I fell asleep the other night fretting over what color to paint the den, but I woke up this morning realizing that I have less than 16 weeks (or so) until this baby is born, and I need to get my priorities in order. This is the last nursery I’ll ever do, so I’d like to make it awesome.
I’m being held back a bit by the fact that we haven’t yet gotten an estimate for putting up the wall that will make the nursery (for those who aren’t hanging on my every word: plan is to put up a wall with French doors to section off a part of our very long master bedroom for the nursery). And I have no idea what we’ll do if said estimate, when we get it, turns out to be more than I’m expecting and thus undoable (I would be comfortable attempting to frame a wall and hang drywall ourselves, I think….but not doing the doors). We have a contractor in mind who we’d like to hire, but he seems to be pretty busy these days, and I’m a little nervous about timing issues (the deadline! it looms!)
But I decided that I need to get things together on my side of things at least, and come up with a plan to implement once I have 4 walls in which to implement it.
A couple of months ago, I was pretty well set on an ocean theme for the nursery. But not like sailboats…..more ocean creatures. Like seals. I am a fan of seals. Also sea lions. There used to be a sea lion named Tyler at the aquarium in Boston, and we saw his show twice (once at my SIL’s wedding; she got married there and got to KISS Tyler), and he was great. Anyway.
But then I started second guessing, because I have, for a long time, had my eye on this wallpaper:
Then it would be really cool if each image were clickable and led you back to the original site. Yes. Wouldn’t that be cool? Let’s all just hope I figure out how to do such things someday, shall we? In the meantime, we’ll just go left to right and top to bottom:
1. ah, oops…I actually can’t remember where this is from. But it doesn’t really matter, because I don’t actually want THAT one; I would just like an upholstered armchair rocker. There’s one at Walmart that has pretty good reviews, in fact. Hmm….
2. Ikea Sundvik crib: we already have this. We had a Jenny Lind crib, bought at a yard sale before I was even pregnant for the first time for $30 that we used for all 3 older boys (well, “used” would be a strong word for what Gus did with the crib. “Loathed and avoided” might work better), but we sold it a couple of years ago because, of course, we were all finished having babies. Uh huh. Anyway, it’s not $30 cheap, but it’s cheap enough.
3. Seal print
4. Not just any map, a map with SEA MONSTERS!
5. Orange minky: for curtains. I have never made curtains OR used orange in a room before. Both things make me a little nervous.
6. Octopus drawer pulls: if there is one inspiration piece akin to the squirrels for this room, this is probably it. We have an old dresser that was Dave’s father’s when he was a kid and then Dave’s and then our boys’….it has a coat of white paint and some cute animal drawer pulls on it now (all of which we did before Ari was born), so it’s time for new incarnation. I’m thinking a light blue gray with these pulls. They’ll be a bit of a splurge–$12.95 each, and I think we need 7. But not in the same ballpark as squirrel wallpaper. And, I mean, worth it! Look at them!
7. Octopus pillow
8. Prague colors: I’ve never been to Prague, but apparently I’ve been harboring a secret desire to go, and channeling that in nursery decor ideas. The full color palette has an orange in there, too.
9. Octopus printable: apparently, I’ll need to be careful not to let octopi take over the whole room, crowding out all the other sea creatures
10. Lamp that’s no longer available on Etsy
11. Puffins print
12. Brass? seals
There you go. I think I need to pull the trigger and commit to this thing by ordering the octopus drawer handles. No going back then!
I’m also thinking board and batten for the wall behind the crib because 1. it looks fairly simple to do and 2. I’m kind of in mourning still about that squirrel accent wall. And maybe Newburyport blue from Benjamin Moore for paint.