samples at The Quilting Loft in Ballard that I loved and went online to find it cheaper. I ended up purchasing the fabric from Quilt Home and could not be more thrilled with the results. One random night out, my talented friend Kelly offered to make the bedding for us and my reply was YES PLEASE! She did such a fabulous job - thank you Kelly - we love it! The fabric I chose for the bedskirt and bumper is by Joel Dewberry (Modern Meadow - Cool Stream) - officially my favorite fabric desiner (is that what he's called?). If you're in need of a fabric, check his stuff out - his designs are gorgeous.

The baby blanket - a precious gift from Raleigh's Auntie May May (Thank You!) that I'm currently sleeping with and may have a tough time parting with to give to my son. Let me just say that it's 1 million times better than my poor, 31 year old, threadbare blanket, Idaho. Baby blankets have sure been come a long way since 1979.

Raleigh's Future Living Quarters

Over the past couple of months, we've slowly but surely been putting bits and pieces together in the nursery. And even though we're not finished, I decided it was time to share. Being that Steve is a sailor, the only theme we really could go with was nautical. When we first started the project I said "let's not go overboard with the theme" and I'm happy to say that I'm really impressed with where the design has gone and the ideas that Steve has come up with.

We purchased this window pane at an antique store almost two years for about $15 and knew we would find something creative to do with it - well, two years later we did! Steve (very carefully) removed the glass and then had three mirrors cut to size at McLendon's Hardware and sealed them in with an epoxy. Total cost = $22. The antique glass fishing nets floats were purchased at various antique shops for about $3 each.

Steve ordered this wooden sailboat mobile about three years ago after finding it on clearance for half off on an online sailing supply store that was going out of business. Being that he purchases just about anything sailboat related with the intention of eventually using it somewhere, he decided this was a purchase he needed for his future child.

This framed photo was a Christmas gift from my sister this year. If you look closely, you'll see that each photo is a letter and spells out Raleigh. The frame was black so Steve painted it to match the door frame and floor boards. Megs - we absolutely love this photo - thank you so much!

Here are a few more tidbits about the room...

• Wall paint color: Behr Premium Plus - Little Pond
• Crib: Bratt Decor (amazing hand me down from a family friend). The white of the crib didn't match the white of the dresser so Steve took it apart and painted it the same.
• Dresser/Changing Table: Craiglist find for $125. Solid wood and Pottery Barn Kids cira 2005 Here's an original photo of it...
  
• Closet: ClosetMaid Storage from Home Depot.
• Furniture paint color: Rust-Oleum Universal - Satin White.
• Window Valence: Pottery Barn Kids.
• Dresser knobs: Anthropologie. I saw these knobs a few months ago and loved the teal, which matches the crib bedding. Bedding is currently being made by my crafty friend Kelly.
• Rocker Recliner: Presley Cafe Rocker by Ashley Furnture (purchased on sale at Fred Meyer).

Upcoming projects:

• Make wall shelves out of driftwood that we picked up at Harstine Island last weekend
• Make a couple of bookshelves similar to these

Fingers crossed Raleigh enjoys sailing and the water as much as his Dad does otherwise we may be switching things up a bit.