Summer Project-ions

Thanks to my hard-working and amazing parents Hubs and I have finally got the baby's nursery under control. This is great news for me as business has picked up and I am now left with little time to spend working on my own house. This is a good problem to have, indeed. Allow me to show you what we have been up to over the past couple of weeks.

This is what the room looked like when we started. After we cleared out all the crap-ola, that is. Yeah, I just said "crap-ola". Bringing it back! The original paint color had too much of a yellow base to keep me smiling.


First, Mom and Dad painted the nursery a lovely color called, Ivory Lace from Behr. Just the right amount of beige and brightness. We have an abundance of pattern in the bedding and curtains that a subdued hue seemed like just the ticket to ride this train.


After they so sweetly painted the room and closet (they painted the ceiling back in February) it was time to install the closet. You might know from previous posts that this is one of my favorite parts. Lucky for us, Dad and Hubs tore out the previous closet elements and patched the walls months ago so all we had to do was install the Elfa. Love me some Elfa. Look Ma, no rods!


Totally did the install in my pj's. Please, don't judge me too harshly. Lucky for me, I have a curtain of hair to hide the shame on my face. Not really. I thoroughly enjoy pajamas, or "loungerie".





The closet only took about an hour to install start to finish. Easy peasy. With so much time to spare we started to work on sanding/priming/painting the furniture for the nursery. The crib was lovely as is but the antique armoire and washstand needed some love. This is where it gets interesting...

Washstand Before:


Armoire Before:



That would be me. After it got a very thorough scrub down it was time for taping. Big, pregnant, taping.


This one was too lovely not to share. So glamorous. Eat your heart out, Fergie.


My sweet Aunt J gave us the antique armoire and I am sorry to say that I can't recall the story behind it (Aunt J please fill us all in!) but will do some sleuthing to find out its history. The washstand on the other hand belonged to my great great great uncle. Mom and Dad have had it since they were young newly weds and had lovingly stripped infinite layers of paint to then give it a white wash finish. We wanted it black so Dad got after it with a sanding block.


Sorry that I didn't get you a hand sander, Dad! He diligently got that thing back to neutral so we could prime it up real nice like. While cleaning it up he made an astonishing discovery...a date. Written upside down on the inside of the washstand was "November 16 1850."


Yeah, 1850! Are you kidding me? Too cool.


Alas, its age alone could not save it from a face-lift. Being sure to leave all writing and stamps visible we primed that sucker and then I got to painting. It has a new life and will happily serve as the Dorffette's changing table. Kind of sad to think that she might poo on this Pre-Civil War era piece of furniture. I'm sure that it will be precious.

On top of all of that Mom spent the better part of the week sewing fabulous curtains for the two windows of the nursery. To save some change and to keep the fabric from overwhelming the room we didn't make the curtains wide enough to close entirely over the larger window, but have sheers that do the job.


She took this staged picture so it would look like I sewed something. I didn't, but it was my sewing machine. That's something, right?



Mom was amazing and her handy work has been appreciated by everyone who has seen it in the nursery. All that I had to do was install the curtain rods. Pretty easy compared to sewing 90" long panels. That is a whole lotta fabric for one tiny baby (she is the size of a papaya this week).






That is all I can share of the nursery right now but I will have all the "after" photos and fun projects over the next week. It is just too fun to share all at once.