baby nursery budget makeover!

as promised, here is the baby nursery that i completed this weekend (actually in one day- trading spaces-style. sidenote: i loved that show. remember frank?) for my stepbrother and his wife's future baby boy! i will have to be honest and say, that they did paint the 3 surrounding walls benjamin moore's "gray cloud", and the one wall that has the window solid white before i came in.

here it is!

i painted the black stripes onto the white wall today, and like i said, i picked out the gray for them to paint the walls a few weeks ago. i love this shade of gray!

here is the unofficial "before" shot:

this isn't the total before shot, though. this is after the walls were painted :) the real before would feature khaki walls and boxes on the floor! hah! we never got a proper before shot. anyway....onto the details...

here is the other side of the room, across from the crib. the dresser was pulled in from another room, and she will use it to put a changing pad on top of. that part didn't get finished today! anyway, the little green tin container was pulled in from the bathroom (holding his sister's toys). i thought it provided a nice pop of color, and i like the shape and size of it. i rescued the hamper from a yard sale pile (it very well could go back into that yard sale pile, but i thought it was cute - especially for a changing area), and you all know mr. zebra. i think that it would be cute to put a metal letter and maybe a couple more pieces of small art or frames around mr. zebra, but he's cute by himself for now.

we needed a lamp in the room, and i'd brought that shade from home. my mom came to the rescue with this cute bamboo-ish black lamp. i thought it was perfect for the space!

i made the curtains with fabric that i had from home. it's realllllly old (i have 2 big bolts of it in the orange colorway and the yellow colorway. they are laurie smith's collection.)

i did the ol' hot glue gun method again. not very professional, but works like a charm, and is pretty sturdy.

i just lay it out on the floor, and iron all the sides in about an inch. then, i go in with my hot glue gun and just glue all the ironed areas down to make it permanent. ironing it just keeps it flat and makes it look like it was sewn down, rather than glued. i left a larger gap at the top for the curtain rod.

it worked out pretty nicely. and, you kids are going to laugh at this: lindsey and brandon (parents of bebe) had the hooks up on above the window that hold the curtain rod, but i could not find the curtain rod ANYWHERE. in a moment of desperation, i decided to rig a curtain rod with an old broomstick i found in the garage. it had no broom on it, and was just a plain' ol stick with nothing else on it - and the perfect size for my window. i sprayed it white (i didn't have black spraypaint), and hung that thing up. worked like a charm! haha. i'm sure they'll replace it later, but it worked for now.

i also found some yellow string in the closet that i used as a curtain tieback. :)

here is the "focal" wall (i refuse to use the word "accent wall" because i hate accent walls.)

i did 8" stripes and they are super graphic and fun! i spraypainted the little old orange rocker, and i just looooove the pop of orange down there!

and here we are, back at the crib area. i painted those two paintings above the crib. mr. elephant, and mr. giraffe. maybe one should be a ms.? hm. anyway, i think they are fun little guys, and i like how they're the same colors as the bumper (which was an accident!) lindsey had the bumper made with some cute plaid flannel fabric she found, and i think it is just SO cute. it's so boyish, and the contrast to the other colors and patterns in the room is just perfect. the little blue cribsheet is also sweet, and i rescued that pillow from the yard sale pile, too. i know babies may not appreciate pillows in their cribs, but hey, it looks nice, right?

i think i'm going to sell paintings like these, so email me if you are interested in some! obviously, they could be done in different colors, patterns, and animals.

the crib probably still needs a skirt, too, and i think maybe a white rug in the middle of the room could be nice as well. anyway, next is the little book shelf that i put to the right of the crib. i brought this shelf from home, because we aren't using it right now, and it was the perfect size for this space!

you may remember the giraffe and the elephant pieces from last week, but the rest of these items i found around the house. i thought the blue and red toy trumpet was such a cute little boyish accessory (though, as soon as his big sister saw her toy trumpet sitting on the shelf, she promptly removed it and began playing it. don't kids appreciate decorative accessories? geez.) the cat in the hat was a favorite accessory i found around the house, because you know i ADORE the good doctor. :)

and, there we have it! all done. for now, at least. it was all in a day's work, and it made me SO happy to get to do it. thanks to lindsey and brandon for letting their baby room get the decorating/painting wrath of kristen cast on it. hah! i'm a tornado of spraypaint and hot glue guns.

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if you live in, or around, atlanta, georgia, and have a room that you would like painted or decorated, please email me at kristen.fountain@gmail.com!